Phenomenology, psychology and psychiatry

Abstract

We discuss, in this paper the articulation of phenomenology, psychology and psychiatry in the first half of the twentieth century. We present aspects of Husserl's and Heidegger's philosophies, as well as the work of psychologists and psychiatrists who based their theoretical-practical activities on these philosophies. We also discuss a second generation of phenomenologists, represented by Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, authors who welcomed psychology and psychiatry in distinct ways. We conclude our reflections with a brief foray into North American existential-humanistic psychology. Our argument converges to analyzes of circumscriptions and points of tangency that were established between philosophical and psychological research in the field of phenomenology. We consider that the approximation between these disciplines and phenomenology is considered to occur beneath the question on its feasibility.