The vast majority of mental health clinicians and researchers rely on diagnostic systems based on operational criteria. However, in their everyday practice, many clinicians also pay attention to their own feelings or intuitions about the patient. For an even greater number of clinicians, this process may occur inadvertently. Scholars from various fields are increasingly stressing the importance of complementing the emphasis on operational criteria with thoughtful attention to the subjective and intersubjective elements involved in a thorough psychopathological evaluation.

This book aims at capturing the essence, implications and full potential of the clinicians subjective experience in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. It gathers contributions from several different disciplines, such as phenomenology, neuroscience, the cognitive sciences, and psychoanalysis. It also presents the development, validation, and clinical application of a psychometric instrument thatreliably investigates the clinicians feelings, thoughts, and perceptions related to the clinical encounter.

Massimo Biondi is a full professor of psychiatry and head of the psychiatry residency program at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. He is the head of the Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health and of the acute psychiatric inpatient ward at the Policlinico Umberto I Hospital in Rome. He has authored 30 books and more than 450 scientific papers on topics ranging from psychopathology to stress and psychosomatic medicine. He serves as editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Rivista di Psichiatria, indexed in PubMed/Medline. He also serves on the editorial boards of the high-impact peer-reviewed journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics and several other peer-reviewed journals.

Angelo Picardi is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, currently working as a researcher at the Centre for Behavioural Sciences and Mental Health of the Italian National Institute of Health in Rome, Italy. His main research interests are in psychopathology, psychosomatic medicine, psychiatric epidemiology, and adult attachment. He has been Principal Investigator for several studies funded by the Italian Ministry of Health. He is co-editor of the book Dimensional Psychopathology (Springer, 2018) and the author of 211 papers published in international peer-reviewed journals, with a current H index of 42. He has chaired the G20 mental health side event held in Rome in 2021, and he serves on the editorial board of several peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Affective Disorders, Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health, Minerva Psychiatry, and Rivista di Psichiatria.

Mauro Pallagrosi is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, currently working as a consultant at the Community Service for Prevention and Early Intervention in Mental Health of the Rome 1 Local Health Unit, Italy. He has a PhD in clinical and experimental neuroscience and psychiatry, and has over twenty years of experience in adult mental health services, especiallywith acute and severe inpatients. He has been the clinical coordinator of the acute psychiatric inpatient ward at the Policlinico Umberto I Hospital in Rome, and adjunct professor of psychiatry at the School of Nursing of Sapienza University of Rome. His main research interests are in psychiatric diagnosis, phenomenological psychopathology, and the relationship between mental health, time, and music. He is a jazz musician, with several years of experience playing saxophone, and has participated in music rehabilitation programmes. He is the author of several book chapters and of 21 papers published in peer-reviewed international journals.    

Laura Fonzi is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, candidate member of the Training Institute of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society. She works in private practice, and is currently the medical director of the psychiatric residential treatment facility Reverie in Rome, Italy. She has over ten years of experience in residential programmes for severe psychiatric patients and in psychodynamic psychotherapy. Her main research interests are in the therapeutic relationship in psychiatric and psychotherapeutic settings, and in psychopathological investigation, from both phenomenological and psychoanalytic perspectives. She has authored several book chapters and 18 papers published in international peer-reviewed journals.