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The Renewing Phenomenological Psychopathology Project was an International Exchange Award funded by the Wellcome Trust from April 2022 to October 2024, during which time project members established an international network, funded and organised events around the theme of phenomenological psychopathology, and produced a number of research outputs in the field.

This blog is a means of recording and archiving the activities of the project which we hope that other researchers might find valuable despite the funding period having now ended.


Phenomenological psychopathology is a method of studying and understanding experiences of mental ill health that centres the lived experience of patients and service users. It's origin is commonly associated with psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883-1969), but it developed into it's more recognisable form through Jaspers' successors, Minkowski and Binswanger, as a way of trying to describe the structures of mental disorder experience. Eventually, however, the movement fell into obscurity and thus the goal of this project was to 'renew' phenomenological approaches to mental disorder and adapt its principals to fit contemporary research in psychopathology.

The project aimed to rejuvenate the field of phenomenological psychopathology in two key ways:

  1. Infuse phenomenological psychopathology with the recent contributions of analytic philosophy of mind, hermeneutics, structuralist/post-structuralist philosophy, history, literature, values-based practice, developmental psychology and service user research.
  2. Develop diverse international scholars from across disciplines and career stages to develop their research leadership and management activities.

The project team consisted of:

Project Lead: Professor Matthew Broome

He is an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist in Birmingham and an academic psychiatrist and Director of the Institute for Mental Health at the University of Birmingham. He has PhDs in both Psychiatry and Philosophy and is a leader in the field of early psychosis and in the philosophy and ethics of mental health.

Project Lead: Professor Giovanni Stanghellini

He is a Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist, Professor of Dynamic Psychology and Psychopathology at University of Florence (Italy), Dr. Phil. honoris causa, and profesor adjuncto at ‘D. Portales’ University in Santiago (Chile). He chairs the Scuola di Psicoterapia Fenomenologico-Dinamica in Florence (Italy), a four-year training programme for post-graduate medical doctors and psychologists who want to specialise in phenomenological-dynamic psychotherapy. 

Project Researchers: Dr Eleanor Byrne , Andrew Maile , Dr Lucienne Spencer and Dr Roxana Baiasu


From L to R: Andrew Maile, Anthony Fernandez, Rosa Ritunnano, Lucienne Spencer, Matthew Broome, Giovanni Stanghellini, Cecilia Esposito, Guilherme Messas, and Jasper Feyaerts at the Renewing Phenomenological Psychopathology Closing Event, 1st March 2024.





THIS PROJECT WAS GENEROUSLY FUNDED BY WELLCOME.  GRANT: [223452/Z/21/Z], INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE AWARD ‘RENEWING PHENOMENOLOGICAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY’


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