Publications about Turner’s syndrome and anorexia nervosa are extremely rare. All of them, including a new case, are listed up and discussed under psychodynamic aspects. The conclusions drawn from these 21 cases might be essential for genetic counseling, hormonal treatment and psychotherapy in Turner’s syndrome. (1) There is a connection between the beginning of the hormonal treatment and the onset of anorexia nervosa in Turner’s syndrome. The anxiety during hormonal treatment is due to sexual feelings and the confrontation with the gender role. As the manifestation of anorexia nervosa ought to be taken into account the beginning of a hormonal treatment should be decided in individual context. (2) The early childhood of girls with Turner’s syndrome is striking with respect to psychosocial constellations. Short stature and other deficits mean narcissistic wounds. Therefore understanding and affectionate parents are most important to them as they particularly suffer from conflicts with the family.

1990), have very low validity. In other words, the use of these instruments in the clinical practice of psychotherapy is often unsatisfactory. These models abandon the term neurosis and cling to phenomenological and biological concepts that emphasize reliability much more than the validity of a construct (Schneider & Freyberger, 1990;Schneider & Hoffmann, 1992). Psychodynamically inclined psychotherapists deplore the lack of terms and constructs, which are important for psychodynamic conceptualization of personality development and an understanding of mental disorders (e.g., intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts, egofunction; Blanck & Blanck, 1974). These constructs are also helpful in establishing links between symptoms, triggering conflicts, the dysfunctional relations of patients, and their life history in a broad sense. Furthermore, many psychotherapists evaluate the subjective experience of illness and processes of coping with the disorder when they plan therapy, areas that are not considered in these classification systems (Schneider, Freyberger, Muhs, & Schussler, 1993).Another reason for rejecting contemporary models is that these models often define the nature and structure of the therapist-patient relationship and the process of treatment in a manner that is counterproductive to psychodynamic theory. For example, in these models the patient is defined as being a passive object of the diagnostic process. This role is not conducive to the psychotherapeutic process as defined in psychodynamic theory.Systematic approaches to diagnosis and the diagnostic process have had a long tradition within psychodynamic psychotherapy (Balint, Ornstein,

The multicenter study with the research criteria in the field of psychotherapy/psychosomatic medicine considered nine cases. One patient with cardiac neurosis (F45.3) and one patient with a persistent somatoform pain disorder (F54.4) were diagnosed in category F45.x. The rater agreement was 63-68%. 54% of the correct diagnoses made for three cases of colitis ulcerosa and Crohn’s disease concurred (28%, 50%, and 80%). The case of anorexia nervosa (F50.0) was coded correctly by all of the raters, while the agreement for bulimia (F50.2) was 82%. Only 50% of the raters correctly assigned the dissociative disorder (F44.4). The agreement achieved for factitious disorder (F68.1) was 54%. Across all the psychosomatic disorders in ICD-10 there was an agreement of 65%. This result is markedly lower than the overall agreement of the Research Criteria Study (78%). Cardiac neurosis and bulimia were given a favorable prognosis. A more reticent psychotherapeutic commitment was seen for the classical psychosomatic disorders, persistent pain disorder, and factitious disorder. Anorexia nervosa and dissociative disorder assumed an intermediate position.

A discussion on personality disorders (F6) is conducted within the framework of the Research Criteria Study on the basis of one case each of borderline syndrome (F60.31), transsexualism (F64.0), and factitious disorder (F68.1). In the Research Criteria Study the main agreement achieved about personality disorders was 77%, for borderline disorders 94%, transsexualism 91%, and factitious disorders 53%. Additional diagnoses were given in the case of factitious disorder by 43%, for borderline disorders in 15%, and for transsexualism in only 3%. Alternative diagnoses improved the overall agreement about factitious disorders by 21%, about borderline disorders and about transsexualism by 3%. It appears justified to introduce a coding for an alternative main diagnosis. The diagnostic concepts are discussed with respect to practicality, suitability, adequacy and reliability. The raters felt fairly secure about the classification. The research diagnostic criteria proved to be very practical. The raters attributed a high reliability to ICD-10 and, with the exception of factitious disorders, a very valid image of patients.

Selected results from the section psychotherapy/psychosomatics of the ICD-10 research criteria study are discussed. One hundred thirty diagnosticians from 11 psychosomatics centers took part in this section, assessing 16 video-documented patients in case conferences. The results of the study, which were based on 633 diagnostical assessments, demonstrated sufficient chance-corrected interrater reliability coefficients for the majority of the disorders (kappa ranged from 0.22 to 0.99). System-related problems of the ICD-10 approach were identified concerning depressive and psychosomatic disorders. The results are discussed, following some problematical aspects of the concept of comorbidity and multiaxial approaches. Special reference is given to the work group Operational Psychodynamic Diagnoses’ which has produced a multiaxial system covering important psychodynamic variables.