Perplexity and Meaning: Toward a Phenomenological "Core" of Psychotic Experiences

Away from home: the brain of the wandering mind as a model for schizophrenia

“…Both in classical and modern psychiatric literatures, this trait has been considered to be the core gestalt of SZ (Parnas, 2011). The importance of the core phenomenology of psychotic experience also has been largely emphasized by recent first-person accounts of psychosis (Kean, 2009;Johnson, 2012;Payne, 2012;Humpston, 2014). Despite the fact that current diagnostic criteria revolve around the presence of psychotic symptoms (Keefe and Fenton, 2007;McGuire et al, 2008), this core phenomenology of SZs has largely escaped the mainstream topic of research (Humpston, 2014).…”

“…The importance of the core phenomenology of psychotic experience also has been largely emphasized by recent first-person accounts of psychosis (Kean, 2009;Johnson, 2012;Payne, 2012;Humpston, 2014). Despite the fact that current diagnostic criteria revolve around the presence of psychotic symptoms (Keefe and Fenton, 2007;McGuire et al, 2008), this core phenomenology of SZs has largely escaped the mainstream topic of research (Humpston, 2014). A lack of vital studies on the phenomenology of SZs which lie beyond classical diagnosis may hinder progress in our understanding of the disorder and our ability to find adequate treatment.…”

From Perception to Thought: A Phenomenological Approach to Hallucinatory Experience

“…10,11 Indeed, as several first personal accounts indicate (see refs. 12,13 ), hallucinations are experienced in a more nuanced, rich, and dynamic way, than the prevailing behavioristic-operational lexicon of psychopathology seems to capture. Such descriptions suggest that what is experientially at stake-at least in the initial emergence of hallucinations-is a sort of dissolution of certain structural features of consciousness.…”

“…Humpston 2014 The horizon and the conceptual landscape of psychosis research have changed dramatically over the past decades. 1 First, the identification of "meaningful" similarities and points of rarity across diagnoses is catalyzing a heuristic deconstruction of clinical syndromes into salient psychopathological domains.…”

The Contribution of Experiential Wisdom to the Development of the Mental Health Professional Discourse

“…26,43 Sharing stories of recovery is not comfortable, logical, or always linear for the narrator because recovery is an often cyclical experience. It reflects a status of "being in recovery" rather than being "recovered from" mental illness 44 as there may be moments of recurring mental distress.…”