Rutgers University
My research focuses on the phenomenology of schizophrenia. I am concerned with developing a rich understanding of what it is like to experience schizophrenia and similar psychiatric conditions. This form of phenomenological psychopathology, which arises from the philosophical work of Edmund Husserl, involves bracketing, or setting aside, what we typically accept to be true about the nature of reality or consciousness, instead focusing on how reality and consciousness appear to the person who experiences them.
To better catalogue and research a number of often-overlooked forms of experience in schizophrenia, I helped develop a semi-structured phenomenological interview, the Examination of Anomalous World Experience (EAWE). This interview is designed to elicit descriptions of subtle changes in various domains of world-experience that are more frequently found in schizophrenia, such as disturbances in perceptual salience and organization, unusual feelings of familiarity, and experiences of solipsistic centrality (feeling like the creator or origin of the world).
To date, my empirical research has primarily been qualitative, as qualitative methodologies are ideally suited to gather detailed information about the forms of subjective experience. These projects include an investigation of world experience in chronic schizophrenia, explorations of the nature of self and world experience in schizophrenia and depersonalization disorder, and consideration of changes in the lived world that are associated with hallucinatory experiences. Such work may broaden our understanding of schizophrenia and associated symptoms like hallucinations, providing insight into factors related to etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of this and other psychiatric disorders.
(last 5 years; students in boldface)
Pienkos, E., Giersch, A., Hansen, M., Humpston, C., McCarthy-Jones, S., Mishara, A., Nelson, B., Park, S. Sharma, R., Thomas, N., & Rosen, C. (in press). Hallucinations beyond voices: A conceptual review of the phenomenology of altered perception in psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin.
Humpston, C. S., Adams, R. A., Benrimoh, D., Broome, M. R., Corlett, P. R., Gerrans, P., Horga, G., Parr, T., Pienkos, E., Powers, A. R., Raballo, A., Rosen, C., & Linden, D. E. J. (in press). From computation to the first-person: The relationships between auditory-verbal hallucinations and delusions of thought interference in psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin.
Sass, L., Borda, J., Madeira, L., Pienkos, E., & Nelson, B. (2018).Varieties of self disorder: A bio-pheno-social model of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 44, 720-727.
Pienkos, E., Sass, L., & Silverstein, S. (2017). The phenomenology of anomalous world experience in schizophrenia: A qualitative study. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 47, 188-213.
Sass, L., Pienkos, E., Skodlar, B., Stanghellini, S., Fuchs, T., Parnas, J., & Jones, N. (2017). EAWE: Examination of Anomalous World Experience. Psychopathology, 50, 10-54.
Conerty, J., Skodlar, B., Pienkos, E., Zadravec, T., Byrom, G., & Sass, L. (2017). EAWE: Examination of Anomalous Experience: A report on reliability. Psychopathology, 50, 55-59.
Pienkos, E. & Sass, L. (2017). Language: On the phenomenology of linguistic experience in schizophrenia (Ancillary article to EAWE domain 4). Psychopathology, 50, 83-89.
Pienkos, E. & Sass, L. (2017). Existential orientation: On the phenomenology of values, attitudes, and worldviews in schizophrenia (Ancillary article to EAWE domain 6). Psychopathology, 50, 98-104.
Sass, L., Pienkos, E., & Fuchs, T. (2017). Other worlds: Introduction to special issue on the EAWE: Examination of Anomalous World Experience. Psychopathology, 50, 5-9.
Pienkos, E. & Sass, L. (2016). Expressions of alienation: Language and interpersonal experience in schizophrenia. Journal of Psychopathology, 22, 62-71.
Stanghellini, G., Pienkos, E., Castellini, G., & Sass, L. (2016). Doing things with words: Uses and misuses of language in psychopathology. Journal of Psychopathology, 22, 1-3.
Sass, L. & Pienkos, E. (2015). Beyond words: Linguistic experience in melancholia, mania, and schizophrenia. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 14, 475-495.
Sass, L. & Pienkos, E. (2015). Faces of intersubjectivity: Interpersonal experience in melancholia, mania, and schizophrenia. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 46, 1-32.
Pienkos, E. (2015). Intersubjectivity and its role in schizophrenic experience. Humanistic Psychologist, 43, 194-209.
Pienkos, E. (2014). Using phenomenology to understand hallucinatory experiences (commentary on Shapiro, Bussing & Nguyen, “Pseudohallucinations in an adolescent: Considerations for diagnosis and treatment in the case of ‘Kate’”). Pragmatic Case Studies in Psychotherapy, 10, 260-270.
Conference Presentations
(last 5 years; students in boldface)
Pienkos, E. & Sass, L. (September, 2018). Lived world in schizophrenia and depersonalization disorder: A qualitative phenomenological study. World Congress of Psychiatry, Mexico City, Mexico.
Pienkos, E., Giersch, A., Hansen, M., Humpston, C., Kamens, S., Jones, N., McCarthy-Jones, S., Mishara, A., Nelson, B., Park, S. Rosen, C., Sharma, R., & Thomas, N. (November 2017). Beyond voices: A conceptual review. International Consortium on Hallucination Research, Lille, France.
Humpston, C.S., Adams, R.A., Benrimoh, D., Broome, M.R., Corlett, P.R., Gerrans, P., Horga, G., Parr, T., Pienkos, E., Powers, A.R., Raballo, A., Rosen, C., & Linden, D.E.J. (November, 2017). From computation to the first-person: Auditory-verbal hallucinations and delusions of thought interference in psychosis. International Consortium on Hallucination Research, Lille, France.
Pienkos, E. (May, 2017). The phenomenology of anomalous world experience in schizophrenia: A qualitative study. Interdisciplinary Coalition of North American Phenomenologists Conference, Mahwah, NJ.
Pienkos, E. & Paranamana, N. (May, 2017). Finding one’s voices: A phenomenological analysis of hallucinatory experiences. Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology Annual Conference, New York, NY.
Pienkos, E. (October, 2017). Placing voices in the world: Introducing the Examination of Anomalous World Experience. International Consortium on Hallucination Research, North American Satellite Conference, Chicago, IL.
Pienkos, E. (March, 2015). All eyes on me: Subjective experiences of paranoia. International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis International Conference, New York, NY.
Pienkos, E. (August, 2014). The role of intersubjectivity in schizophrenic experience. International Human Sciences Research Conference, Antigonish, NS.
Pienkos, E. & Town, J. (April, 2014). Post-session change in Intensive Short-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Contribution of patient in-session motivation, insight, and affective arousal. Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration Annual Meeting, Montreal, QC.