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BACK ISSUES |
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| Volume 7, Edition 2, September 2007 |
| Volume 7, Edition 1, May 2007 |
| Volume 6, Edition 2, August 2006 |
| August 2006, Special Edition: Methodology |
| Volume 6, Edition 1, May 2006 |
| Volume 5, Edition 2, December 2005 |
| Volume 5, Edition 1, April 2005 |
| Volume 4, Edition 1, August 2004 |
| Volume
3, Edition 1, November 2003 |
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VOLUME 7 EDITION 2, September 2008 | | Editorial
| Professor
C R Stones, Editor-in-Chief,
Rhodes University, South Africa | | Interpretive Hermeneutic Phenomenology: Clarifying Understanding
Click here to view an abstract of this article | Ann
Holroyd
Malaspina University College, Vancouver Island, Canada | | Gadamer’s
Hermeneutic Contribution to a Theory of Time-Consciousness Click here to view an abstract of
this article | Professor David Vessey
Collegiate Division of the Humanities, University of Chicago, USA
| | Sympathy and the Non-human: Max Scheler’s Phenomenology of Interrelation
Click here to view an abstract of this article | David
Dillard-Wright
Department of Philosophy, University of South
Carolina (Aiken), USA
| | Husserl, the Monad and Immortality
Click here to view an abstract of this article | Dr Paul MacDonald
Department
of Philosophy, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia | | The Nature of Belief and the Method of Its Justification in Husserl’s Philosophy
Click here to view an abstract of this article | Assistant Professor Carlos Sanchez
Department of Philosophy, San Jose State University, San Jose, California, USA | | The
Limitations of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and Psychodynamic
Therapies of Suicidality from an Existential-Phenomenological
Perspective
Click here to view an abstract of this article | Gabriel
Rossouw
Psychologist, New Zealand
| | Domestic Temporalities: Sensual Patterning in Persian Migratory Landscapes
Click here to view an abstract of this article
| Dr Simone Dennis
Department of
Anthropology, University of Southern Queensland, Australia Dr Megan WarinMedical Anthropologist, Durham University, UK | |
Click
here to view an abstract of this
article
| Michael Miller
Graduate instructor, Communication Department,
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, USA
Noah Franken
Graduate Instructor, Communication Department,
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, USA
Kit Kiefer
Graduate Student, Communication Department,
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, USA | | Book Review: Embodied Enquiry
Les Todres (2007). Embodied Enquiry: Phenomenological Touchstones for Research, Psychotherapy and Spirituality. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. | Professor Sally Borbasi
School
of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University (Logan campus), Queensland,
Australia
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Abstracts for Articles in this issue:
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Interpretive Hermeneutic
Phenomenology: Clarifying UnderstandingThe philosophical orientation of Gadamerian
hermeneutic phenomenology is explored in this paper. Gadamer offers a
hermeneutics of the humanities that differs significantly from models of the
human sciences historically rooted in scientific methodologies. In particular,
Gadamer proposes that understanding is first a mode of being before it is a mode
of knowing; what this effectively offers is an alternative to the traditional
way of understanding in the human sciences. This paper details why the work of
hermeneutics is not to develop a procedure for understanding, but to clarify the
conditions of understanding. In this explication, the author examines the
hermeneutic experience and, in the process, relates it to both the practical and
the historical horizons of the lifeworld of health professionals, particularly
nurses.
Gadamer’s Hermeneutic Contribution to
a Theory of
Time-ConsciousnessThe
nature of time-consciousness is one of the central themes of phenomenology, and
one that all major phenomenologists have addressed at length, except Hans-Georg
Gadamer. This paper attempts to develop Gadamer’s account of time-consciousness
by looking, firstly, at two essays related to the topic, and then turning to his
discussion of experience in Truth and Method (1960/1991) before, finally,
considering his discussion of the unique temporality of the festival in the
essay “The Relevance of the Beautiful” (1977/1986). What we find in Gadamer’s
understanding of time is an emphasis on the epochal structure of
time-consciousness.
Sympathy and the
Non-human: Max Scheler’s Phenomenology of InterrelationGerman
phenomenologist and sociologist Max Scheler accorded sympathy a central role in
his philosophy, arguing that sympathy enables not only ethical behaviour, but
also knowledge of animate and inanimate others. Influenced by Catholicism and
especially St Francis, Scheler envisioned a broad, cosmic sympathy forming the
hidden basis for all human values, with the “higher” religious, artistic,
philosophic and other cultural values enabled by a more basic regard for
non-human nature and insights gained from the human situation within the
non-human world. Sympathy for the non-human is thus both integral and
fundamental to the cultivation of other values in the development of both the
human person and humanity in general.
Scheler’s concept of sympathy is
valuable for contemporary animal ethics because it insists on acknowledgement of
and respect for difference as constitutive for the experience of sympathy. By
thus allowing for sympathy to occur in the absence of complete knowledge of
other subjectivities, Scheler’s phenomenology of sympathy eliminates the need
for complete understanding of the consciousness of other animals as a
prerequisite for interspecies sympathy. Despite their inability to completely
inhabit non-human perspectives, humans can thus sympathize with other
creatures.
While Scheler is a foundational thinker and, to a large
degree, maintains hierarchical structures contested by many contemporary animal
theorists, he remains a valuable source for contemporary theory insofar as he
acknowledges a “fundamental basis of connection” between species and affirms
that all animal bodies are communicative. The occasioning of sympathy by
gestural signification opens a path of insight that can increase human openness
to non-human others.
