The current definition of hallucinations as perception-like experiences has been criticized for neglecting their experiential character and context. This study examined the phenomenology of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) and visual hallucinations (VHs) in schizophrenia and their relation to other psychopathology, particularly basic self-disorders.

Felt presence (FP) - the sensation of someone nearby without sensory evidence - is common in healthy adults and related to psychosis risk. FP may arise from a misattribution of internal signals to an external source and often occurs when people are alone. Interoception, the ability to perceive one's own bodily signals, may help to distinguish oneself from others. FP could relate to interoception across several dimensions: through altered signal perception (interoceptive accuracy), insight into their perception (interoceptive insight), and/or self-reported beliefs (interoceptive beliefs). This is the first study that investigates this potential relationship.

Background This study aims to provide clinicians with tools for the treatment of self-injury, within the framework of a reflection on this psychopathological phenomenon and its relationship to the current era. The research conducted by the authors in 2022 was taken as a reference, based on semi-structured clinical interviews with 20 young people who engaged in skin-cutting. The analysis included variables related to family, identity, symptom function, and context. The results showed that self-injury was associated with difficulties in identity formation, emotion regulation, and family relationships. These findings were interpreted within the framework of sociocultural changes that have taken place in Western society in recent decades, particularly the rise of social media and the weakening of interpersonal bonds. Thus, our results allow us to hypothesize that self-injury may be associated with social and cultural transformations over the last 50 years. To enrich the analysis, we also incorporated insights from sociology and philosophy. Finally, we propose a therapeutic approach that considers the most robust evidence of efficacy for this type of psychopathological condition. This article is conceived as an integrative and interpretive study, drawing on previous empirical work by the authors to develop a conceptual framework on the sociocultural and clinical dimensions of self-injury.

The shift in mental health towards ecological and collaborative models, in alignment with the recovery paradigm, has sparked interest in dialogical and coproductive practices. These practices aim to promote epistemic justice and strengthen the therapeutic alliance. Among these, collaborative writing (cowriting) is emerging as a promising tool. However, it currently lacks a robust theoretical and methodological foundation, particularly in its integration with phenomenology and its clinical applications. This article proposes the core elements of a 'phenomenological cowriting' model that seeks to frame the practice within clinical phenomenology, distinguish it from purely narrativist approaches and highlight its unique contributions.

The phenomenon of love is an important task for the psychopathologist since love experience is the site in which the Self is formed and potentially dismantled. This paper explores "one-way love" - an autotelic form of love that persists independently of return. It may serve as a way for the person to sustain a sense of autonomy finding fulfilment in the act of loving itself - a paradoxical affirmation of identity, existence, and autonomy.

A recent empirical benchmark study designed to assess real-world diagnostic accuracy and reliability among 30 internationally renowned psychiatrists specializing in the schizophrenia spectrum found that only 33.3% psychiatrists correctly diagnosed two vignettes that included typical descriptions of disorders in the schizophrenia spectrum. The present study aimed to identify clinician-related factors that might account for this poor diagnostic performance, such as clinical versus research focus, years of clinical experience, and perceived usefulness of psychopathological concepts.

Healthcare professionals encounter challenges in discerning endogenous and exogenous, drug-related, psychopathological phenomena. This study aimed to explore qualitative differences between hallucinations in schizophrenia and two forms of substance-related psychosis. These are substance-induced psychosis (SIP), which has an acute onset and is usually transient, and substance-related persistent psychosis (PP).

Depressive disorders are among the most common mental illnesses. Many approaches to treatment using psychotherapy or psychotropic drugs exist, but the proportion of non-responders should not be ignored. The consideration of existential, so-called "meaningful questions" of life, although their significance is well known, has so far been used little or not at all in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses like depressive disorders. The aim of this study was, therefore, to examine the significance of existential questions in the context of depressive disorders and to shed light on the attitudes of affected patients.

The present paper identified key components of anxiety and fear based on a large community sample of 387 psychiatrically healthy or depressed participants.

The co-occurrence of schizophrenia and substance use disorders (SUDs), referred to as dual diagnosis, represents a significant challenge in psychiatric research and clinical practice. The interplay between these conditions complicates symptomatology, diagnosis, and treatment, necessitating an integrated approach to care.

In biomedicine, entity experiences are conceptualised as compound hallucinations featuring living beings. The term "experience" suggests that these have an objective basis in reality, as those perceiving them may maintain. So-called jinn encounters, typically described by Muslims with and without a psychiatric diagnosis, involve the multimodal perception of a spirit that, as described in the Qur'an, was created by Allah.

Felt presence (FP) is the experience that another entity is present in one's proximal environment, despite no sensory evidence. Occurrence of FP is linked to psychosis risk, but qualities of FP in the context of psychosis are not well understood. We conducted an online, exploratory survey assessing qualities of FP in relation to psychosis risk in the general population.

Delusions frequently involve strong beliefs about, or interactions with, illusory social agents. Although such agents have been systematically described in hallucinations, few studies have investigated their nature and identity in delusions.

