  The DSM-1 was published in 1952, contains 128 diagnostic categories,
described in 132 pages. The DSM-5 appeared in 2013, contains 541 diagnostic
categories, described in 947 pages. The field of psychology is characterised by
a steady proliferation of diagnostic models and subcategories, that seems to be
inspired by the principle of "divide and inflate". This approach is in contrast
with experimental evidence, which suggests on one hand that traumas of various
kind are often present in the anamnesis of patients and, on the other, that the
gene variants implicated are shared across a wide range of diagnoses. In this
work I propose a holistic approach, built with tools borrowed from the field of
Artificial Intelligence. My model is based on two pillars. The first one is
trauma, which represents the attack to the mind, is psychological in nature and
has its origin in the environment. The second pillar is dissociation, which
represents the mind defence in both physiological and pathological conditions,
and incorporates all other defence mechanisms. Damages to dissociation can be
considered as another category of attacks, that are neurobiological in nature
and can be of genetic or environmental origin. They include, among other
factors, synaptic over-pruning, abuse of drugs and inflammation. These factors
concur to weaken the defence, represented by the neural networks that implement
the dissociation mechanism in the brain. The model is subsequently used to
interpret five mental conditions: PTSD, complex PTSD, dissociative identity
disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Ideally, this is a first step
towards building a model that aims to explain a wider range of
psychopathological affections with a single theoretical framework. The last
part is dedicated to sketching a new psychotherapy for psychological trauma.
