Research

The methodology of the ongoing and planned research projects of the Department of Psychodynamics under the professorship of Univ.-Prof. Dr. habil. Patrizia Giampieri-Deutsch includes metacognitive and epistemological approaches in addition to state of the art psychotherapy research.

In addition to the clinical and empirical investigation of processes and outcomes of psychotherapeutic treatments, this also allows for the exploration of meta-theoretical issues and, in particular, the investigation of phenomena in the field of subjectivity in a non-reductive manner using first-person methodologies. Further empirical methodologies are also used for psychotherapy research as well as for average population research projects. Psychometric instruments developed on the basis of clinical experience in psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy are used. Experimental methodologies are integrated into psychodynamic psychotherapy research to better understand the nature of the psychophysical continuum and how therapeutic change is effected by examining the impact of psychodynamic treatments on neurobiological functioning.

In particular, the Division of Psychodynamics also explores the applications of research methodologies to non-clinical phenomena and branches of knowledge. A wide range of projects are carried out, resulting in a continuous peer-reviewed publication activity with leading international journals and publishing houses.

Currently, the work of Professor and Head Patrizia Giampieri-Deutsch (2020) Freud's Dynamic Structural Model of the Mental in the 21st Century should be mentioned. The work was published in the series Sigmund Freud's Works. Viennese Interdisciplinary Commentaries, with Patrizia Giampieri-Deutsch as co-editor. In it, two of Freud's central texts are newly annotated in light of the current state of interdisciplinary scientific research and provided with a systematic introduction that presents Freud's theory of the mind from the point of view of contemporary psychoanalytic research and brings it into interdisciplinary dialogue with advanced approaches to cognitive research, cognitive neuroscience, and philosophy of mind.

Current research projects further include the cross-disciplinary study of subjective experience, such as the project Psychodynamic and Scientific Historical Aspects of Empathy [CICLO XXXI SSD M-FIL/03] in cooperation with the Italian University Federico II Naples, or the project The Irreducibility of Experience [SC16-025] funded by the Lower Austrian Science and Education Fund (NFB). The latter examines selected designs and currents as well as controversies dealing with the phenomenon of subjective experience in psychodynamic psychotherapies. Psychoanalytic research findings as well as converging theories from phenomenological and neurocognitive embodiment research, Philosophy of Mind, and findings from the cognitive field are systematically brought into conversation with each other in order to locate areas of convergence. In particular, the Division of Psychodynamics also explores the applications of research methodologies of the these disciplines to non-clinical phenomena and branches of knowledge.

The psychological and psychodynamic studies of religious experience represent a science of human behavior and experience, so that religious experience as a specifically human experience can be addressed by methodologies of psychodynamic psychotherapy research (first-person methodologies).

Maimonides Lectures

A major pivot of the professorship's research is the project Psychological and Psychodynamic Aspects of Religious Experience in the Frame of Reference of the Abrahamic Religions [K3F730/001-2017 and K3F730/006-2022], sponsored by the Office of the Government of Lower Austria. The research-generated Maimonides Lectures, which address the interactions between the Abrahamic religions and sciences, especially the health sciences, under the auspices of the Office of the Provincial Government of Lower Austria, emerge from this project. Symposia and Keynote Lectures in Vienna at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and at the KL in Krems will enable a continuous encounter between the religious communities, researchers as well as students.

The Maimonides Lectures in Lower Austria are jointly organized by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) with the Abrahamic religious communities in Austria and the Karl Landsteiner University for Health Sciences (KL) under the auspices of the Office of the Lower Austrian Government and establish cooperative, sustainable research at the level of excellence. This is not least intended to contribute to basic research in the Medical Humanities. The following Abrahamic religious communities participate in the Maimonides Lectures: Old Catholic Church, Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Evangelical Church A. and H. B., United Methodist Church of Vienna, Greek Orthodox Church, Islamic religious community in Austria, Jewish Community of Vienna, Coptic Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, Romanian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox Church and Syrian Orthodox Church. Further companions are the University College of Christian Churches for Teacher Education Vienna/Krems and the Coordination Committee for Christian-Jewish Cooperation.    

Medical Humanities

The Medical Humanities open up a field in which medicine and human sciences enter into a dialogue about subjective experiences and conceptual questions. In addition, the Medical Humanities open the opportunity to reflect on one's own functioning, on the intended goals of personal and professional identity formation, and on how to improve the education of students. Medical Humanities raises a wide range of questions about professional ethics and treatment techniques, the management and limits of treatment, and subjective understandings of illness and death, including their religious aspects. Accordingly, this field of research implies a strong focus on the mental processes of patients and those treating them from perspectives that transcend both the medical and psychological viewpoints.

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Exhibition in the Sigmund Freud Museum (Berggasse 19, Vienna, Austria)
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