ABSTRACT
The word ‘diagnosis’ indicates both the destination and the process of investigation that leads to assign a name to a clinical picture when theory-laden events clump around a specific label. The diagnosis seems to be the outcome of a naive and fuzzy process that is strongly influenced by personal training, theoretical models, and also by one's masters as well as by experience gained on the field. The diagnosis as a function and as a process should begin immediately and unfold over the entire course of the treatment. Each diagnosis, therefore, is a bit like a tailor-made garment that never fits the patient’s body perfectly and permanently. The diagnosis as a name and as a process is located at a crossroads and must be constantly maintained in a state of tension. This tension gives life to the diagnosis and prevents it from turning into a fixed entity, a sort of inescapable fate or even a tombstone.
