Historical-Hermeneutic Approaches in the Social Science

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis began with a young physician's search for the treatment of his patients with emotional problems. That young doctor was Sigmund Freud, and his theory was known as psychoanalytic theory. Freud theorized three levels of consciousness (conscious, pre-conscious and the unconscious mind)

• Conscious mind - is merely the tip visible above the surface, whereas the bulk of the important workings of the mind lurks mysteriously beneath the surface. 
• Pre-conscious mind - consist of memories that are not presently conscious but can easily be brought into consciousness. 
• Unconscious mind - stores primitive instinctual motives plus memories and emotions that are so threatening to the conscious mind that they have been unconsciously pushed into the unconscious mind through the process of repression. 

and three components of the personality structure (the id, ego, and the superego). The best known aspect of Freud's theory was his view that the mind is composed of the id, ego and superego. 

• The id is composed primarily of two sets of instincts, the life instincts and death instincts. 
• The ego operates according to the reality principle, this means that it holds the id in check until a safe and realistic way has been found to satisfy its motives. 
• The superego is the ethical component of the personality and provides the moral standards by which the ego operates. The superego's criticisms, prohibitions, and inhibitions form a person's conscience, and its positive aspirations and ideals represent one's idealized self-image, or “ego ideal.”

"Sigmund Freud"

Phenomonology

Phenomenology is the study of subjective experience. It is an approach to psychological subject matter that has its roots in the philosophical work of Edmund Husserl.

Hermeneutic Phenomenology is a particular type of phenomenology among a range of phenomenological methodologies, usually classified into  two camps, namely the descriptive phenomenology and the interpretive phenomenology. 

Descriptive phenomenology was developed by Edmund Husserl and interpretive or hermeneutic phenomenology by Martin Heidegger. Hermeneutic/ interpretive/ existential phenomenology is used to interpret the meaning of lived experiences and communicate the interpretation textually or symbolically. Transcendental/descriptive phenomenology is based on discovering the objective universal essences of lived experiences and communicating them through pure description. 

Descriptive and interpretive methodologies share four common features. 

• Description of phenomena is the aim of phenomenology. 
• Reduction is a process that involves suspending or bracketing the phenomena so that the 'things themselves' can be returned to. 
• Essence is the core meaning of an individuals experience that makes it what it is. 
• Intentionality refers to consciousness since individuals are always conscious to something. 

Between descriptive and hermeneutic phenomenology, hermeneutic phenomenology is more complex. As a methodology, descriptive and hermeneutic phenomenologies also vary significantly. In descriptive phenomenology one has the technique of 'bracketing off' influence around a phenomenon to get to essences. In hermeneutic phenomenology one has approaches that recommend to the researcher to interpret the meanings found in relation to phenomena.  

"Reflexivity "is a person's reflection upon or examination of a situation or experience. Reflexivity describe the process in which their questions, methods, and subject position might impact on the data or the psychological knowledge produced in a study. Reflexivity is often mentioned in hermeneutic phenomenology. The influence of descriptive and hermeneutic phenomenology is visible within the field of qualitative investigate methods. However, Hermeneutic  or interpretive phenomenology is more prominent being listed as one of various qualitative methodologies of the social science. It is also applied to many sorts of qualitative studies in the human science.   

"Edmund Husserl"