The Nested States Model: An empirical approach to subjective experience

Abstract

Subjective experience is central to the nature of mental illness, yet it has not played a central role in most empirical approaches to psychopathology. Despite some recent progress, we lack detailed phenomenological models for psychopathological processes and mental disorders. Here, we present a framework through which such models could be constructed. This framework is derived from the Nested States Model (NSM), which describes the dynamic structure of subjective experience as a system of nested states. Through this characterization, it provides a flexible and structured scheme for operationalizing subjective experience, which facilitates the empirical study of subjectivity. More broadly, we argue that the NSM forms a basis for thinking about psychopathological processes centered around the notion of states and their transitions. From this perspective, an approach could be developed that is near to individual experience, empirically tractable, and aligned with on-going research in neuroscience.