A Dutch Pre-DSM Attempt at Psychiatric Classification

Considering the growing sense of ambivalence about the merits of the DSM, the time seems right for the re-evaluation of nosological attempts and efforts in the pre-DSM era. One example of these attempts is the CHAM system developed by the Dutch psychiatrist R.M. Silbermann (1932–1976). This system is intended as a simple classification with 20 “psychiatric states,” which are classified based on the presence of one of 12 hierarchically arranged core symptoms or key characteristics, while all “hierarchically higher” symptoms are excluded without inference about the “hierarchically lower” symptoms. Its scientific evidence is, as yet, insufficiently substantiated. However, disqualifying the CHAM system as an outdated Dutch folklore is like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. The CHAM system emerges as clinically straightforward, didactically fruitful, and consistent with more modern initiatives in descriptive psychopathology. Studying pre-DSM attempts such as Silbermann’s CHAM system can stimulate psychopathological thinking and serve as a source of inspiration for future phenomenological research in psychiatry.