Developmental Psychopathology and Emotional Regulation

Developmental psychopathology ambitiously provides an overview of the unfolding knowledge on mental disorders and the variety of therapeutic approaches available in a new synopsis by integrating clinical developmental psychological knowledge and psychiatric experience into a bio-psycho-social model [129, 130]. Developmental psychopathology is therefore concerned not only with the pathogenesis of mental disorders, but also in particular with the clinical course over the further lifespan. Clinical decisions will be therapeutically enriched through the application of developmental psychological knowledge. The development focus is directed to different areas: on the one hand, the influences of normal development on the genesis and manifestation of psychopathological symptoms in different ages are considered, on the other hand, the influence of psychopathological symptoms on normal development is the subject of the study [129]. In different phases of life children typically have very different ways of reacting to mental irritation. The infant’s forms of expression of distress focus mainly on changes in eating, sleeping, and excretion behavior, and the interactional alarm situation, in which the child uses crying to make the caregiver aware of his or her condition. The different forms of fear, for example, separation anxiety, dark fear, social anxiety or fear of existence are also tied to important cognitive developmental steps of the child and adolescent. We also know that toddlers may not develop delusions as long as they cannot take social perspectives. Delusions need the takeover of another’s focus. We expect social perspectives to be adopted by children from the age of four earliest.