Clinical phenomenology and its psychotherapeutic consequences

Summary Can phenomenology be therapeutic in general and especially in the case of schizophrenia? This question is advanced within the framework of the dialectical model in psychopathology whose central ideas are the following: mental pathology contains “positive” features that cannot be simply reduced to negativity (abnormality or absence of mental health), and persons with mental illnesses are not merely passively thrown in their vulnerability, rather they are actively engaged in trying to cope, solve and make sense of it. The dialectical model is employed in the psychotherapy of persons with schizophrenia by applying two concepts: position-taking and perspectivism.