Place: Psychiatric Clinic, University of Heidelberg, in-person and virtual (hybrid)
Date: 4-5th July 2024
Organizers: Marcin Moskalewicz, Anastazja Szuła, and Thomas Fuchs
CFP deadline: 15th April 2024
Keynote speakers:
Alexander Kranjec (Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA)
Giovanni Stanghellini (University of Florence, Italy) – online
Marc Wittmann (Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, Freiburg, Germany)

Disorders of temporal experience feature prominently in classical phenomenological psychopathology, regarding mostly disorders of moods and affects, but also substance use, compulsions, and schizophrenia. More recent advances in qualitative phenomenology have expanded the array of atypical experiences of interest (e.g., toward personality disorders and autism) and strengthened empirical methodologies employed to explore them (together with the proliferation of philosophical discussions on the boundaries and thresholds of the “phenomenologicality” of these advances). However, two key related issues remain. The first is the discrepancy between phenomenological insights into the alleged eidetic backbone of disordered temporalities and what we know about their actual incidence and severity. The second is the gap between phenomenological (including qualitative) and other methodologies. While the phenomenological approach to empirical data avoids some pitfalls of the psychophysical and psychological measurements, it suffers from an intrinsic deficiency concerning reliability – the evidence is frequently speculative, anecdotal, and based on small samples. On the other hand, established and validated psychological research tools for objectifying temporal experience are not considered phenomenological enough to satisfy the more philosophically minded parties.
The workshop aims to present and discuss the possibilities of overcoming these two issues by taking quantitative empirical evidence seriously for phenomenological analysis and, second, offering hybrid solutions that both employ the theoretical arsenal of phenomenological concepts of temporality and embark on a larger-scale empirical data-gathering. The aim is to explore possibilities to improve the ‘economics’ of the phenomenological discourse on atypical lived time experience in terms of validity and reliability of evidence, hypothesis testing, transparency, and communicability beyond the distinct Denkkollektiv, and thus to advance present-day phenomenological psychopathology (beyond the largely inconclusive discussions of what constitutes a genuine phenomenological method).

Topics:
We welcome talks by both PhD students and early and more experienced researchers from multiple disciplinary perspectives, given that they primarily deal with the phenomena of a/typical temporal experience and employ/discuss “phenomenological” methods in more quantitative terms. Topics that might be considered include:
- integration of scientific validity and reliability measures into phenomenology, including methods for sampling, structuring data-gathering, improving replicability and robustness of findings
- approaches to scientific evidence supporting phenomenological claims on disordered temporality/atypical temporal experience, conceptual bridges between lived experience and objectified data
- novel paradigms for measuring lived time beyond the clock
- evidence-based neurodiversity approaches on the boundary between typical and atypical temporal experience

Submitting Abstract:
To participate with a talk, please send 300-500 words abstract to: phenomenologymentalhealth@gmail.com by the 15th of April 2024.
Accepted participants will be notified by the end of April.
Accommodation and meals during the workshop will be covered (for the speakers). If you also would like to have your travel expenses covered, please indicate this in your submission, specifying the requested amount.

Institutional organizers:
Phenomenological Psychopathology section at Heidelberg Psychiatric Clinic (Germany); Philosophy of Mental Health Unit at the Department of Social Sciences and the Humanities, Poznan University of Medical Sciences (Poland); Phenomenology and Mental Health Network, The Collaborating Centre for Values-based Practice in Health and Social Care, St. Catherine's College, Oxford (UK)

Contact: phenomenologymentalhealth@gmail.com

Sponsored by: Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and Polish National Science Center