title: Misunderstanding psychopathology as medical semiology: an epistemological enquiry.
abstract: In our everyday clinical experience we encounter significant problems directly related to the instability of psychopathological concepts. In order to trace the origin of this inconsistency, the nature of these concepts will be explored in their historical development. They will be compared to those pertaining to medical semiology, paying special attention to the specific nature of the 'object' each of them refers to. While concepts belonging to medical semiology refer to natural objects and retain their meaning independently of the patient's context, psychopathological concepts refer to fragments of experience, which lose their significance if detached from their contextual horizon. The instability of psychopathological concepts is a consequence of the misunderstanding of psychopathology as medical semiology. As an alternative to this view, it will be argued that psychopathology represents an active and never-ending process aimed at the creation of intelligibility.
authors.affiliation: Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Pablo Ramos
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Gorostiza
authors.forename: Jaime Adan
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Manes
mesh_terms: D032882:Comprehension; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D001523:Mental Disorders; D011570:Psychiatry