Recent Phenomenological Developments in Psychopathology of Schizophrenia

Abstract

Nancy Andreasen (2007) published a bleak assessment of the consequences of introducing operational criteria for psychiatric diagnosis (DSM-III and subsequent editions). She lists a widespread ignorance of features that are not themselves criteria, dehumanisation of psychiatric praxis, and unquestioned belief in reified rigidly conceived diagnostic categories with poor validity.

Moreover, we could add that subjectivity-aversive stance has had a negative consequence for etiological, preventive and therapeutic efforts in schizophrenia. As an example of phenomenological approach, integrated with empirical design, a series of studies of disorders of self-experience in schizophrenia is presented.