The author advocates his conception — given concrete form in the load-ratio model — as compared with the study 'New psychiatry' according to the system-theoretical principles of Lit. This model, already developed in his study on 'Overspanning' (Overload) (1972), is the fraction in which the numerator represents the (social) load and the denominator the physical and psychical bearing-capacity of the individual. The fraction equals 1 in the homeostatic situation. He argues that the system-theory of Bertalanffy is less easily applicable to psychiatry than the theories of Miller as expounded in the latter's recently published standard work (1978). Subsequently, the author explains his views on the importante of mental overload i.e., the increase of the load-ratio — which plays a major part in the development of virtually all psychiatric pictures. This is demonstrated by examples and compared with the system-theoretical 'language'.