Abstract
As the description of “catatonic features” in the operational criteria shows, recent psychiatry focuses on catatonic looks or appearances. However, Kahlbaum described catatonia as a type (Typus) containing a definite clinical pic-ture and a definite course. Certainly many psychiatric disorders show catatonic “appearances.” It is appropriate that catatonia is a nonspecific cross-diagnostic syndrome. Kretschmer pointed out that catatonia resembles primitive reflex. Catatonia may reveal an archaic layer of the human mind. From a clinical standpoint, catatonia is located in the hinge of schizophrenia and manic-depressive psychosis. On the other hand, the fact that Kraepelin's concept of dementia praecox was formed from Hecker's hebephrenia and Kahlbaum's catatonia, indicate that intension of cata-tonia may lead the essence of schizophrenia: the pathology of temporarity.
