President's lecture - Psychopathology: the foundational discipline of psychiatry

This lecture with Professor Femi Oyebode was recorded on 18 November 2021.
Psychopathology is the precise description, categorisation and definition of abnormal experiences as recounted by the patient and observed in behaviour. It relies on the method of phenomenology by focusing on experienced phenomena to establish their universal character. The aim is to listen attentively, to accurately observe and to understand the psychological event or phenomenon by empathy so that the clinician can, as far as possible, know what the patient's experience must feel like.
In this talk Professor Oyebode distinguishes between psychopathology and nosology. He focuses on delusions with a view to illustrating a novel approach to thinking about delusions and suggests that there is a need to privilege psychopathology in psychiatric training. He concludes by summarising the value of psychopathology for psychiatry.