An Empirical-Phenomenological Exploration of Anderssein (Feeling Different) in Schizophrenia: Being in-between Particular and Universal.
Helene Stephensen, Annick Urfer-Parnas, Josef Parnas
Psychopathology 2024 DOI: 10.1159/000538707 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Phenomenological-empirical study Qualitative Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 25 |
| Population | Patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders |
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Anderssein Intersubjectivity Onset Schizophrenia |
| Citations | 4 |
| Key points | Anderssein, a profound and often ineffable sense of feeling different from others since childhood, is a core feature of schizophrenia spectrum disorders, experienced as existing outside shared reality and involving a gradual extension of intersubjective alterations into psychosis. |
Abstract
In this paper, we wish to elucidate alterations of basic existential and intersubjective configurations in schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) through the phenomenon of Anderssein ("feeling different"). Anderssein is an important yet neglected notion from German psychiatry, referring to a specific sense of feeling profoundly different from others occurring in SSD. Although phenomenological-psychopathological research mentions it as an aspect of the core disturbance of SSD (namely, "self-disorders"), the phenomenon has not yet been explored in empirical or theoretical detail. We present material from a phenomenological-empirical study on the mode and onset of psychosis based on qualitative interviews with 25 patients with SSD. Most of the participants in our study report having felt fundamentally and often ineffably different since childhood and articulate it as a sense of existing "outside" of the shared reality. Intersubjective reality appears progressively unreal or inauthentic, and simultaneously, the patient's intimate, subjective sphere is permeated by an alien otherness. Importantly, this outside position should be understood carefully as it is often accompanied by the sense of being invaded by social rules, other people's thoughts, or emotions. Incipient psychosis is described as a gradual extension of precedent alterations of the structures of (inter)subjectivity. We conceptualize the ontological feature of Anderssein as an altered "being in-between" - that is, some sort of halting of the dynamic movement between particularity and intersubjectivity. Finally, we discuss the critical implications of these results for research into the "onset" of schizophrenia.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualitative thematic analysis of the phenomenology of near-death experiences Cardiac arrest survivors | 2018 | Qualitative study | n = 34 |
| Phenomenology and Sequelae of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine Use Psychiatrists who had taken MDMA | 1992 | Qualitative study | n = 20 |
| A phenomenology of meditation-induced light experiences: traditional buddhist and neurobiological perspectives American Buddhist practitioners | 2014 | Qualitative study | |
| Evoking the ineffable: The phenomenology of extreme sports. Extreme sports participants across three continents, including BASE jumping, big wave... | 2017 | Qualitative study | n = 15 |
| Phenomenology and content of the inhaled N, N-dimethyltryptamine (N, N-DMT) experience. Naturalistic inhaled N,N-DMT experiences posted to the r/DMT Reddit community | 2022 | Qualitative analysis | n = 3,778 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
- From self-narration to a worldview: a phenomenological, narratological, and linguistic case study of a patient with a complex clinical picture of bipolar disorder Frontiers in Psychiatry January 20, 2026
- Self-disorders and first-person authority Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences June 16, 2026
Cites 8
- Double bookkeeping and schizophrenia spectrum: divided unified phenomenal consciousness. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience December 1, 2021
- Disorder of Selfhood in Schizophrenia: A Symptom or a Gestalt? Psychopathology 2022
- Double bookkeeping in schizophrenia spectrum disorder: an empirical-phenomenological study. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience September 1, 2024
- First-Episode Psychosis and Centrality in the Work of Psychiatrist Henri Grivois: A Dialog with Phenomenological Psychopathology. Psychopathology 2023
- Self-disorders and schizophrenia: a phenomenological reappraisal of poor insight and noncompliance. Schizophrenia Bulletin June 24, 2013
and 3 more in the library