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Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that has gained a great deal of attention since its formal inception in the 1970’s. But like many other mental disorders, there exists a gap between the lived experience of the PTSD sufferer and the scientific knowledge of the psychiatrist. If phenomenology is, as Husserl says, the unifying, sense-giving foundation of all science, it seems we must start inquiry with a scientific understanding of lived experience. I will attempt to bridge the gap between psychiatry and lived experience by using phenomenology to make clear the essence of PTSD. In our investigation, we will examine PTSD through a broadly Husserlian lens. Guided by the symptomology of PTSD, we will attempt to make clear the features of consciousness that render PTSD possible as a configuration of consciousness. Special attention is paid to memory, presence, and the Heideggerian concept of care. We uncover, by the end, that the essence of PTSD, is temporal “stickiness”—wherein the past sticks to all temporal modes through recollection. Assuming that our description is successful, we have more evidence to believe that phenomenology is a proper and reliable methodology for understanding lived experience—and therefore all science.

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