Innovating the person-centered approach through phenomenological research

ABSTRACTOne of the developments of Carl Rogers’ proposal of the person-centered approach has used the phenomenological method in research based on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of ambiguity, which seeks to overcome the dichotomy between the subject and object, having the Lebenswelt – or the lived world – as the leading thread. The aim of this article is to present the humanist-phenomenological clinic or Lebenswelt’s clinic. It discusses Merleau-Ponty’s views as an inspiration for theoretical and empirical studies which propose to overcome the anthropocentric approach that focuses on the inner person of the client in order to focus on his lived world at the intersection with the lived world of the psychotherapist and the world itself. It describes theoretical studies, developed over the last 30 years in Brazil, regarding the concepts of authenticity, of experience, of diagnosis and psychopathology in Rogers’ work and how phenomenological tradition of psychopathology can contribute. It also presents em...