Husserl, the Monad and
ImmortalityIn
an Appendix to his Analyses Concerning Passive and Active Synthesis dating from
the early 1920s, Husserl makes the startling assertion that, unlike the mundane
ego, the transcendental ego is immortal. The present paper argues that this
claim is an ineluctable consequence of Husserl’s relentless pursuit of the ever
deeper levels of time-constituting consciousness and, at the same time, of his
increasing reliance on Leibniz’s model of monads as the true unifiers of all
things, including minds. There are many structural and substantive parallels
between Leibniz’s monadic scheme and Husserl’s later views on the primal ego,
and these points of convergence are laid out step by step in this paper. For
both theorists, the monad is a self-contained system of being, one “without
windows”; a monad’s experiences unfold in harmonious concatenations; a monad is
a mirror of its proximate environs and comprises multiple perspectives; the
unconscious is a repository of potential activation; and, most importantly of
all, a monad knows no birth and death and hence is immortal. In his very last
years, Husserl proposed a third ego level, below (or beyond) the mundane ego and
transcendental ego - the primal ego. It is neither psychical nor physical; it
permits the transcendental ego to carry out its constitutive activities,
including the mundane ego’s birth and death in time; it is always in a process
of becoming, and so it can never be in a state of only “having-been”, that is,
dead: and hence the primal ego’s enduring cannot itself ever come to an
end.
The Nature of Belief and the
Method of Its Justification in Husserl’s PhilosophyThe present paper attempts to accomplish the
following: (1) to clarify and critically discuss the phenomenology of “belief”
as we find it in Husserl’s Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a
Phenomenological Philosophy, First Book (1913) (henceforward, Ideas I); (2) to
clarify and critically discuss the manner in which the phenomenological method
treats beliefs; (3) to clarify and critically discuss the manner of belief
justification as described by the phenomenological method; and (4) to argue
that, just as the phenomenological method can be used to validate scientific
hypotheses, it can likewise be practised in our everyday worldly comportment to
justify our everyday, commonsense beliefs. The paper proceeds from the idea that
the phenomenological method is not the static descriptive method some make it
out to be, but, rather, a living method at the service of life. The author
begins with some preliminary remarks about Husserl’s concerns with unfounded or
presupposed beliefs and their necessary “suspension” as dictated by the
phenomenological reduction and epoche (“the method”). He then engages the text
of Ideas I, especially sections 101 to 106, where Husserl presents a
phenomenological conception of the character of belief. The paper concludes by
treating the nature of belief justification, or “rational positing”, and puts
forward the view that the phenomenological method in everyday practice can aid
us in the realization of responsible epistemic conduct and, ultimately, lead
toward responsible conduct towards ourselves and, hence, authentic being.
The Limitations of
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and Psychodynamic Therapies of Suicidality from an
Existential-Phenomenological Perspective
Suicidality, a significant problem in New Zealand for the past decade or
so, has invited a substantial body of research into causes and prevention.
However, given the effort, the prevention results do not appear to be
sufficiently convincing when coroners’ views are considered. This paper focuses
on two mainstream therapeutic approaches towards persons with borderline
personality disorder, in which suicidal behaviour is a prominent feature
demanding understanding and active attention. It is argued that dialectical
behaviour therapy and psychoanalytically informed therapies are lacking on two
accounts. Firstly, the philosophical and methodological underpinnings of both
approaches perpetuate what Heidegger refers to as the compound misunderstanding
of ourselves as human beings. Secondly, what this translates into is a practice
which forgets the human order and misunderstands the experience of the singular
human present in despair. As an alternative approach towards dealing with
suicide in practice, the author presents concepts central to Heidegger’s
phenomenology of human existence and discusses how these may inform and enhance
the treatment of suicidal patients.
Domestic
Temporalities: Sensual Patterning in Persian Migratory Landscapes
When dealing with the moving worlds of
migration among the Persian diaspora in Australia, memories cannot simply be
removed to dusty attic boxes to be stored as an archive. Rather, this analysis
takes the body and its sensory engagement with the world as a central focus,
arguing that memories are crafted, tasted, smelt and touched in everyday
temporalities. In the kitchens and lounges of Persian migrant women the lived
past refuses to become undone from the countless revolutions of food, talk and
domestic activity that are central to the patterning of memory. In this paper,
we argue that these intimate practices have references beyond their domestic
dimensions, for they point to a worldly movement of life writ domestically
small. It is via a sensory network that the spatially and temporally disparate
worlds of homeland and new homes are remembered and forgotten, and where
miniature worlds call out to the movement of migration.
Exploring Touch Communication
Between Coaches and AthletesIn athletics, coaches and athletes share
a unique and important relationship. Recently Jowett and her colleagues (Jowett
& Cockerill, 2003; Jowett & Meek, 2000; Jowett & Ntoumanis, 2003,
2004; Jowett & Timson-Katchis, 2005) utilized relationship research
(focusing on, for example, marital, familial and workplace relationships) from
conjoining fields, and in particular social and cognitive psychology, to develop
and test a four-component model (4 C’s) that depicts the most influential
relational and emotional components (closeness, commitment, complementarity and
co-orientation) of coach-athlete relationships. Proceeding from a review of the
literature on human touch communication to examine research on the power of
touch to exchange relational and emotional messages (Hertenstein et al., 2006),
the present study explores coaches’ and athletes’ collective experiences of
communicating via touch, utilizing in-depth interviews with eight college
coaches and athletes. A phenomenological approach was used to gather, analyze
and interpret the data, drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s (1945/1962) philosophical
exploration of perception and human experience, which emphasizes the body as a
means of communicating with the world. The findings indicate that touch between
coaches and athletes increased at major events when emotions and tensions ran
high. In addition, touch involved showing appreciation, instructing, comforting
and giving attention, and affected perceptions of relationships. The findings
also show that touch communication is influenced by societal factors, such as
gender, relational stage, and what spectators, parents and other athletes may
think. By illustrating how touch is enacted and experienced by a group of
college coaches and athletes, the study represents an initial step toward
understanding touch communication in the coach-athlete dyad.
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VOLUME 7 EDITION 1, May 2007
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Editorial
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Bruce Bradfield
Clinical Psychologist, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
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Understanding the Ubiquity of the Intentionality of Consciousness in Commonsense and Psychotherapy
Click here to view an abstract of this article |
Dr Ian Rory Owen
Principal Integrative Psychotherapist, Leeds Mental Health Trust, UK |
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Click here to view an abstract of this article |
Associate Professor Rich Furman
Department of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA |
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Associate Professor David Russell
School of Psychology, University of Western Sydney, NSW, Australia |
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Associate Professor Brian Mooney
School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University.
