The Impact of "Phenomenology" On

North American psychiatric literature de- scribes the current method of psychiatric diagnostic assessment as "phenomenological"; however, it is un- clear what phenomenology 1 means in this context. This paper investigates the meaning and impact of some of the major philosophical and psychiatric defi- nitions of phenomenology on contemporary psychiat- ric assessment. Employing a comparative analysis of selected definitions of phenomenology, this paper ar- gues that North American psychiatric assessment does not reflect any of these definitions of phenomenology. Instead, within the context of psychiatric assessment, phenomenology has taken on an idiosyncratic, clini- cal meaning of signs and symptoms. However, this does not mean that phenomenology has had no im- pact on North American psychiatry. This paper con- tends that phenomenology has made contributions to psychiatry, particularly in the area of psychotherapy and especially in self-psychological psychotherapy. The importance of the concept of empathy within psycho- therapy is evidence of the continuing influence of philosophical phenomenology on psychiatry. This pa- per concludes that phenomenology can provide an important complementary perspective to the domi- nant methods of North American psychiatric practice.