Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology
June 1, 2025
Miguel Núñez De Prado-Gordillo, Pablo López-silva
2 citations
4E Cognition approaches—emphasizing embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive features—have emerged to challenge the view that mental disorders are solely brain disorders. This paper examines and classifies these approaches into two main strands: strongly situated or extended views, based on the extended mind hypothesis, and strongly embodied and enactive views, based on autopoietic enactivism. It analyzes how each strand addresses the location problem (whether disorders reside in individuals, social contexts, or their relation) and the boundary problem (distinguishing psychopathology from non-pathological diversity like social deviance). The paper also outlines practical implications of the 4E turn in mental health research.
Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology
January 1, 2026
Lukas Iwer-Docter
Recognition, a concept from political philosophy, is applied to mental health care for psychosis. The paper argues that psychosocial interventions should embody a normative stance that acknowledges patients' subjective experiences and fosters mutual, relational recognition between clinician and patient. Drawing on the work of Honneth and Benjamin, recognition is described as an attitude and reciprocal relationship involving intercorporeal and verbal aspects that build trust. A phenomenological understanding of psychosis highlights alterations in self, world, and other. The analysis shows that such a recognizing stance has therapeutic and social potential, emphasizing the importance of the therapeutic relationship in these interventions.
Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology
September 1, 2025
David Zheng
The article examines how psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) presents a unique challenge to standard notions of informed consent, building on L.A. Paul's concept of transformative experiences (TEs). The author argues that PAT qualifies as a special kind of TE because of its distinctive ineffability. Distinguishing between "valid consent" and "substantially informed consent," the author contends that whether valid consent is possible depends on whether TEs are causally necessary for PAT's therapeutic effects. Regardless, substantially informed consent is impossible for PAT because the experience's ineffability prevents meeting the materiality conditions required for informed consent.
Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology
August 1, 2025
David Zheng
The article examines how transformative experiences, as defined by philosopher L.A. Paul, challenge informed consent for psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT). Paul's concept describes experiences that fundamentally change a person's perspective and cannot be fully understood beforehand. The author argues PAT is a special kind of transformative experience because its effects are particularly ineffable. Two versions of informed consent are distinguished: valid consent and substantially informed consent. The author contends that whether valid consent is possible depends on whether transformative experiences are causally necessary for PAT's therapeutic effects. Regardless of that causal question, the author argues substantially informed consent for PAT is impossible because patients cannot meet the materiality conditions required for truly informed consent.
Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology
September 1, 2023
Corinne Gal, Alexandre Chapy, Marielle Fau et al.
Existential psychodrama, inspired by Moreno, helps schizophrenic patients incorporate the experience of an 'absolutely other' that underpins an autonomous self. Through psychodramatic play, patients engage in original projection, moving outside their pathological world and into another's perspective sensorially and pathically. This creative journey enables them to return to the world better attuned to others and themselves, enacting a true intersubjective encounter. Applying phenomenology, especially Bin Kimura's concept of psychosis as a disorder of the 'aida', the authors aim to advance psychotherapy for psychosis.