Phenomenology: Need to understand how people perceive the world around them and how such perceptions can lead to isolation and dysfunction or happiness and fulfillment? Then think like a phenomenologist.

Phenomenology is the study of consciousness and awareness of experience. It is a field of philosophy and psychology that examines how we perceive and experience phenomena (e.g., ourselves, the world, others, time), how those perceptions are manifested by us in memories, emotions, desires and forms of expressions and, for those unfortunate enough to be mentally ill, in the experiential dimensions of psychopathology. In the land of family life and the melodramas of adolescence, think of how your teenager might perceive a situation as catastrophic that you regard it as insignificant.

In the health sciences as a research method and treatment approach phenomenology can, for example, provide insights into the cognitive processes of people with autism spectrum disorders, obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and so on and thereby facilitate the development of treatments that address the particular fears and modes of perceptions of such populations.

Phenomenology’s major revelation:
We need objects of contemplation
For you can’t do thinking of any kind
With nothing particular on your mind.