1: Introduction

This introductory chapter outlines the urgency of developing new frameworks to understand severe psychiatric conditions that impact both individual lives and broader relational contexts. While conventional clinical approaches—pharmacological and psychotherapeutic—remain central, they often fail to grasp the depth of subjective suffering. Recent scholarly attention points toward the value of exploring first-person experiences to enrich clinical understanding. Drawing on foundational work in psychopathology and interpretative traditions, this chapter emphasizes the importance of constructing a structured approach that privileges lived experience over diagnostic reductionism. The chapter identifies key limitations in current research, especially the lack of methodological clarity in studies attempting to apply interpretive methods. The proposed study aims to fill this gap by developing a hermeneutically informed methodology that focuses on emotional, relational, cognitive, and identity-related dimensions of subjective experience. Ultimately, this approach seeks to humanize care and challenge prevalent stigmas by offering mental health professional’s tools for deeper, more empathetic engagement with patient narratives.