The Hermeneutic Approach to Mental Health

To order the paperback edition of this book from the publisher click on the image.

Print copies are available to purchase from Lulu and Amazon.
Also available in ebook formats – as an ePub and for Kindle.

The Hermeneutic Approach to Mental Health: Theory and Practice bridges the gap between philosophical reflection and the lived realities of mental health care. Drawing on the insights of Gadamer, Heidegger, Jaspers, Foucault, Szasz, and Laing, this book offers a practical framework for understanding and treating mental illness without reducing the person to a diagnosis.

Through interpretive listening, case applications, collaborative treatment planning, and structured exercises, Dr. Edmond Charley guides clinicians, caregivers, and those living with mental illness toward a shared language of recovery and meaning-making.

At its core, this is not just a book about mental health, it is a call to meet the human being behind the illness, and to walk alongside them toward a renewed horizon of understanding and care.

Endorsements

This is an excellent and deeply sensitive work—one that brings together philosophical depth, clinical expertise, and lived experience in an inspiring and accessible way. Grounded in a hermeneutical approach and centered on the person-in-their-world, this guide offers a powerful reminder of the importance of understanding mental health recovery through the lens of first-person narratives and therapeutic alliance. It honors the complexity of human experience with subtlety and care, foregrounding the meaning-making processes that are too often overlooked in conventional approaches.

Importantly, this work aligns with the most recent and promising developments—particularly the rise of narrative psychiatry, mad studies, and enactive and ecological approaches to the mind. It contributes meaningfully to this growing body of thought and promises to be a great toolkit for the practice.”

~ Ina Dimitrova, Ph.D. Associate Professor in Disability Studies, Department of Philosophy, Plovdiv University Paisii Hilendarski

H.-G. Gadamer’s hermeneutics is a powerful auxiliary in achieving understanding in various fields of humanities and social sciences. Dr. Edmond Charley’s book proves that hermeneutics is indispensable for the art of clinical psychiatry too. This is a concise but comprehensive manual that is based on solid theoretical grounds in order to serve efficiently practical purposes. No doubt, it will complete successfully the goal it has been designed for.

~ Alexander L. Gungov, Dr. Sc., Professor, Faculty of Philosophy, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski

At a time when humanity is most adrift as civilization transitions, this book is a necessity for upgrading a psychotherapy response to alienation. For the general reader, it is a guide to what is currently happening in our thinking and feeling.

~ Anthony J. DeLuca, Ph.D., Psy.D., Fellow APA, Lic. Psychologist, LP-D, LMHC, LMFT

In a cultural moment marked by a growing alienation from the impersonal, jargon-heavy literature that often surrounds mental health, Dr. Edmond Charley’s work offers a profoundly humanizing and philosophically rich alternative. With a nuanced sensitivity to the complexity of the human condition, he resists reductive mechanistic models and instead situates the mind as the nexus of lived experience, meaning, and relationality. His approach not only renders mental health discourse more accessible but also restores its dignity and depth, inviting readers to reconsider the brain not as a mere machine but as the very seat of our shared humanity.

~ Franck Zanu Adjisegbe, CEO/Host Zanu Project Rethink podcast

This remarkable book offers a profound and original synthesis of philosophy and clinical practice, illuminating the human dimensions of mental health with rare clarity. Reimagining psychiatric care through the lens of hermeneutics, it presents a methodologically rigorous and intellectually expansive contribution to the philosophy of psychiatry. By repositioning mental health within the horizon of meaning, the author invites readers into a therapeutic paradigm grounded in interpretation, empathy, and depth.

~ James Briggs, M.S., L.A.D.C.

An intellectually rigorous yet profoundly humane rethinking of mental health.

~ Caroline Beckenhaupt

Dr. Charley highlights the necessity for the Mental Health Profession to be holistic, patient-centered discipline. He clearly demonstrates how using the Hermeneutic Approach can facilitate mental health professionals empower patients to become active participants in their own recovery.

~Jonathan Seghorn, MSN, PMHNP-BC

This book is a thoughtful and compassionate rethinking of mental health care. By weaving philosophy and practice together, it offers a humane framework that sees patients not as problems to fix, but as people with stories to be understood.

~ Kathleen Hebbaj

Thank you, Dr. Edmond Charley, for your focused work that reminds mental health clinicians (psychotherapists) to continue seeing their clients as human beings – each making meaning of their dynamic and systemic interactions throughout their lived experiences. A lucid guide that restores meaning to the heart of (psychiatric) clinical care.

~ Lisa LaGratta, MBA. MA., Marriage and Family Therapist

With clarity and clinical relevance, this book advances a human-centered, interpretive approach to mental health care. Dr. Charley bridges philosophy and practice, offering a rare framework for approaching mental health care with depth and humanity.

~ Sarah D. Blafer, BSW, M.S.

We need to take the time to help people with their health & wellness.  This is an essential read for anyone seeking a deeper, more human understanding of mental health.

~ Melissa D. Whitaker, CEO/Founder of MWI