Contributions Of Phenomenology Research Articles

Psychoéducation et attitude phénoménologique en psychothérapie de groupe

Objectives Psychoeducation contains the risk of a misunderstanding in the effective experiences of recognition. We want to show that group psychotherapy can be a means to reconcile recommendations in disease prevention aimed by psychoeducative measures, the vivid and lively dimension of experience found in phenomenological attitudes and aspects, turned to the community world of therapeutic mediation. Method To articulate these various domains, we approach the principles of psychoeducation, the risks which this one can contain and the contributions of clinical phenomenology. Phenomenological method is different from what we call collectively clinical intuition which is always implicitly colored by the typical contexts of meanings of what appears (meanings which have a practical and effective reach for example) and stay, in spite of the critical distance which we can put it, stuffed with various emotional and theoretical predicates muddled between them. The phenomenological attitude aims as much as possible to a suspension of these predicates, that these predicates arise from the common sense of everyday life or that they arise from a detailed specialized knowledge, and this to remove the “coats of sense” which settled on the perception. Results The group, by its multiple interactions, aims at an optimization of the articulation of the self-relationship with relationship socially adapted to the others. The therapist constantly has to attend to dialectical dynamics which reigns between a certain self-dissolution in the group and a return to oneself from the meshing which build up itself within the group. For certain patients, it is particularly difficult to maintain a just balance between the two moments of identity, the one which is peculiar to oneself and the one which emanates from relations with the others towards which we are normally constantly turned. The interest of this psychotherapeutic work in group is here to offer to each of participants the possibility of holding, with a little more confindence, an existential position within a meshing of social links, that is a capacity to seize oneself as existing among the other beings having themselves an own existence. From there, the subjective capacities of each can be better recognized, what can also give place to adjustment of these capacities with individual aspirations. The active implication of patients, so looked for by psychoeducation, is all the more tangible as we were so able to appeal, by the phenomenological attitude, to what feels immediately and without distance as much in an intimate self-relation as in relationship to the others. Conclusions Phenomenological attitude allows not to get stuck in imaginary expert skills, in rational projects of organization and other methodical constructions of the science. This attitude is particularly interesting for group psychotherapy which privileges the opening rather than a work of elaboration. The stake is so the authenticity of a real therapeutic alliance based on fine regulations of the global situation of co-presence taking into account the interlacing of the implicit and the explicit in the exchanges which weave with the patients. We privilege a fertile step rather than rigorous observance of a method which would lead only to a systematization against the spirit of phenomenology. The clinical experience shows that this psychotherapeutic method allows in particular a regular attendance of the group, what is one of major ingredients of its efficiency.

Anatomy of life and well-being: A framework for the contributions of phenomenology and complexity theory

This paper proposes an anatomy of the phenomena of life and of correlate qualitative modes of empirical research, theory, and professional practice concerned with health and well-being. I explicate the qualitative dynamic operative at every level of order, from the biological realm of cells and organisms, through distinctively human lifeworld experiences and practices, to communities of organisms in ecosystems and bio-cultural regions. This paper clarifies the unity of the dimensions of life and aligns these with demonstrated and emerging contributions of hermeneutical phenomenology and current complexity–autopoietic theory (including disciplinary and professional interpretations of empirical findings). The intent is begin to delineate a common framework upon which we could build—facilitating better understanding of the distinctive contributions of each specialization as well as the integration of diverse qualitative approaches with each other (and with quantitative complements).

Fear of The Mind. The Annihilating Power of the Gaze

The concern for the annihilating power of the gaze is not part of the Freudian discourse, but represents one of the most valuable contributions of phenomenology to psychoanalysis. When clear boundaries between the self and the others are not yet established, the gaze is experienced as a disembodied force that radiates from the eyes and can dangerously penetrate into the mind. In this regard, the body or parts of it can be used as a shelter. If the external body is not sufficiently cathected, its sheltering function is also decreased, to the point that the body is experienced as transparent, and the most intimate feelings and thoughts become dangerously available to the others. In primitive societies this situation is experienced as the danger of losing the soul. The unconscious fantasy of obstructing the sight can be used to neutralize the annihilating power of the gaze by introducing an artificial barrier between the minds. In dreams and in other expressions of the unconscious, the black color might hint at such an artificial barrier. What is then blackened are moments of the meeting of the mind that cannot be introjected. Blind spots in the perception of the mind of the other as well as in the perception of the self are a specific consequence of this kind of defense.

