Daniel A. Bochner, Ph.D.

Within the Great Life Machine, individual parts – individual people - are built and then break down in very specific ways. The particular fit of any one individual within the Great Life Machine, their genetics combined with their family dynamics and family circumstances, determines how they were built and how they break down. Correct diagnosis, that is the ability to identify how individual parts have broken and how they were built, is extremely helpful in getting them working again. It is frequently the case that simply getting a better understanding of how individual parts were built and how they break down initiates the repair of those parts, even with very little mechanical help (psycho-therapeutic intervention or medicine). Typically, when a person or a family comes to a therapist, the first thing the therapist attempts to do, and the very first thing the client(s) wants to know, is: "what is wrong?" In Diagnoses and their Interpersonal Components, the "what is wrong?" aspect of treatment will be addressed.

In the first subsection, Major Diagnoses, how and why people break down will be discussed. Individuals tend to break down in ways that are familiar to us all, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Each of these diagnoses has a specific cause within the individual system of emotions that is common to us all (see article, From Id to Family System). The causes of these Major Diagnoses will be discussed in each article, and solutions or guidelines for intervention will be offered.

The second subsection, Personality Diagnoses, involves the unique way in which each of us is built, given our circumstances and experiences. Personality develops from a core of basic human characteristics into specific and detailed traits. The purpose of these traits, or personality attributes, is to balance intense and threatening emotions by maintaining a certain bearing or a certain type of role-relation to others. Through the developmental process in our families, we become a very particular type of person based on our particular family. Unfortunately, many individuals get stuck with the style they have developed when balancing within their own family, even though the world at large offers endless possibilities for interaction. These personality types are outlined within this section, and to the extent that each is maladaptive given the limitless possibilities of the world, directions toward new and better functioning will be shown.

The final subsection, Addictions, focuses on the extreme behavior that develops when people seek to artificially balance emotions through a relationship with a substance. Codependency, or the way certain people seem to balance themselves by being with someone who is addicted, will also be covered. These two articles present a basic outline for understanding the addictive process and why it is so difficult to change.