Some notes on the phenomenology of psychological disorders: from the birth of Freudian psychoanalysis to the possible contribution of multiple etiopathogenic factors

ABSTRACT

In this contribution, the author explores the shift from viewing psychological issues as ‘psychic pathology’ to adopting a perspective of ‘pathological psychology’. This transition underscores the need to consider the intricate interplay between individual and environmental factors in the development of psychological disorders. The author emphasizes the importance of understanding mental illness as a result of complex interactions and disruptions in equilibrium. Alongside neurobiological influences, life experiences and the environment also wield a pivotal role. A clinical case of a four-session-a week psychoanalysis illustrates the significance of the environment. This case highlights how the interplay between internal and relational-environmental factors is crucial not only in understanding symptoms but also in the interpretive process.

KEYWORDS:

• Phenomenology and psychoanalysis
• etiopathogenesis
• relational and environmental factors

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Among the most significant figures emerge K. Jaspers with the ‘General Psychopathology’ treatise (1913), E. Minkowski with the text ‘Schizophrenia’ (1927), and L. Binswanger with ‘Psychiatry as the Science of Man’ (1957).

2. The medical-experimental approach considers psychopathological symptoms as consequences of cerebral lesions and therefore devoid of meaning.

3. The contribution of Freud, along with other authors such as K. Jaspers, E. Minkowski, L. Binswanger in the phenomenological field, K. Lorenz through ethological studies, and G. Bateson from a perspective of philosophical thought applied to anthropology and psychology, has made it possible to shift the focus of observation from ‘psychic pathology’ to that of ‘psychology of the pathological.

4. In M. Foucault’s text (‘History of Madness in the Classical Age,’ 1961), around the 18th century, madness is depicted through the image of a reed that symbolizes an empty head. It is interesting to recall that in much earlier times, Philo of Alexandria already spoke of madness as the ‘death of the mind.

5. This representation originates from the 17th-century theorization of the philosopher Thomas Hobbes.

6. The reading of the works of W. Dilthey, a German philosopher and psychologist from the mid-1800s, likely brought Freud closer to the complexity of the relationships between the sciences of nature and the humanities.

7. The shift from a ‘synchronic’ to a ‘diachronic’ perspective highlights how it is possible to move from the symptomatic and static description of a mental disorder to the consideration of the meaning of symptoms in the patient’s life experience. These symptoms take on new forms and meanings in relation to the temporality that alters subjective experience.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Silvia Cimino

Silvia Cimino, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology, Department of Dynamic, Clinical, and Health Psychology, “Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza” University of Rome; National Scientific Qualification for Full Professorship (disciplinary sector 11/E4, Clinical and Dynamic Psychology), Child, Adolescent, and Family Psychotherapist (AIPPI); Ordinary Member of the Italian Association of Psychoanalysis (AIPsi-IPA, International Psychoanalytic Association); member of the Royal Society of Medicine; Principal Investigator of numerous peer-reviewed research projects; Editor and Reviewer for several international scientific journals. Author of over 150 national and international publications (including articles, books, book chapters) primarily focused on child and adolescent psychopathology (with a particular emphasis on eating disorders, depression, and the impact of traumatic experiences).