Overcoming Hermeneutical Injustice in Mental Health

A Role for Critical Phenomenology

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8409286
AutoresRosa Ritunnano (0000-0002-7967-5830, The University of Melbourne, autor correspondente)
Ano2022
Volume53
Fascículo3
Páginas243-260
Data de publicação2022-07-03
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0007-1773 • E-ISSN: 2332-0486
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00071773.2022.2031234
OpenAlexW4210593814
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas40
Referências citadas45

The significance of critical phenomenology for psychiatric praxis has yet to be expounded. In this paper, I argue that the adoption of a critical phenomenological stance can remedy localised instances of hermeneutical injustice, which may arise in the encounter between clinicians and patients with psychosis. In this context, what is communicated is often deemed to lack meaning or to be difficult to understand. While a degree of un-shareability is inherent to subjective life, I argue that issues of unintelligibility can be addressed by shifting from individualistic conceptions of understanding to an interactionist view. This takes into account the contextual, historical and relational background within which meaning is co-constituted. I conclude by providing a corrective for hermeneutical injustice, which entails a specific attentiveness towards the person's subjectivity, a careful sensitivity to contingent meaning-generating structures, and a degree of hermeneutical flexibility as an attitude of openness towards alternative horizons of possibility

Epistemology · Individualism · Injustice · Meaning (existential) · Openness to experience · Phenomenology (philosophy) · Praxis · Sociology · Subjectivity · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology