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This book explores how the scientific concepts of ‘information and representation’ can be used to understand subjective mental phenomena and integrate them in empathic clinical dialogues during interactions with patients. It explores key issues in clinical psychopathology coherently and systematically, illustrates advanced topics in an accessible manner using clinical case examples, metaphors and clarifying diagrams, and directly links advanced conceptual frameworks with pragmatic skills in the clinical dialogue process.
This volume is aimed at a broad audience of mental health professionals, researchers, and students in psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Its interdisciplinary treatment of the subject will also interest biologists, anthropologists, cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers.
‘In this tour de force, Eric Chen integrates philosophical perspectives with current themes in brain sciences to explain how we experience our environments, ourselves, and each other. An exhilarating framework for modern psychopathological inquiry, this is a must-read for anyone curious about the mind and how it can go awry.’
—Peter B. Jones, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
‘Eric Chen has created a work that conceptually connects psychopathology to relevant disciplines in biology, evolution, cognition, linguistics, clinical psychiatry, and computational/information domains. It will certainly encourage in-depth reflections and stimulate research in clinical psychopathology.’
—Peter Falkai, Chair of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Munich
‘In the face of social, cultural, and biological changes, psychopathology needs periodic revision. Professor Chen addresses the complexities of this unique task with an original and scholarly approach that will stimulate both clinicians and researchers.’
—Ivana S. Marková, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Hull
‘The continuous rapid change in the way people experience life has consequences that require continuous change in the approach to mental welfare. Professor Chen’s eclectic scholarship meets the challenges that this entails.’
—Arnold Wilkins, Professor Emeritus, University of Essex
‘In this very welcome addition to a currently small literature, Eric Chen assembles the building blocks of philosophy, cognitive psychology—especially theory of mind, the “empathic” part of the title—and connectionism into a principled foundation for a future scientific approach to psychopathology.’
—Peter McKenna, FIDMAG Research Foundation, Spain
‘This book by Eric Chen is an important guide that reawakens a discussion on psychopathology for those of us who are involved in research and practice related to psychopathology. Reading this book was a wonderful experience.’
—R. Padmavati, Director, Schizophrenia Research Foundation, India
‘This is a must-read for postgraduate psychiatry trainees and practitioners, which provides a transformative perspective of a new representational framework in psychopathology. Eric Chen has distilled his research and insights into the process and schema of the mind and illustrated important Asian and Western perspectives on this challenging subject of study.’
—John Wong Chee Meng, Lin Jo Yan and Yeo Boon Khim Professor in Mental Health and Neuroscience, NUS and NUH
List of Figures xiii
Foreword by German E. Berrios xvi
Preface xxii
Acknowledgements xxiv
Introduction 1
1. The Problem of Psychopathological Knowledge 5
2. Information in the Brain and Subjective Experiences 15
3. The Structure of Subjective Experience 50
4. Unfolding Phenomenological Processes in the Human Person 58
5. Empathic Access to Other People 69
6. Mental Representations as Containers for Information in Subjective Experiences 80
7. Representation Failure and Psychopathology 116
8. Towards a New Representational Framework in Psychopathology 129
9. Psychopathological Evaluation: The Clinical Dialogue 157
Conclusions 191
References 193
Index 212