Elements for a Phenomenology of Cultures: Cultural Existentials and the Dialectical Experiential Matrix.

Summary

A critical expansion of phenomenological psychopathology from the individual to the collective dimension is proposed. To describe collective life and its link to individual psychology, the paper shifts focus from society to culture—a transversal symbolic system extending beyond social groups—and introduces "cultural existentials" (time, space, body, etc.) as a priori conditions of experience. These are integrated into a Dialectical Experiential Matrix (DEM) that frames the patient's experience as a dynamic interplay between individual freedom and cultural influence. An analysis of the convergence between pornographic culture and the homo œconomicus type demonstrates how cultural existentials provide a model for narcissistic vulnerabilities and dysregulations of alterity, offering a diagnostic device for clinicians.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This paper proposes a critical expansion of phenomenological psychopathology of the individual to explicitly integrate the collective dimension. In order to accurately describe the scenario of collective life, and its relationship with the psychology and psychopathology of individual existences, we propose two moves: (1) A shift of focus from society (which denotes an organized aggregate of individuals) to culture (a transversal symbolic system, capable of extending beyond the boundaries of the original social group), since in the context of advanced globalization the conception of stable social aggregates has been replaced by models of fluid and changing "cultural flows". (2) To phenomenologically describe these cultural flows that traverse the contemporary world, we introduce the concept of "cultural existentials" (time, space, body, and others) as a priori conditions of experience derived from the analysis of the fundamental structures of individual lifeworlds, as employed in phenomenology. These cultural existentials are integrated into a Dialectical Experiential Matrix (DEM), designed to overcome the reductionism of both structuralism and subjectivist individualism. The DEM frames the patient's experience as a dynamic interplay between individual freedom (the capacity for self-positioning) and cultural influence. An illustrative application analyzing the convergence between "pornographic culture" and the "homo œconomicus" anthropological type is provided to demonstrate how cultural existentials offer a collective model for specific narcissistic vulnerabilities and dysregulations of alterity, providing a crucial diagnostic device for the clinician.