Apart from examining patients, one can also observe the social functioning and the personal performance of many other people. I made a study of professional singers, who had to give the same performance every evening, day after day, and also of actors and ballet dancers. Every evening they have a different way of expressing themselves, a different content. Why? The words are familiar. The vocal technique is familiar. The choreography is familiar. And yet each night that unique individual produces a different expression. Sometimes it is an expression of minimal quality; sometimes it reaches the highest level of creativity.

All these observations convinced me that there has to be something unique in each individual – not something fixed or stable, but moving in time. Today: this way, tomorrow: that.

Fifteen years ago I discovered one basis for the multitude of different behavior mechanisms. I was able to formulate which forces drive the unique individual, even though he is able to preserve his individual freedom, and even though his physical build and nature is uniquely his own. I was able to approach ill as well as healthy people in a different manner. I saw the cause of problems long before medical data could show anything. I could see the nature of the symptoms before the patient was able to verbalize his complaints.

The first time I told my colleagues of my findings, one foundation that is common to the psyche of each unique individual, they reacted with disbelief. Was that really possible? Unique individuals, all with one common basis for their unique psyche? But as soon as I would unveil some of the mystery, they would want to know more, and as soon as they knew more, they too wanted to make use of it. A physician deals with unique individuals all the time, but he still takes the common factors into consideration. He considers the spinal column, the physical build, and the anatomical data. He knows the correct position of the vertebrae. He knows what they should look like. Regardless of the important individual differences, these data constitute anatomical invariables, just like the stomach and the liver. I hope to be able to explain that the basis for the psyche is just as useful a database in medicine, even though everyone is unique and has his own unique personality. The basis for the psyche remains constant, just like an anatomical invariable, regardless of differences in height, weight and skin color.