Positive Health Classification Framework
The First Edition develops the conceptual foundations, Universal Core, Clinical Presentation Module architecture, clinical applications, safeguards and research programme.
Purpose
A structured language for describing positive mental health alongside diagnosis, symptoms, risk, functioning and quality of life.
PK
Developed by Paul D. KremerPositive Health Classification Framework · Version 0.1
Positive HealthClassificationFramework
A developmental classification framework for describing what is present, available, demonstrated and supported in positive mental health.
PHCF system
The Universal Core is the centre, not the whole system.
PHCF retains the source clinical classification, adds a four-part Universal Core, allows presentation-specific modules where additional information is justified, and records course and evidentiary qualifiers. Functioning, quality of life, personal recovery, psychopathology, risk and formulation remain separately describable.
00
Source clinical classification
DSM, ICD, HiTOP or another recognised formulation remains unchanged and external to PHCF.
01-04
Universal PHCF Core
Current Positive Health State, Positive Health Capacities, Demonstrated Adaptation and Protective Resource Ecology.
M
Clinical Presentation Modules
Presentation-relevant specificity is added only where evidence supports information beyond the Universal Core.
Q
Course and Evidence Qualifiers
Trajectory, relevant time period, context, evidence source, confidence and uncertainty preserve interpretation.
Adjacent information remains separate. Personal recovery, functioning, quality of life, psychopathology, risk and clinical formulation are not collapsed into a single PHCF score.
Framework statusDevelopmental classification
ManualVersion 0.1
Evidence positionDesigned for empirical testing
01 / Premise
Diagnosis tells an important, but incomplete, part of the clinical story.
PHCF addresses a simple gap. Systems for classifying mental disorder are highly developed. The language for systematically recording positive mental health is far less integrated.
The framework is intended to sit alongside ordinary clinical assessment. It does not replace DSM, ICD, risk assessment, functioning, quality of life or formulation.
02 / Provenance
From a clinical problem to a classification system.
The PHCF was developed by Paul D. Kremer from a simple observation. Mental health systems classify disorder, symptoms, risk and functioning in considerable detail, yet positive mental health is usually measured through separate scales rather than organised as a comparable clinical classification.
The work therefore moved beyond a conceptual proposal. It now includes a Universal Core, a classification architecture, a Version 0.1 manual, structured recording resources and a research programme designed to test whether the framework adds clinically useful information.
The framework is intended to remain revisable. Reliability, validity, cultural assumptions, clinical utility and incremental value are questions to be investigated rather than treated as established facts.
About Paul D. Kremer and the work →01
ConceptIdentify the missing classification problem.
02
FrameworkDefine the PHCF architecture and Universal Core.
03
ManualTranslate the framework into classification guidance.
04
Research programmeTest, challenge and revise the system empirically.
Developer
Paul D. Kremer
PHCF was conceived and developed by Paul D. Kremer to address a specific classification problem: diagnosis, symptoms, risk and functioning can be described systematically while clinically relevant positive-health capacities, demonstrated adaptation and usable resources remain comparatively fragmented.
About the developer and the work →Publications
The framework and the manual.
The First Edition sets out the PHCF proposition and architecture. The Classification Manual Version 1.0 translates that architecture into a practical classification reference.
PHCF Classification Manual
The manual provides the classification architecture, descriptive anchors, evidence requirements, presentation-module guidance and structured recording resources.
PHCF manual
A classification system needs more than a proposition.
The manual translates the conceptual framework into definitions, classification guidance, structured recording and worked applications.
02 / Evidence
No claim stronger than the evidence.
01
Conceptual architecture
Developed. The Universal Core and classification logic are specified.
02
Manual and recording system
Developmental Version 0.1. Available for scholarly, clinical and research evaluation.
03
Reliability and validity
Not yet established. These are central targets of the research programme.
03 / Current context
Mental health classification is changing.
DSM / Classification futures
The future DSM and the search for a more complete clinical picture
What APA's 2026 roadmap says, what people mean when they search for “DSM-6”, and where PHCF sits in the wider debate.
Read analysis → ICD-11 / Digital classificationICD-11 - digital-first classification at scale
WHO's 2026 release, the CDDR, interoperability and what digital classification means for future mental health systems.
Read analysis → Psychiatric classificationDSM, ICD, RDoC, HiTOP and the missing language of positive health
A living hub connecting contemporary developments in psychiatric classification with the PHCF research programme.
Explore hub →Open research
Test it. Challenge it. Improve it.
Researchers are invited to examine reliability, construct validity, incremental validity, cultural validity, clinical utility and responsiveness to change.