Regard phénoménologique sur le noyau sensitif

In 1927, Ernst Kretschmer published the second German edition of “Paranoia and sensitivity: contribution to the problem of paranoia and psychiatric theory of character” in which Kretschmer opposes Kraepelin and abandons the idea of a persecutory delusion arising from an isolated point, evolving inexorably to the chronic state according to a rigid and progressive paranoid schema. In opposition to this implacable evolution, which for Kraepelin shows the progressive advance of an illness, Kretschmer posits the instabililty of the delusion and the frequent occurrence of an “abortive” paranoia: sensitive to the context, variable over time.Moreover, this author abandons the idea of identifying a single sensitive character, describing asthenic, psychopathic, expansive forms. He does nevertheless bring out an essential type of existence, seeking a common trait behind this clinical variability: retention of affects. This clinical approach is similar in some respects to the phenomenological approach: the reduction of any theory on paranoia and the free variation on the sensitive characters make it possible to go beyond the facticity of clinical pictures and to identify the eidetic characters of a paranoid type.We propose to identify other essential manifestations of such an existential type, and to envisage their relations with the melancholic type and the schizophrenic type. In particular we will examine the essential reasons for the sensitive's failure in meeting others, in reference to Buytendjik's phenomenology of meeting.