Psychiatrists today feel they are pulled between two schools of thought: on the one hand there is the theory which is based mainly on neuroscientific research, on the other hand there is the theory which puts more emphasis on the narrative character of psychiatric illness. In this article we will overlook this dichotomy and concentrate on psychiatry as a unitas multiplex, based on the foundations of both schools of thought. Both the scientific method and the phenomenological approach play an essential role in medical practice. Heidegger's thinking in the Zollikon Seminars will serve to develop a methodological consciousness.