Into and out of exile: an integrative phenomenological understanding of Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome

Bojun Hu and Frederick J. Wertz

Psychosis, 2020, vol. 12, issue 2, 162-171

Abstract: Understanding the experience of Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome (APS), apart from its risk for developing into psychosis, is important to evaluating and improving professional care for this population. Ten female participants who met the diagnostic criteria for APS were interviewed, and the interview descriptions were analyzed phenomenologically. Findings show that APS is experienced not as symptomatic parts, but as a constitutive whole, built on the foundation of distal childhood experiences and recent challenges in a person’s individuation process. APS experiences carry the meanings of loss of control, self-alienation, self-reflexive sense of defect, isolation from the social world, and the fearful anticipation of future demise. The meaning of APS is akin to that of being in exile. Four pathways were identified in which the person aims to restore a world in which she can regain control, reclaim a sense of goodness, reestablish social connections lost to isolation, and secure a more viable future. Clinical and policy implications of the findings are discussed.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1080/17522439.2019.1693613

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