Phenomenological psychopathology: Toward a person-centered hermeneutic approach in the clinical encounter

Abstract

This introduction is an overall outlook of the methods used in phenomenological psychopathology. The several meanings of the term ‘psychopathology’ are differentiated, together with a brief overview of the main ideas in philosophical phenomenology. Then, the principal methodological concepts in use in phenomenological psychopathology are discussed: form and content, explaining and understanding, static and genetic understanding, epoché and eidos, the existentialia exploring the basic way human beings exist in the world. Finally, the hermeneutic approach in psychopathology is discussed at three levels: the hermeneutics of mental symptoms, the hermeneutic circle in the relationship between symptoms and diagnosis, and the hermeneutics of the deep subjective structure on which the previous levels are grounded.