Damien Norris
Independent Human Rights Practitioner, Perth, Western Australia
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Click here to view an abstract of this article |
Associate Professor Archana Barua
Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, India |
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Natural
and Supernatural: Intersections Between the Spiritual and Natural
Worlds in African Witchcraft and Healing with Reference to Southern
Africa
Click here to view an abstract of this article
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Theodore S. Petrus
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, School of Social Sciences and
Humanities, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth,
South Africa
David Bogopa
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, School of Social Sciences and
Humanities, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth,
South Africa |
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| Book Review: Psychotherapy and Phenomenology Ian Rory Owen (2006). Psychotherapy and Phenomenology: On Freud, Husserl and
Heidegger. New York: iUniverse.
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Professor Rex van Vuuren
Academic Dean, St Augustine College, Midrand, South Africa |
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Abstracts for Articles in this issue:
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Examining the Lived World: The Place of Phenomenology in Psychiatry and Clinical PsychologyThis
paper aims to explore the validity of phenomenology in the psychiatric
setting.The phenomenological method - as a mode of research, a method
of engagement between self and other, and a framework for approaching
what it means to know -has found a legitimate home in therapeutic
practice.Over the last century, phenomenology, as a philosophical
endeavour and research method, has influenced a wide range of
disciplines, including psychiatry. Phenomenology has enabled an
enrichment of such practice through deepening the way in which we can
come to know the experiences of the other.This knowing-of-the-other is
explored here within the context of psychiatric and clinical
assessment. The question asked is: How best can we come to know those
we work with? What method of engagement can be used to most completely
come to understand and narrate the experiences of the individual, and
how can this be applied in the context of an assessment aimed at
psychiatric or psychological intervention? Elements of phenomenological
praxis are presented as definitive of the most integral way of
approaching the human subject. Husserlian and Heideggerian notions are
explicated and related to phenomenological conceptions of
intersubjectivity, in an effort to describe a phenomenology that can be
used effectively within the psychiatric setting.
Understanding the Ubiquity of the Intentionality of Consciousness in Commonsense and Psychotherapy
A
formal and idealised understanding of intentionality as a mental
process is a central topic within the classical Husserlian
phenomenological analysis of consciousness. This paper does not define
Husserl’s stance, because that has been achieved elsewhere (Kern,
1977, 1986, 1988; Kern & Marbach, 2001; Marbach, 1988, 1993, 2005;
Owen, 2006; Zahavi, 2003). This paper shows how intentionality informs
therapy theory and practice. Husserl’s ideas are taken to the
psychotherapy relationship in order to explain what it means for
consciousness to have intentionality in various ways. The role of
intentionality in psychopathology and its treatment within cognitive
behavioural therapy is explained as a way of showing how understanding
intentionality creates a medium for the delivery of care.
This
article explores existential principles through autoethnographic poetry
and narrative reflections. The use of poetry and narrative as tools in
qualitative research is explored. Poetry and narratives are shown to be
valuable tools for presenting people’s lived experiences of
complex existential principles and processes. The use of poetry and
narrative in this research is positioned within the traditions of
expressive arts and postmodern research methods. Managing Above the Graft: How Management Needs its Fertile Wounds from which Imagination can GrowThe
aim of this paper is to show how the incorporation of metaphoric and
poetic ways of thinking into the evaluation of a leadership development
programme both captured the imagination of the employees and benefited
the core business of a manufacturing production plant. Qualitative data
evaluating the effectiveness of a substantial leadership programme were
presented back to all members of a manufacturing plant (executive and
non-executive) in the form of composite narratives over an
eighteen-month period. Recommendations were derived from the text of
the narrative and were progressively implemented. Such was the positive
response to the written narratives that senior management asked the
researchers to present the narratives in the form of a
‘live’ performance. Evaluation through qualitative
methodology lends itself to an imaginative interpretation and
presentation. Although qualitative and quantitative data tend to be
regarded as complementary in applied research, it was
management’s decision to employ only a qualitative process in
this instance. The decision was fortuitous, given that the leadership
development programme was initially judged to be a failure, as it
triggered a subsequent imaginative engagement that turned a failure
into a success.
Merleau-Ponty on Human Motility and Libet’s Paradox
In
1979, neuroscientists Libet, Wright, Feinstein and Pearl introduced the
“delay-and-antedating” hypothesis/paradox based on the
results of an on-going series of experiments dating back to 1964 that
measured the neural adequacy [brain wave activity] of “conscious
sensory experience”. What is fascinating about the results of
this experiment is the implication, especially when considered in the
light of Merleau-Ponty’s notions of “intentionality”
and the “pre-reflective life of human motility”, that the
body, and hence not solely the mind, is a thinking thing. The
experiments and conclusions of Libet et al. have attracted considerable
academic attention and have been used in the development of
psychological theories on automotivism and the adaptive unconscious.
Moreover, they have engendered a series of important considerations in
respect of the question of free will. This paper outlines the
connections between the findings of Libet et al. and
Merleau-Ponty’s ontology as presented in the Phenomenology of
Perception (1945/1962). It is not our intention to argue that the
former amounts to new wine in old bottles, but rather to show
counterfactually (since we offer no new scientific data and assume the
conclusions of the experiments) that Merleau-Ponty’s ontology
provides a theoretical framework which explains the experimental data
obtained by Libet et al., and provides further speculative confirmation
of the work stemming from neuro-physical research and emerging theories
on the adaptive unconscious.
