‘There is a Crack in Everything’. Fragile Normality: Husserl’s Account of Normality Re-visited
Abstract
There is paradox that lies at the heart of every investigation of normality, namely, its dependence on its other (e.g., deviation, break, difference). In this paper, I want to show that this paradox is the reason for the dynamism as well as fragility of normality. In this regard, I will not only argue that every normality is fragile, but also that normality can only be established because it is fragile. In the first part of this paper, I will present and re-visit Husserl’s account of normality as concordant and optimal with regard to its dynamic or fragile aspects. In the second part of this paper, I will apply this account to recent findings in phenomenological pathology regarding schizophrenia and depression to show how Husserl’s account could be helpful for differentiating between different aspects (such as concordance and optimality) as well as genetic levels of (disturbances of) normality.
References
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DEPUE, R. A., M. D. DUBICKI, and T. MCCARTHY (1975). «Differential Recovery of Intellectual, Associational, and Psychophysiological Functioning in Withdrawal and Active Schizophrenics». Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 84, 325-30.
DEPRAZ, N. (1994). «Temporalité et affection dans les manuscrits tardifs sur la temporalité (1929-1935) de Husserl». Alter, 2, 63-86.
DREYFUS, H. L. (1972). What Computers Can’t Do: A Critique of Artificial Reason. Harper & Row: New York.
FOUCAULT, M. (2006). The History of Madness. Trans. J. Murphy and J. Khalfa. London and New York: Routledge.
— (1991a). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. A. Sheridan. London: Vintage.
— (1991b). The Foucault Reader. Studies in Governmentality, ed. by G. Burchell, C. Gordon, and P. Miller. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
— (1980). The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction. Trans. R. Hurley. New York: Vintage Books.
FRITH, C. D. (1992). The Cognitive Neuropsychologia of Schizophrenia. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
FRITH, C. D. and D. John DONE (1988). «Towards a Neuropsychology of Schizophrenia». British Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 437-443.
FUCHS, Th. (2013). «Temporality and Psychopathology». Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 12, 75-103.
— (2012). «The Phenomenology of Body Memory». In: S. C. Koch, Th. Fuchs, M. Summa, and C. Müller (eds.). Body Memory, Metaphor, and Movement. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 9-22.
— (2000). «Das Gedächtnis des Leibes». Phänomenologische Forschungen, 5, 71-89.
GALLAGHER, S. (2005). How the Body Shapes the Mind. New York: Clarendon.
GELB, A. and K. GOLDSTEIN (1920). Psychologische Analysen hirnpathologischer Fälle. Leipzig: Barth.
HEAD, H. (1926). Aphasia and Kindred Disorders of Speech. London: Cambridge University Press.
HEINÄMAA, S. (2013). «Transcendental Intersubjectivity and Normality: Constitution by Mortals». In: D. Moran and R. T. Jensen (eds.). The Phenomenology of Embodied Subjectivity, 83-103. Dordrecht: Springer.
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HUSSERL, E. (2008). Die Lebenswelt. ed. by R. Sowa. Husserliana XXXVIII. Dordrecht: Springer.
— (1991). On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time. Dordrecht: Kluwer 1991.
— (1973). Experience and Judgment. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
— (1966). Analysen zur passiven Synthesis. ed. M. Fleischer. Husserliana XI. Dordrecht: Springer.8
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MAIESE, M. (2018). «Getting Stuck: Temporal Desituatedness in Depression». Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 17, 701-718.
MERLEAU-PONTY, M. (2012). The Phenomenology of Perception. Trans. D. A. Landes. New York: Routledge.
MINKOWSKI, E. (1970). Lived Time: Phenomenological and Psychopathological Studies. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
OKSALA, J. (2016). Feminist Experience: Foucauldian and Phenomenological Investigations. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
POSADA, A.; N. FRANCK; N. GEORGIEFF; and M. JEANNEROD (2001). «Anticipating Incoming Events: An Impaired Cognitive Process in Schizophrenia». Cognition, 81, 209-225.
RATCLIFFE, M. (2012). «Varieties of Temporal Experience in Depression». Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 37, 114-138.
— (2010). «Depression, Deep Guilt, and Emotional Depth». Inquiry, 53 (6), 602-626.
SCHILDER, P. (1923). Das Körperschema. Springer: Berlin
SCHUTZ, A. (1976). The Stranger. In: Collected Papers II. Studies in Social Theory, ed. by Arvid Brodersen. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
SHAFER, E. W. P., and M. M. MARCUS (1973). «Self-Stimulation Alters Human Sensory Brain Responses». Science, 181, 175-177.
SLABY, J. (2008). «Affective Intentionality and the Feeling Body». Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 7, 429-444.
SIMONS, D. J. and C. F. CHABRIS (1999). «Gorillas in Our Midst: Sustained Inattentional Blindness for Dynamic Events». Perception, 28, 1059-1074.
SIMONS, D. J. and R. A. RESINK (2005). «Change Blindness: Past, Present, and Future». Trends in Cognitive Science, 9, 16-20.
