Visual and Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Schizophrenia and Their Relation to Self-Disorders
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.
The Role of Interoception in Felt Presence and Psychosis Risk
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.
Adolescent Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: An Integrative Review of Clinical, Psychopathological, and Sociocultural Dimensions
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.
A Collaborative Care Model in Mental Health: Towards a 'Phenomenological Cowriting'?
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 Embodied Mind as Pharmacological Target: Towards a Phenomenology of Psychopharmacological Interventions
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.
The Paradox of Loving without Expectation: Between Existential Assurance and the Missed Encounter with the Other
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.
Clinical Activity and Psychopathological Knowledge are Related to Real-World Performance of Leading International Psychiatrists in Diagnosing Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders (SSD)
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.
Phenomenology of Hallucinations in Endogenous and Substance-Related Exogenous Psychoses
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).
The Importance of Existential Questions in Patients with a Depressive Disorder: A Pilot Study
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.
A Data-Driven Decomposition of Anxiety
The present paper identified key components of anxiety and fear based on a large community sample of 387 psychiatrically healthy or depressed participants.
Exploring Dual Diagnoses: Psychopathological Characteristics in the Co-Occurrence of Schizophrenia and Addiction - A Scoping Review
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.
Multimodal Hallucinations in Muslim Patients with Severe Psychotic Disorders: The Entity Experience Revisited
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.
Who Are People with Psychosis Delusional about? A Study of Social Agents in the Phenomenology of Delusions
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.
Revising the Standard Definition of Hallucination: Delirium and Schizophrenia
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.
Felt Presence and Psychosis Risk in the General Population
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.
A Phenomenological Reappraisal of Dynamical Systems in Psychopathology
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.
Which Mechanism Kicks in When? Temporal Changes in the Effect of Transtheoretical Factors on Symptom Distress over the Course of Therapy
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.
A Network Analysis of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Symptoms in Chinese Adolescents
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.
Personality Organization, Childhood Adversity, and Paranoid Thinking: Moderating and Mediating Pathways
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.
For a Choreography of Emotions: Spatiotemporal Phenomenology
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.
From Experience to Symptoms: A Multilayer Hierarchy of Psychopathological Dimensions in Schizophrenia
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.