Husserl, Heidegger, and the Transcendental Dimension of Phenomenology
Understanding
phenomenology as a philosophical approach in which human-world
relationships are analysed, as well as the constitution of subjectivity
and objectivity within these relationships, this paper addresses some
issues related to the transcendental dimension in the phenomenology of
Edmund Husserl. An attempt is also made to re-address some issues
related to phenomenology and its transcendental dimension as understood
by adherents of hermeneutical phenomenology such as Paul Ricoeur. In
essence, the focus of the paper is on exploring the following issues:
what is this transcendental turn in Husserl’s philosophy? Is this
an ‘unfortunate turn’ toward a neo-Kantian brand of
transcendental idealism? What is the significance of this
transcendental dimension in Husserl’s phenomenology? Is there any
distinctive phenomenological programme that, despite their differences,
is common to both Husserl and Heidegger? This line of questioning
proceeds from the observations made by Paul Ricoeur that, “with
the development of his ‘hermeneutics of facticity’,
Heidegger rejected Husserl’s neo-Kantian brand of transcendental
phenomenology in favour of a de-transcendental and historicized way of
doing philosophy, that Heidegger understood the subject to be
‘factic’, in contrast to Husserl’s pure ego as the
source of the world constitution”(Hahn, 1995). Ultimately,
however, the thrust of this exploration is towards understanding the
transcendental way of doing philosophy and the so-called historicized
way of philosophizing as two distinct ways to reach one common goal,
the transcendental dimension of meaning.
Natural
and Supernatural: Intersections Between the Spiritual and Natural
Worlds in African Witchcraft and Healing with Reference to Southern
Africa
For
generations, African beliefs and practices regarding witchcraft and
traditional healing have been located at the intersection between the
natural world and the supernatural world. Despite the impact of both
colonialism and, in the contemporary context, modernization, the
complex interplay between these worlds has not been reduced. The
interaction between nature and religion, as a facet of culture, has
long been a subject of inquiry in anthropology, and nowhere is this
more evident than in the study of African witchcraft and traditional
healing. A distinct relationship exists between witchcraft beliefs and
traditional healing methods. This relationship brings these two aspects
of African culture together in such a complex manner that it is
difficult to attempt to understand the dynamics of African witchcraft
without referring to traditional healing methods, and vice versa. In
this paper, the authors outline the various ways in which African
witchcraft beliefs and practices, as well as traditional healing
beliefs and practices, interact within the nature/culture domain. This
interaction will be conceptualised in a Merleau-Pontian sense, focusing
on the indeterminacy of the natural and supernatural worlds. In its
presentation of an essentially anthropological case study focused on
southern Africa, the paper draws on various ethnographic examples of
African communities in the southern African context.
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VOLUME 6 EDITION 2, AUGUST 2006
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Dr Neil Soggie
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Atlantic Baptist College, Canada
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Steve Schofield
PhD Student, Department of Philosophy, Murdoch University, Australia
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Kerstin Erlandsson
PhD student, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Dr Kyllike Christensson
Professor, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Dr Ingegerd Fagerberg
Associate Professor, Mälardalen University, Västerås and Eskilstuna, Sweden
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Dr Maurice Apprey
Professor of Psychiatry, University of Virginia, USA
Dr Endel Talvik
Psychologist, Estonia
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Dr Juha HimankaAdjunct Professor (Theoretical Philosophy), University of Helsinki, Finland |
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Book Review: Quantum Closures and Disclosures
Gordon G. Globus (2003). Quantum Closures and Disclosures: Thinking-Together Postphenomenology and Quantum Brain Dynamics (Volume 50 in the series Advances in Consciousness Research). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
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Dr Tere Vaden
Professor of Philosphy, University of Tampere, Finland |
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Book Review: Companion Guides to Contemporary Shamanism
Hillary S. Webb (2003). Exploring Shamanism: Using Ancient Rites to Discover the Unlimited Healing Powers of Cosmos and Consciousness. Franklin Lakes, NJ: New Page Books Hillary
S. Webb (2004). Travelling between the Worlds: Conversations with
Contemporary Shamans. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing
Company, Inc.
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Penny Bernard
Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Rhodes University, South Africa |
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Abstracts for Articles in this issue: |
The Essentials of Existential Psychoanalysis
The
purpose of this inquiry was to provide a guide for discussing the
essential requirements for existential therapy, in particular within
the initial phase. From the responses of a sample of professional
therapists, three essential themes have been identified: convenience
(that is, having a script that will allow the therapist to reach a
rapid understanding of the nature of the client’s existential
being), mythic familiarity, and an emphasis upon imaginal techniques.
This
paper explores the phenomenon of thought insertion, an experience
reported by some schizophrenics where it is believed that other persons
or forces are inserting thoughts into their minds. This relatively
circumscribed symptom of schizophrenia raises difficult questions
concerning our sense of agency for our thoughts. How is it possible
that persons can think that their thoughts are not their own?
Gallagher, drawing on Husserl’s early work on time-consciousness,
provides a subtle and sophisticated answer to this problem, suggesting
that protention may underlie our sense of agency for thinking and that
the experience of inserted thoughts may occur in the event of an
intermittent failure in this protentional function. More recent Husserl
scholarship suggests, however, that this account may face problems on
phenomenological grounds. It is argued here that our sense of agency
for thinking requires more than protention, and, consequently, that the
absence of protention cannot fully explain the loss of agency for
thinking characterizing the experience of thought insertion. In order
to contextualize this discussion of the phenomenon theoretically and,
in the process, to provide an introduction to the difficulties in
explaining it, this paper proceeds with a consideration of
Frith’s early cognitive account of thought insertion and the
contribution of Stephens and Graham in this regard. In conclusion, it
is argued that, despite the merits of all three accounts presented,
they remain unable to account for the phenomenon of inserted thoughts,
and that we might more fruitfully understand this experience as being a
type of uncontrollable passive or autochthonous thinking.
Fatherhood as Taking the Child to Oneself: A Phenomenological Observation Study after Caesarean BirthThis
paper describes the meaning of a father’s presence with a
full-term healthy child delivered by caesarean section, as observed
during the routine post-operative separation of mother and child.
Videotaped observations recorded at a maternity clinic located in the
metropolitan area of Stockholm, Sweden formed the basis for the study,
in which fifteen fathers with their infants participated within two
hours of elective caesarean delivery in the 37th - 40th week of
pregnancy. A phenomenological analysis based on Giorgi’s method was conducted
on the data. The description of the new father’s experiences that
emerged pointed to a process of being and becoming in taking the child
to himself. Fatherhood developed gradually as a result of recurrent
experiences of the child’s expressions. There was an ebb and flow
between taking on the role of being a father and physical withdrawal
from the role.
