Psychoanalytic peregrinations IV: what is phenomenology?

Abstract

This article proposes to clarify the use of phenomenology as a complementary approach to the psychoanalytic process. Because phenomenology is defined and used differently by many different authors, it is here specifically juxtaposed to the DSM-IV approach for purposes of comparison and elucidation. Phenomenology attempts to complement the objectivation and mathematization of reality by the sciences with allowing things to speak for themselves. This requires an attitude of acceptance of whatever appears from the patient in the consulting room without filtering it through judgements or presuppositions that we are all taught in our training. So, for example, such concepts as "empathic linkage," the "infectiousness" of anxiety, the "feel" of the schizophrenic ambiance as described by various authors come across more directly in an encounter based on the phenomenologic approach. This can be used in addition to DSM-IV and other approaches to gain new information. A brief review of how phenomenology arose and the use of it by certain well-known thinkers is presented.