According to the standard definition, a hallucination is (1) a perceptual experience occurring in the absence of a relevant perceptual object, (2) it has the sense of reality of a veridical perception, and (3) it is unwilled and not under voluntary control of the hallucinator. This definition is supposed to encompass all hallucinations, across mental disorders and experiential modalities.

Dynamical systems theory (DST) has recently gained traction as a framework to describe and predict the progression of psychopathology. However, a number of challenges to the application of DST to psychopathology have arisen, including the heterogeneity of symptom measures and the lack of theoretical underpinnings to describe the temporal unfolding of psychiatric illnesses.

The psychopathology of schizophrenia is a complex amalgamation of features that span across different dimensions. These dimensions range from the experience of altered time and space through self-disorders to perceptual, positive, and negative symptoms. The relationship between these different psychopathological dimensions remains unclear. Addressing this gap was the aim of our study.

Self-disorders designate a group of nonpsychotic, trait-like, anomalous self-experiences. The "gold standard" for assessing self-disorders is largely considered to be the Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE). The EASE must be conducted as a semistructured interview, and it requires substantial knowledge of psychopathology and excellent interviewing skills. To bypass these demands, self-rating questionnaires are regularly used to assess self-disorders in research. However, it is not clear if these self-rating questionnaires are valid measures of self-disorders. The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the validity of self-rating questionnaires used for assessing self-disorders.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by instability in self-image, emotions, and relationships. Features such as (auto)aggression, devaluation, and impulsivity indicate proximity to narcissistic traits, especially antagonistic aspects. While its links to grandiose and vulnerable narcissism are established, the role of antagonistic narcissism (AN) remains unclear. This study investigates AN in BPD by comparing female BPD patients with a diagnostically heterogeneous clinical control group without personality disorders and by examining its associations with symptom severity, self-harm, aggression, interpersonal problems, and empathy.

The Examination of Autistic Intersubjective Experiences is a semi-structured interview aimed at a phenomenological exploration of experiential and subjective ways of dealing with sociality.

In times of rapid and profound sociocultural changes and the related metamorphosis of psychopathological forms, there is a need for greater commitment on the part of clinical phenomenology in analyzing these changes and reciprocal influences between culture and psychopathology.

Introduction: Self-disturbance phenomena are increasingly recognized as fundamental and debilitating features for patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD). The concept of personal recovery describes the process of building a meaningful and satisfying life despite persistent symptoms or challenges related to mental illness. No previous study has investigated the association between self-disturbance phenomena and personal recovery in patients with SSD. Understanding the impact of self-disturbance could strengthen the therapeutic alliance with patients and contribute to the development of treatment strategies supporting their recovery.

Background: Research in the field of psychotherapy suggests that emotional arousal (EA) might be a key element to therapeutic success. However, its relevance depends on a situation-bound complex process, requiring its assessment at the right time and in relation to significant personal themes.

Overweight or obesity often co-occurs with depression among young adults. Major depressive disorder (MDD) frequently occurs alongside anxiety; nevertheless, research exploring the interaction between anxiety symptoms and MDD in young adults with overweight or obesity is limited. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and clinical characteristics of comorbid anxiety among young adults with overweight/obesity concomitant with MDD. Additionally, it aimed to identify predictors of anxiety within this demographic.

In terms of the risk of developing depressive symptoms, adolescents are a heterogeneous group according to their characteristics and environment. However, the effect of the heterogeneity on depressive symptoms remains unclear. Although the effects of parental psychological control, harsh parenting, and adolescent psychological resilience (as a trait in this article) have been well documented, these factors are generally examined separately, while little is known about their interactive effects on adolescent mental health. The goal of this study was to explore latent profiles of parenting and adolescent psychological resilience and to compare the corresponding levels of depressive symptoms in adolescents.

The mechanisms of change in psychological therapies have not yet been sufficiently empirically validated. In particular, the time course of their effects on patients' symptom distress is unknown. Therefore, the aims of the present study were (1) to examine the effects of 4 patient experiences, namely, interpersonal experience (IE), coping experience (CE), affective experience (AE), and resource-related experience (RE), on symptom distress within and between patients; (2) to consider the temporal development of the within-patient effects; and (3) to examine their associations with the final treatment outcome.

Mental health problems are highly prevalent among adolescents. This study aimed to investigate the interrelations among depressive, anxiety, and stress-related symptoms in Chinese adolescents using a symptom network approach.

Objectives: The study investigated the relationship between personality organization, childhood trauma, and paranoid thinking. It is hypothesized that personality organization mediates as well as moderates the link between paranoia and childhood adversity.

Emotions are a key feature of human life. Despite intensive research, we still do not have a full grasp of the complexity of emotions, such as their peculiar combination of emotional feeling and behavioral motor manifestation. We also lack translational research that links the phenomenal (experiential) with the pre-phenomenal (neurological) levels.

Psychopharmacology is currently plagued by reductionism since it is understood as the treatment of biological and behavioural symptoms of mental disorders without taking into account the subjective life of the self in relation to others. Psychopharmacological interventions, such as antidepressants and antipsychotics, must be situated and discussed within the embodied context of the organism-environment.