G2G Institute

Ghost to Guest Institute
for Hospitality and Subjectivity

An interdisciplinary institute operating at the intersection of clinical psychology, philosophy of psychiatry, and phenomenology.

The G2G Institute reimagines psychological classification and therapeutic encounters not merely as diagnostic acts, but as ethical practices of radical hospitality. We explore how subjectivity is formed, transformed, and hosted.

Ghost to Guest Conceptual Artwork

Hospitality

Reimagining clinical encounters as ethical practices of making room for alterity.

Subjectivity

Understanding the self as a multiple, fluid, and continuously reconstructed narrative process.

Classification

Investigating how diagnostic language and "looping effects" shape human kinds.

About the Institute

The Ghost to Guest Institute is an independent academic and clinical framework dedicated to rethinking the intersections of psychological classification, identity, and the philosophy of psychiatry.

Against the backdrop of proliferating diagnostic vocabularies and the realism versus constructivism dichotomy, the institute seeks to move beyond traditional classifications. By drawing on narrative psychology, post-structuralism, and phenomenological philosophy, we aim to extend the study of "looping effects" into an explicitly ethical domain, treating therapeutic encounters as acts of profound hospitality toward the self.

Ghost to Guest

Ghost to Guest Conceptual Slide

Reimagining Classification as Hospitality

"Ghost to Guest" is a clinical-philosophical framework that reimagines psychological classification as a practice of hospitality. It offers an innovative perspective by conceptualizing psychological suffering not as a deficit to be eradicated, but as an unintegrated element of subjectivity that can be ethically acknowledged. Rather than treating classificatory language as a neutral descriptor, this model views it as an ethical encounter where multiplicity and narrative fluidity are prioritized over rigid categorical closure.

The Triad: Ghost, Guest, and Host

The architectural basis of this approach rests on three interrelated concepts that function as an analytic lens for clinical and cultural phenomena:

  • The Ghost: An unintegrated, marginalized, or disavowed psychic figure lacking a stable symbolic place (akin to proto-kinds before classification).
  • The Guest: The same psychic element once it is recognized, narrated, and given a conditional but non-assimilative presence within the self.
  • The Host: The narrative, relational, and institutional contexts—such as the reflective self, the therapeutic space, or the broader culture—that make the act of hosting possible.

Theoretical Lineage: Making Room vs. Making Up People

The framework enters into direct dialogue with Ian Hacking’s influential concepts of "making up people" and "looping effects." While Hacking demonstrated how psychiatric categories actively shape the people they describe, Ghost to Guest introduces a normative-ethical supplement: Hospitality. Drawing on Derrida's concept of unconditional hospitality, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and Ricoeur's narrative identity, the framework shifts the focus from how classifications construct people, to how therapeutic and cultural spaces can ethically make room for them without demanding assimilation.

Fundamental Paper

The core philosophical and historical arguments of this model are detailed in the forthcoming article, "Ghost to Guest: Hospitality and the Future of Psychological Classification." See for more details.

Research Areas

01

Ethics of Hospitality & "Making Room"

Investigating the therapeutic relationship as an ethical space. Building upon constructivist theories to establish a normative dimension of clinical hosting, where alterity is preserved rather than erased.

02

Philosophy of Psychiatry & Classification

Critically examining psychiatric taxonomies (from Kraepelin to DSM-5 and RDoC). Exploring Ian Hacking's "human kinds" and "looping effects" through the lens of psychological suffering and clinical micro-histories.

03

Narrative Identity & The Multitudinous Self

Exploring how individuals construct their sense of self. Emphasizing the fluid, fragmented, and continuously reconstructed nature of identity, moving beyond demands for absolute coherence.

04

Digital Culture & Cultural Human Kinds

Analyzing the rapid, recursive circulation of psychiatric terminology and self-diagnostic vocabularies on social media, and how digital identities intensify modern looping mechanisms.

Events

Forthcoming

SEMINAR SERIES 2026

Hospitality and Subjectivity: New Directions in Psychotherapy and Philosophy

An interdisciplinary dialogue exploring the thresholds of clinical encounter, looping effects, and human kinds.

Dates TBA

Online & Istanbul

Open Door Threshold

Publications

Primary Literature & Working Papers

  • Ghost to Guest: Hospitality and the Future of Psychological Classification.

    Kuzgun, T. B. (Under review)

    Develops the clinical-philosophical framework that reimagines classification as a practice of hospitality, bringing the history of psychiatric nosology into dialogue with Ian Hacking’s analyses of human kinds and looping effects.

Book Series

Proposals for the 'Hospitality and Mental Health' monograph series are currently being reviewed. More information will be announced in Late 2026.

People

Founder / Director

Dr. Tubanur Bayram Kuzgun

Dr. Tubanur Bayram Kuzgun

Assistant Professor of Psychology & Clinical Psychologist

Google Scholar Profile

Dr. Tubanur Bayram Kuzgun completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology at Izmir University of Economics (YÖK scholar) and Ruhr University. She earned her Master's and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Haliç University and Istanbul Arel University. During her training, she served as a researcher and volunteer psychotherapist at Balıklı Rum Hospital, the Center for Behavioral Sciences Research, and the Arel University Neuroscience Laboratory.

As a researcher, her work bridges clinical psychology with the philosophy of psychiatry, focusing on narrative identity, the sociohistorical contexts of psychological classification, and the ethics of therapeutic encounters. She has authored the foundational "Ghost to Guest" framework, bringing psychoanalytic and phenomenological traditions into dialogue with the study of human kinds.

She has undergone comprehensive training and supervision by internationally recognized clinicians in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Schema Therapy, and Psychodynamic Therapies. She holds accreditation in Schema Therapy from the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST).

Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at Istanbul Arel University's Department of Psychology, teaching clinical psychology at graduate levels and providing clinical supervision. Furthermore, she regularly contributes to culture and arts magazines such as Psikeart and Psikesinema.

Research Associates

Applications for the 2026-2027 academic year graduate research assistants are currently open.

Advisory Board

To be announced.

Contact

General Inquiries

info@ghosttoguest.com

Location

Istanbul, Turkey

(Institutional affiliation via Istanbul Arel University)

Social Media

@ghost.to.guest

For clinical supervision requests, please contact Dr. Kuzgun directly through her academic email.