The purpose of this paper is to revise the vulnerability model in the light of continental phenomenological psychopathology. Its main shortcomings, i.e. an insufficient assessment of basic phenomena and a blurred theory of subjectivity, are pointed out and improved by integrating the vulnerability model with the basic-symptom and intentionality theories. A clarification of the core property of schizophrenic basic phenomena – i.e. the loss of natural common sense – is achieved by means of the phenomenological methods of cognition. An analysis of the characteristics of major psychoses in terms of an excessive proneness (schizophrenia) or excessive resistance (manic-depressive illness) to the loss of natural common sense is carried out. This leads to an anthropological definition of psychoses as impairments of the dialectical movement between suspending common sense and conforming to it. The author’s opinion is that these achievements of the continental phenomenological psychopathology can find a pragmatic reference frame in the vulnerability model, suitable for the therapeutical intervention and empirical research strategies.

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© 1997 S. Karger AG, Basel
1997
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