Main description:

This book contributes to one of the most challenging areas of mental health: substance misuse. Its focus is on the psychopathological experiences associated with it: both the consequences of substance misuse and the existential vulnerabilities that lead to it, even if such a clear-cut distinction is rarely possible. The work brings an innovative perspective to the issue, as it draws on two scientific fields whose association has not yet been fully explored: phenomenological psychopathology and substance misuse studies. The association of these two perspectives could build a greater understanding of this important topic and be of practical help to a wide array of professionals in their clinical practice.

The structure of the book is inspired by this overall perspective. Its division into three parts is designed to introduce the reader, in a stepwise manner, to the complexities of the theme, based on the latest advances in the specific literature. The broad objective of this work is therefore to offer a useful instrument for mental health clinicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, undergraduate students of these disciplines, and all substance abuse workers.

Contents:

1. IntroductionPart I. The anthropological roots of phenomenological psychopathology: core concepts

2. The Conditions of Possibility of Existence

2.1 Temporality

2.1.1 Transversal temporality

2.1.2 Longitudinal temporality

2.2 Spatiality

2.2.1 Distance - proximity

2.2.2 Centrality - peripherality

2.2.3 Integrity - fragmentation

2.2.4 Compression - relaxation

2.2.5 Collectivity - individuality

2.2.6 Horizontality - verticality

2.3 Interpersonality and intersubjectivity

2.3.1 The fragmentary nature of intersubjectivity and the limitations of absolute anthropological knowledge

2.3.2 Integrity and intersubjectivity: visuality and empathy

2.3.3 Modes of intersubjectivity: singularity, collectivity and anonymity

2.4 Embodiment

2.5 Identity, historical-self and ipseity

2.5.1 Otherness as a source of ipseity. The dialectic relations between identity and ipseity

2.6 The structure of existence

2.6.1 Structure of existence, positional sense, value sense and individual freedom

2.7 The ontological sense of phenomenological diagnosis - existential types and moderate realism

2.8 Imprecision and objectivity - second-person knowledge

2.9 The existential meaning of psychopathological experiences

2.10 The nosographic and nosological meaning of phenomenological diagnosis

Part II. Psychopathology and Substance Misuse

3. Anthropological Disproportions (Anthropo-pathologies)

3.1. Borderline disproportion

3.1.1 Intersubjectivity: relational hypo-sufficiency and heteronomy

3.1.2 Vulnerable and unstable temporality

3.1.3 The spatiality of extremes

3.1.4 Hyponomic fragmentation: borderline identity

3.1.5 Embodiment

3.1.6 Anthropological ambiguities of borderline persons

3.1.7 Dialectics of proportions and anthropological movement in borderline disproportion - clinical decision-making

3.2 Phobic disproportion

3.2.1 Phobic hyper-spatiality - fragmentation and proximity

3.2.2 Devouring temporality

3.2.3 Phobic intersubjectivity - hyper-transparency and its corrections

3.2.4 Social phobia and its phenomenological counter-phobic compensations

3.2.5 Tormented embodiment

3.2.6 Phobic ambiguity and clinical decision-making

3.3 Melancholic disproportion

3.3.1 Identity - hypernomic behavior

3.3.2 Spatial hyper-integrity

3.3.3 Embodiment: embodied feelings and inflexibility

3.3.4 Conservative temporality

3.3.5 Clinical decision-making in melancholia - the incarcerated clinician

3.4 Hyperthymic disproportion

3.4.1 Hyperthymic intersubjectivity - endoxia and the collective other pole

3.4.2 Temporality of conquest - the paradox of linear hyperprotension

3.4.3 Hyperthymic spatiality - horizontality and clarity

3.4.4 Hyperthymic identity - hypersymmetry

3.4.5 Iconic hyperactivity - embodiment in hyperthymia

3.4.6 Hyperthymic ambiguities and clinical decision-making

3.5 Compulsive disproportion

3.5.1 Spatial compression of the compulsive person and hypermeric embodiment

3.5.2 Homogeneous temporality

3.5.3 Identity in compulsion - adhesive condensation and sub-identities

