The Author does not share the opinion that the symptom is a synonym for illness, a sign of the malfunctioning of a specific organ. She does not believe that, by treating only the symptom, it is possible to reach a restitutio ad integrum. She proposes a vision of the symptom as a sign of the subject’s overall discomfort and as a symbol of the system of meanings that constitutes the subject itself. By decoding the symptom, one can understand both the blocking point of the subject-system and the greater complexity that the subject usually tends to have.
Keywords: Illness, symptom, sign, symbol, Non-linear Dynamic Systems, Subject