Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T05:02:20.058Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - Closing Up

The Phenomenology of Catatonia

from Part IV - Depression, Schizophrenia, and Dementia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2020

Christian Tewes
Affiliation:
Heidelberg University Hospital
Giovanni Stanghellini
Affiliation:
Chieti University
Get access

Summary

Catatonia is a severe psychiatric syndrome, characterized by specific motor abnormalities such as immobility, mutism, staring, rigidity, or psychomotor agitation. Until recently, it was often thought of as a subtype of schizophrenia. Today it is recognized to occur with different medical and psychiatric illnesses, and possibly independently thereof. Catatonia has a remarkable high incidence in the clinical setting, and its clinical presentation is often impressive and thought-provoking. Despite decades of scientific inquiry, catatonia remains poorly understood. Surprisingly, phenomenological psychopathology has only devoted little attention to the phenomenon. In order to increase our understanding of catatonia, this article investigates its phenomenology, i.e., its subjective and intersubjective presentation. We present a clinical vignette and clarify its phenomenology with emphasis on fear, embodiment, and temporality. Indirectly, this investigation will shed a different light on how trauma can affect subjectivity, in both its embodied and temporal dimension.

Type
Chapter
Information
Time and Body
Phenomenological and Psychopathological Approaches
, pp. 346 - 362
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Barrough, P. (1624). The method of physick; containing the causes, signs, and cures, of inward diseases in man's body, from the head to the foot: Whereunto is added the forme and rule of making remedies and medicines, which our physitions commonly use at this day, with the proportion, quantity, and names of each medicine. London, UK: Imprinted by Richard Field. (Original work published 1590)Google Scholar
Bergson, H. (1970). Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience [Essay on the immediate data of consciousness]. Paris, France: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Berrios, G. E. (1981). Stupor: A conceptual history. Psychological Medicine, 11(4), 677688. doi:10.1017/s0033291700041179CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Binswanger, L. (2012). Drei Formen missglückten Daseins: Verstiegenheit, Verschrobenheit, Manieriertheit [Three forms of failed existence: Extravagance, crankiness, mannerism]. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter. (Original work published 1956)Google Scholar
Bush, G., Fink, M., Petrides, G., Dowling, F., & Francis, A. (1996). Catatonia. I. Rating scale and standardized examination. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 93(2), 129136. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.1996.tb09814.xGoogle Scholar
Conrad, K. (1958). Die beginnende Schizophrenie. Versuch einer Gestaltanalyse des Wahns [The beginning schizophrenia. Attempt of a Gestalt analysis of the delusion]. Stuttgart, Germany: Thieme.Google Scholar
Fink, M., & Shorter, E. (2017). Does persisting fear sustain catatonia? Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 136(5), 441444. doi:10.1111/acps.12796Google Scholar
Fink, M., & Taylor, M. A. (2001). The many varieties of catatonia. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 251(Suppl. 1), 1813. doi:10.1007/PL00014200Google Scholar
Francis, A. (2006). Update on catatonia. Psychiatric Times, 23(9), 8586.Google Scholar
Francis, A. (2010). Catatonia: Diagnosis, classification, and treatment. Current Psychiatry Reports, 12(3), 180185. doi:10.1007/s11920-010-0113-yCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fuchs, T. (2006). Implicit and explicit temporality. Philosophy, Psychiatry & Psychology, 12(3), 195198. doi:10.1353/ppp.2006.0004Google Scholar
Fuchs, T. (2007). The temporal structure of intentionality and its disturbance in schizophrenia. Psychopathology, 40(4), 229235. doi:10.1159/000101365Google Scholar
Fuchs, T. (2010). Phenomenology and psychopathology. In Gallagher, S. & Schmicking, D. (Eds.), Handbook of phenomenology and the cognitive sciences (pp. 546573). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuchs, T. (2012). The phenomenology of body memory. In Koch, S. C., Fuchs, T., Summa, M., & Müller, C. (Eds.), Body memory, metaphor and movement (pp. 922). Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Fuchs, T. (2013a). The phenomenology of affectivity. In Fulford, B., Davies, M., Gipps, G. T., Graham, G., Sadler, J., Stanghellini, G., & Thornton, P. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of philosophy and psychiatry (pp. 612631). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199579563.013.0038Google Scholar
