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The phenomenological experience of “I” is intimately bound by an implicit experience with “my body”. Experiences are presented to the mind through the tangible body (e.g. in feeling a table). The body has fields of sensation and can be spatially located in the perceptual field of the sense organs. Biological changes in the body are also experienced in specific and direct ways (e.g. adolescence, or menopause). As the mind operates within the body, it can be described as an “embodied mind”. The body is a "given" condition in our experience. We are bound to our body in specific ways.

 

從現象學角度，「我」的體驗永遠與「我的身體」相關。我們實實在在活在自己的身體中。對思想來說，經歷永遠是透過實質的身體呈現 (例如：感覺一張餐桌)。身體擁有不同的觀感場域，與不同的感覺器官連繫。我們可以直接感覺到身體的生理變化 (例如：青春期、更年期)。因為思想在身體中運作，思想也可以被稱為「具身化的思想」。身體是經歷的基礎，我們以某種形式受制於我們的身體。

In fostering an empathic ambience for the interview, it is important to consider the provision of the right amount of psychological space. During the clinical dialogue, psychological space is important, particularly when considering the amount of empathic feedback the clinician gives to the subject. On one hand, the interviewer may give very little feedback, thereby increasing the psychological distance. On the other hand, the interviewer can be offering too many feedback statements of empathy. This may result in intrusiveness and reduce the psychological space for patients. It is important to achieve the right balance between these positions. 

 

要創造面談的氛圍，發揮同理心，需要提供適合的心理空間。特別是臨床對話，心理空間的考慮非常重要；臨床工作者應給予個體多少同理反饋，須作出慎重思考。如訪談者給予個體太少反饋，往往會增加彼此的心理距離；另一方面，訪談者給予個體太多同理表述，卻會構成界線入侵，病人會感覺缺少心理空間。在上述兩種位置中，取得適當平衡很重要。

In the human mind, top-down information allows complex behavior to be adapted to and to be guided by previous experience. Failure to use context results in an over-relating to the immediate stimulus in constructing a behavioral response. This results in the “Environmental Dependency Syndrome”. Examples of the Environmental Dependency Syndrome are echo-phenomena and utilization behavior. In these conditions action is driven excessively by bottom-up information as a result of feeble top-down effects. In this situation, action can be initiated without a clear sense of agency (willed initiation).

 

人類大腦可以吸收從前的經歷，發放從上而下的資訊，從而指導行為作出複雜反應。如不懂得利用情景脈絡資訊，便會過分依賴環境即時刺激去引導行為反應，造成「環境依賴徵候群」。「環境依賴徵候群」的例子包括模仿別人、功利主義行為等。在上述情況，行動會過分依賴從下而上的資訊，無法發揮從上而下的功能。在這情況下，行動會被引發，但卻缺乏清晰的主體方向 (由意志驅動的行為)。

The intelligibility of another Person is bounded by our own experiential structure. Our capacity to empathize is ultimately limited by our own personal experiential and knowledge structures. Individual experiential structure may determine the extent to which people can optimally engage empathetically with one another. The clinician can enrich his experience of people through interaction with different people socially, patients, as well as through engagement in cultural and literary media.

 

對他人的理解往往受制於我們的經歷。我們的同理能力，也會受到個人經歷結構及知識結構所限制。個人的經歷結構，最終決定我們多大程度、能否與他人建立同理關係。臨床工作者可以透過與不同人士、病人的交往互動，豐富自己的經歷。參與文化、文學活動也有幫助。

The mind engages Others through empathic processes. Empathy encompasses a variety of processes including emotion, cognition as well as behavior. Empathy broadly refers to processes where information from the object’s (Others) mental state generate a mental state in the subject that is more applicable to the object’s mental state or situation than to the subjects own prior state or situation.

 

思想透過發揮「同理心」與他者建立關係。同理心包括情感、思想及行為。同理心是指來自客體(他者)思想狀態的資訊，為主體帶來了內心狀態的改變。主體不再停留在先前的狀態或處境，而是把客體的內心狀態或處境成為關注的焦點。

美感經歷對於人類在關係中建立身份很重要。能夠體驗美感是一種身份的肯定。能夠體會世界的美，會產生一種對生命的歸屬感；在這種體驗中，我們會容許超越平常的自我及週遭環境，與更高的領域產生共鳴，這種經歷超越了平凡的計算。這種啟發經歷能引領我們回歸生命，重新發現生命的終極意義。這些片刻讓我們更接近造物主。這種狀態提醒我們何謂良好的生存狀態。在這種充滿啟發經歷中，內心的緊張消失了，我們會把不同表徵轉移至一個更大、更超越的主要方向。這種同步讓我們超越日常生活中的混亂與失調，給我們希望。

Empathic statement is a verbal expression to the effect that the interviewer understands and appreciates what the patient has communicated. Empathic statements do not need to be made too often and should be made only after particularly significant sharing. An empathic statement could refer to factual content of what the patient had expressed, or it could reflect on the emotional implications of a communication. Usually, empathic statements are qualified with varying degrees of certainty with phrases such as, “it sounds like”, “it feels as if”, or “it must be”. It is important to recognise that for patient with psychotic symptoms, empathic statements could sometimes be interpreted as intrusive access to his mental state, and as such could be perceived as threatening and may reinforce psychotic experiences (such as mind reading). 

