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Biomedical subjects

M Schmidt-Degenhard

Publications and source records attributed to M Schmidt-Degenhard.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

[Self-certitude and self-being in schizophrenic delusional patients].

When asking how a schizophrenic delusional patient can achieve a new, psychotically determined entity of his existence, we can differentiate the following aspects: 1. A quasi-transcendental organization of the delusional experience establishing the patient's singular self-certitude and the absoluteness of the delusion. 2. A reflexive self-confrontation and self-disclosure within his psychotic experience as the basis of the patient's new, psychotically different self-being. 3. The directly intrusive experience of becoming psychotic as a fundamental transformation of oneself may trigger the awareness of a specific new-beginning and therefore of a radical change in personal self-being. This means as well an existential self-seclusion.

Delusions↗
PubMed1998

[The history and psychopathology of paranoia].

The concept of paranoia refers to a main problem of general psychopathology: Paranoia represents the prototype of a pure delusional disorder. The text reviews the descriptive psychopathological and nosological aspects of paranoia which is orientated towards the well-known historical studies by Kraepelin, Gaupp, Kretschmer and Jaspers. The systematic character of the delusional ideas and a specific emotional-affective state connected with a typical (sensitive-vulnerable) personality constitute the "classical" concept of paranoia. Furthermore, the characteristics of paranoia experience and its distinction from delusion during schizophrenic disorders are discussed. The possibility of communication with a delusional person in his autistic world calls for our understanding of the inner and existential meaning of delusion. Therefore the research into the problem of paranoia requires consideration of phenomenological, philosophical and anthropological points of view.

History, 20th Century↗
PubMed1997

[Structural affinities of the incomprehensible in schizophrenic delusion].

Schizophrenic delusion constitutes a fictive reality of its own; moreover, it transforms the originally experienced psychotically incomprehensible into a structure of meaning. It is assumed that the incomprehensible is reified in the actual delusion by means of structural affinities. Reciprocally, it is through these structural affinities that we can approximate hermeneutically to the characteristics of psychotic existence.

Delusions↗
PubMed1997

[Evaluating the current status of anthropologic psychiatry].

Phenomenological psychiatry examines the variety of psychiatric diseases as regular modifications of human feeling tone experience and behaviour, which can be derived approximately from the nature of man as defined philosophically, Interdisciplinary self-conception of phenomenological psychiatry as a science calls for a constant critical dialogue with the philosophy of man and other disciplines of the humanities. The point of departure of phenomenological psychiatry is the mental or affective illness of the individual patient, with which the psychiatrist is acquainted, and reflects in interpersonal encounters in such a way that individual case studies are of central importance in this area of studies. From a methodological point of view two approaches are to be differentiated within the field of research in phenomenological psychiatry: 1. The phenomenological approach is concerned with the analysis of specific patterns of disturbance of the transcendental organisation of psychotic subjectivity. 2. The interpretative approaches are again divided into the so called "Daseinsanalyse" as a hermeneutic access to the inner biography and "Weltanschauung" of the psychiatric patient as well as the attempts of understanding the meaning of psychotic forms of experience. In this context a survey of the current fields of research of phenomenological psychiatry is given which aims at a deeper understanding of the situation of psychiatric patients and which claims to have a strong relevance for therapy. The relevance of such a phenomenological approach for current psychiatry lies in a broadening and sophistication of our experience in clinic and practice. Its main interest lies in the concentration on the patient as an individual and on the existential dimension of forms of mental and emotional diseases.

Anthropology, Cultural↗
PubMed1995

[Delusions and imagination].

In this study delusion is regarded from the aspect of a phenomenology of imagination. Delusion as an experience of fictitious actualities is interpreted as the attempt of a psychotic person, to find a sense of existence in view of the threat by mental illness. After explaining the philosophical fundamentals, imagination is considered to be the dynamic origin of delusion and hallucinations. The discussion of psychopathological and clinical problems is followed by a demonstration of further phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches.

Delusions↗
PubMed1986

[Anxiety--historical and clinical aspects of the problem].

Working on the principle that anxiety is interpreted as a sorrowful and uncanny experience of being fundamentally imperiled, the clinical phenomena of anxiety are examined taking into account the historical aspects of the problem of anxiety. As a nosological term anxiety implies the establishment of anxiety diseases such as anxiety neuroses and the manifold phobiae. Anxiety can generally be understood as the dynamic basis of neurotic diseases. In the assessment of the range of this problem in a scientific way, the development of psychoanalytical theories plays an important role. There is also a level of symptomatology where the importance of anxiety in the pattern of symptoms belonging to various mental illnesses must be given consideration. This is where the phenomenon of anxiety as part of a psychosis becomes a crucial psychopathological problem which, in its complexity, is taken care of rather insufficiently in current psychiatric discussions. The possibilities offered by a phenomenological and hermeneutic approach are pointed out, leading to the fundamental importance of anxiety that structures human experience in psychosis. The clinical empiricism of the phenomena of anxiety gives rise to first attempts to formulate a theory and a concept of anxiety: Side by side with the somatological constructions and psychoanalytical theorems, there is the approach of a psychiatry drawing from the fields of philosophical anthropology aiming at understanding. The attention paid to anxiety by psychiatry during the Romantic era before Griesinger, as well as the reasons for the differentiation between anxiety and fear, owing to the history of thought and concept, are dealt with separately. Looking at the history of the problem of anxiety, where psychiatric science always maintains its links with prevalent concepts of its era, we can recognize the continuity of the ever identical transhistorical problem structures of anxiety in their relevance for the questions formulated by today's psychiatry. Since it enables us to differentiate between what can be scientifically elucidated and what evades the grasp of science, it is quite evident that psychiatric thinking guided by philosophic interpretation remains a necessity even today--not least with regard to the attitude towards the patient suffering from anxiety.

Anxiety Disorders↗