*2.2.9 The clinical neurophenomenological method: revisiting psychiatry*

Taking in account Sections 2.2.1 to 2.2.8, in other work [46], we have proposed the technical steps to follow in the applying of the termed "clinical neurophenomenological method". It consists in:

	- a.to adopt a system of temporal and space anthropological attributes;
	- b.to adopt a system of brain's associative neural networks;
	- c.to adopt a correlation's matrix between anthropological attributes and neural networks.
	- a.to determine the concrete temporal attributes of the matrix in that patient;
	- b.to determine the concrete special attributes of the matrix in that patient.
	- a.focalizing the symptom in zero-person;
	- b.reducing the symptom to lived experience by adopting in second-person perspective of the patient;
	- c.placing the lived experience in the correspondent cell at the personal matrix.
	- a.to active, by means of introspection, the correspondent cell in the phenomenologist's personal field;
	- b.to empathically understand the lived experience in first-person;
	- c. contrasting with the patient the sense of the lived experience;
	- d.replacing in the matrix the lived experience, if necessary, attending to the new information after contrasting the information with the patient.

**55**

*Neuroscience-Based Anthropological Psychiatry (NBAP): Ten Introductory Concepts*

c.detecting secondary psychopathological organizers, which patients construct to stabilize his or her psychopathological system;

d.to postulate the neural network which is implied in the positive and negative signs and, if the case, the subjacent brain connectivity pathology.

a.facilitating the mental sign's symbolization by means of a psychothera-

b.supporting the patient in the adaptative modulation of his or her psycho-

c.to propose new organizers in the personal field, which were based in the

If mental signs are understandable, the task of psychotherapy is to cover these "alien to the self" experiences by a narrative which could be shared, at least, by two people: the patient and the psychotherapist. By the fact of being shared, the patho-

Note that, then, the psychiatrist's task is double and bidirectional, as already pointed Jaspers with his methodological pluralism [5]. He or she must, as a physician, attend to the biologically explainable, but do not understandable, of the mental experience. Also, they, as a psychotherapist, must help in covering the experience of the patient with a unitary and shared sense. With this anthropological perspective, Giovanni Stanghellini [17] has developed a rigorous psychotherapeutic method we based in: the phenomenological hermeneutic dialectic (PHD) method,

In view of the above, we can define in easy terms neuroscience-based anthropo-

Psychiatry is a medical-psychotherapeutic speciality. In this chapter, it has been proposed that the psychotherapeutic dialog is the technique we can use to progressively cover with successive layers of common sense the alien mental signs that presents in the lived experience of the patient. This technique is complementary to the medical intervention of diagnose and pharmacological and physical treatment of the body diseases which affects the normal brain functioning. To the study of brain functioning, in addition to laboratory, neuroimage, and neurophysiological technics, the clinical neurophenomenologist uses the specific method of exploring the enactive functioning of the patient's brain. In this task, to achieve a shared

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89573*

a.detecting positive mental signs;

b.detecting negative mental signs;

5.Psychopathological analyses:

6.Therapeutic dialog:

peutic dialog;

common sense.

to which the reader is referred.

**3. Conclusions**

pathological organizers;

*2.2.10 Therapeutic dialog: back to the common sense*

logical experience begins to be covered by a "semantic covering."

logical psychiatry (NBAP) as a medical-psychotherapeutic specialty.

semantics in the patient-physician anthropological encounter is necessary.

*Neuroscience-Based Anthropological Psychiatry (NBAP): Ten Introductory Concepts DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89573*

5.Psychopathological analyses:

*Psychopathology - An International and Interdisciplinary Perspective*

mental sign as "xenopatic," namely "an alien" in the common sense.

*2.2.9 The clinical neurophenomenological method: revisiting psychiatry*

disease is present.

enological method". It consists in:

neural networks.

patient;

2.To define the personal field's matrix:

3.To reduce the symptom to a lived experience:

perspective of the patient;

a.focalizing the symptom in zero-person;

4.Understanding analyses of the lived experience:

nomenologist's personal field;

1.To adopt a phenomenological matrix model:

that a psychiatric disease is present. When the psychiatrist, or the clinical psychologist, judges that the biological mechanism of the brain is normally functioning, even though the patient is out of the common sense, a psychiatric disorder without

The concept of mental sign is necessary if we accept that psychiatry is medicine. Clerambault's mental automatism is a classic example of that perspective. So, the main diagnostic task of the clinical psychiatrist is to detect the presence, or not, of several mental signs that lead to a diagnosis. In terms of Jaspers, the mental signs can be explained but cannot be understood. Therefore, we can characterize any

Taking in account Sections 2.2.1 to 2.2.8, in other work [46], we have proposed the technical steps to follow in the applying of the termed "clinical neurophenom-

a.to adopt a system of temporal and space anthropological attributes;

c.to adopt a correlation's matrix between anthropological attributes and

a.to determine the concrete temporal attributes of the matrix in that

b.to determine the concrete special attributes of the matrix in that patient.

b.reducing the symptom to lived experience by adopting in second-person

c.placing the lived experience in the correspondent cell at the personal matrix.

a.to active, by means of introspection, the correspondent cell in the phe-

d.replacing in the matrix the lived experience, if necessary, attending to the new information after contrasting the information with the patient.

b.to empathically understand the lived experience in first-person;

c. contrasting with the patient the sense of the lived experience;

b.to adopt a system of brain's associative neural networks;

**54**

	- a.facilitating the mental sign's symbolization by means of a psychotherapeutic dialog;
	- b.supporting the patient in the adaptative modulation of his or her psychopathological organizers;
	- c.to propose new organizers in the personal field, which were based in the common sense.

#### *2.2.10 Therapeutic dialog: back to the common sense*

If mental signs are understandable, the task of psychotherapy is to cover these "alien to the self" experiences by a narrative which could be shared, at least, by two people: the patient and the psychotherapist. By the fact of being shared, the pathological experience begins to be covered by a "semantic covering."

Note that, then, the psychiatrist's task is double and bidirectional, as already pointed Jaspers with his methodological pluralism [5]. He or she must, as a physician, attend to the biologically explainable, but do not understandable, of the mental experience. Also, they, as a psychotherapist, must help in covering the experience of the patient with a unitary and shared sense. With this anthropological perspective, Giovanni Stanghellini [17] has developed a rigorous psychotherapeutic method we based in: the phenomenological hermeneutic dialectic (PHD) method, to which the reader is referred.

In view of the above, we can define in easy terms neuroscience-based anthropological psychiatry (NBAP) as a medical-psychotherapeutic specialty.

#### **3. Conclusions**

Psychiatry is a medical-psychotherapeutic speciality. In this chapter, it has been proposed that the psychotherapeutic dialog is the technique we can use to progressively cover with successive layers of common sense the alien mental signs that presents in the lived experience of the patient. This technique is complementary to the medical intervention of diagnose and pharmacological and physical treatment of the body diseases which affects the normal brain functioning. To the study of brain functioning, in addition to laboratory, neuroimage, and neurophysiological technics, the clinical neurophenomenologist uses the specific method of exploring the enactive functioning of the patient's brain. In this task, to achieve a shared semantics in the patient-physician anthropological encounter is necessary.

Medicine is a complex art. It needs the collaboration of the biological and social sciences. But a rigorous philosophical foundation is also necessary for psychiatry.
