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Edward. S Gardner
Abstract
This paper highlights the work of the Czech Psychotherapist and Philosopher Eva Syristova. Little of her innovative work
psychosis in the context of Phenomenological, Existential and Hermeneutic philosophy is available in English. However
some English translations of her papers are available which were presented in Analecta Husserliana: The Year Book of
Phenomenological Research as conference proceedings of The World Institute for Advanced Phenomenological
Research. This paper gives a descriptive account and summary of her work with relation to psychosis and her
phenomenological orientation.
Keywords: Eva Syristova, Psychosis, Czech Phenomenology, Psychotherapy, Analecta Husserliana, Zenoian Syndrome,
Life World, Lebenswelt, Psychopathology, Psychotherapy of Psychosis.
Biographical Note.3
Eva Syristova is a Czech
views
the semantic field' is lacking and hence the ability to create a stable structuration to
experience. In psychosis the ability to generalise is impaired due to the lack of
structure and limit. Syristova likens such a description as having affinities 'with the
analyses of Matte-Blanco and Kasanin which show the schizophrenic to regard all
possibilities as being simultaneous and relations being symmetric which makes the
solving of a problem impossible.'(1998:291) Clearly such a perspective impacts on
the personal experience of time and temporality which in a discrete manner is
necessary for the initiation and completion of projects in living. In this sense,
Syristova draws attention not only to the structural and cognitive aspects of
experience but also to the problematic relation of a person in psychotic distress to
the life-world.
Positive Features of Zenoian Syndrome.
Whilst outlining the negative aspects of the disrupted experience of cognition
and the temporal series of chaotic instances Syristova also points to some positive
and resourceful notions beyond a simple psychopathological account. As a
phenomenologist she is acutely aware that our phenomenological apprehension of
the world is mostly a matter of non-reflective engagement and as such 'is
reproductive in nature and which is regulated by ready made rules without much
creative intervention.' (1998:292)
Creativity, Life-World and Psychosis.
In 'The Creative Explosion of the Life-world in Schizophrenic Psychosis: Its
Import for Psychotherapy' (1989:603-612) Syristova wants to stress the creative
potentials which many people with schizophrenia can achieve and express. Moving
beyond 'deficiencies in creative ability and the deformation of its forces' there can
arise 'auto-sanative' activities.' (603) In this argument Syristova moves beyond
mechanistic approaches of pharmacology and psychotherapy which has a
tendency to restrictively pathologise those suffering. She argues that there can be a
psychical richness which is afford in psychosis which is ignored by generalised
notions of normality. It is in the therapeutic process which these generative and
creative aspects can come to the fore. For Syristova she emphasises the
phenomena towards the unknown substance itself of all apparent finished forms
and denotations.' (608)4 As in modern art there is questioning of simple formalistic
representation so also in psychosis and artistic creation there is a questioning of
traditional / conventional forms of expression. She states:
This activity constitutes an extraordinarily sensitive though unintentional and
unconscious seismograph, revealing the living tune of a man who carries
inside extreme anxiety and rebellion against the dehumanization of the
contemporary world of over-technicized and over-rationalised consumer
society, as well as extreme anxiety over the monstrous atrophying of human
relations and our reduction to things.
Here her critique refers to the perennial phenomenological concern
regarding the mathematization of our relation to the world. So schizophrenia can be
a mirroring of our 'unravelling world.....even consciousness of any dehumanized
and dissolving way of life.' (608-609) Those people who experienced psychosis
4 Archeypes
acceptance of the patient by the therapist the attempt is made to find a 'landmark' in
which to ground and situate creative and possible potential. In this context there
can arise an experience of understanding in the therapeutic dialogue whereby
existence can be experienced as intelligible and moving beyond senselessness. In
identify a landmark amongst the confusion of the patient's dreamy territory there
can be a beginning point to 'aid modelling and discovering the patient's self portrait
and his picture of the world' (610) Rather than follow a regressive understanding of
psychosis Syristova sees the schizophrenic person in a process of 'multivalent
logic' which involves the failure to structure 'the semantic field for the innumerable
choices before him.' (610)
In terms of the psychotic experience of time it seems to elide the series of
acts and its situation in spatiality, the horizons of time are 'hypertrophied', confused,
and unstable which impedes future possibility. However as Syristova states this is
not simply to be understood as a 'pathological deficit' (611) but in contradistinction
to the cultural thematization of time as imitation, the reproduction of social patterns
and senseless repetition. The Zenoian perspective raises a constructive challenge.
This syndrome involves at one and the same time casting doubt upon all
given and know phenomena, and the transcending of all limits in a
hypertrophic temporal and significant experience. It involves jumping into a
non- dimensional world.
This opens up a realm of possibility in the curative practices of psychotherapy
whereby a patient can move from confusion between 'innumerable accidental
possibilities....and the creation of his own self and world.
Bibliography:
Patocka. J. (2015) 'Edmund Husserl's Die Krisis der europaischen und die
transcendentale Phanomenologie.' (Translated into English) L. Ucnik et al. (eds.),
The Phenomenological Critique of mathematisation and the Question of
Responsibility. Contributions
to
Phenomenology
76,
Switzerland.
Springer
International Publishing.
Syristova. E. (1989) 'The Creative Explosion of the Life-World in Schizophrenic
Publishers.
__________.
(2002)
'The
Phenomenological-Hermeneutical
Approach
in
(ed.),Phenomenology
World
Wide,
Foundations
Expanding