Résumé
L’évaluation des états dépressifs dans un cadre médico-juridique se heurte à une contrainte née de l’affrontement de deux logiques: l’une probabiliste, l’autre normative. A cette difficulté s’ajoute celle due à la nature essentiellement subjective de ces troubles. Comment, dès lors, en donner une représentation « objective » et une appréciation quantifiée ? L’adoption d’une démarche rigoureuse, respectueuse de la complexité clinique et de la diversité évolutive des syndromes dépressifs, en est une condition nécessaire. Après avoir passé en revue les principales formes cliniques des syndromes dépressifs, souligné certaines difficultés diagnostiques et rappelé les limites de l’emploi des instruments psychométriques, l’auteur amorce une réflexion sur les relations entre empathie et objectivité, à la lumière de travaux récents en neurosciences sociales.
Abstract
The assessment of depressive disorders in a medico-legal context has to deal with conflicting logics, the probabilistic nature of medical thinking confronting the normative construct of legal concepts. Depressive symptoms being essentially subjective, an objective and quantitative account of these disorders requires to give careful attention to their clinical complexity and outcome diversity. Having shortly reviewed the main clinical presentations of depressive disorders and highlighted some diagnostic difficulties as well as the limits of the psychometric instruments, the author opens a reflection on the relationships between empathy and objectivity in the light of recent research in social neurosciences.
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Baud, P. Evaluation des syndromes dépressifs dans un cadre médico-juridique : empathie et objectivité. Douleur analg 22 (Suppl 1), 19–23 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11724-009-0170-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11724-009-0170-3