[Psychiatric diagnosis and physician-patient relations]

The author emphasizes the importance of diagnosis as a medical procedure. A brief history of Psychiatry development and of the psychiatric diagnosis in order to characterize it as multiple and to comment its systematization paying special attention to Leme Lopes point of view. The current predominance of non-theoretical classifying systems concerning etiology and, paradoxically, of more and more advanced resources in the causal diagnostic is pointed out. The author also stands out the recognition of the tensions generated by the medical studies, which may contribute to the complexity of the diagnostic procedures and to the damage of the development of the doctor-patient relationship as well as the therapeutic purpose of Medicine and Psychiatry.