Basic principles of psychic suffering: A preliminary account

The aim of the present work is to propose an analysis of psychic suffering and the criteria to account for its occurrence and intensity. Psychic suffering is defined as the suffering implied by a frustrating assumption, that is, a particular kind of discrepancy between a belief and a goal, embedding a time specification for both the goal and the belief representation. Psychic suffering is distinguished from cognitive distress due to interruption, overload or malfunctioning of mental processes. General criteria for both psychic suffering and cognitive distress are identified and discussed, including the kind of goal according to a variety of parameters (such as terminal vs instrumental; pursued vs not pursued; achievement vs maintenance, etc.), as well as the crucial role played by attention, self-awareness and expectations. Relations between suffering and negative emotions and the limits of the approach are discussed.