In a sociocentric culture where self-boundary is traditionally porous, psychotic experiences can radically alter one's sense of self. This interpretative phenomenological analysis explores how individuals describe their self-boundary during psychosis, using the metaphor of having their spinal cord removed to convey a profound loss of internal structure and autonomy. The analysis reveals that psychotic episodes disrupt the usual fluid boundaries of self, leading to a felt disintegration that is both terrifying and culturally shaped. The findings suggest that understanding self-boundary in psychosis requires attending to cultural context, as sociocentric norms may influence how such experiences are interpreted and narrated.
Phenomenological psychopathology typically locates the core disturbance of mental illness within the individual's experience, but this overlooks the social context of symptoms and treatment. Wolfgang Blankenburg's concept of 'loss of common sense' as the structural core of schizophrenia instead accounts for both personal experience and the interactional structures of families and social milieus. His family studies of young people with schizophrenia, largely neglected, show how he expanded the phenomenological approach in a systemic direction. The paper links Blankenburg's work with current systemic explanatory models of schizophrenia, discusses clinical and scientific implications, and calls for further research on synergy between phenomenological and systemic approaches.
How researchers understand other minds shapes how they study psychopathology. The paper critically examines three methodological stances: the dominant third-person approach (DSM-based, quantitative), the first-person approach (phenomenological psychopathology that tries to grasp patients' conscious experience), and the second-person approach, which emphasizes the intersubjective, circular construction of knowledge between researcher and participant. While acknowledging the value of methodological pluralism, the authors argue that a second-person perspective should inform psychopathology research because it recognizes that understanding arises from the relationship between self and other, not from detached observation or solitary introspection.