A formação da personalidade humana na antropologia fenomenológica de Edith Stein

Abstract

There is in the constitution of psychological science a long history of searching for knowledge about the traits of human uniqueness. Among such investigations there is the study of the human personality, which spans from the conception of human spread by classical literary authors, to the great authors from different areas and eras of philosophical and scientific knowledge who dealt with human nature. The philosophical anthropology of the phenomenologist Edith Stein (1891-1942), who dealt in depth with the structure and human nature, stands out. With hers appropriation of the phenomenological method in its fundamental elements, Stein's philosophical contributions are extremely important in the rigorous foundation of several fields of knowledge, especially Psychology. Considering this, and in view of a scarce production on the subject of personality in phenomenologically-based psychology today, as well as the lack of consensus on the definitions and ways of approaching human personality, a research aimed at explaining the phenomenon of human personality, seeking to contribute to the development of a Phenomenological Psychology was developed based on Edith Stein's phenomenological investigations. For this investigation, a theoretical-bibliographic research was carried out, adopted as a methodological procedure, whose analyzed works were: “Contributions to the philosophical foundation of Psychology and the sciences of the spirit” (1922/2005), “Structure of the human person” (1932/2003), “The finite being and the Eternal Being” (1950/2007), “Introduction to Philosophy” (1920/2005) and the conference “The intellect and intellectuals” (1930/2003), being used also some works by interpreting authors. Thus, a synthesis with the exposure of the main elements of Stein's research on the structure of the human person was made, as well as on the issue of the specificity and uniqueness of the human being, and from them to identify the main Steinian ideas about the character and personality that contributed to the phenomenological description of the human person and could guide a deeper analysis of personality in Edith Stein's thought, serving as a secure basis for Psychology. So, for the development of the research, began to describe the historical panorama of the theme of personality and its investigation, highlighting the area of Personality Psychology and its limitations, whose epistemological assessment leads to the exposure of the need for a Phenomenological Psychology. Next, the steinian contribution to a rigorous foundation of psychological investigations was evidenced, outlining the aspects of the structure of the human person that are relevant to the understanding of personality. And, finally, there was a deepening of the dimensions of human structure and formation that are more intrinsically related to human personality, seeking to offer a definition of what constitutes it, based on Edith Stein's phenomenological anthropology. So, it was concluded that personality for Stein is a structure, possessing an intrinsic dynamic of constitution, which permeates all human dimensions and which forms a personal peculiarity, configuring a scope of possibilities of direction, interests and capabilities that guide the potential manifestations of individuality and which is also characterized by being freely self-configured, aiming at a purpose or an ideal, and such configuration is operated from more or less lasting qualities of the formed character, resulting from the dynamics between the personal specificity and psychic states in face of the values and meanings mobilized by the experience.