Fuchs, T. (2013b). Temporality and psychopathology. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 12(1), 75104. doi:10.1007/s11097-010-9189-4Google Scholar
Fuchs, T., & Schlimme, J. (2009). Embodiment and psychopathology: A phenomenological perspective. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 22, 570575. doi:10.1097/YCO.0b013e3283318e5cCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fuchs, T., & Van Duppen, Z. (2017). Time and events: On the phenomenology of temporal experience in schizophrenia (Ancillary article to EAWE Domain 2). Psychopathology, 50(1), 6874. doi:10.1159/000452768CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hirjak, D., Kubera, K. M., Wolf, R. C., & Northoff, G. (2019). Going back to Kahlbaum's psychomotor (and GABAergic) origins: Is catatonia more than just a motor and dopaminergic syndrome? Schizophrenia Bulletin. Advance online publication, 46(2), 272285. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbz074Google Scholar
Husserl, E. (1966). Zur Phänomenologie des inneren Zeitbewusstseins [On the phenomenology of inner time consciousness]. The Hague, Netherlands: Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Husserl, E. (2012). Cartesikanische Meditationen [Cartesian meditations]. Hamburg, Germany: Felix Meiner.Google Scholar
Jaspers, K. (1913). Allgemeine Psychopathologie [General psychopathology]. Berlin, Germany: Springer.Google Scholar
Kahlbaum, K. L. (1874). Klinische Abhandlungen über psychische Krankheiten: Eine klinische Form psychischer Krankheit. Die Katatonie oder das Spannungsirresein [Clinical treatise on mental diseases: A clinical form of mental illness. Catatonia or Spannungsirresein]. Berlin, Germany: Verlag von August Hirschwald.Google Scholar
Kay, S. R., Kanofsky, D., Lindemayer, J.-P., & Opler, L. A. (1987). The changing presentation of catatonia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144(6), 834835. doi:10.1176/ajp.144.6.aj1446834Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1904). Psychiatrie. Ein Lehrbuch für Studierende und Ärzte. 7., vielfach umgearbeitete Auflage. Band 2. [Psychiatry. A textbook for students and doctors. 7th often revised edition. Volume 2]. Leipzig, Germany: Verlag von Johan Ambrosius Barth.Google Scholar
Kupke, C. (2006). Lived time and to live time: A critical comment on a paper by Martin Wyllie. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 12(3), 199203. doi:10.1353/ppp.2006.0011CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linden, D. E. (2012). The challenges and promise of neuroimaging in psychiatry. Neuron, 73(1), 822. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2011.12.014Google Scholar
Marx, B. P., Forsyth, J. P., Gallup, G. G., Fusé, T., & Lexington, J. M. (2008). Tonic immobility as an evolved predator defense: Implications for sexual assault survivors. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 15(1), 7490. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2850.2008.00112.xGoogle Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1960). Signes [Signs]. Paris, France: Les Éditions Gallimard.Google Scholar
Minkowski, E. (1970). Lived time. Phenomenological and psychopathological studies (Metzel, N., Trans.). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Moskowitz, A. K. (2004). “Scared stiff”: Catatonia as an evolutionary-based fear response. Psychological Review, 111(4), 9841002. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.111.4.984CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Northoff, G., Krill, W., Wenke, J., Gille, B., Russ, M., Eckert, J., … Pflug, B. (1998). Major differences in subjective experience of akinetic states in catatonic and Parkinsonian patients. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 3(3), 161178. doi:10.1080/135468098396125CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Northoff, G., Krill, W., Wenke, J., Travers, H., & Pflug, B. (1996). The subjective experience in catatonia: Systematic study of 24 catatonic patients. Psychiatrische Praxis, 23(2), 6973.Google Scholar
