About this Research Topic
The clinical setting represents a particular context where two people get in contact with each other with the common aim of reducing the patient’s distress and modulating his/her way to interface with the context. Although the investigation of phenomena like attachment, empathy, and theory of mind are classic topics of social cognition, the most recent advances in neuroscience have put new insights into these constructs, focusing on the shared perception of reality between two or more individuals (inter-subjectivity). Some dyadic relationships (i.e. mother-child, teacher-student, etc.) have been investigated so far, but a gap still exists regarding the clinical/therapeutic setting.
This Research Topic aims at collecting high-quality, timely research papers on the broad theme of inter-subjectivity applied to the clinical context. Clinical settings can refer to proper psychotherapy but also medical (i.e. psychological management of organic disease) or psychiatric settings.
Potential contributions for this collection may focus on the following:
• Researches on attachment, empathy, theory of mind and other classic aspects of social cognition, with a focus on clinical/therapeutic settings and on the relationship between clinician and patient.
• Neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI) studies are welcome if related to clinical settings, including brain (hyperscanning with EEG, fNIRS, MRI) or psychophysiological synchronization (i.e. ECG, skin conductance) between clinician and patient, or linguistic/AI analysis of the clinical encounter.
• Studies on methodological issues related to the investigation of dyadic/inter-personal phenomena.
• Theoretic papers concerning various aspects of the clinical inter-personal domain (i.e. explicative models, open questions, direction for future research in this field)
Contributors are encouraged to submit original research articles applying different study designs and methodologies, such as (but not limited to) cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, innovative and informative case studies, as well as systematic or narrative reviews and meta-analyses. Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method studies are welcome.
This Research Topic aims at collecting high-quality, timely research papers on the broad theme of inter-subjectivity applied to the clinical context. Clinical settings can refer to proper psychotherapy but also medical (i.e. psychological management of organic disease) or psychiatric settings.
Potential contributions for this collection may focus on the following:
• Researches on attachment, empathy, theory of mind and other classic aspects of social cognition, with a focus on clinical/therapeutic settings and on the relationship between clinician and patient.
• Neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI) studies are welcome if related to clinical settings, including brain (hyperscanning with EEG, fNIRS, MRI) or psychophysiological synchronization (i.e. ECG, skin conductance) between clinician and patient, or linguistic/AI analysis of the clinical encounter.
• Studies on methodological issues related to the investigation of dyadic/inter-personal phenomena.
• Theoretic papers concerning various aspects of the clinical inter-personal domain (i.e. explicative models, open questions, direction for future research in this field)
Contributors are encouraged to submit original research articles applying different study designs and methodologies, such as (but not limited to) cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, innovative and informative case studies, as well as systematic or narrative reviews and meta-analyses. Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method studies are welcome.
Keywords: attachment, empathy, theory of mind, working alliance, psychotherapy, synchronization, mirror system, inter-subjectivity, social cognition
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
