This article consists of a discussion on hallucinations related to the field of psychotherapy and psychopathology based on considerations regarding perception presented by the French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty. A review of the classical conception of hallucination is presented, placing this phenomenon in the context of existential ontology. Hallucinations are grounded the phenomenal body’s prereflexive experience, and are characterized by: (1) the inner difference between hallucination and perception; (2) the expression of one’s own body; and (3) depersonalization. Consequences of this new perspective for hallucinatory phenomenon are discussed on ontological, ethical and epistemological grounds, as well as from the point of view of psychotherapy and psychopathology. On this latter point, the place of hallucination in relation to dreams, delusions and illusions is considered, as well as the difference between normality and pathology from the point of view of an existential approach in psychology.
Hallucination; phenomenal body; temporality; phenomenology; psychopathology