[Status of diagnosis and classification in the 1980's. France and the French-speaking tradition].

The author describes historical origins of some particularities of the traditional French nosology, distinguishing it from other nosologies, in particular from ICD-9. In comparison to this classification, French nosology limits the scope of schizophrenia, increases the scope of delusional states in a different way in the frame of "chronic delusions" or "chronic delusional states" and introduces a specific diagnostic class, the "bouffée délirante" (which does not strictly corresponds to the category in ICD-9).