3.5.4 Sub-identity condensation and phenomenological compensation

3.5.5 Relationship with the object - hypermeria and paradoxical transvaluation

3.5.6 Hyper-equal guardianship - intersubjective ambiguity of the compulsive person

3.5.7 The compulsive person's cohesive otherness and clinical decision-making

3.6 Obsessive disproportion

3.6.1 The present perfect of obsessive existence

3.6.2 Order and chaos - the rigid dialectics of obsessive spatiality

3.6.3 The Apollonian formalism of obsessive intersubjectivity

3.6.4 The obsessive person's servile motricity

3.6.5 Rationality and hyperrationality in the obsessive identity

3.6.6 Clinical decision-making in obsessive complexity

3.7 Schizoid disproportion

3.7.1 Schizoid verticality

3.7.2 Peninsular intersubjectivity of the schizoid existence - aloofness and independence

3.7.3 The threatened and unpredictable temporality of the schizoid person

3.7.4 Hyperipseity and multifaceted identity: the agony of schizoid existence

3.7.5 The dysautonomy of schizoid embodiment

3.7.6 Management of schizoid verticality and clinical decision-making

3.8 Depression and anxiety

3.9 Depression and melancholia

4. Structural Pathologies

4.1 Schizophrenia

4.1.1 The primary structural fragmentation of schizophrenia

4.1.2 Schizophrenic intersubjective fragmentation - diffusion in anonymity

4.1.3 Negative schizophrenia as a primary pathological form

4.1.4 The existential sense of schizophrenic delusion - a secondary structural reaction

4.1.5 Existential ambiguity in schizophrenia - deep confrontation with the world

4.1.6 Anthropological proportions in schizophrenia

4.1.7 The simultaneous spatiality of two worlds: double bookkeeping

4.1.8 Dialectical loosening and decision-making for horizontality or verticality

4.1.9 Value sense, positional sense and structural pathology - an example of clinical decision-making in schizophrenia

4.2 Melancholia-mania

4.2.1 The dense retraction of melancholia

4.2.2 The light retraction of mania

4.2.3 Melancholia and mania as a structural unit

4.2.4 Clinical decision making in melancholia and mania

4.3 Temporality and transition between anthropological proportions - the foundation for understanding substance misuse specific experiences

Part III. Psychopathology of Substance Misuse

5. The proportions of the absolute - introduction

6. General anthropology of consciousness modification through substance use - instantaneity and exogeneity in self-management

7. Specific anthropology of vulnerabilities, substance misuse, addiction and secondary psychoses

7.1 Temporality

7.1.1 The management of the existential imbalance - longitudinal temporality in youth as an example of deconstructive creativity

7.1.2 Longitudinal temporality in existential exhaustion - management of isolation in the present

7.1.3 The present continuous of addiction (and its distortions)

7.1.4 The Dionysian temporal circle and its associations with psychopathological experiences - synergy and antagonism

7.2. Spatiality (Plenitude, self-management and addiction)

7.2.1 The spatiality of anthropological plenitude - compression and exclusivity

7.2.2 Experiences of enhanced materiality: elevation of raw sensoriality, sensorialisation of feelings and sensory precipitation

7.2.3 The Dionysian spatial circle of addictions - plenitude, kenophobia, repersonalization and reinstatement

7.2.4 Substance misuse and excesses in self-management: horizontality and verticality as primordial and general anthropological directions

7.2.5 Horizontality as the preferred anthropological direction - plenitude as a form of efficiency

7.3 Intersubjectivity and identity - the masks of Dionysus

7.3.1 Self-management of intersubjective horizontality

7.3.2 Harmful consequences of the management of verticality - indifference and isolation

7.3.3 The historical self and its engagement with the world - alternatives to personal freedom

7.4. Embodiment

8. Resumption of a personal biography: the dialectics of recovery

8.1. Recovering temporality

8.2. Recovering spatiality

8.3. Recovering identities - identity collectivization and suprapersonal unification

8.4. Personal recovery and authority