The
findings of this study not only confirm previous accounts of new
fathers’ experiences, but go further in revealing an ebb and flow
variation in the fathers’ involvement. What this indicates is
that the process of transition to fatherhood requires not only presence
but time. The period required for this process thus must not be
disturbed, but supported, trusting in the father’s ability to
assume his role as a father. It is suggested that, in addition to their
relevance in guiding the attitudes and expectations of those
professionally involved in postnatal care and community health, these
findings could be useful in antenatal courses for parents, and
especially in instances when caesarean birth is planned, to highlight
the meaning of the role of fathers as caregivers.
On
the Sense of Ownership of a Community Integration Project:
Phenomenology as Praxis in the Transfer of Project Ownership from Third-Party Facilitators to a Community after Conflict Resolution
There
are non-governmental organizations that operate transnationally and
there are those that operate within the boundaries of a nation. A third
use of non-governmental organizations is articulated. We may call this
third category an instrumental use of non-governmental organizations to
facilitate the transfer of the work of third-party conflict resolution
practitioners to the two previously feuding parties. Representative
accounts are provided in Part I of this paper.
In
Part II, the instrumental use of the NGO to transfer knowledge from
practitioners to the indigenous and previously feuding parties is
depicted as a means to fill a practice gap in the field of conflict
resolution, where many praxes do not examine the transfer of knowledge
in an experiential and discovery-oriented way. An alternative is
presented where the process of appropriation is suggested as an object
of study.
In
Part III, a conceptualization of how one may determine the
phenomenology of a sense of ownership of the project by the previously
feuding parties is provided. A phenomenological account of the journey
from constituting subjectivity to a constituted objectivity is
articulated to the point where we see a division of labour between
Husserl’s transcendental project, that seeks universal and
broader essences, and psychology, which is highly contextualized.
Part
IV constitutes the implementation of the praxis to answer the specific
question, “What is the sense of ownership of the parties in
conflict?” - and, derivatively, “What is the
fate of the hitherto agonistic relation?” A conflict resolution
model is consolidated or reconfigured using the lessons drawn from the
results of the study and from a second look at the literature to see
where changes in practice and reconceptualization may be required.
Language: Functionalism versus Authenticity
This
paper sets out to demonstrate that a phenomenological reflection on
language highlights the possibilities of authenticity in communication,
and as such provides a very necessary complement to the dominant
linguistic perspectives: the syntactic and grammatical perspective,
Saussurean linguistics, and systemic functional linguistics. While the
syntactic and grammatical perspective, which predominates in the
educational context, presents language as an institutionalized,
authoritarian and self-contained system, Saussurean linguistics
provides a view of language as a complex, self-contained, technical
system, as such reflecting the nature of modern society. The third
perspective, systemic functional linguistics, describes templates of
specific genre, models which aid students to construct their own, while
simultaneously discouraging individual self-expression. In contrast, a
reflective phenomenological perspective identifies and encourages
authentic self-expression. The paper concludes by considering ways to
reconcile the impetus in language teaching towards, on the one hand,
the language of institutional authority, and, on the other, individual
self-expression.
How Does a Dark Room Appear: Husserl’s Illumination of the Breakthrough of Logical InvestigationsEvidence is the very core of Husserlian phenomenology, with the term “evidence” signifying for Husserl the phenomenological
perspective on the question of truth. In contrast to the conventional
philosophical understanding of “truth” in mainly
epistemological terms, Husserl’s notion of
“evidence”, as elaborated in his Logical Investigations
(1900–1), is more essentially ontological, pointing to the way in
which a phenomenon becomes clear to us in its constitution.
Husserl’s main point in the Sixth Investigation was that we can
“see” how evidence functions when we compare something in
the fullness of its presence with the emptiness of its absence. This
paper considers the example Husserl offers of the room where the lights
go off in order to illuminate the breakthrough for phenomenology
achieved by Logical Investigations in its move beyond logic and
epistemology to the primary level of pretheoretical experience as the
reality of the real.
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VOLUME 6 SPECIAL EDITION: Methodology, AUGUST 2006
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Les Todres, Guest Editor
Professor of Qualitative Research and Psychotherapy, Bournemouth University, England |
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Brent Dean Robbins
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Daemen College, Buffalo, New York, USA
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Scott D. Churchill
Professor of Psychology, Graduate Psychology Programme Director, University of Dallas, USA
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Amedeo Giorgi
Professor of Psychology, Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco, California, USA
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Karin Dahlberg
Professor of Caring Science, School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Växjö University, Sweden
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Ernesto Spinelli
Senior Fellow, School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, Regent's College, London, United Kingdom
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Using Photography as a Means of Phenomenological Seeing:
"Doing Phenomenology" with Immigrant Children
Click here to view an abstract of this article
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Anna Kirova & Michael Emme
Anna Kirova
Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta, Canada
Michael J. Emme
Associate Professor of Art Education, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta, Canada
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Thinking at the Edge:
Where Theory and Practice Meet to Create Fresh Understandings
Click here to view an abstract of this article
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Kevin Krycka
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Seattle University, USA |
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Abstracts for Articles in this issue: |
The Delicate Empiricism of Goethe:
Phenomenology as a Rigorous Science of Nature
Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe's approach to natural scientific research has
unmistakable parallels to phenomenology. These parallels are clear
enough to allow one to say confidently that Goethe's delicate
empiricism is indeed a phenomenology of nature. This paper examines how
Goethe's criticisms of Newton anticipated Husserl's announcement of the
crisis of the modern sciences, and it describes how Goethe, at a
critical juncture in cultural history, addressed this emerging crisis
through a thorough-going scientific method that is virtually identical to the method
of contemporary empirical-phenomenological research in the human
sciences. Goethe's practice of science shares with phenomenology a
participatory, morally-responsive, and holistic approach to the
description of dynamic life-world phenomena. Delicate empiricism has
its own version of the phenomenological epoché, and, like
Husserl's technique of imaginative variation, it strives to disclose
the essential or archetypal structure of the phenomenon through the
endowment of human imagination. However, a close reading of Goethe
suggests that the tendency amongst some scholars to distinguish
phenomenology as human science from the natural sciences is actually a
costly error which unwittingly falls prey to implicit Cartesian
assumptions. Goethe, however, manages to avoid these problems by
performing from the first a phenomenology of nature's sensibility.
