Hermeneutics in psychiatry: Enhancing understanding and patient-centered care

• Author Details:   
• Anand Lingeswaran ^*

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Hermeneutics offers a valuable framework for interpreting psychiatric patients' subjective experiences, enabling a deeper understanding of their narratives beyond a purely clinical perspective. This approach enhances therapeutic communication, addresses hermeneutical injustice, and integrates multiple discourses in psychiatric care. By fostering patient participation and incorporating narrative hermeneutics into diagnosis and treatment, hermeneutics enriches psychiatric practice. However, challenges remain, particularly in balancing scientific methodologies with interpretative frameworks. This paper explores the various dimensions of hermeneutics in psychiatry and its implications for mental health policies and treatment.