Abstract

In this manuscript of the early 1950s, Foucault outlines the path of Freud’s psychoanalysis from a biological approach based on the evolutionary perspective to disease, towards the understanding of its psychological significance. However, since the evolutionary point of view is never abandoned by Freud, the question that arises is how, in the psychoanalytic definition of the disease and its relation to personality, the evolutionary analysis is combined with the perspective of a meaningful understanding: what equilibrium can be established between them, and what image of the sick man does result? Moreover, if the disease has a sense, and if it is defined by a set of significant and consistent reactions, how can it still be defined as a disease?