Existential phenomenology: support to caring and understanding the psychopathological experience of anxiety

Abstract

In Brazil, psychiatric reform faces pressure from groups for a counter-reform; just as the traditional psychiatric clinic remains guided by biomedical paradigms and improvement psychiatry; However, at this juncture, existential phenomenological psychopathology proves to be a powerful way of revitalizing attention to people in psychological distress, with emphasis on anxiety. Thus, we present a narrative review of theses, books and articles from 1995 to 2023, aiming to situate the insertion in Brazil of existential phenomenological psychopathology, fields of application, psychiatric reform and clinical strategies to situate the understanding of the person's anxious experience. Results: the phenomenological attitude refutes the positivist model of conceiving mental illness; promotes coping with the internal-external duality in the conception of symptoms, placing the experience of anxiety and the meaning of symptoms as parameters of care; helps health professionals orient themselves to the lifeworld of health unit users; Southern phenomenologies are Latin American points of view, on a developing sociocultural basis. We conclude that the existential phenomenological clinic favors confronting the neoliberal policies of psychiatric counter-reform and promoting the visibility of the person's singular experience.