Psychopathological dimensions and the clinician's subjective experience
pp. 267-286
in: Massimo Biondi, Massimo Pasquini, Angelo Picardi (eds), Dimensional psychopathology, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
In this chapter, we propose an empirically supported way of following the phenomenological call towards the use of the clinician's feelings in the diagnostic process. Classical psychopathology highly valued the interaction between clinician and patient, and recent findings have provided preliminary evidence of an association between categorical psychiatric diagnosis and clinician's subjective experience during the first clinical encounter. This seems to be true also for the dimensional approach. We present here a study that specifically investigated the relation between psychopathological dimensions and the pattern of the clinician's subjective experience in psychiatric settings. The study provided preliminary evidence of significant and theoretically consistent relationships between the main psychopathological dimensions and the pattern of psychiatrists' subjective experiences during assessment. Consequently, we discuss the questions raised by our results about the theoretical and methodological implications of an integrated view of psychiatric assessment and, more generally, for theory, practice, research, and training in psychiatry.