WCP 2025

This presentation introduces the concept of epistemic trust—the fundamental human capacity enabling us to learn from others who are trustworthy and collectively establish shared beliefs and ideas, which we recognize as ‘culture’. The talk will highlight emerging evidence underscoring the critical role of epistemic trust in social learning and examine research demonstrating its vulnerability to adversity, particularly during childhood. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the extensive developmental and adult-life consequences resulting from disruptions in epistemic trust. Further, exploring the link between epistemic trust and mental disorders sheds light on one of the key mechanisms mediating trauma's lasting impact, notably in the onset of mental health difficulties and impairments in personality functioning. We will discuss therapeutic approaches aimed at addressing epistemic mistrust and epistemic hypervigilance, alongside recent findings on how mistrust disrupts human social communication systems.

Statement of the problem: Modular and common factor approaches in psychotherapy are a central issue in psychotherapy research. It seems necessary to mark the limitations of specific approaches and to detect where interdisciplinary perspectives are indispensable. This presentation is an attempt to integrate psychotherapeutic models as well as neurobiological, psychological and socio-cultural and practical aspects of psychotherapy.
We offer a comprehensive psychotherapeutic model which integrates relational, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic-psychoanalytic and existential aspects. In this process neuro-biological, psychologic and socio-cultural perspectives come into play.
Methodology & theoretical orientation: The case of a patient suffering from schizotypic episodes is studied under the perspectives of relational, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic-psychoanalytic and existential psychotherapy. In a hermeneutic circle biological, psychological and socio-cultural findings are integrated.
Findings: It is shown that psychotherapy can and should include psychological, cultural and neurobiological knowledge. The dialectics between coherence–incoherence, stabilization–destabilization, construction–deconstruction of cognitions, emotions, and actions are shown to be general principles that can be found in neuroscientific, psychological and cultural approaches in psychotherapy.
Conclusions: The interdisciplinary reflection of different psychotherapeutic methods leads to a practical model that can integrate relational, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic-psychoanalytic and existential aspects of psychotherapy.

When I began my training as a psychotherapist many years ago, I finally found words in Viktor E. Frankl's books and lectures that resonated with my own thoughts. To this day, the human image of logotherapy and existential analysis leads me and holds a rich knowledge. After more than thirty years of working in hospitals and long-term care institutions, I can now say that for me there really is no better "tool". In most of the situations for which I am called upon as a psychologist and psychotherapist, people find themselves in situations that bring them to the limits of suffering. For many it is a long process to accept the given as the first step for reevaluation. As soon as this happens, the next developmental steps often happen all by themselves. Humor helps to see situations from a different perspective and to use it to escape suffering, even if just for a moment. That’s why humor research became my passion. Almost every therapy session offers the opportunity to laugh together and reduce tension and anxiety because of it. Even in the most hopeless moments, laughter as offered interpersonal connection is a meaningful ex-change.
We underestimate how capable we humans are of suffering, the realities to which we can adapt and how we can find ways to fulfil our life’s purpose even in seemingly hopeless situations. This strength should give us the courage to embrace life as valuable in all circumstances.

Als ich vor vielen Jahren meine Ausbildung zur Psychotherapeutin begann, fand ich in Viktor E. Frankls Büchern und Vorträgen endlich Worte, die meine eigenen Gedanken widerspiegelten. Bis heute begleitet mich das Menschenbild der Logotherapie und der Existenzanalyse und umfasst einen Reichtum an Wissen. Nach mehr als dreißigjähriger Tätigkeit in Krankenhäusern und Langzeitpflegeeinrichtungen kann ich heute sagen, dass es kein besseres „Werkzeug“ für mich gibt. In den meisten Situationen, in denen ich als Psychologin und Psychotherapeutin hinzugezogen werde, befinden sich Menschen in Situationen, die sie an die Grenzen des Leidens bringen. Für viele ist es ein längerer Prozess, das Gegebene als ersten Schritt zur Neu-Bewertung anzunehmen. Sobald dies geschehen ist, erfolgen die nächsten Entwicklungsschritte oft fast von selbst. Humor hilft, Situationen aus einer anderen Perspektive zu sehen und sogar zu nutzen, um dem Leiden zu entkommen, wenn auch vielleicht nur für einen Moment. Deshalb wurde die Humorforschung meine Leidenschaft. Denn fast in jeder Therapiesitzung bietet sich die Möglichkeit, gemeinsam zu lachen und so Spannungen und Ängste abzubauen. Sogar in den hoffnungslosesten Momenten ist Lachen als zwischenmenschliches Beziehungsangebot not-wendig.
Unterschätzt wird, wie leidensfähig wir Menschen sind, an welche Realitäten wir uns anpassen können und wie wir auch in scheinbar ausweglosen Situationen trotzdem Wege finden, unseren Lebenssinn zu erfüllen. Diese Stärke sollte uns den Mut geben, das Leben unter allen Umständen als wertvoll anzunehmen.