Imagination is part of ordinary psychic life, but, in somewhat distorted forms, also an aspect of different key psychopathological concepts and hence of immediate clinical importance. In this review, we present principal findings from clinical psychopathological research examining basic disturbances of imagination in the schizophrenia spectrum, obsessive symptoms, and related phenomena in other...
Poor insight is a core feature of schizophrenia and empirical studies have demonstrated associations with important symptom domains, cognitive functions, and clinical outcomes. While recent explanatory accounts mostly focus on neuro-, social-, or meta-cognitive deficits, a complementary model from phenomenological psychopathology suggests that impaired insight in schizophrenia is tied to...
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. Twenty patients with...
This paper is a French translation of the Examination of Anomalous Fantasy and Imagination (EAFI), an instrument for a semi-structured, phenomenological exploration of psychopathology of imagination, particularly within the schizophrenia-spectrum. In this paper, we provide a French translation of the EAFI together with an introduction about the phenomenology of imagination and its experiential...
In 20th century psychiatry, various disturbances of imagination were discussed in the context of schizophrenia. Today, these notions have almost completely vanished from mainstream psychopathology. However, recent work has suggested that specific phenomena within this area have a relevance for differential diagnosis and early detection of psychosis. This paper first provides an overview of 20th...
AIM: Basic self disturbance is a putative core vulnerability marker of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The primary aims of the Self, Neuroscience and Psychosis (SNAP) study are to: (1) empirically test a previously described neurophenomenological self-disturbance model of psychosis by examining the relationship between specific clinical, neurocognitive, and neurophysiological variables in UHR...
Obsessive-compulsive symptoms are frequent in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and often cause differential diagnostic challenges, especially in first-contact patients. Drawing upon phenomenology of cognition, we critically review classic and contemporary psychopathological notions of obsessive-compulsive phenomena and discuss their relevance for differential diagnosis between...
Disordered selfhood in schizophrenia was rediscovered at the turn of the millennium. In 2005, Psychopathology published the psychometric instrument, the Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE). In this article, we summarize the historical background of the creation of the EASE, explicate the notion of the disorder of basic or minimal self with the help of phenomenological philosophy,...
Anomalies of imagination encompass disturbances of the basic experiential structure of fantasies and imagery that can be explored in a semi-structured way with the Examination of Anomalous Fantasy and Imagination (EAFI). We aimed (1) to examine the distribution of anomalies of imagination among different diagnostic groups and a group of healthy controls, and (2) to examine their relation with...
Vivid mental imagery occurs frequently in schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs). Overlapping phenomena, such as obsessions or ruminations, are also frequent in other psychiatric disorders, raising significant diagnostic challenges. Unfortunately, contemporary operational psychopathology lacks the epistemological and phenomenological framework to address such questions. Using the resources of...