Summary: | An "intermediate area" between schizophrenia and affective psychoses the socalIed cases-in-between - has always been ofhigh interest. Aware of the problem of classifying such cases, Emil Kraepelin, Eugen Bleuler, and Kurt Schneider had already raised questions as weIl as provided answers. French psychiatry from Magnan to modem times developed its own classification ofthis area, while Scandinavian psychiatry sometimes went its own way or adapted and modified the concepts of other European schools. American psychiatry coined the name given this group of psychoses today: "schizoaffective psychoses. " But what exactly are schizoaffective psychoses? Do we perhaps have one term for many different states and conditions? Or many terms for one and the same condition? Or have we created one term to designate one condition or perhaps only apart of one and the same condition? We must endeavor to find answers to these questions. Independently of the answers which have already been offered, however, one thing is absolutely certain: Psychiatrie research cannot ignore schizoaffective conditions any more, for it is possible that this kind of "atypical" psychosis is the key to understanding the "typical" ones. Neither can the clinician any more than the researcher disregard schizoaffective psychoses any longer: A patient diagnosed as having a schizoaffective psychosis will probably have a different outcome, a different treatment, and a different prophylaxis from a patient diagnosed as having schizophrenia or a pure affective psychosis
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