Disturbances of interpersonality in depression, mania and schizophrenia

One of the central features of the group of diseases we call "endogenous" (schizophrenia, melancholic depression, mania) is the alteration of interpersonal relationships. This topic is here addressed from a phenomenological perspective. It is studied the way three fundamental elements of intersubjectivity, namely appresentation, temporality and intentionality, are altered in manic, depressive and schizophrenic psychoses, respectively. It is shown that in mania there is a failure of the shared appresentation of the role of persons, and that while failing in the constitution of the alter-Ego, the maniac patient also fails in the constitution of own Ego. In depression the interpersonal detachment is related to the serious alteration of the way the living time is experienced, with a self-confinement into the own body. Finally, in schizophrenia it is a weakening of intentionality that leads to a failure in the constitution of the other and of the common and shared world.