# On Psychiatric Diagnostic Vocabulary - URL: https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0298 - Language: en - Last updated: not specified - Page title: On Psychiatric Diagnostic Vocabulary | WCP 2026 Summary > The author argues that current diagnostic criteria, which rely on expert opinion in the absence of objective diagnostic tools, are not conducive to meaningful… This page was translated automatically from Turkish. [Read the original](https://alisanburak.com/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0298) This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it. EV0298 E-PosterOtherReview # On Psychiatric Diagnostic Vocabulary ON PSYCHIATRIC VOCABULARY RELEVANT TO DIAGNOSIS Presenter: Dejan Mandich Country: New Zealand Institution: Health New Zealand, Southern The author argues that current diagnostic criteria, which rely on expert opinion in the absence of objective diagnostic tools, are not conducive to meaningful research and that psychiatric pathology should be renamed using existing neurological terminology. The aim is to critically examine the vocabulary used in psychiatric diagnosis and discuss the sources of the current diagnostic impasse. The poster presents a conceptual discussion; it contains no quantitative data, sample, or statistical analysis, drawing instead on historical sources (Kraepelin, Bleuler, Wernicke, Leonhard, Kahlbaum, and Hecker) and literature critiquing nosology. According to the author, in the absence of objective diagnostic tools, clinicians arrive at a diagnosis or an educated guess by relying on official diagnostic criteria, support from colleagues, and fragments of memories from their formative professional years. Factors identified as contributing to the current situation include inherited clinical terminology, the diagnostic legacy of Kahlbaum and Hecker, neglect of the work of clinicians writing in languages other than German and English, disregard for clinicians who did not follow Kraepelin’s and Bleuler’s nomenclature, a lack of interest in the history of concepts and symptoms, and the predominance of American psychiatrists’ pragmatism in the development of psychiatric nosology. It is argued that the influence of psychoanalysis on psychiatry led to diagnostic classifications being treated as immutable facts rather than hypotheses; that, as Leonhard reported, psychiatrists stopped thinking about diagnosis; and that methodological criticism extending from Kraepelin to the authors of DSM-III has been ignored or dismissed as quackery. The author notes that words are both diagnostic and therapeutic tools, yet are used indiscriminately, and proposes replacing diagnostic entities repeatedly found to be unreliable by naming what is observed using existing neurological terms. Examples include referring to delusion as agnosia, formal thought disorder as aphasia, panic attack as hyperventilation, thought blocking as an absence seizure, depression as inhibition, and mania as disinhibition. In conclusion, the author argues that only in this way can psychiatry move beyond consensus-based labels and become a discipline grounded in objective observation, biological mechanisms, and testable scientific principles. [View the original poster](https://cslide.ctimeetingtech.com/wcp26/attendee/eposter/file/255) How to cite this study APA 7: Mandich, D. (2026, September 23-26). On psychiatric vocabulary relevant to diagnosis [E-poster]. 26th WPA World Congress of Psychiatry (WCP 2026), Stockholm, Sweden. https://cslide.ctimeetingtech.com/wcp26/attendee/eposter/file/255 Vancouver: Mandich D. On psychiatric vocabulary relevant to diagnosis [e-poster]. 26th WPA World Congress of Psychiatry (WCP 2026); 2026 Sep 23-26; Stockholm, Sweden. 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