Most often, “phenomenological” is a purely descriptive method that does not claim to establish a causal relationship. This is precisely what C. G. Jung means when he talks about the “by no means always understandable phenomenological point of view of modern psychology”: “The task that always arises in the first place is the description and ordering of events, and then follows a more accurate study of patterns their actual behavior. The question of the substance of observation is possible in the natural sciences only where a certain Archimedean point lies outside it. For the psyche, there is no such external starting point, because only the soul can observe the soul. As a result, the knowledge of mental substance is impossible, at least with our present means of observation” (Jung K.G. Spirit Mercury. M.: Kanon, 1996. P. 200). It makes no sense to oppose such an approach to the scientistic (positivist) one, since both in terms of (metaphysical) causality and in terms of the functional connection of the elements of observation, their positions coincide.
Phenomenological approach in science
The phenomenological approach in science is an approach in which a theory is created for the observed phenomena, in which they do not pay attention to the actually occurring processes of a «lower» level (these processes may simply be unknown). And such a theory may well be useful, if, of course, it gives a correct description of the phenomena.
A typical example is thermodynamics in physics. The detailed theory that explains what is “really” happening, in this case, is physical kinetics, which describes thermodynamic phenomena on the basis of atomic-molecular theory. And it appeared relatively recently. Despite the fact that thermodynamics arose even before the atomic theory of the structure of matter became generally recognized. Thermodynamics gave a correct description of thermal processes and was successfully used in practice, in technology, in particular, in the design of heat engines. At the same time, some of the parameters were taken from experience, thermodynamics could not calculate them (heat capacities, for example), but this did not cause difficulties, they simply remained “properties of matter”.
At the same time, in the natural scientific approach, researchers seek to go beyond the phenomenological description and find causal, causal explanations of visible phenomena.
Phenomenological paradigm in practical psychology
A phenomenon is both sensation, and perception, and representation, and thought. Initially, the phenomenological approach was born in the depths of philosophy, its creators are F. Brentano and E. Husserl, but the real flowering of the phenomenological approach was in the field of practical psychology. Developing a phenomenological approach, the philosophers themselves are moving more and more into the field of psychology (Ivan Shkuratov. Mood Phenomenon: Ways to Comprehension. http://phenomen.ru/public/journal.php?article=23), a famous essay by the philosopher J.- P. Sartre’s «Essay on the Theory of Emotions» is most interesting for the phenomenological approach in the analysis of emotions.
In practical psychology, “phenomenological” means research that focuses not on an objective fact, but on its unique subjective experience by a specific person.
“The descriptive approach proposed by the phenomenological method consciously rejects pre-formulated hypotheses and concepts, which for every researcher in the natural sciences are an indispensable auxiliary tool for grasping reality. The main task of the phenomenological research approach in psychotherapy is the mutual, subjective perception of the meaning of experiences and experiences, linguistic understanding between the therapist and the patient (Wolfram E.-M. Phenomenological study of psychotherapy: a method of obtaining knowledge from experience. In the book: Psychotherapy: a new science of human. Moscow-Ekaterinburg, 1999, pp. 359-360).
“The main idea … is to offer psychotherapists a point of view that will enable them to see a person without frames that already determine in advance what this person could suffer in order to apply the appropriate technique over time. … every person and every thing has its own nature, an essence that reveals itself in accordance with its own natural laws. We can comprehend them only thanks to the experience that comes from observation and intuition ”(Wolfram E.-M. Phenomenological study of psychotherapy: a method of obtaining knowledge from experience. In the book: Psychotherapy: a new science of man. Moscow — Yekaterinburg. 1999. C . 361) — writes E.-M. Tungsten
The phenomenological approach in practical psychology is the opposite and complement of the behavioral approach. Given their basic nature and not to be confused with other numerous, smaller, but also approaches (Gestalt approach, NLP approach), it seems more accurate and convenient to talk about the phenomenological paradigm in practical psychology. See →