Encountering the Animal Other:
Reflections on Moments of Empathic Seeing
The
ultimate challenge for psychology as a human science inheres in
accessing the experience of the other. In general, the field of
psychology has perpetuated the epistemological dualism of
distinguishing between the realm accessible by external perception and
the realm accessible by inner perception, and hence between the
subjective (or "first person" perspective) and the objective
(or "third person" perspective), regarding the "first person"
perspective as a legitimate means of access only to one's own private
experience, while insisting that all others' experience must be
observed from a neutral "third person" perspective. By reflecting on
his participant-observational encounters with the animal other of the
Bonobo, the author attempts to demonstrate in this paper the
possibility of a third approach between the antinomy of methodological
subjectivism and methodological objectivism as a way out of the
dilemmas posed by epistemological dualism. The alternative proposed is
the "second person" framework of observation, which, by invoking
empathic seeing as its means of accessing the private space of the
other and creating the space of the "in between", allows for
intersubjective engagement in an experiential gestalt consisting of
"myself and the other", and offers the possibility of testing one's
'own' experience of an intersubjective moment in dialogue with the
other. In so far as it infers the focusing of consciousness on embodied
experience and expression, and the synthesis of receptive and
proprioceptive consciousness in "experiaction" (Von Eckartsberg, 1971),
the "second person" perspective restores inner reality to the realm of
the observable, and thus reclaims observation as the method of
psychology, and behaviour as its subject matter. The notion of empathy
and intuition as a reliable and valid mode of access to the
psychological life of others is substantiated theoretically with
reference to inter alia Husserl's concepts of "coupling" and
"co-constitution", Merleau-Ponty's notions of "intercorporeality" or
"carnal intersubjectivity" and of "the intertwining and the chiasm" of
the "Ineinander" as constitutive of the "flesh of the world", Laing's
postulation of the possibility of "interexperience", and the sense of
union with the object of perception implied by Scheler's term
"Einsfuhlung" as the essence of intersubjective encounter.
Dancing Between Embodied Empathy and Phenomenological Reflection
In
phenomenological research, layered understandings emerge from a complex
process of experiencing and reflection, engaged in by both researcher
and participant. Researcher and participant engage in a dance, moving
in and out of experiencing and reflection while simultaneously moving
through a shared intersubjective space that is the research encounter.
If researchers are to empathise - imaginatively project themselves into
participants' experience - they need to be open to this intersubjective
space. First, I describe and reflect upon two particular moments of
empathy which have arisen in two different phenomenological research
interviews. I then attempt to make sense of these encounters with
reference to phenomenological theory and philosophy related to empathy
and intersubjectivity. A final section discusses some dilemmas we face
as researchers when we apply empathy in our phenomenological research
practice and considers the epistemological status of our empathic
findings.
Facts, Values and the Psychology of the Human Person
The
notion of value neutrality has been a contentious issue within the
human and social sciences for some time. In this paper, some of the
philosophical and scientific bases for the confusion surrounding the
fact-value dichotomy are covered and the discrepancy between how
psychology studies values and expresses them is noted. The sense of
value neutrality is clarified historically and the clarified meaning of
the term applied to some qualitative data demonstrating in what sense
values may be expressed in psychology. The position is upheld that
psychology as a human science intentionally should not be absolutely
value free in the sense that human reality has to be studied in a
non-reductionistic manner and thus methods of study must be respectful
of the full ethical sense of humanness. This is simply meeting the
phenomenological requirement of "fidelity to the phenomenon". However,
psychology can be value free in the historical sense of the term
properly understood because it refers to the fact that the personal
values of the scientists ought not to be conflated with scientific
findings. The discussion of values takes place primarily within the
context of science, where the problem of value neutrality emerged, but
it is acknowledged that non-scientific approaches to value have merit
and can also be compelling.
'The Individual in the World - The World in the Individual':
Towards a Human Science Phenomenology that Includes the Social World
Human
science researchers tend to be targeted for critique on the grounds
that their approach is too individualistic to take due cognisance of
societal and political influences. What is accordingly advocated is
that the phenomenological and so-called romantic theories should be
abandoned in favour of analytic or continental theories that have as
their main focus the system, the group, the society, and the various
influences of the social world on the existential reality of the
individual.
Without trying to invalidate these social science
strategies, this paper attempts to show that it is not necessary to
surrender phenomenology in order to understand not only the individual,
but also the social world in which individuals live. It is argued that
the desired goal of a less individualistic human science's theoretical
basis can still be founded in phenomenology, in that Merleau-Ponty's
philosophy, which has its origin in Husserlian phenomenology, provides
us with an adequate ontology for understanding human existence more
comprehensively. Merleau-Ponty's ontological philosophy elucidates the
in-between world, that structure of existence where the individual
cannot be separated from her/his world context. In his exploration of
the reversibility of existence, Merleau-Ponty demonstrates that there
is no ontological gulf between the individual and the social world.
Instead, the world is 'in' the individual as much as the individual is
'in' the world. With this phenomenological epistemology, it is argued,
it is possible to generate research that is capable "of more than a
frozen existence", as Merleau-Ponty puts it.
