The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology

Abstract

For about one century the catalogue of books in phenomenological psychopathology has been tremendously rich in essays, but remarkably poor in handbooks. Even the cornerstone of our canon, Jaspers’ General Psychopathology, originally written as a textbook, can hardly be given to a student as a basic reading. This makes extremely difficult teaching the fundamentals of our discipline. Students ask for manualized knowledge expecting teachers to explain them what-exactly-must-be-done-in-a-given-circumstance. This Handbook is meant to fill these gaps. It includes a detailed, thorough and reader-friendly description of philosophical and clinical key-concepts and constructs, and of the contributions of leading figures of phenomenological psychopathology. It establishes clear connections between psychopathological knowledge and clinical practice. It liaise phenomenological psychopathology to contemporary debates in nosography, clinical epistemology, research and the neurosciences. It’s stronger benefit is that it brings together evidence-based with person-based knowledge. All learning is based on process of recognition. ‘Recognition’ means identification of someone or something from previous encounters or knowledge. In standard clinical training this process is called ‘diagnosis’ and evidence-based diagnostic skills are deemed fundamental. Students are spot-on when soliciting this kind of knowledge to be regimented and normalized. Yet ‘recognition’ has a second meaning: acknowledging the absolute singularity of what is out there. To recognize someone or something means to be able to tolerate its otherness. This kind of recognition is a practice in which epistemology is in touch with ethics. Whereas recognition qua identification or diagnosis is an act of recollection based on previously acquired knowledge, recognition qua acknowledgement is an ethical act of acceptance of the unique being-so of the other person or state of affairs. The Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology engages in bringing together these two kinds of ‘recognition’ and establish a solid as well as flexible framework for the clinic of mental disorders.