Crisis in Sciences and Psychology: criticisms by Edmund Husserl and Farias Brito

Abstract

Psychology, traditionally a reflection on the soul, is a millennia-old Western discipline. Modern psychology, influenced by the Cartesian method and, later, by the desire to be recognized as a natural science, separated itself from philosophy and constituted itself as an experimental science. However, the transposition of the natural-scientific method to psychological investigation introduced numerous methodological and epistemological challenges due to the nature of its object of study: the soul. Previously focused on exploring the mysteries and qualitative complexity of the human soul, Psychology shifted to measuring internal experiences and states of consciousness. Given this scenario, this study aims to illuminate the so-called “crisis” in sciences and humanity arising from positivism-naturalism, and the specific “crisis” in psychological science, as pointed out by Edmund Husserl and Farias Brito, along with their critiques of Scientific Psychology. The research undertaken was theoretical-qualitative, grounded in phenomenological philosophy and Brito’s philosophy, adhering to theoretical-bibliographic research methods. Central texts analyzed were “The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology – An Introduction to Phenomenology” by Husserl and “Inner World: an essay on the general data of the philosophy of the spirit” by Brito. The analysis of these philosophical works concludes that there are convergences in their criticisms of Scientific Psychology, particularly their denunciation of the direct transposition of the positivist-scientific method to Psychology, which obstructs accessing subjectivity and studying the entirety of the human being. Contrarily, both Husserl and Farias Brito propose the need for a “new psychological science”: Phenomenological Psychology and Transcendent Psychology, respectively, calling for further studies.