SCHNEIDER, Daniela Ribeiro. The biographical method in Sartre: exististential contributions to Psychology. Estud. pesqui. psicol. []. 2008, 8, 2. ISSN 1808-4281.

The epistemological crisis in psychology at the start of the twentieth century, torn as it was between objectivist and subjectivist perspectives, began to demand from the scientific world a theoretical contribution in order to overcome this impasse. Phenomenology provided philosophical and methodological elements in order to establish a critique of psychologism, and to open the way to the development of new perspectives in this field. Sartre, thus influenced, and inspired by Marxism, elaborated a historical and dialectic concept which forms the core of the theory of existentialist psychology. In particular, the biographical method which he implemented contributed greatly to a method of psychology which goes beyond objectivism/subjectivism and allows for the development of the field within new parameters. In this article, the fundamental theory-methodologies of Sartre’s biographical method are explained.  I also discuss their practical application in his book, Saint Genet: comédien et martyr.

: Jean-Paul Sartre; Existentialist psychology; Biography; Life history; Jean Genet.

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