Qualitative research in diagnostic processes

Social sciences, in general, and psychotherapy, in particular, have been in formed by two fundamentally distinct methodologies of description and expla nation:firstly, causal nomology based on operationalized data, and secondly , empirical hermeneutics focused on the meaningful context of intentions, e xperiences and actions. The paper deals with the second of these two method ologies in the context of research on psychotherapeutic diagnosis. This par adigm is a methodology for evaluating certain aspects of quality of life wh ich deal with the subjective and interpersonal meaning of symptoms.