A Phenomenological Approach

Abstract

Rather than employ medical, pathologising, language and methods, we can and should use effective, scientific and understandable alternatives. Both of the major diagnostic systems contain the kernels of alternative systems for identifying and describing psychological phenomena and distress, and an improvement upon diagnosis would be simply to list a person's experiences as described by that person. Such a straightforward phenomenological approach-the operational definition of our experiences-would enable our problems to be recognised (in both senses of the word), understood, validated, explained (and explicable) and initiate a plan for help. This would meet the universal call for appropriate, internationally recognised, data collection and shared language use and avoid the inadequacies of reliability and validity associated with traditional diagnoses. Such phenomenological codes offer a constructive, radical way forwards. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the scientific method as: 'a method or procedure that has characterized natural science since the seventeenth century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement , and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses'. Scientists use precise operational definitions of relevant concepts. Clinical psychologists are 'applied scientists'; we develop hypotheses about the factors and variables that lead to and maintain 7 A Phenomenological Approach