A psychoanalytic clinician looks at diagnostic labels and diagnostic classification systems

As psychoanalytic clinicians, we do not believe that assessment should be diagnosis based. However, we are supportive of attempts to create a diagnostic classification system that reflects something essential about human nature and also serves clinical purposes. In this article, we present a psychoanalytic diagnostic scheme that combines a more descriptive characterological diagnosis with a more structural level of personality organization diagnosis. The scheme is applied to a clinical case and then we discuss it in terms of the functions such a scheme provides for assessment.