Parnas, J. (2013). On psychosis: Karl Jaspers and beyond. In Stanghellini, G. & Fuchs, T. (Eds.), One century of Karl Jaspers’ general psychopathology (pp. 208228). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Parnas, J., Møller, P., Kircher, T., Thalbitzer, J., Jansson, L., Handest, P., & Zahavi, D. (2005). EASE-scale: Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience. Psychopathology, 38(5), 236258. doi:10.1159/000088441CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parnas, J., Sass, L. A., & Zahavi, D. (2013). Rediscovering psychopathology: The epistemology and phenomenology of the psychiatric object. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 39(2), 270277. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbs153Google Scholar
Penland, H. R., Weder, N., & Tampi, R. R. (2006). The catatonic dilemma expanded. Annals of General Psychiatry, 5, 14. doi:10.1186/1744-859X-5-14Google Scholar
Perkins, R. J. (1982). Catatonia: The ultimate response to fear? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 16(4), 282287. doi:10.3109/00048678209161268Google Scholar
Pfuhlmann, B., & Stöber, G. (2001). The different conceptions of catatonia: Historical overview and critical discussion. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 251(Suppl. 1), 1417. doi:10.1007/PL00014199Google Scholar
Plessner, H. (1970). Laughing and crying: A study of the limits of human behavior (Churchill, J. S. & Grene, M., Trans.). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, M. (2017). Real hallucinations: Psychiatric illness, intentionality, and the interpersonal world. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.Google Scholar
Rodemeyer, L. (2006). Intersubjective temporality: It's about time. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. doi:10.1007/1-4020-4214-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sass, L., Pienkos, E., Škodlar, B., Stanghellini, G., Fuchs, T., Parnas, J., & Jones, N. (2017). EAWE: Examination of Anomalous World Experience. Psychopathology, 50(1), 1054. doi:10.1159/000454928Google Scholar
Shorter, E., & Fink, M. (2018). The madness of fear: A history of catatonia. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sienaert, P., Dhossche, D. M., Vancampfort, D., de Hert, M., & Gazdag, G. (2014). A clinical review of the treatment of catatonia. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 5, 19. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00181Google Scholar
Sienaert, P., Rooseleer, J., & de Fruyt, J. (2011). Measuring catatonia: A systematic review of rating scales. Journal of Affective Disorders, 135(1–3), 19. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2011.02.012Google Scholar
Taylor, M. A., & Fink, M. (2003). Catatonia in psychiatric classification: A home of its own. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160(7), 12331241. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.160.7.1233Google Scholar
Trevarthen, C. (1998). The concept and foundations of infant intersubjectivity. In Braten, S. (Ed.), Intersubjective communication and emotion in early ontogeny (pp. 1546). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Van der Kolk, B. A. (1994). The body keeps the score: Memory and the evolving psychobiology of posttraumatic stress. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 1(5), 1253265. doi:10.3109/10673229409017088Google Scholar
Van Duppen, Z. (2016). The phenomenology of hypo- and hyperreality in psychopathology. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 15(3), 423441. doi:10.1007/s11097-015-9429-8Google Scholar
Van Duppen, Z. (2017). The intersubjective dimension of schizophrenia. Philosophy, Psychiatry & Psychology, 4(24), 399418. doi:10.1353/ppp.2017.0058Google Scholar
Van Duppen, Z., & Sips, R. (2018). Understanding the blind spots of psychosis: A Wittgensteinian and first-person approach. Psychopathology, 51(4), 276284. doi:10.1159/000490257CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Praag, H. M. (2000). Nosologomania: A disorder of psychiatry. The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 1(3), 151158. doi:10.3109/15622970009150584Google Scholar
Wehrle, M. (2019). Being a body and having a body. The twofold temporality of embodied intentionality. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. Advance online publication. doi:10.1007/s11097-019-09610-zCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wulff, E. (1995). Wahnsinnslogik. Von der Verstehbarkeit schizophrener Erfahrung [Insane logic. The understandability of schizophrenic experience]. Bonn, Germany: Psychiatrie-Verlag.Google Scholar
Wyllie, M. (2006). Lived time and psychopathology. Philosophy, Psychiatry & Psychology, 12(3), 173185. doi:10.1353/ppp.2006.0017Google Scholar
Young, L. (1992). Sexual abuse and the problem of embodiment. Child Abuse & Neglect, 16(1), 89100. doi:10.1016/0145-2134(92)90010-OCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×