Values and Values-based Practice in Psychopathology

This chapter explores through two case histories the potential contributions of phenomenology to values-based practice in the context of psychopathology. The first case history, ‘Simon’s story’ (about delusion), illustrates the importance of the ordinary language analytic philosophy that underpins current models of values-based practice, in diagnostic assessment. The second case history, ‘Anna’s story’ (about anorexia), shows how phenomenology adds to the essentially cognitive resources of analytic values-based practice a depth dimension of conative and affective understanding. This is important as Anna’s story illustrates the relevance of a phenomenologically enriched values-based practice especially for treatment. In particular, we focus on how phenomenology (namely the Sartrean phenomenology of the body) provides resources for understanding how Anna’s ‘anorexic’ values emerge from the psychopathological core of her lifeworld. This is where the issue of the gaze becomes relevant, as we analyze her lifeworld in terms of Sartre’s ‘body for others’, a concept based on the way a person feels in her body when she is looked at by another. Taken together, therefore, these two case histories point to the need in psychopathology for a combined analytic-plus-phenomenological model of values-based practice. The rich range of phenomenological sources available for further development of this combined model is indicated.