Radici del procedere semeiotico nella clinica psico(pato)logica

The medical intervention concerning protection and care of both physical and mental health begins with the meeting between the clinician and the patient and with the observation of the personal conditions of the individual with the problem, or put forward himself/herself as a problem. After having shortly outlined the theoretical and methodological evolution of the strictly connected concepts of “illness” and “semeiotica”, from the protohistoric age to nowadays, focus is placed on the reasons triggering the need of a greater epistemological awareness in the use of the semeiotics by the specialist. The usefulness of replacing a “semeiotic of deviation” with a “semeiotic of differences” is also explained, which entails a process of comparison between the semeiotic of the doctor and the patient’s one.