ABSTRACT
Diagnosis, usually thought of as the determination of a specific disease entity, and diagnostic nosology, a system of disease classification, are traditional and standard concepts in medicine and related fields. The observation of natural phenomena is typically followed by the attempt to catalog them in a coherent system. A specific form of treatment for a diagnosed malady is the logical outgrowth of its identification. From Hippocrates and Galen, to Kraeplin and Bleuler, and now to the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) diagnostic classification has played a prominent and, at times, highly significant role in the history and development of psychiatry and clinical psychology and their treatment methodologies.
