[Evaluating the current status of anthropologic psychiatry]

Phenomenological psychiatry examines the variety of psychiatric diseases as regular modifications of human feeling tone experience and behaviour, which can be derived approximately from the nature of man as defined philosophically, Interdisciplinary self-conception of phenomenological psychiatry as a science calls for a constant critical dialogue with the philosophy of man and other disciplines of the humanities. The point of departure of phenomenological psychiatry is the mental or affective illness of the individual patient, with which the psychiatrist is acquainted, and reflects in interpersonal encounters in such a way that individual case studies are of central importance in this area of studies. From a methodological point of view two approaches are to be differentiated within the field of research in phenomenological psychiatry: 1. The phenomenological approach is concerned with the analysis of specific patterns of disturbance of the transcendental organisation of psychotic subjectivity. 2. The interpretative approaches are again divided into the so called "Daseinsanalyse" as a hermeneutic access to the inner biography and "Weltanschauung" of the psychiatric patient as well as the attempts of understanding the meaning of psychotic forms of experience. In this context a survey of the current fields of research of phenomenological psychiatry is given which aims at a deeper understanding of the situation of psychiatric patients and which claims to have a strong relevance for therapy. The relevance of such a phenomenological approach for current psychiatry lies in a broadening and sophistication of our experience in clinic and practice. Its main interest lies in the concentration on the patient as an individual and on the existential dimension of forms of mental and emotional diseases.