[Vagrancy: psychological and psychopathological aspects]

The authors, after defining the words "vagrancy" and "vagrant", explore their semantical field and try to specify differences in respect of neighbouring words, often confused with them. An historical sketch of vagrancy, from antiquity to the present era, is depicted. There after, the authors state the evolution of theories of vagrancy, from the biological, psychological, psychiatrical and sociological points of view. The last part of the paper considers psychopathology of vagrancy, specially in psychoanalytical and phenomenological approaches, and problems of rehabilitation.