Phenomenology of obsessiveness Fenomenología de la obsesividad

Abstract

Following the tradition of researchers of the phenomenological- anthropological school such as Straus, von Gebsattel, Tellenbach and Blankenburg, the author attempts to approach the obsessive-compulsive disorder from a phenomenological perspective. This means setting aside any previous ideas about the phenomenon in question, including genetic, neurobiological and clinical-statistical considerations. He takes as his starting point a clinically typical case he studied and treated with psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy for many years. After delving briefly into the interesting psychodynamic connections between the patient's symptoms and life story, he proceeds to analyse the obsessive world itself from a spatial and temporal point of view. Regarding the former, he points out that the features associated with human spatiality, according to Heidegger, the tendency to diminish distance and concede space, are specifically altered in the obsessive phenomenon. With respect to temporalit