[Videotape recording of the French-language AMDP system]

To improve the objectivity and the quantification of psychopathology necessitates the rating and analysis of audiovisual recordings. After a brief survey of applications of video in psychiatry, the author describes the original methodology elaborated by the French-speaking section of the AMDP under the direction of the Liège team: semi-structured interview, combination of a "clinical" analysis of the reasons for a poor interrater-reliability (through one or several "observers" of the discussions which follow a projection) and of a multivariate statistical analysis adapted to single cases (through a modification of the obverse factor analysis or Q-technique), "consensus" item scores and final "reference" rating of a patient. Finally, the author briefly discusses the technical and ethical problems linked to the circulation of videotapes.