ABSTRACT
Negative symptoms, such as diminished motivational drive, anhedonia, social withdrawal, apathy, and reduced emotionality, are the subject of increasing clinical and research attention. It has become clearer that negative symptoms can be subdivided into experiential and expressive elements, with a variety of phenomenological and metacognitive correlates. In particular, metacognitive difficulties in self-reflectivity around one’s wants, interests, and emotional responses play a major role in anhedonia and diminished motivation. This chapter will analyse a range of correlates of negative symptoms including metacognition, neuropsychological, and developmental factors. We will explore how metacognitive difficulties are related to experiences of persistent negative symptoms, and how enhancing metacognitive capacities might support self-recovery. We will also examine how psychological treatments that focus on understanding and responding in an attuned way to the self-experience of people suffering from negative symptoms may increase the chance of meaningful recovery for those who have not benefited from standard approaches to treatment such as medication and generic mental health support.