SINGH, J. R.; T. KNIGHT; N. ROSENLICHT; J. M. KOTUN; D. J. BECKLEY; and D. L. WOODS (1992). «Abnormal Premovement Brain Potentials in Schizophrenia». Schizophrenia Research, 8, 31-41.
SMITH, B. (2013). «Depression and Motivation». Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 12, 615-635.
STEINBOCK, A. (1995a). «Phenomenological Concepts of Normality and Abnormality». Man and World, 28, 241-260.
— (1995b). Home and Beyond. Generative Phenomenology after Husserl. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press.
TAIPALE, J. (2014). Phenomenology and Embodiment: Husserl and the Constitution of Subjectivity. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
— (2012). «Twofold Normality: Husserl and the Normative Relevance of Primordial Constitution». Husserl Studies, 28, 49-60.
THOMPSON, E. (2007). Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of the Mind. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
WEHRLE, M. (2018). «Being a body and having a body. The twofold temporality of embodied intentionality». Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. < https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-019-09610-z >
— (2015a). «Feelings as a Motor of Perception. The Essential Role of Interest for Intentionality». Husserl Studies, 31, 45-64.
— (2015b). «Normality and Normativity in Perception». In: T. Breyer & M. Doyon (eds.). Normativity in Perception, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 128-140.
— (2010). «Die Normativität der Erfahrung – Überlegungen zur Beziehung von Normalität und Aufmerksamkeit bei E. Husserl». Husserl Studies, 26, 167-187.
ZAHAVI, D. (2003). «Inner Time Consciousness and Pre-Reflective Self-Awareness». In: D. Welton (ed.). The New Husserl: A Critical Reader. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 157-180.
ZAHAVI, D. and J. PARNAS (1998). «Phenomenal Consciousness and Self-Awareness: Phenomenological Critique of Representational Theory». Journal of Consciousness Studies, 5, 687-705.
BASSO, E. (2012). «On Historicity and Transcendentality Again. Foucault’s Trajectory from Existential Psychiatry to Historical Epistemology». Foucault Studies, 14, 154-178.
CANGUILHEM, G. (1991). The Normal and the Pathological. Trans. C. R. Fawcett in collaboration with R. S. Cohen. New York: Zone Books.
BOVET, P., and J. PARNAS (1993). «Schizophrenic Delusions: A Phenomenological Approach». Schizophrenia Bulletin, 19: 579-97.
DEPUE, R. A., M. D. DUBICKI, and T. MCCARTHY (1975). «Differential Recovery of Intellectual, Associational, and Psychophysiological Functioning in Withdrawal and Active Schizophrenics». Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 84, 325-30.
DEPRAZ, N. (1994). «Temporalité et affection dans les manuscrits tardifs sur la temporalité (1929-1935) de Husserl». Alter, 2, 63-86.
DREYFUS, H. L. (1972). What Computers Can’t Do: A Critique of Artificial Reason. Harper & Row: New York.
FOUCAULT, M. (2006). The History of Madness. Trans. J. Murphy and J. Khalfa. London and New York: Routledge.
— (1991a). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. A. Sheridan. London: Vintage.
— (1991b). The Foucault Reader. Studies in Governmentality, ed. by G. Burchell, C. Gordon, and P. Miller. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
— (1980). The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction. Trans. R. Hurley. New York: Vintage Books.
FRITH, C. D. (1992). The Cognitive Neuropsychologia of Schizophrenia. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
FRITH, C. D. and D. John DONE (1988). «Towards a Neuropsychology of Schizophrenia». British Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 437-443.
FUCHS, Th. (2013). «Temporality and Psychopathology». Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 12, 75-103.
— (2012). «The Phenomenology of Body Memory». In: S. C. Koch, Th. Fuchs, M. Summa, and C. Müller (eds.). Body Memory, Metaphor, and Movement. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 9-22.
— (2000). «Das Gedächtnis des Leibes». Phänomenologische Forschungen, 5, 71-89.
GALLAGHER, S. (2005). How the Body Shapes the Mind. New York: Clarendon.
GELB, A. and K. GOLDSTEIN (1920). Psychologische Analysen hirnpathologischer Fälle. Leipzig: Barth.
HEAD, H. (1926). Aphasia and Kindred Disorders of Speech. London: Cambridge University Press.
HEINÄMAA, S. (2013). «Transcendental Intersubjectivity and Normality: Constitution by Mortals». In: D. Moran and R. T. Jensen (eds.). The Phenomenology of Embodied Subjectivity, 83-103. Dordrecht: Springer.
HEINÄMAA, S. and J. TAIPALE (2018). «Normality». In: G. Stanghellini, A. Raballo, M. Broome, A. V. Fernandez, P. Fusar-Poli, and R. Rosfort (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology.
HUSSERL, E. (2008). Die Lebenswelt. ed. by R. Sowa. Husserliana XXXVIII. Dordrecht: Springer.
— (1991). On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time. Dordrecht: Kluwer 1991.
— (1973). Experience and Judgment. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
— (1966). Analysen zur passiven Synthesis. ed. M. Fleischer. Husserliana XI. Dordrecht: Springer.8
HUSSERL, E. Manuscripts, Ms. D 13, XII, XIV (Husserl Archives in Leuven).
