Phenomenology in other disciplines
Of greater significance is the role of phenomenology outside philosophy proper in stimulating or reinforcing phenomenological tendencies in such fields as mathematics and the biological sciences. Much stronger was its impact on psychology, in which Brentano and the German philosopher and theoretical psychologist Carl Stumpf had prepared the ground and in which the American psychologist William James, the Würzburg school, and the Gestalt psychologists had worked along parallel lines. But phenomenology probably made its strongest contribution in the field of psychopathology (see also mental disorder), in which the German existentialist Karl Jaspers stressed the importance of phenomenological exploration of a patient’s subjective experience. Jaspers was followed by the Swiss psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger and several others. The phenomenological strand was also very pronounced in American existential psychiatry and affected sociology, history, and the study of religion. More recently, phenomenology has influenced research in some areas of cognitive science.
Walter Biemel