Na trilha da fenomenologia: um caminho para a pesquisa em enfermagem

A utilização de diferentes referenciais metodológicos tem sido uma busca constante na prática de pesquisa em distintas áreas do conhecimento. A enfermagem, neste sentido, tem buscado fundamentar suas pesquisas em referenciais diversificados como forma de ampliar seu corpo de conhecimentos. Desta forma, este artigo tem como objetivo tecer algumas considerações e reflexões acerca da utilização e contribuições da fenomenologia enquanto método de pesquisa na área da Enfermagem, por meio de um resgate de seus principais pressupostos orientadores, bem como, da aplicabilidade da mesma em trabalhos da área. Assim, reafirmamos a importância da fenomenologia como referencial não só metodológico, mas também teórico-filosófico, para a pesquisa em enfermagem.

Professor Ninian Smart, phenomenology and religious education

I reply to L. Philip Barnes’ assessment of the contributions of Ninian Smart and phenomenology to religious education. My argument is that Barnes first misconceives and then underestimates Smart’s legacy. I sketch Smart’s relevance to some current issues in religious education, suggesting that his thought helps us to avoid potentially damaging polarisations (of language and concepts to experience, and of learning about religion to learning from religion). I conclude that Smart may have little to say about classroom practice, but should still be a reference point for any practitioner.

The Handbook of Ethnography

Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey, Sara Delamont, John Lofland and Lyn Lofland (eds.), The Handbook of Ethnography, London: Sage, 2002, xviii + 507 pages.Rather surprisingly The Handbook of Ethnography, edited by three British and two American sociologists, arrives hot on heels of another sociological Handbook devoted to ethnography. This earlier one edited by Norman and Yvonna Lincoln is in its second edition (1994, 2000) and in preparation stages for its third. Both handbook efforts are encyclopedic in their scope mainly featuring writings by sociologists and anthropologists, while Atkinson et al volume also adds assorted other disciplines. While earlier Handbook relies mainly on American scholars, more recent volume claims that international excellence was our primary criterion (p. 1) for selection of authors. The cast includes 21 British, 20 American and 2 each of Dutch, Finnish and Australian academies, comprising 31 sociologists, 9 anthropologists, 4 education scholars and one each from folklore, women's studies and philosophy of science. seemingly aware that comparison between two handbooks would be unavoidable, editors offer a critique of earlier volume(s), indicating that their own intention is to distance themselves from the five (six) moments model of Lincoln and Denzin ... [which] can do violence to complexities of research and its historical development... [such] a chronological, and linear view of development. . .is in danger of doing a disservice to earlier generations of ethnographers (pp. 2-3). While these differences do not appear thunderous at first glance, reading all of chapters leaves one with a clear sense of strong support offered for classic ethnography, not through proclaiming its familiar canons, but rather through displaying its multifaceted progeny, deep diversities, multiplicity of methods and broad applicability. Intriguing as question of differences between two parallel volumes may be, Atkinson et al volume stands on its own as a worthy addition to gargantuan growth in discourses on ethnography.The editors hope to present a tour d'horizon of ethnographic methods and ethnographic research in social sciences (p. 1) in an undertaking that they readily agree is diffuse and beyond ambitions of any single volume. To accomplish this they organize thirty-three diffuse chapters into three sections. The first section explores origins of ethnography, various intellectual and substantive contexts, differences in disciplinary and national orientations and seminal conceptual theoretical strands involved in ethnographic thinking. To meet these ends there are rich offerings on Chicago school of ethnography (Mary Jo Deegan), ethnographic roots of symbolic interactionism (Paul Rock), an overview of ethnographic commitments of British social anthropology (Sharon Macdonald) and American cultural anthropology (James Faubion). To these are added ethnography-centred works in community studies of various kinds (Lodewijk Brunt) and less-well known fieldwork methods of Mass-Observation studies of Britain (Liz Stanley). The section is rounded out by those theoretical and analytic propositions and assumptions that have come to be associated with ethnographic work-the Orientalism problematic, so much in very fibre of anthropological thought (Julie Marcus), basic contributions of phenomenology (Ilja Maso), ethnomethodology (MeMn Pollner and Robert Emerson), semiotics and semantics (Peter Manning) and grounded theory (Kathy Charmaz and Richard G. Mitchell).The second section is devoted to distinctive domains of ethnographic research, those locales where ethnographic work has contributed definitive knowledge or shaped academic portrait of cultures involved. These are ethnographies of health and medicine (Michael Bloor), educational settings (Tuula Gordon, Janet Holland and Elina Lahehna), deviance (Dick Hobbs), science and technology (David Hess), childhood (Allison James), material culture (Christopher Tilley), cultural studies (Joost Van Loon), communication (Elizabeth Keating), work (Vicki Smith) and photography and film (Mike Ball and Greg Smith). …

