Psychopathology: An Empathic Representational Approach; An Integration of Phenomenology and Cognitive Neuroscience

Psychopathology: An Empathic Representational Approach retraces the foundations of classical phenomenological psychopathology and integrates them with modern ideas drawn from anthropology, cognitive neuroscience, computational science, and evolutionary biology to synthesize a comprehensive framework and provide fresh insights.

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.

Eric Yu Hai Chen is Chair Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Hong Kong. He is co-author of Coaching Intervention for Psychosis: A Lifestyle Redesigning Approach (2018) and Case Studies in Psychotic Disorders (in Chinese, 2014), and co-editor of Early Intervention in Psychiatric Disorders Across Cultures (2019) and Early Psychosis Intervention: A Culturally Adaptive Clinical Guide (2013).