Phenomenology and psychopathology

Abstract

Founded as a philosophical movement in the early years of the 20th century by Edmund Husserl, phenomenology is the study of the structure of consciousness as experienced from the first person’s point of view whereas descriptive psychopathology, popularised by Karl Jaspers is a systemic study of abnormal experience. Present phenomenological psychopathology has gained new ground by emphasizing the roots of mental illness in the patients’ pre-reflective experience and the basic structures of consciousness such as self-awareness, embodiment, spatiality, temporality, intentionality, and inter-subjectivity, the salient features of which we attempt to explore here.