Clinical interpretation of psychiatric pathography (literature review)

Objective: to give the clinical evaluation of psychiatric pathography according to sources of domestic and foreign publications. Pathography is a description of the psychopathological analysis of creative products and personal characteristics of outstanding people with a view to their diagnostic evaluation. Pathographic descriptions are based on the analysis of products of creativity and biographical materials relating to the persons under study: letters, diaries, biographies and autobiographies, memories of the surrounding people. The article gives a brief history and current state of pathography; its problematic aspects are highlighted: lack of the scientific justification for an association of outstanding abilities with mental pathology, subjectivism of psychiatric diagnosis in texts and documents without a clinical examination, likelihood of violation of ethical principles. It is noted that in the literature there is an ambiguous attitude towards pathographic research. It is concluded that the pathography belongs to the genre of popular scientific psychiatric literature.