The Value of Relatedness in Existential Psychotherapy and Phenomenological Enquiry
Existential
psychotherapy places pivotal significance upon the inter-relational
aspects of human experience. By so doing, the therapeutic relationship
itself becomes the principal means through which the client's
presenting symptoms and disorders are disclosed as direct expressions
and outcomes of the client's overall "way of being" rather than as
isolated and disruptive impediments. At the same time, existential
therapy emphasises the actual relationship that emerges between
psychotherapist and client and argues that it is via the contrast and
comparison of this lived experience with that of their 'wider world'
experience that clients can find the means to reconsider and
reconstruct their "ways of being". This paper seeks to demonstrate
that, as well as their shared aims and methods of enquiry, it is the
mutual emphasis upon inter-relatedness as a foundational value for
human enquiry that reveals substantive and intriguing points of
connection between existential psychotherapy and phenomenological
enquiry. The paper furthermore argues that existential psychotherapy
might best be viewed as a clearly formulated expression of
phenomenological enquiry.
Using Photography as a Means of Phenomenological Seeing:
"Doing Phenomenology" with Immigrant Children
The
aim of the study presented in this paper was to understand the
lifeworlds of children who experience immigration and whose lives are
marked by dramatic changes in their being-in-the-world. More
specifically, the study proceeded from the question: What does it mean
for an immigrant child to enter school in a new country? Two
methodological questions were also explored, namely (1) How does one
conduct a phenomenological investigation of a childhood phenomenon when
the researchers and the participants do not share a common language?
and (2) How does one engage children in the research process so that
they provide not only "thick" descriptions of their experiences using
alternative, non-linguistic means, but also make meaning of these
experiences? In the current study, still photography was used to help
the immigrant children recall and make meaning of what they experienced
on their first day of school in a new country. In the process, they
were enabled to become conscious photographers who came to see the
world in such a way that photographic seeing became phenomenological
seeing. Two examples of the children's visual narratives in the form of
fotonovelas are presented to illustrate a methodology that involves
fusion of the horizons surrounding the children, captured images of
situations they encountered as they entered the classroom, and how the
viewer saw the created image. The expanded notion of text and the use
of digital technology in developing the text opened a space not only
for visual representation of the children's lived experiences, but also
for phenomenological analysis of these experiences. It is suggested
that, although the written and visual texts produced as a result of the
study differ, they are similar in the way in which they allow for
phenomenological reflection and in their ability to show the phenomenon
so as to evoke the reader's "phenomenological nod".
Thinking at the Edge:
Where Theory and Practice Meet to Create Fresh Understandings
This
paper focuses on the use of concretely felt experience in
phenomenological methodology and theory construction. Using the example
of a stepwise process of theory making called Thinking at the Edge
(Gendlin, 2004), the author shows how experience functions in the
creation of a new theory on the self-as-becoming. In the process, he
attempts to demonstrate how the ongoing work relating to creating a new
theory of self is germane to phenomenology.
The paper draws on
the major philosophical work of Eugene Gendlin (1962 & 2004) in his
development of "The Philosophy of the Implicit" (POI), and the two
distinct practices, Focusing (1982) and Thinking at the Edge (2004),
which grew out of it. This philosophy forms the theoretical basis upon
which the assertion is made that experience that is directly referred
to can be utilized as the core of a method in the explication of
theory. Two challenges facing phenomenological researchers and
theorists who desire to utilize felt experience in their work are
addressed, namely (1) the fact that the intimately felt aspect
underlying the creation of new ideas is basically hidden from the view
of others and is thus not verifiable in the usual way, and (2) the lack
of a larger public language for articulating the process and progress
that follows concretely from felt experience. It is argued that
Thinking at the Edge provides scientists or specialists in any field,
including phenomenologists, with a means whereby they can explicitly
use felt experience in their work. It also opens the way for fresh
theoretical language, of a kind characterized by reflexivity of felt
experience, within the broader public language of the various fields,
in the process specifically demonstrating how theory instances and
exceeds itself.
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VOLUME 6 EDITION 1, MAY 2006
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Theodore Petrus
Doctoral Student, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa
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Kathryn Gow
Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
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Tracy Watson
Doctoral Student, Tara Hospital, South Africa
Deon de Bruin
Professor, Industrial Psychology,
University of Johannesburg, South Africa
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Dr Ingrid Richardson
Multimedia and Cultural Studies, Murdoch University, Australia
Carly Harper
PhD Candidate,
University of New South Wales, Australia
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Notes Towards a Phenomenological
Reading of Lacan
Click here to view an abstract of this article
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Ryan Kemp
Clinical Psychologist, Camden & Islington Mental Health and Social Care NHS Trust, United Kingdom |
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Adolescents, their Parents, and Information
and Communication Technologies:
Exploring Adolescents' Perceptions on
How these Technologies Present in
Parent-Adolescent Relationships
Click here to view an abstract of this article
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Willem Odendaal
Research Psychologist, Consultant, Medical Research Council, South Africa
Professor Charles Malcolm
Head, Department of Psychology,
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Shazly Savahl
Department of Psychology,
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Rose September
Head, Child and Youth Research Programme, University of the Western Cape, South Africa |
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Abstracts for Articles in this issue:
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Engaging the World of the Supernatural:
Anthropology, Phenomenology and the Limitations of Scientific Rationalism
Scientific rationalism has long been considered one of the pillars of
true science. It has been one of the criteria academics have used in
their efforts to categorise disciplines as scientific. Perhaps
scientific rationalism acquired this privileged status because it
worked relatively well within the context of the natural sciences,
where it seemed to be easy to apply this kind of rationalism to the
solution of natural scientific problems. However, with the split in the
scientific world between the natural sciences and the social sciences,
the role of scientific rationalism, especially in the social sciences,
becomes less clear-cut, with the ambiguous status of positivism in the
social sciences making scientific rationalism more of a shaky
foundation than a pillar of social science. The weaknesses inherent in
scientific rationalism are most exposed within the context of
anthropology, and particularly in the anthropological study of the
supernatural, or supernatural beliefs. This paper will attempt to point
out some of the weaknesses of scientific rationalism specifically
within the context of the anthropology of the supernatural and
religion. By doing so, it is hoped to show, with reference to some
phenomenological ideas, that, while scientific rationalism does have
its merits within anthropology, a rigid application of rationalism
could become a limitation for anthropological studies of those aspects
of human life that challenge Western scientific rationalism. The debate
around the position of anthropology as a science or non-science is
related to the issue of the role of scientific rationalism. This debate
is indeed part of the history of anthropology and is as yet unresolved.
