The Constitution of a Pathological World: A Phenomenological Investigation on Pathological and Anomalous Life

Abstract

Rather than reduce phenomenology to an auxiliary science of cognitive science, contemporary phenomenology attempts to develop a method in a first-person perspective which would allow to investigate pathological experience. To do this it is however necessary to revisit Husserl's corpus, in particular his later manuscripts, and to develop a new methodology which pursues phenomenology's initial purpose of scientificity without betraying its antinaturalistic spirit. In this regard, this paper aims to highlight the difficulties of such an enterprise, in particular on the theme of anomality and psycho- and neuro-pathology. As a descriptive method focused on the transcendental sphere of life, phenomenology allows us to grasp how to examine mental states, but it cannot ignore a cogenerative study which allows us to apprehend its counter-transcendental and neurophysiological aspects. By exploring the notions of anomality and pathology, we will have the opportunity to emphasize the contribution of phenomenology in the face of the problems that arise with regards to pathological life. Our ambition is to describe the shift that occurs when a normal and healthy individual is confronted to pathology and therefore to a modification of his immanent world and of his relation to the world as a totum.

Keywords: phenomenological psychology, pathology, normality, anomality, experience, world, egological discourse