Overcoming Hermeneutical Injustice in Mental Health: A Role for Critical Phenomenology
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology January 31, 2022 DOI: 10.1080/00071773.2022.2031234 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Key points | Argues that a critical phenomenological stance can remedy hermeneutical injustice in clinical encounters with psychosis by adopting an interactionist view of understanding and practicing hermeneutical flexibility. |
Abstract
ABSTRACT The significance of critical phenomenology for psychiatric praxis has yet to be expounded. In this paper, I argue that the adoption of a critical phenomenological stance can remedy localised instances of hermeneutical injustice, which may arise in the encounter between clinicians and patients with psychosis. In this context, what is communicated is often deemed to lack meaning or to be difficult to understand. While a degree of un-shareability is inherent to subjective life, I argue that issues of unintelligibility can be addressed by shifting from individualistic conceptions of understanding to an interactionist view. This takes into account the contextual, historical and relational background within which meaning is co-constituted. I conclude by providing a corrective for hermeneutical injustice, which entails a specific attentiveness towards the person’s subjectivity, a careful sensitivity to contingent meaning-generating structures, and a degree of hermeneutical flexibility as an attitude of openness towards alternative horizons of possibility.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From dopamine to salience to psychosis--linking biology, pharmacology and phenomenology of psychosis. | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How do the brain's time and space mediate consciousness and its different dimensions? Temporo-spatial theory of consciousness (TTC). | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The phenomenology of deep brain stimulation-induced changes in OCD: an enactive affordance-based model. | 2013 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 11
- Phenomenology as a resource for translational research in mental health: methodological trends, challenges and new directions. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences January 16, 2023
- Examination of self patterns: framing an alternative phenomenological interview for use in mental health research and clinical practice. Frontiers in Psychology 2024
- Editorial: Situating phenomenological psychopathology: subjective experience within the world Frontiers in Psychology August 25, 2023
- A Phenomenological Reappraisal of Dynamical Systems in Psychopathology. Psychopathology August 18, 2025
- Phenomenology and psychopharmacology: a mutually enlightening relationship? Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences May 14, 2026
and 6 more in the library
Cites 2
- Comments on Mohammed Abouelleil Rashed's "A critical perspective on second-order empathy in understanding psychopathology: phenomenology and ethics". Theoretical medicine and bioethics April 2015
- Rediscovering psychopathology: the epistemology and phenomenology of the psychiatric object. Schizophrenia Bulletin December 23, 2012