Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Recent phenomenological research on limit-experiences has witnessed an increasing interest in the idea of “basic trust,” commonly interpreted in light of Merleau-Ponty’s notion of “perceptual faith”. However, I argue that basic trust is not reducible to perceptual faith, insofar as losing one’s perceptual grip on the world completely obstructs one’s access to the world. Instead, I propose an interpretation of basic trust in accordance with Heidegger’s hermeneutical notion of familiarity ( Vertrautheit ), which accommodates two fundamental traits of basic trust that, when couched in perceptual terms, become irreconcilable. First, basic trust must be understood as a world-disclosive experience that lays the ground for being-in-the-world. Second, due to its inherent vulnerability, basic trust must be liable to loss. Following Blankenburg, I argue that this is the case with schizophrenia, which I interpret as a dynamic process of defamiliarization followed by the inextricable attempt at refamiliarization with an alien world.
Source: Human Studies
Author: Vasile Visoțchi
Institution: University of Bucharest
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,290
OpenAlex ID: W4414493607