As such, the ideas of several earlier scholars will be referred to in
an attempt to contextualise the arguments presented in this paper.
The "Holy Grail" Experience or Heightened Awareness?
Can
moments of spiritual atonement (the Holy Grail Experience) be explained
away as heightened awareness and other more mundane worldly phenomena?
The author posits that part of the puzzle can be accounted for by the
following factors: hypnotic phenomena such as time distortion, time
orientation, fantasy proneness, absorption and a movement from
dissociation to association. Knowledge about sensory modalities,
internal dialogues and peripheral sensing, and about meditation and
awareness, may also help to verbalise this magical moment of "grace".
Writings on conversion experiences and mysticism may also assist us in
investigating this phenomenon, when time stands still, and when for
brief moments in life we become absorbed in the wonderment of life at
its zenith - a taste of eternity. Contextual elements of prior social
isolation and sensory deprivation are investigated as possible
contributions to this unique phenomenon. In this conceptual article,
the author explores the Holy Grail experience from both spiritual and
secular viewpoints.
Experiencing the Meaning of Breathing
This
research was motivated by the author's personal experiences with
various breathing methods as well as meaningful breathing experiences
reported by clients, colleagues and friends. The meaning of breathing
is discussed in relation to consciousness, bodiliness, spirituality,
illness prevention and health promotion. Experiencing the meaning of
breathing is to experience more meaning in life itself. Experiential
vignettes confirm that breathing skills may be regarded as an original
method of survival, energy control, improving quality of life,
preventing illness and promoting health.
Getting Under the Skin: The Inscription of Dermatological Disease on the Self-Concept
Psychological
factors have long been associated with the onset, maintenance and
exacerbation of many cutaneous disorders (Newell, 2000, p. 8;
Papadopoulos, Bor & Legg, 1999, p. 107). Chronic cutaneous disease
is often visible to others so that social factors in coping and
adjustment are thus highly relevant (Papadopoulos, et al., 1999, p.
107). Psychological factors tend, however, to be overlooked in the
dermatological treatment domain when the skin problem is not regarded
as life threatening (MacGregor, 1990 as cited in Papadopoulos, et al.,
1999, p. 113). In 2004, at a meeting of the Editorial Board of
Dermatology Nursing , the need for studies presenting the patient's
perspective on living with a skin disease was discussed. It was thought
that qualitative exploration of the patient's experience of cutaneous
disease would provide medical and mental health care professionals with
valuable insights and important information to help improve dermatology
patient care (Hill, 2004, p. 399). More specifically, Papadopoulos et
al. (1999, p. 122) posit that qualitative exploration of dermatological
patients' lived experience might help provide insight into the efficacy
of coping strategies, the need for psychological counsel, and also the
need for a more holistic understanding of this patient population
rather than maintaining a dichotomous focus on either the mind or the
body.
Research
in the field is currently characterised by (a) a predominance of
quantitative studies, the design of which results in inevitable loss of
in-depth information regarding the experiential world of sufferers of
cutaneous disease (Hill, 2004, p. 399; Papadopoulos, et al., 1999, p.
122), and (b) a dearth of studies investigating the impact of
disfiguring skin conditions on the self-concept. In order to address
this lack, and simultaneously to contribute towards mapping the
psycho-dermatological terrain in need of qualitative exploration, this
paper attempts to integrate the findings of relevant studies in the
fields of both dermatology and psychology, with specific focus on women
suffering from psoriasis, a common chronic disorder of the skin, and
the impact of this on the various dimensions of self. The primary aim
of this paper is, however, to prompt qualitative - and, in particular,
phenomenological - research in the area of body disfigurement and
self-concept in order to elucidate the lived experiences of people
afflicted with disfiguring dermatological conditions, and as such to
promote necessary change in the therapeutic domain .
Imaging the Visceral Soma: A Corporeal Feminist Interpretation
Feminist philosophers of technoscience have long argued that it is
vital that we question biomedical and scientific claims to an
immaterial and disembodied objectivity, and also, more specifically,
that we disable the conception of medical visualising technologies as
neutral or transparent conduits to the "fact" of the body. In this
paper we suggest that corporeal feminism is well situated to provide
such a critique. Feminist phenomenologists over the past decade have
theorised embodiment in a number of critical ways, many deriving
concepts from the work of Merleau-Ponty, and emphasising the pliability
and diversity of our body images and corporeal schematics. Others such
as Elizabeth Wilson, Cathy Waldby and Drew Leder have considered the
interdependence of our inner biology or viscerality with the
socio-cultural inscriptions of embodiment. In this paper, these
adaptations of phenomenology, and their account of the specificity and
depth of embodied being, will be discussed and applied to the discourse
of biomedicine and the apparatus of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Gesture, Landscape and Embrace: A Phenomenological Analysis of Elemental Motions
Maurice Merleau-Ponty's 'flesh of the world' speaks to an embodied
connection to the spaces we inhabit deeply, primally, elementally.
Flesh suggests water and its circulations, air and its respirations,
earth and its conformations, fire and its inspirations. Flesh speaks to
our bodily relations with the elements of a more-than-human world. This
paper explores the felt imperative to these relations where, as
Merleau-Ponty put it, 'all distance is traversed' and wherein movement
arises not specifically in the body, but in the nexus and intertwining
of bodily engagement with the world. There is a primacy to movement
that registers in the living body in its carnal ties to the elements of
the world's flesh. The 'radical reflection' on the 'flesh of the world'
to which this analysis aspires in turn bears upon the general field of
gestural reciprocities and connections, providing the insight that
intimate gestures of the flesh, such as the embrace, are primordial
attunements, motions of rhythm and reciprocity, that emanate from the
world in identification with it. The embrace is fundamentally,
elementally, a gesture of landscape dwelling. A phenomenology | | |
