ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a clinical case study of psychotherapy with a person diagnosed with dementia which lasted for over three years and formed part of a research project exploring the possibility of psychotherapy with this client group. It explores the "subjective" limits of phenomenology and existentialism by looking at the work of Buber and the "I-Thou" relationship and considering the challenge made by the continental philosopher Emmanuel Levinas to the whole concept of "intentionality". The practice example provided the opportunity to explore possible implications for both research and theory in relation to what is being described as the post-existential. A re-evaluation of Freud's approach to research was carried out from a phenomenological-hermeneutic perspective giving rise to a method that stressed the importance of descriptive data rather than any preoccupation with the pursuit of definitive truth. The phenomenological ideas of Husserl emerge from this challenge to science by arguing that the world exists independent of a person's perception.
