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After an interval, meetings of the group for the study of
problems of psychoanalytic diagnosis were started again in October 1980. The group was made up largely of interested members who consistently attend the Clinic's diagnostic meetings. As a result of group discussions, a reasonably full psychoanalytic formulation of each patient is now regularly made at the end of every Diagnostic Profile. We have been mindful of the fact that every diagnostic formulation is individual and needs to draw together, sequentially, the main developmental steps which contribute towards the clinical picture at the time of assessment. In this connection the group has also discussed the desirability of using the Profile to define areas of pathology within the patient's personality—that is, to locate the pathology ‘horizontally’; and to combine this with an attempt to locate that pathology ‘vertically’ by using the developmental lines.
The group has also given extensive consideration to a number of conceptual problems which arise out of the diagnostic task. These include, among many others, problems of developmental disharmonies, cathectic processes as these concern object relations, and problems of phase dominance. It was decided that some of this work is best carried out by small study groups who will report back to the larger group, using the latter as a forum.