Remembering ‘Ellen West’
What a tragic case reveals about contemporary phenomenological psychopathology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21591956 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elizabeth Pienkos (0000-0001-8283-5121, Clarkson University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 1439-1457 |
| Publication date | 2023-11-17 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophical Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0951-5089 • E-ISSN: 1465-394X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09515089.2022.2126304 |
| OpenAlex | W4297093754 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 29 |
This paper returns to a seminal case in the historical of phenomenological psychopathology, Ludwig Binswanger’s discussion of “Ellen West A woman with a long history of melancholia and disordered eating, Ellen West was treated at Binswanger’s Bellevue sanatorium in 1921, a two-and-a-half month-long stay that resulted in a diagnosis of schizophrenia and Ellen West’s suicide. Binswanger relied on West’s personal writings and clinical history to develop and apply an original approach to case analysis, Daseinsanalyse or “existential analysis.” This paper takes up this case and Binswanger’s analysis to explore the origins of contemporary phenomenological psychopathology, the recent progress in this field, and areas for continued growth. The paper argues that new approaches to exploring the embedded or situated quality of psychopathology are needed for advancing clinical phenomenology, and that feminist and critical phenomenology are among the disciplines that can provide important methodological and theoretical foundations for this work. Without this, the field risks repeating Binswanger’s original mistakes and viewing psychiatric illness solely as the expression of a disturbed individual
Epistemology · Existentialism · Interpretative phenomenological analysis · Lived experience · Melancholia · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Psychopathology · Situated · Social science · Sociology · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology
Ease
Schizophrenia, Consciousness, and the Self
The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology
Schizophrenia in the World
Critical phenomenology and psychiatry
A values-based phenomenology for substance use disorder
Writing “The Case of Ellen West”
Unpacking ‘the City’
Throwing like a girl
Social Interaction Style in Autism
| Citations per year | 1.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |