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Paving the way for systemic phenomenological psychiatry - the forgotten heritage of Wolfgang Blankenburg

Phenomenological psychopathology focuses on the first-person experience of mental disorders. Although it is in principle descriptive, it also entails an explanatory dimension: single psychological symptoms are conceived as genetically arising from a holistic structure of personal experience, i.e., t...

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Autores principales: Thoma, Samuel, Konrad, Michael, Fellin, Lisa C., Galbusera, Laura
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9343626/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35928777
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.909488
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author Thoma, Samuel
Konrad, Michael
Fellin, Lisa C.
Galbusera, Laura
author_facet Thoma, Samuel
Konrad, Michael
Fellin, Lisa C.
Galbusera, Laura
author_sort Thoma, Samuel
collection PubMed
description Phenomenological psychopathology focuses on the first-person experience of mental disorders. Although it is in principle descriptive, it also entails an explanatory dimension: single psychological symptoms are conceived as genetically arising from a holistic structure of personal experience, i.e., the patient's being-in-the-world – and of its dynamic unfolding over time. Yet both classical and current phenomenological approaches tend to identify the essential disorder or “trouble générateur” (Minkowski) of mental illness within the individual, thereby neglecting the relevance of the social context not only for the emergence of symptoms but also for their treatment. The work of Wolfgang Blankenburg on schizophrenia represents a noteworthy approach to overcome this individualistic tendency. He introduced the concept of “loss of common sense” as the structural core of schizophrenic experience and being-in-the-world and he considered the social and most importantly familial context for the emergence of schizophrenic experience. By accounting not only for personal experience but also for interactional structures of families and social milieus in which experience is embedded, Blankenburg thereby offered ways to combine phenomenological and systemic explanations of mental disorders. Beside his most renowned work on “the loss of common sense,” in this paper we also present his family studies of young persons with schizophrenia, which have so far received little if no attention. We thus discuss the different ways in which Blankenburg expanded the phenomenological approach into a more systemic and social direction. We then link Blankenburg's work with current systemic explanatory models of schizophrenia and explore the clinical and scientific implications of this link. Finally, we call for further research on the synergy effects between the two.
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spelling pubmed-93436262022-08-03 Paving the way for systemic phenomenological psychiatry - the forgotten heritage of Wolfgang Blankenburg Thoma, Samuel Konrad, Michael Fellin, Lisa C. Galbusera, Laura Front Psychiatry Psychiatry Phenomenological psychopathology focuses on the first-person experience of mental disorders. Although it is in principle descriptive, it also entails an explanatory dimension: single psychological symptoms are conceived as genetically arising from a holistic structure of personal experience, i.e., the patient's being-in-the-world – and of its dynamic unfolding over time. Yet both classical and current phenomenological approaches tend to identify the essential disorder or “trouble générateur” (Minkowski) of mental illness within the individual, thereby neglecting the relevance of the social context not only for the emergence of symptoms but also for their treatment. The work of Wolfgang Blankenburg on schizophrenia represents a noteworthy approach to overcome this individualistic tendency. He introduced the concept of “loss of common sense” as the structural core of schizophrenic experience and being-in-the-world and he considered the social and most importantly familial context for the emergence of schizophrenic experience. By accounting not only for personal experience but also for interactional structures of families and social milieus in which experience is embedded, Blankenburg thereby offered ways to combine phenomenological and systemic explanations of mental disorders. Beside his most renowned work on “the loss of common sense,” in this paper we also present his family studies of young persons with schizophrenia, which have so far received little if no attention. We thus discuss the different ways in which Blankenburg expanded the phenomenological approach into a more systemic and social direction. We then link Blankenburg's work with current systemic explanatory models of schizophrenia and explore the clinical and scientific implications of this link. Finally, we call for further research on the synergy effects between the two. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-07-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9343626/ /pubmed/35928777 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.909488 Text en Copyright © 2022 Thoma, Konrad, Fellin and Galbusera. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Thoma, Samuel
Konrad, Michael
Fellin, Lisa C.
Galbusera, Laura
Paving the way for systemic phenomenological psychiatry - the forgotten heritage of Wolfgang Blankenburg
title Paving the way for systemic phenomenological psychiatry - the forgotten heritage of Wolfgang Blankenburg
title_full Paving the way for systemic phenomenological psychiatry - the forgotten heritage of Wolfgang Blankenburg
title_fullStr Paving the way for systemic phenomenological psychiatry - the forgotten heritage of Wolfgang Blankenburg
title_full_unstemmed Paving the way for systemic phenomenological psychiatry - the forgotten heritage of Wolfgang Blankenburg
title_short Paving the way for systemic phenomenological psychiatry - the forgotten heritage of Wolfgang Blankenburg
title_sort paving the way for systemic phenomenological psychiatry - the forgotten heritage of wolfgang blankenburg
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9343626/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35928777
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.909488
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