 

同理表述是一種言語表達，目的是讓病人知道，面談者明白和肯定病人傳達的內容。我們不用經常給予同理表述，只須在病人分享某些重要內容後，才給予適當反應。形式可以是引述病人表達的事實內容，也可以反映某段對話的情感意涵。同理表述通常會利用一些「肯定」的片語，例如「你的說話好像是……」「感覺好像是……」「那麼一定是」。但必須留意，對出現思覺失調病徵的病人來說，同理表述會被理解為對他們的內心狀態的入侵，會被視為一種威脅，會強化思覺失調的徵狀 (例如：讀心術)。

To understand the functions of the human brain from a biological perspective it is important to have some ideas about the environment in which the brain was supposed to have evolved. The human brain acquired different layers of functions from different evolutionary periods. These functions can be broadly grouped as basic survival (fight-fight response), technological (empirical mastery of environment), social (primate group), and representational (complex ideas and relationships). Modern human activities have produced accelerated changes to the environment. Brain functions are adapted to an earlier environment. Biological brain evolution may not catch up with the changes in the environment. Mis-match between the brain and the rapidly-changing environment maybe responsible for some mental distress and psychopathology. 

 

要明白人類生物大腦的功能，需要對大腦演化的環境有一定的認識。大腦跟據不同進化階段，發展出不同皮層的功能。這些功能大致分為：基本生存功能(戰或逃反應)、技術性功能(掌控實徵環境)、社會性功能(建立群組)、表徵功能(複雜意念與建立關係) 。在現代社會，人類的活動帶來了環境的急速轉變。但大腦的功能可能只切合人類早期的生存環境，追不上環境的急遽轉變。大腦與環境的不調和，可能是某些精神困擾或精神病出現的原因。

Exploratory activity involves a sequence of actions coupled with predictions of environmental responses from the action. Information is gained by comparing the brain‘s predictions with the actual responses from the environment. Deviations from the predictions provide information for revision of the inner calculations. This revision process gradually shapes an emerging internal model of the targeted phenomena. Comparison of the actual response with the predicted response allows fine-tuning of the model. When exploratory learning has accumulated sufficient knowledge, the internal model makes increasingly accurate predictions that incrementally approximate the actual outcomes. The ability to predict thus increases with time. This process is mediated by the dopamine system. Discrepancies between the internal model prediction and the reality initially trigger dopamine responses to facilitate further learning.

 

探索活動牽涉一連串行動。大腦透過行動，估算環境反應。大腦會對預測及實際環境反應作芔比較，收集資訊。當出現誤差，大腦便會更新內在預測。大腦會不斷更新資訊，逐步建立起內在模型。透過比較實際反應與預期反應，可以對模型作出微調。當累積足夠知識，內在模型便能夠作出準確預測，發揮預測作用。預測能力會隨著時間而增加。過程中，多巴胺會參與調和角色；當內在預測模型與現實出現誤差，便會產生多巴胺反應，推動大腦繼續學習。

Experience of physical objects can be subjected to extended mental (and physical) exploration (feeling the texture, and exploring the unobserved visual aspects of an object etc.). Empathy for the mental state of another Person can also includes similar processes. This process can be called “empathic explication” Empathic explication is an important process in the clarification of psychopathological experiences. When we come to explicate another Person, we employ empathy to allow us to “feel” the mental state of the other Person; and we continuously explore through further interaction to obtain additional information and to check the accuracy of our model.

 

對物件進行物理探索(感覺物件的質感、探索物件未被視覺觀察的部分)，可以讓我們體驗物件。同理他人的內心狀態，也可以運用類似過程。這過程可以被稱為「同理闡明」。「同理闡明」對澄清病人的精神病經歷非常重要。所謂「同理闡明」，是運用同理心去「感受」他人的內心狀態，透過持續互動，獲取關於他人的資訊，並檢視對他人的理解模型的準確性。

人在生活世界中，是帶著主體意識活著的。在當下一刻，我可以決定參與生活世界的哪一部分。雖然這決定受到正面或負面的性格特質所影響，我們仍可超越這些因素的限制，最終我可以作出一些決定，與這些因素抗衡。人可以利用主觀意志去啟動並維持某些行動，經驗自主選擇。這些選擇亦包括有意識地主動涉身某些生活層面。

The emic approach investigates a social group from within, using shared concepts from within the group; the etic approach is to study the group from the perspective of an outsider, using the framework of the outsider’s meaning structure. In the study of psychopathology, it is assumed that the clinician shares socio-cultural background with the patients, and when this is not the case, special care needs to be taken to stay with the emic approach as much as possible. 

 

從社群內部、並依從社群的共享觀念進行探索，我們稱這種研究取向為「主位描述」。而「客位描述」則是從旁觀者的角度，以旁觀者的理念架構和意義，對群組進行研究。研究精神病人的問題，我們必須熟悉病人生活的社會文化背景；如果臨床工作者不是與病人處於同一文化環境，臨床工作者最好盡量採用「主位描述」的方法，對病人進行探索。

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A fundamental nature of the subjective “self” is that it does not exist in isolation. It always exists in relation to “something” else, one of the inherent primary tendency of the mind is to relate. This intrinsic nature of the self as “relating to” and “pointing to” objects is very important as it highlights the fundamental essence of the self as existing in relation to something other than itself. The self thus in its very nature operates in the mode of going beyond “itself” (relating). In fact, developmentally the individual is probably aware of the external world earlier than he becomes aware of the “self”.  In this process, the “awareness of self” can also be considered as becoming aware of oneself as part of the “external world”. The relative positions of the “self” differ in different cultures. In a collective culture such as the oriental culture less weight is placed on the individual “self” compared to the “community”. 

 

「主觀自我」的本質，是它不是孤立存在的。「主觀自我」的存在，往往與某些「東西」發生關聯。「自我」的基本存在模式，是連繫客體、朝向客體。這觀點十分重要，它指出自我的本質是超越自身，與客體發生關聯 。事實上，從發展的角度來看，個體在產生自我意識之前，可能早已察覺外在世界的存在。自我的覺察，可以視為覺察自己是外在世界的的歷程。「自我」在不同文化有不同位置，在崇尚集體文化的東方社會，較看重社群多於個體。