Phenomenology of Anomalous Experience. An Approach to Psychopathology of Affectivity from Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenologies

Abstract

One of the relevant topics in contemporary phenomenological discussion is the psychopathology of affectivity. One of the central concerns for this reflection is: how do we delimit the boundary between psychopathological and non-psychopathological affective experience? To resolve this question, the following contribution aims to propose a definition of psychopathological affectivity as “anomalous” experiences. That is, lived experiences whose emergence disarticulate the style of world of a subject while simultaneously stripping them of the possibility of re-articulating that relationship under new modalities. To achieve this goal, our proposal will unfold in three moments. First, and following a definition of anomalous experience, we will describe the phenomenological status of affectivity in light of Martin Heidegger’s philosophy. Second, and in order to think through the relationship between affectivity and normativity, we will examine Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of the “institution of feelings”. Finally, through an exegesis of both authors, it will be shown that psychopathological affective experiences are those that involve a feeling of alienation due to a “rigidification” of the subject’s style of world brought about by the arrival of an anomalous event.