This book is intended to contribute towards a justification of the human sciences.

The theories on symbolization of the Neo-Kantian philosopher Ernst Cassirer and the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan are described and compared. Their common conception of man as an _animal symbolicum_ has been applied to a number of topics within the humanities to offer proof for its fruitfulness.

The situation of present day psychiatry is described as being dominated by an empiricist perspective. The limitations of this perspective are analyzed and a rough sketch of the hermeneutical approach in psychiatry is offered. It is argued that a fully developed hermeneutical psychiatry implies a reference towards anthropological themes. Three of them, time, historicity and corporality, are investigated.