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)
Pienkos, E. (2022). Remembering Ellen West: What a tragic case reveals about contemporary phenomenological psychopathology. Philosophical Psychology. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2022.2126304
Ciaunica, A., Pienkos, E., Nakul, E., Madeira, L., & Farmer, H. (2022). Exploration of self- and world-experiences in depersonalization traits. Philosophical Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2022.2056009
Pienkos, E. & Sass, L. (2022). “Robbed of my life”: Depersonalization/derealization disorder as disturbance of immediate, familiar, and engaged presence. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 53, 51-81.
Pienkos, E., Skodlar, B., & Sass, L. (2022). Expressing experience: The promise and perils of the phenomenological interview. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 21, 53-71.
Pienkos, E., & Bush, T. (2021). Pathways to crisis and wellness: Experiences of mental health in northern New York. Journal of Rural Mental Health, 46, 117-127.
Pienkos, E. (2020). Schizophrenia in the world: Arguments for a contextual phenomenology of schizophrenia. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 51, 184-206.
Pienkos, E., Giersch, A., Hansen, M., Humpston, C., McCarthy-Jones, S., Mishara, A., Nelson, B., Park, S. Sharma, R., Thomas, N. & Rosen, C. (2019). Hallucinations beyond voices: A conceptual review of the phenomenology of altered perception in psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 45, S67-S77.
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. (2019). From computation to the first-person: The relationships between auditory-verbal hallucinations and delusions of thought interference in psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 45, S56-S66.
Madeira, L., Pienkos, E., Filipe, T., Melo, M., Queiroz, G., Eiro, J., Costa, C., Figueira, M.L., Sass, L. (2019). Self and world experiences in nonaffective first episode of psychosis. Schizophrenia Research, 211, 69-78.
Messas, G., Fukuda, L. & Pienkos, E. (2019). A phenomenological contribution to substance misuse treatment: Principles for comprehensive care. Psychopathology, 52, 85-93.
Englebert, J., Monville, F., Valentiny, C., Mossay, F., Pienkos, E., & Sass, L. (2019). Anomalous experience of self and world: Administration of EASE and EAWE scales to four subjects with schizophrenia. Psychopathology, 52, 294-303.
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., & Messas, G. (2018). Preface to the EAWE Portuguese version: A case for a new era of phenomenological psychopathology in psychiatry and clinical psychology. Psicopatologia Fenomenológica Contemporânea, 7, 1-9.
Pienkos, E. & Sass, L. (2018). Schizophrenia, language, and the phenomenological interview. Psicopatologia Fenomenológica Contemporânea, 7, 10-28.
Madeira, L., Filipe, T., Cavaco, T., Pienkos, E., & Figueira, M.L. (2018). The loss of nosological validity: Why and how should we consider disturbances of subjective world experience? Psicopatologia Fenomenológica Contemporânea, 7, 29-46.
Madeira, L., Spremberg, A., Queiroz, G., Eira, J., Filipe, T., Melo, M., Messas, G., Figueira, M.L., Pienkos, E., & Sass, L. (2018). Cross-cultural adaptation of the Examination of Anomalous World Experiences into Portuguese. Psicopatologia Fenomenológica Contemporânea, 7, 47-147.
Pienkos, E. (2019). Phenomenology, schizophrenia, and the city. In W. Kusters, E. Pienkos, R. Sips, & J. Feyaerts (eds.), Beyond adaptation, beyond the negative: Phenomenological reflections on schizophrenic existence, pp. 9-22. Stichting Psychiatrie en Filosofie.
Pienkos, E. (2020). Review of the book Rethinking feminist phenomenology: Theoretical and applied perspectives by S. C. Shabot & C. Landry. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 51, 241-243.
Kusters, W., Pienkos, E., Sips, R., & Feyaerts, J. (Eds.). (2019). Beyond adaptation, beyond the negative: Phenomenological reflections on schizophrenic existence. Stichting Psychiatrie en Filosofie.
Conference Presentations
(last 5 years; students in boldface)
Pienkos, E. (2022, June). Situating phenomenological psychopathology: Lessons from Binswanger’s The Case of Ellen West. Interdisciplinary Coalition of North American Phenomenologists Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, PA (and online).
Pienkos, E. (2022, April). Schizophrenia in the world: Contextual phenomenology in qualitative research. Schizophrenia International Research Society 2022 Congress, Florence, Italy (presented online).
