From theory to clinical practice: a phenomenologically inspired intervention for patients with schizophrenia

Abstract

Background: Phenomenological conceptualizations of schizophrenia regard the fundamental transformation of self-experience as the central feature of the schizophrenic state of mind. Recently, self-disorders as subtle, trait-like, merely subjective alterations of self-experience have received vast empirical attention. However, the question of how to address self-disorders psychotherapeutically has remained neglected.

Methods: From phenomenologically inspired analyses of self-disorders we derive a therapeutic intervention that focuses on the following: (1) verbalizing diffuse changes in self-experiences and (2) conceptualizing these self-experiences in terms of aggravating and relieving factors in order to stimulate coping and derive targeted therapeutic interventions.

Results: The clinical implementation is illustrated by two case studies. The feasibility of our approach is preliminarily supported by an exploratory study.

Conclusions: This intervention seems promising in assisting patients to develop an embodied and enacted understanding of self-disorders.