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Some forty years ago Edmund Husserl spoke publicly for the first time of a new phenomenological psychology. He saw this new psychology as a discipline that was destined to play an important role in the already established empirical psychology as well as in philosophy. Subsequently under the influence of his ideas an extensive phenomenological psychological movement began to spread through various European countries. When a careful analysis of this phenomenological movement is made, one becomes aware of a number of clearly distinguishable currents and schools, all of which claim Husserl as their origin. The truth is, however, that only a very few psychologists actually use Husserl's concepts without making major modifications. Furthermore, many psychologists talk about phenomenology without stipulating precisely what is meant by the term. To compound the difficulties there is noticeable in phenomenological literature a frequent failure to make a clear distinction between Husserl's thought and that of other phenomenologists such as Scheler, Heidegger, Jaspers, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre and Binswanger.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-3589-1_1

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