Jérôme Englebert

Description of award-winning research

My work, which was awarded the Prix des Amis de l'Université de Liège, focuses on the study of the lived experience and adaptive dimensions of psychopathologies, particularly schizophrenia. Using a qualitative method inspired by clinical phenomenology, the aim is to encounter the first-person experience of the schizophrenic individual and identify the anomalies of experience expressed by these patients. These are manifested, in particular, through a loss of natural evidence, a disturbance of common sense, a hyper-reflexive experience, a spatialization of experience, a reorganization of existence or a disturbance of bodily experience. The qualitative approach, paradoxically much less common in psychology than quantitative research, is based on an inductive logic. In other words, such an approach is less concerned with testing hypotheses than with encountering complex psychological phenomena in their singularity. This work has been published in various scientific articles and in a book (co-authored with Caroline Valentiny) entitled Schizophrenia, self-consciousness, intersubjectivity: Essai de psychopathologie phénoménologique en première personne (De Boeck, 2017).

How did the University of Liège help me with this research?

I've been working at the University for several years (as well as in a psychiatric institution), and I realize how fortunate I am to be able to devote part of my professional time to the practice of clinical psychology research. In addition, the opportunity to teach and organize various scientific events also contributes to the development of my work. Last but not least, I would like to underline the indispensable collaborations with other faculties and universities (philosophy, anthropology, criminology, psychiatry) which nourish my practice.

My plans for the future

My current and future work includes, in addition to continuing phenomenological studies of the schizophrenic experience, a study of the borderline personality (from a qualitative/phenomenological perspective) and its links with contemporary society, as well as a qualitative study of psychotherapeutic processes and care systems.

Advice for future doctoral students/graduates

I hope that tomorrow's university will continue to be pluralist and based on heterogeneous knowledge. I think this is everyone's responsibility, especially young researchers and PhD students (but also young graduates).