[Role of systemic consultation in the psychiatric diagnosis]

Basing on the example of one patient and her family, the advantages and disadvantages of a systemic consultation are presented. The patient was hospitalised due to schizophrenia. In the given example the psychiatrist was an observer of the consultation conducted by a therapist from the ward. A systemic consultation allowed a "multiple-picture" to be obtained: the family members and the patient presented their own understanding of the situation, their "stories" This new and multi-perspective description, showing the patient's symptoms functionality caused diagnostic uncertainty in the psychiatrist--how far is the diagnosis of schizophrenia a justifiable one. The possibility to empthasize with the existential, psychological and family problems of the patient caused a scepticism in the psychiatrist, towards the stigmatizing diagnosis. The authors stress the danger arising in the systemic consultation, which broadens and deepens the knowledge on the patient's situation. According to the authors, the systemic consultation is necessary to understand the social context of the patient and to formulate a complex treatment plan. At the same time however, the multiple layered perspective (which contains the psychological, social and existential domains of the patient) should not over-shadow the psychopathological domain. For the therapeutic team, the consideration of the given levels of systemic reality description remains a challenge.