Epigrammatic notes on a phobic-digressive existence

a case report

Abstract

This study seeks to analyze, from the perspective of structural phenomenological psychopathology, the clinical case of a patient whose existence we propose to call phobic-digressive. The phobic lived experience, associated with the use of digressions, makes it difficult to explore his internal world, leaving us with the impressions arising from the clinical relationship. Therefore, the epigrammatic form, atmospheric in its essence, comes to be an appropriate epistemic method for the structural analysis of the case, even though it presents hermeneutical inaccuracies in relation to the conventional psychopathological method. Thus, we structured our analysis according to the conditions of possibility of the lived experience postulated by the tradition of the phenomenological method, namely, temporality, spatiality, corporeality, and intersubjectivity, seeking to understand how they are experienced by the patient. In particular, we also seek to comprehend structurally and existentially his digressions, as well as his helplessness and existential halt. Finally, we discuss peculiarities that have been found in the clinical management of the case, focusing on the therapeutic possibilities and the difficulties that arise.