JASPERS, K. (1973). Allgemeine Psychopathologie. 9th ed. Berlin: Springer.
JACOBS, K.; A. STEPHAN, A.; PASKALEVA-YANKOVA; and W. WILUTSKY (2014). «Existential and Atmospheric Feelings in Depressive Comportment». Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology, 21 (2), 89-110.
JUARRERO, A. (1999). Dynamics in Action. Cambridge: MIT Press.
LACAN, J. (1961). «Maurice Merleau-Ponty». In: Autres écrits. Paris: Seuil, 178-182.
LEGRAND, D. (2006). «The Bodily Self: The Sensori-Motor Roots of Pre-Reflective Self- Consciousness». Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 5, 89-118.
MACK, A. and I. ROCK (1998). Inattentional Blindness. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
MACKENZIE, C. (2000). «Imagining Oneself Otherwise». In: C. Mackenzie and N. Stoljar (eds.). Relational Autonomy: Feminist Perspectives on Autonomy, Agency, and the Social Self. New York: Oxford University Press.
MAIESE, M. (2018). «Getting Stuck: Temporal Desituatedness in Depression». Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 17, 701-718.
MERLEAU-PONTY, M. (2012). The Phenomenology of Perception. Trans. D. A. Landes. New York: Routledge.
MINKOWSKI, E. (1970). Lived Time: Phenomenological and Psychopathological Studies. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
OKSALA, J. (2016). Feminist Experience: Foucauldian and Phenomenological Investigations. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
POSADA, A.; N. FRANCK; N. GEORGIEFF; and M. JEANNEROD (2001). «Anticipating Incoming Events: An Impaired Cognitive Process in Schizophrenia». Cognition, 81, 209-225.
RATCLIFFE, M. (2012). «Varieties of Temporal Experience in Depression». Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 37, 114-138.
— (2010). «Depression, Deep Guilt, and Emotional Depth». Inquiry, 53 (6), 602-626.
SCHILDER, P. (1923). Das Körperschema. Springer: Berlin
SCHUTZ, A. (1976). The Stranger. In: Collected Papers II. Studies in Social Theory, ed. by Arvid Brodersen. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
SHAFER, E. W. P., and M. M. MARCUS (1973). «Self-Stimulation Alters Human Sensory Brain Responses». Science, 181, 175-177.
SLABY, J. (2008). «Affective Intentionality and the Feeling Body». Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 7, 429-444.
SIMONS, D. J. and C. F. CHABRIS (1999). «Gorillas in Our Midst: Sustained Inattentional Blindness for Dynamic Events». Perception, 28, 1059-1074.
SIMONS, D. J. and R. A. RESINK (2005). «Change Blindness: Past, Present, and Future». Trends in Cognitive Science, 9, 16-20.
SINGH, J. R.; T. KNIGHT; N. ROSENLICHT; J. M. KOTUN; D. J. BECKLEY; and D. L. WOODS (1992). «Abnormal Premovement Brain Potentials in Schizophrenia». Schizophrenia Research, 8, 31-41.
SMITH, B. (2013). «Depression and Motivation». Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 12, 615-635.
STEINBOCK, A. (1995a). «Phenomenological Concepts of Normality and Abnormality». Man and World, 28, 241-260.
— (1995b). Home and Beyond. Generative Phenomenology after Husserl. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press.
TAIPALE, J. (2014). Phenomenology and Embodiment: Husserl and the Constitution of Subjectivity. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
— (2012). «Twofold Normality: Husserl and the Normative Relevance of Primordial Constitution». Husserl Studies, 28, 49-60.
THOMPSON, E. (2007). Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of the Mind. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
WEHRLE, M. (2018). «Being a body and having a body. The twofold temporality of embodied intentionality». Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. < https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-019-09610-z >
— (2015a). «Feelings as a Motor of Perception. The Essential Role of Interest for Intentionality». Husserl Studies, 31, 45-64.
— (2015b). «Normality and Normativity in Perception». In: T. Breyer & M. Doyon (eds.). Normativity in Perception, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 128-140.
— (2010). «Die Normativität der Erfahrung – Überlegungen zur Beziehung von Normalität und Aufmerksamkeit bei E. Husserl». Husserl Studies, 26, 167-187.
ZAHAVI, D. (2003). «Inner Time Consciousness and Pre-Reflective Self-Awareness». In: D. Welton (ed.). The New Husserl: A Critical Reader. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 157-180.
ZAHAVI, D. and J. PARNAS (1998). «Phenomenal Consciousness and Self-Awareness: Phenomenological Critique of Representational Theory». Journal of Consciousness Studies, 5, 687-705.
Published
2019-02-05
How to Cite
WEHRLE, Maren.
‘There is a Crack in Everything’. Fragile Normality: Husserl’s Account of Normality Re-visited.
Phainomenon, [S.l.], n. 28, p. 49-76, feb. 2019.
ISSN 2183-0142.
Available at: <https://phainomenon-journal.pt/index.php/phainomenon/article/view/373>. Date accessed: 13 jan. 2025.
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