Radical Phenomenology, Ontology, and International Political Theory

This article is contribution to investigation of possible methodologies available to study of global politics. Conceived as rejoinder to those who demand not merely positivist but rigorous research, it is motivated by belief that reflection can be true to itself only when made concrete by acute attention to specificity of worldly phenomena. To this end, I outline what might be broadly referred to as method. Phenomenology's demand that one attend to the things offers, I suggest, an opportunity critically to examine commitment to theoretical constructs that remain wedded to ontological perspectives that resist ever-changing of social interaction. (1) In particular, I examine strand of pioneered by Martin Heidegger, who, in 1920s, rearticulated it as method for ontological examination. Following philosophical exposition of Heidegger's reformulation of phenomenology, article subsequently juxtaposes Thomas Hobbes's account of subjectivity as self-interested and concerned with its own survival with account of selfhood offered by Heidegger's phenomenological investigations into of human existence. The attunement to facticity witnessed in Heidegger's radical deconstruction (Abbau) of modern subjectivity, I argue, has profound ramifications for theorizing social relations in that it contests very possibility of an international social and political theory based on self-interested, autonomous subject, examples of which still have continued salience in IR. (2) Indeed, this article takes as its point of departure conviction that understanding of ourselves under sign of modern subjectivity produces set of assumptions about us and others based on a mindset of valuation, disposal, management, and objectification in our care for our lives--a mindset whose overpowering force hems us in throughout our everyday world, confuses freedom with condition of possibility for certain types of subjectivity, and gives priority to correctness and measurement in matters of truth. (3) The article suggests, instead, need to develop, through consideration of contributions of radical phenomenology, theoretical sensibility that is attuned to existence of self constituted by otherness, self that is explicitly aware of its heteronomous constitution so as to promote an international political theory that has at its center, not modern subject, but rather an understanding of coexistence as proximal fact of human life. Thinking About Phenomenology A number of twentieth-century thinkers began their philosophical journeys in general parameters of as first articulated in beginning of century by Edmund Husserl. It has formed point of departure for many subsequent thinkers such as Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer; Alfred Schutz, Maurice Merleu-Ponty, Paul Ricoeur, Jean-Francois Lyotard, and Werner Marx. However, it would be quite misleading to suggest that general definition of can be easily provided, since most of aforementioned thinkers who worked within have reconfigured its assumptions to fit their specific concerns and subject matter. (4) Nevertheless, even in such diverse field of enquiry, certain things are accepted as means and tasks of inquiry. According to John Sallis, for example, is, in first instance, methodological demand, that one attend constantly and faithfully to things themselves. It is demand that philosophical thought proceed by attending to things as they themselves show themselves rather than in terms of presupposed opinions, theories, or concepts. (5) As philosophical approach or, more narrowly, method, phenomenology is thus an appeal to things themselves. …

Introduction to phenomenology

Introduction to Phenomenology is an outstanding and comprehensive guide to phenomenology. Dermot Moran lucidly examines the contributions of phenomenology's nine seminal thinkers: Brentano, Husserl, Heidegger, Gadamer, Arendt, Levinas, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Derrida.Written in a clear and engaging style, Introduction to Phenomenology charts the course of the phenomenological movement from its origins in Husserl to its transformation by Derrida. It describes the thought of Heidegger and Sartre, phenomonology's most famous thinkers, and introduces and assesses the distinctive use of phenomonology by some of its lesser known exponents, such as Levinas, Arendt and Gadamer. Throughout the book, the enormous influence of phenomenology on the course of twentieth-century philosophy is thoroughly explored.This is an indispensible introduction for all unfamiliar with this much talked about but little understood school of thought. Technical terms are explained throughout and jargon is avoided. Introduction to Phenomenology will be of interest to all students seeking a reliable introduction to a key movement in European thought.

