Estudos e Pesquisas em Psicologia
ISSN 1808-4281
PONTES, Samira CALAZANS, Roberto. The beginnings of psychoanalysis and the insufficiency of descriptivism. []. , 16, 1, pp.240-259. ISSN 1808-4281.
The issue that permeates this paper refers to the investigation, based on a psychoanalytic perspective, of the descriptivist's insufficient that guides the nosography psychiatric, of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), in regard to the establishment of a differential diagnosis. We seek to demonstrate, in Freud's pre-psychoanalytic writings, that in his initial effort of theoretical and clinical systematization, the author has pointed out the inadequacy of a merely descriptive symptomatic nosography, since the pure description of the signs and symptoms of a condition doesn't allow an intelligible articulation between what presents itself as a phenomenon and the structural aspects. We also present the initial formulations of psychosis, showing Freud's effort towards a systematization of its differential diagnosis. If it's at the center of the distinctions of clinical structures that operates a differential diagnosis, the descriptivism prevents this articulation while promoting mischaracterization of structural differences.
: psychoanalysis; descriptivism; differential diagnosis.