An Experiential Approach to Psychopathology by Giovanni Stanghellini & Massimiliano Aragona

Author:Giovanni Stanghellini & Massimiliano Aragona
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

10.1.3 Significance of Anthropology

Often the term of anthropology is taken for cultural anthropology. However, there are many kinds of anthropology, among others biological and philosophical anthropology. We restrict ourselves here to underlining the importance of philosophical anthropology in the context of a Phenomenological-Anthropological Psychiatry. Philosophical anthropology was founded by Max Scheler, Helmut Plessner, Arnold Gehlen, and others and was developed further mainly by existential philosophers. It is often identified with humanistic and ethical approaches and focused on aspects of the individuality, subjectivity, freedom, and historicity of man. Bodily experiences and the corporality of man (biophysiological, biochemical, genetic processes, etc.) are also of importance. As well, philosophical and phenomenological anthropology has great significance for methodological questions in psychiatry. It influences to a high degree what becomes an important object in psychiatric research and by which methods this respective object is seen to be accessible. Thus, it promotes the development of certain scientific and therapeutic methods, but can also prevent the development of others.

Concerning anthropological issues, so-called Anthropological Proportions have become particularly important to us. This concept was described by Binswanger (1956) and further developed by Blankenburg (1971). The notion refers to certain basic structures of man, often standing in an oppositional relationship to each other. Because man has to integrate these structures in his being, they show us in a particular way the existential achievements man has to fulfill. According to Blankenburg a dialectical thinking is needed here in order to grasp these often opposing structures, which are always individually realized in a certain proportion of each other. Such basic structures are, e.g., self-realization opposed to role realization, individuation opposed to being with others and also to the generalized other (“das Man” in the sense of Heidegger), and continuity opposed to openness for development and innovation. In the context of manic-depressive disorders, we introduced further the proportional and oppositional structures of hypernomia and antinomia, hypo-personalization and hyper-personalization, lack of identification and overidentification, subject (or ego) identity and object identity, and identity and nonidentity.

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