Idols of the psychologist: Johannes Linschoten and the demise of phenomenological psychology in the Netherlands.

Abstract

Before and after World War II, a loose movement within Dutch psychology solidified as a nascent phenomenological psychology. Dutch phenomenological psychologists attempted to generate an understanding of psychology that was based on Husserlian interpretations of phenomenological philosophy. This movement came to a halt in the 1960s, even though it had been exported to North America and elsewhere as "phenomenological psychology." Frequently referred to as the "Utrecht school," most of the activity of the group was centered at Utrecht University. In this article, the authors examine the role played by Johannes Linschoten in both aspects of the development of a phenomenological psychology: its rise in North America and Europe, and its institutional demise. By the time of his early death in 1964, Linschoten had cast considerable doubt on the possibilities of a purely phenomenological psychology. Nonetheless, his own empirical work, especially his 1956 dissertation published in German, can be seen to be a form of empiricism inspired by phenomenology but that clearly distanced itself from the more elitist and esoteric aspects of Dutch phenomenological psychology.

Interpretative phenomenological analysis and embodied, active, situated cognition

“…It is therefore committed to situating personal meaning in context. Largely in contrast to the Dutch School (Van Hezewijk & Stam, 2008), IPA draws on the hermeneutic phenomenology of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty (J.A. Smith et al, 2009), to view the personal and social as mutually constitutive.…”

“…From the perspective of psychology, this history often begins with the work of the "Dutch School"-active in Utrecht during the 1950s, and strong advocates for the contribution which could be made to psychology by a Husserlian focus on experience. The fortunes of this group, and their work, were mixed (see Van Hezewijk & Stam, 2008), but through their relationships with the psychologists at Duquesne University in the United States, they have had lasting impact on psychology. Duquesne remains an internationally recognized centre for a form of descriptive, empirical phenomenology (Giorgi, 2000) which has clearly been influenced by the Dutch School.…”

Phenomenological Psychology: A Brief History and Its Challenges

“…I say "so-called" because it was so loosely organized that there are disputes about whether it was in fact a genuine school (van Hezewijk and Stam, 2008) and because it seems that many other factors in addition to phenomenology influenced the values that the "school" maintained (Dehue, 1995). A discussion of the issues related to Utrecht could also take a chapter but I have to limit the discussion to the following few remarks.…”

Research approaches related to phenomenology: negotiating a complex landscape

“…The Utrecht school of phenomenology is so named because most of the early activity in this school occurred at Utrecht University in the 1950s and 1960s. However, this label of 'Utrecht school' was not one adopted by those in the school but given to it by others(van Hezewijk and Stam 2008). Its philosophical stance arose from Husserl, Jaspers, Scheler (all phenomenologically oriented), and French existentialists, Sarte, Marcel and de Beauvoir(van Hezewijk and Stam 2008).…”