THE DEFINITION OF SOME PROBLEM AREAS FOR RESEARCH: A THEORETICAL FORMULATION OF SOME PROBLEMS OF RELEVANCE TO DIAGNOSTICS

Abstract

The problems of diagnosis which psychotherapists face are not unique to their discipline. The essential expectations associated with the diagnostician are that from an available set of information: (1) he must infer what the situation is; and (2) he must generalize (i.e., reduce to a meaningful set of variables) the forces operating to define the situation, When these expectations are fulfilled, the outcome of the situation may be evaluated in terms of (a) the inducement of certain changes in the situation, or, (b) no inducement of changes in the situation ( i.e., allowing events to run their normal course without his intervention