Making Sense of The Subjective
Making Sense of The Subjective
Making Sense of The Subjective
Rev. Latinoam. Psicopat. Fund., São Paulo, 23(2), 337-348, jun. 2020
http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1415-4714.2020v23n2p337.10
Claudio E. M. Banzato*2
Rafaela T. Zorzanelli*3
The chief danger to our philosophy, apart from laziness and woolliness,
is scholasticism, the essence of which is treating what is vague as if it
were precise and trying to fit it into an exact logical category. (Ramsey,
1929/1931, p. 269)
Psychopathology is often said to be the “basic science” of
psychiatry. In a way, this is the received view, with implicit underlying
assumptions that bring about far-reaching consequences. We think that
both words of the expression need to be briefly analyzed to clarify what
is packed within the received view. “Basic” is meant to indicate that
psychopathology deals with the simplest and most fundamental morbid
subjective phenomena and provides them with its first-order organization
and conceptualization, producing thus the very building blocks upon
338 which psychiatry will then set up its nosology and semiology. Science,
on the other hand, is used to describe the systematic and critical
investigations, typically empirically grounded, in the pursuit of objective
and epistemically warranted knowledge about the world, including
human-related affairs. The term “science” also has a normative ring to it
to the extent that a given ideal of precision, objectivity, and groundedness
remains necessarily operative. It presupposes that the boundaries of the
object of a given science can be defined with stability. So, we argue
that, when applied to psychopathology, “basic science” may turn out to
be somehow misleading, and perhaps it would be more accurate to call
psychopathology the core discipline of psychiatry instead of its basic
science. However, our aim goes well beyond the mere dispute of words
on what would be the role of psychopathology in psychiatry (which is
a practical, modificatory enterprise); what we want to address here is
how we make sense of the subjective experience of others and, with this
goal in mind, we initially raise some conceptual issues that are logically
prior to the very constitution of any psychopathology. They refer both
to ontological and epistemological aspects of subjective experience,
such as its nature, its stability, and the ways it can be accessed. The very
possibility of a science of subjectivity is thus challenged.
Rev. Latinoam. Psicopat. Fund., São Paulo, 23(2), 337-348, jun. 2020
EPISTEMOLOGIA DA PSICOPATOLOGIA
Rev. Latinoam. Psicopat. Fund., São Paulo, 23(2), 337-348, jun. 2020
R E V I S T A
LATINOAMERICANA
DE P S I C O P A T O L O G I A
F U N D A M E N T A L
Drawing from Martin Buber’s work, Eilan (s.d.) is very precise when
talking about reciprocity as an essential feature of the knowledge-as-
communication model: “When one says You, the I of the You is said too.”
(p. 18). As she points out, if someone tells me that she is sad, I gain some
knowledge about her by her telling me so. If I was told about something,
the speaker comes up to know something about me, since she knows that I
know how she feels. Knowing and being known by others have a reciprocal
structure, which is a remarkable difference from the unidirectionality of the
observation-based knowledge model. “You are only aware of her as ‘you’
when she reciprocates — ‘you’ thinking is a kind of thinking about a person
you can only engage in when that person thinks about you in the same way
[…].” (p. 16)
Thus, being a person and treating others like persons are two sides of the
same coin. There is a kind of knowledge that is founded on intersubjectivity.
Instead of the two-stage process implied by the observational claim, inward
and outward observation (that is, introspection and the combination of
perception and inference), we have, according to Eilan (s.d.), the one-stage
communication-as-connection, which underpins the communication claim. In
her words: “They are in this sense instances of knowledge that is essentially
and irreducibly ‘knowledge for two’” (p. 10). According to this author, these 343
foundational forms of communication would represent the kind of episteme
required for our knowledge of other minds. It starts with the understanding of
meaning, and the understanding of meaning goes all the way down. Quoting
Eilan once again: “[…] with persons, unlike with physical objects, one’s
knowledge of them is bound up, in its foundation, with making sense of them
through making sense of their communications with oneself” ( p. 19).
The idea of the communication model is supposed to be an alternative
form of episteme from the scientific one in general, and an alternative to the
observation-based knowledge, in particular. It is fair to say that the idea of
communication, in this case, goes beyond the concept of transmission of
information between people. It offers, in its place, an inherently relational
model in which the mutual address requirement would allow mutual
knowledge itself, or a “communication-as-connection”’ (Eilan, s.d., p. 25).
So, reciprocal communication is considered as the foundation of both self and
other understanding.
When I register the other’s awareness of me as “you”, in the first person, I am
aware of being an addressee for the other, and in virtue of that a subject, an
“I” for the other. Or, more accurately, I am simultaneously aware of myself as
addresser and addressee, a partner in dialogue, so aware of my being treated
Rev. Latinoam. Psicopat. Fund., São Paulo, 23(2), 337-348, jun. 2020
R E V I S T A
LATINOAMERICANA
DE P S I C O P A T O L O G I A
F U N D A M E N T A L
Rev. Latinoam. Psicopat. Fund., São Paulo, 23(2), 337-348, jun. 2020
R E V I S T A
LATINOAMERICANA
DE P S I C O P A T O L O G I A
F U N D A M E N T A L
References
Resumos
Rev. Latinoam. Psicopat. Fund., São Paulo, 23(2), 337-348, jun. 2020
EPISTEMOLOGIA DA PSICOPATOLOGIA
Rev. Latinoam. Psicopat. Fund., São Paulo, 23(2), 337-348, jun. 2020
R E V I S T A
LATINOAMERICANA
DE P S I C O P A T O L O G I A
F U N D A M E N T A L
Citação/Citation: Banzato, C. E. M., & Zorzanelli, R. T. (2020, jun.). Making sense of the
subjective experience of others. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicopatologia Fundamental,
23(2), 337-348. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1415-4714.2020v23n2p337.10.
Editora/Editor: Prof. Dr. Mario Eduardo Costa Pereira
Submetido/Submitted: 21.5.2020 / 5.21.2020 Aceito/Accepted: 30.5.2020 / 5.30.2020
Copyright: © 2009 Associação Universitária de Pesquisa em Psicopatologia Fundamental/
University Association for Research in Fundamental Psychopathology. Este é um artigo de
livre acesso, que permite uso irrestrito, distribuição e reprodução em qualquer meio, desde
que o autor e a fonte sejam citados / This is an open-access article, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and sources
are credited.
Financiamento/Funding: Este trabalho não recebeu apoio / This work received no funding.
Conflito de interesses/Conflict of interest: Os autores declaram que não há conflito de
interesses / The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Claudio E. M. Banzato
Professor of Psychiatry; Medical School, University of Campinas – Unicamp (Campinas,
348 SP, Br).
Rua Tessália Vieira de Camargo, 126
Cidade Universitária “Zeferino Vaz” – Barão Geraldo
13083-887 Campinas, SP, Br
cbanzato@unicamp.br
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8556-3982
Rafaela T. Zorzanelli
Psychologist; Associate Professor; Institute for Social Medicine, State University of Rio de
Janeiro – UERJ (Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Br).
Rua São Francisco Xavier, 524, Pavilhão João Lyra Filho, 7º andar / blocos D e E, e 6º
andar / bloco E – Maracanã
20550-013 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Br.
rtzorzanelli@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7531-8492
Rev. Latinoam. Psicopat. Fund., São Paulo, 23(2), 337-348, jun. 2020