A critique of natural scientific psychology from the Daseinsanalytic point of view

Abstract

The illustration of the fundamental, pre-scientific, presuppositions of natural scientific approaches to psychology, psychiatry and the related areas of research has been one of the most significant achievements of Heidegger's collaboration with the Swiss psychiatrist, Medard Boss. The central issue in this regard is the limitations of research based on the natural scientific orientation in understanding human experience. In this paper, different aspects of the Daseinsanalytic critique of this orientation would be discussed with reference to the four basic problems: the problem of natural scientific calculation, the problem of reality, the problem of human perception, and the problem of the conflation between the motive and the cause of human behavior. While thoughtlessness about these problems may result in scientific absolutism, questioning can free researchers from theoretical dogmas and the problematic ideas especially the idea of the full separation of psychology, as an exact science, similar to the natural modern science, from philosophy.

Keywords

• heidegger
• natural scientific psychology
• calculative thinking
• explanation of behavior
• human perception