Psychopathology and Atmospheres

Book excerpt: Feeling sad during a funeral and being relaxed while having dinner with friends are atmospheric feelings. However, the notion of “atmosphere”, meaning not only a subjective mood, but a sensorial and affective quality that is widespread in space and determines the way one experiences it, has intensified only recently in scientific debate. The discussion today covers a wide range of theoretical and applied issues, involving all disciplines, paying attention more to qualitative aspects of reality than to objective ones. These disciplines include the psy- approaches, whose focus on an affective experience that is emerging neither inside nor outside the person can contribute to the development of a new paradigm in psychopathology and in clinical work: a field-based clinical practice. This collection of essays is the first book specifically addressing the link between atmospheres and psychopathology. It challenges a reductionist and largely unsatisfactory approach based on a technical, pharmaceutical, symptomatic, individualistic perspective, and thus promotes the exchange of ideas between psy- disciplines, humanistic approaches and new trends in sciences.