A Phenomenological Approach to Psychopathology of Imagination: Development of a Descriptive Instrument – Examination of Anomalous Fantasy and Imagination

This paper serves as an introduction to the Examination of Anomalous Fantasy and Imagination (EAFI) – a novel instrument for a semistructured, phenomenological exploration of psychopathology of imagination. We present an account of the phenomenology of imagination and proceed to a presentation of the disorders of imagination that are addressed in the EAFI. Furthermore, the interrater reliability of the EAFI was examined in a diagnostically heterogeneous sample of 20 in-patients. The interrater agreement ranged from 0.6 to 1.0, with an average κ of 0.84. The internal consistency of the EAFI as measured by Cronbach’s α was above 0.88. We suggest that the anomalies of imagination explored by the EAFI reflect an alteration of the structure of consciousness and belong to a fundamental, generative layer of psychopathology. These disorders may have relevance for differential diagnostic purposes, especially in first-contact, young patients.