The Seduction of Positivism: An Existential Phenomenological Explanation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65828/cdg56c57Abstract
This paper explores the phenomena of communication between patients and psychiatrists. We contend that there is in operation two paradigms or modes of understanding the human subject. Psychiatrists appear to employ a form of positivism, whilst patients employ a form of phenomenology. Whilst positivism is the dominant force in most psychiatrist-patient relationships, it is also a form of legitimated discourse. In this paper we want to explore why this is the case and to suggest that medical hegemony alone could not suffice to explain the power of positivism and rather that explanations in terms of a positive therapeutics need to be addressed. It is this dual aspect of positivism, power and legitimation that we have called the seduction of positivism.
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