The Foundations of Phenomenological Psychotherapy

This book addresses selected central questions in phenomenological psychology, a discipline that investigates the experience of self that emerges over the course of an individual’s life, while also outlining a new method, the formal indication, as a means of accessing personal experience while remaining faithful to its uniqueness. In phenomenological psychology, the psyche no longer refers to an isolated self that remains unchanged by life’s changing situations, but is rather a phenomenon (ipseity) which manifests itself and constantly takes form over the course of a person’s unique existence. Thus, the formal indication allows us to study the way in which ipseity relates to the world in different situations, in a way that holds different meanings for different people. Based on this new approach, phenomenological psychotherapy marks a transition from a mode of grasping the truth about oneself through reflection, to amode of accessing the disclosure of self through a work of self-transformation (the care of self) that requires the person to actually change her position on herself.By putting forward this method, the authors shed new light on the dynamic interplay between a person’s historicity and uniqueness on the one hand, and the related physiopathological mechanisms on the other, providing evidence from the fields of genetics, cardiology, the neurosciences and psychiatry. The book will appeal to a broad readership, from psychiatrists, psychologist and psychotherapists, to researchers in these fields.

About the Author

Giampiero Arciero, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, is the Director of the Institute of Post-Rationalist Psychology and Psychotherapy, Rome, Italy (IPRA), and a consultant in the Psychiatric Liaison and Crisis Intervention Service at the Department of Mental Health and Psychiatry, Geneva University Hospitals, where he also serves as a professor of psychotherapy and is involved in the Diploma of Advanced Studies in Cognitive-Behavior Psychotherapy. He is a visiting professor at the University of Bari "Aldo Moro" (Italy) . He has worked as a visiting researcher at the University of Fribourg (CH), as associate director of the Personal Development Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara (USA), and as a professor of psychotherapy at the University of Siena (Italy). He is the author of several peer-reviewed publications as well as three  books.

Guido Bondolfi is currently full professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva andis the chief medical officer of the Psychiatric Liaison and Crisis Intervention Service at the University Hospitals of Geneva, Department of Mental Health and Psychiatry. A specialist in psychiatry-psychotherapy and mindfulness instructor (MBCT and MBSR), his research interests include cognitive psychotherapy, mood disorders and the application of meditation-based approaches in psychiatry. He has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications and two books.

Viridiana Mazzola currently works as a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist and researcher in neuroscience at the Psychiatric Liaison and Crisis Intervention Service at the University Hospitals of Geneva Department of Mental Health and Psychiatry. She coordinates the research in the field of the medical psychology, and her interests focus on investigating the impact of individual differences in affective dispositions in psychopathology and functional medical symptoms through brain-imaging techniques (fMRI). She is the co-director of the Institute of Post-Rationalist Psychology and Psychotherapy (IPRA, Rome, Italy). She has been an adjunct professor of developmental psychology, University of Rome "La Sapienza" (Prof. Luigia Camaioni), and a neuroscience postdoc at the University of Geneva with Prof. Patrik Vuilleumier.