Toward A Phenomenological And Existential Psychology

Abstract

While it is no simple matter to face the crisis of current psychology, alienated as it is by reductionism, naturalism, and epistemological misunderstandings that dangerously simplify man’s lived experience and complexity, it is nevertheless vital to re-found psychology itself so it may engage in the decisive task of studying man, proposing solutions, and engaging in interventions. The contribution of the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, Edith Stein, Max Scheler, and others, as well as that of the existential philosophy of Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Jaspers, Gabriel Marcel, and Maria Zambrano, often ignored in the sphere of psychology, can finally help psychological research today to propose a new objectivity born of intersubjectivity and of transcendental subjectivity in order to return to things themselves, man’s lived experience, and the essence of being human in the world, even when human existence is in a condition of shipwreck. This is the challenge that today’s psychologists must confront in their work, setting themselves as witnesses to their own credibility in research and in their relationships with patients. Thus this paper presents current studies in phenomenological and existential psychology in Italy and proposes some existential coordinates as universal and essential structures.