A phenomenological investigation of the distinction of a normal and a disturbed personality

In this paper I investigate the psychiatric differentiation between a normal and a disturbed personality using the phenomenological method. Initially four basic characteristics for a phenomenological understanding of personality are spelled out. These characteristics focus on the self-relation of the given person, thematize that the way of self-relation cannot be changed spontaneously, that this way of self-relation already shapes other situations and that these situations point back to a centre of activity (an "I"). The models of personality as used in the psychiatric field assume further more an internalisation of the personality and the possibility to determine the personality completely. These differences inhibit the understanding of the 'worldly' and the inconceivable quality of personality, since personality is always given in situations and can never be described completely. This leads to difficulties regarding the differentiation of normal and disturbed personalities. As an example this becomes especially clear, if the self-assessment and the psychiatric assessment are contradictory regarding the disturbance of the personality at stake. Surely every one can declare one's own way of relating to oneself, others and one's situations as one's "personal way of life". Yet, in the background of this impasse the psychiatric assessment comes back into play, if the person is not able to shape one's situations in a suitable way. This points out that the disturbance of a personality can be seen in its failing ability to shape one's own situation in a typical and suitable way. It can be concluded that it is the core of subjectivity (the self-relation) that is disturbed in a personality disorder. This corresponds to the fact that the psychiatric discourse only claims a person disordered in one's personality, if the person is itself of the opinion that one's personality is disordered. As can be seen, every possible characteristic which can be named as a clue for a personality disorder from the psychiatric-psychological point of view, means a failing changeability and flexibility in the self-relation, which shows itself mostly in a conflicting and inadequate shaping of situations and cannot be changed spontaneaously.