Introduction to phenomenology

Introduction to Phenomenology is an outstanding and comprehensive guide to phenomenology. Dermot Moran lucidly examines the contributions of phenomenology's nine seminal thinkers: Brentano, Husserl, Heidegger, Gadamer, Arendt, Levinas, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Derrida.Written in a clear and engaging style, Introduction to Phenomenology charts the course of the phenomenological movement from its origins in Husserl to its transformation by Derrida. It describes the thought of Heidegger and Sartre, phenomonology's most famous thinkers, and introduces and assesses the distinctive use of phenomonology by some of its lesser known exponents, such as Levinas, Arendt and Gadamer. Throughout the book, the enormous influence of phenomenology on the course of twentieth-century philosophy is thoroughly explored.This is an indispensible introduction for all unfamiliar with this much talked about but little understood school of thought. Technical terms are explained throughout and jargon is avoided. Introduction to Phenomenology will be of interest to all students seeking a reliable introduction to a key movement in European thought.

The social praxis of communicating meanings

A microsociological reflection upon linguistic communication is offered, in reliance upon a synthesis of the theoretical contributions of ethnomethodology, phenomenology, and semiotics. Ethnomethodology has rejected the 'conduit' model of communicating, whereby speakers encode meaning in words which hearers then decode straightforwardly. Harold Garfinkel has located the phenomenon of communicating meanings face-to-face in the work of interlocutors who concert themselves to produce local displays of the emerging praxis for making meanings to which interlocutors are reflexively oriented. Ethnomethodology avoids a subjectivist hermeneutics by recognizing that it is the objective character of the practices that are emerging that provides interlocutors with their communicative possibilities. Saussure can provide this ethnomethodological project with an appropriate technology for explaining the detail of the labile and interconnectedly dependent work of signs. Saussurian semiotics need not lead to a structural determinism but may be combined with phenomenological and ethnomethodological interests in ways that preserve human agency in the proper context of the emerging details of the public sphere. Merleau-Ponty, who derived his insights from both phenomenology and semiotics, emphasizes that speakers are simultaneously hearers, and he guides this microsociological inquiry by his repudiation of any rationalist reductionism and by his resolve to describe with remarkable accuracy the precise yet 'more than rational' ways in which interactants proceed to an understanding of their world, an insight that lies at the very origins of ethnomethodological research.

Rethinking political theory: essays in phenomenology and the study of politics

Ten essays (previously published in such journals as The Review of Politics and Human Studies ) contemplate the contributions of phenomenology to the philosophy of political science, and offer a critique of the two other major paradigms in political thought: behavioralism and essentialism. Annotatio

Steps towards the whole horizon: J. L. Mehta's contributions to hermeneutics and phenomenology

Steps towards the whole horizon: J. L. Mehta's contributions to hermeneutics and phenomenology

Contributions of phenomenology to psychotherapeutic theory and practice.

Contributions of phenomenology to psychotherapeutic theory and practice.

The Political Relevance of Existential Phenomenology

Existentialism, for some of its severe critics, represents a temporary outburst of the dark side of man which is indicative of a passing phenomenon of our age and particularly of the postwar angry generation living on the morbid edges of death, anxiety and the absurdity of human existence. They contend that existentialism is not a philosophy or at least not a serious and disciplined philosophy. Professor Henry S. Kariel characterized existential psychology as “negativism,” and its counterpart, behavioral psychology, as “positivism”; and similarly Professor Eugene J. Meehan describes the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl as having sought to find philosophical certainty “in feeling rather than in thought,” an assessment that falsely indicts phenomenology as an irrationalism. I have singled out these two political theorists as representatives of a widespread misconception of existential philosophy and phenomenology, held as well, I suspect, by many American political theorists. This article is not designed as a direct rebuttal to these misunderstandings and criticisms; it is rather an attempt to show what I consider to be the significant and positive contributions of existential philosophy and phenomenology to the foundation of political theory.