Abstract

The relevance of a purely descriptive phenomenology to psychiatry is overshadowed by naturalistic approaches that are both explanatory and predictive. A naturalized transcendental phenomenology, however, carries with it the possibility of explaining and predicting not only the nature of normal subjective experience but also the origin of phenomenological psychopathology in a manner acceptable by scientific standards. A purely mathematical naturalized phenomenology remains in the phenomenological sphere, does not rely on neuroscientific data in its development, is consistent with the Husserlian view of man as free and capable of using reason to influence behavior and focusses on temporality in its definition of normal subjective experience and phenomenological psychopathology. Because what is being naturalized is subjective experience and not any part of the physical world, the project it is not meant to replace the natural science’s understanding of psychopathology but to provide a complementary view that is acceptable by scientific standards.