Integrating methods from phenomenology can strengthen the application of dynamical systems theory (DST) in psychopathology research. Phenomenological psychopathology improves DST-based investigations by specifying core symptoms more precisely through a focus on subjective experiences and by deepening theoretical understanding of how symptoms evolve in severity over time. Using clinical high risk for psychosis as a test case, the article demonstrates the utility of combining phenomenologically informed theory and DST, examining the ipseity-disturbance model of psychosis development. The authors offer a vision for broader integration of DST and phenomenological research methods to better understand and predict psychiatric disorders and transitions in mental health states.
Subjective experience is central to mental illness but has been neglected in empirical psychopathology. A framework called the Nested States Model (NSM) describes the dynamic structure of experience as a system of nested states that influence each other across hierarchical layers. The NSM provides a scheme for characterizing patterns of experience in psychopathological processes, aiding clinical practice and research. It advances three aims: centering clinical formulations on subjective experience, organizing findings from clinical-phenomenological research to build broader models, and aligning perspectives on experience with brain dynamics to bridge phenomenological and neurophysiological work.