Diagnosis: Putting Medical History under the Knife

Abstract

Diagnosis is the identification of a disease by appearances, or manifestations, which are used to evince causes. Proceeding from the reading of symptoms, and on to treatment, diagnosis is a pivotal act of naming. Like all forms of naming, it operates within, and upholds, systems of enunciability. The pathologies that diagnosis identifies reinforce indices of normality which help to determine who will, and will not, get treated. Diagnosis is teleological: each new diagnosis is informed by previous ones; each diagnostic performance strengthens the cogency of diagnostic logic.