Concerning the psychoanalytical concept of disease and the manner in which psychogenic disturbances may be evaluated

Abstract

Psychoanalysis as the original and principal form of all psychotherapies with the intention of insight and emancipation are becoming mare stringently controlled by the consequences of the Austrian law on psychotherapy. In order to ensure that only persons with severe disturbances are treated under the health insurance scheme, patients are often evaluated by the chief medical advisor of their insurance during the period of treatment without any information given to the analyst before. These experiences give rise to further reflection on the psychoanalytical understanding of psychic “illness”, which, since it mainly depends on subjective categories of “suffering”, cannot easily be evaluated from the outside. Furthermore it is often the case, that only at the end of psychoanalytic treatment the various symptoms can be understood in terms of an underlying genuine psychic illness. Therefore the above mentioned means of control can hardly be justified and evaluation should only be introduced after discussion followed by a consensus of all o/ those who are concerned.

Keywords:
Psychoanalysis, psychopathology, diagnosis, psychic illness, preconditions of psychoanalysis, evaluation of psychic illness.