Pienkos, E. (2022, April). Embodying motherhood in a dangerous world. Teaching Effectiveness and Gender, Sex, and Sexuality Conference, Potsdam, NY.
Breedy, J., Kelly, E., Mallery-Winegard, C., & Pienkos, E. (2022, April). Experiences of community during a pandemic. Oral paper presented at Clarkson University Research and Project Showcase (RAPS), Potsdam, NY.
Pienkos, E. (2022, December). Beyond accommodations: Belonging and mental health in the university. Clarkson Walsh Arts and Sciences Seminar Series.
Pienkos, E. (2022, June). Disturbances of presence: Phenomenological research on schizophrenia and depersonalization/derealization disorder. Psicopatología de la Psicosis Advanced Training, Hospital Clinico Universidad de Chile (online).
Pienkos, E. (2022, February). Understanding and assessing hallucinations: A phenomenological approach. Westchester Medical Center Grand Rounds (online).
Pienkos, E. (2021, November). Psychotherapy and phenomenology: Mutual enlightenments. Portuguese National Conference of Psychiatry (online).
Pienkos, E. (2021, October). Mother time: Movement and stillness in a crisis. Impossible Projects Symposium (online).
Peets, C. & Pienkos, E. (2021, October). Finding a way: A phenomenological analysis of social connectedness during COVID-19. Poster presented at New York State Psychological Association Annual Convention, online.
Hutchful, N. E. & Pienkos, E. (2021, July). Exploring the subjective impact of stigma on mental illness. Poster presented at Clarkson University Research and Project Showcase (RAPS), Potsdam, NY.
Crusan, G. & Pienkos, E. (2021, April). Moving through anxiety to wellbeing during the pandemic. Poster presented at Clarkson University Research and Project Showcase (RAPS), Potsdam, NY.
Kraeger, G. & Pienkos, E. (2021, April). The journey to adapt: A phenomenological study on the sense of community during COVID-19. Poster presented at Clarkson University Research and Project Showcase (RAPS), Potsdam, NY.
Peets, C. & Pienkos, E. (2021, April). Finding a way: A phenomenological analysis of social connectedness during COVID-19. Poster presented at Clarkson University Research and Project Showcase (RAPS), Potsdam, NY.
Pienkos, E. & Bush, T. (2020, September). Perceptions of mental health care and service needs in northern New York. St. Lawrence County Mental Health Subcommittee (Community Services Board; online).
Pienkos, E. & Bush, T. (2020, September). Perceptions of mental health care and service needs in northern New York. St. Lawrence County Community Services Board (online).
Pienkos, E. (2019, December). Other worlds: A comparative phenomenology of schizophrenia, mood disorders, and depersonalization disorder. Duquesne University Phenomenology of Psychosis Lecture Series, Pittsburgh, PA.
Pienkos, E. (2019, October). The world of schizophrenia. Science Café, Canton, NY and Potsdam, NY.
Pienkos, E. (2018, December). Existential orientations in schizophrenia: Personhood, pathology, and culture. Culture, Mind, and Brain Seminar Series, Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Pienkos, E. (2018, November). The phenomenology of values in schizophrenia: Personhood, pathology, and psychotherapy. Advanced Seminar of the Co-Production Addiction Behaviour Research Network and the Values-Based Practice Theory Network, Oxford University, Oxford, UK.
Pienkos, E. (2018, October). Anomalous world experience: Reflections on methods of data collection and analysis. Ramapo Phenomenology Workshop, Mahwah, NJ.
Pienkos, E., Antonio, A., & Sass, L. EAWE: Examination of Anomalous World Experience, a brief introduction. (2018, September). Department of Psychiatry, Hospital Psiquiátrico Fray Bernardino Álvarez (associated with U.N.A.M. Mexico City), Mexico City, Mexico.
Pienkos, E. & Sass, L. (2018, September). Lived world in schizophrenia and depersonalization disorder: A qualitative phenomenological study. World Congress of Psychiatry, Mexico City, Mexico.
Pienkos, E. & Sass, L. (2018, September). A brief introduction to the EAWE: Examination of Anomalous World Experience. World Congress of Psychiatry, Mexico City, Mexico.
Pienkos, E. (2018, April). Reconstructing the world: Varieties of hallucinatory experience in schizophrenia. 4E Cognition and the Landscapes of Mental Disorder conference, Exeter, UK.