Intersubjective Processes Research Articles

Inhabiting a Chaos-World: Refugee Transnational Identities in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2017)

This article explores Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West (2017) combining principles pertaining to social geography, affect theory, and (post)migration studies with postcolonial theory. It aims to highlight how Hamid’s use of magical realism triggers political, philosophical, and socio-emotional reflections by condensing in the story arc the intercultural and intersubjective processes that characterise the migratory experience and the postmigrant condition. Firstly, it investigates how Exit West incorporates magical realism to represent the psychoemotional dynamics of migration and to problematize the concept of cosmopolitanism; secondly, it discusses how the novel promotes a re-thinking of migration identities and experiences in terms of affective transnationality; thirdly, it points out how the refugee communities represented in the novel are manifestations of a chaos-world in which identity formation is shaped by sociocultural encounters, multilingualism, media use, and processes of affiliation.

Moments of thirdness in music therapy: A qualitative meta-analysis embedded in Jessica Benjamin’s intersubjectivity

Background: The study of intersubjective processes is evident across various therapeutic schools, among them music therapy. Several researchers deal with the intersubjective meanings of musical experiences in music therapy. Focusing on unpacking the formation of intersubjective relations through dyadic improvisation, this research cantered on six music therapy studies, all entailing thick descriptions of clinical improvisations or music therapy informed (but non-clinical) improvisation, which also emphasise relational aspects. Methods: Following a four-step methodological sequence, a meta-analysis was performed. After identifying a research question, the researcher gathered related qualitative and mixed-methods studies. Six studies met the inclusion criteria, after which a thematic analysis was conducted to capture underlying themes which reflected intersubjective essence of dyadic improvisation. Finally, the researcher formed a conceptual organisation of different phases of thirdness as reflected in clinical improvisation, forming the results section. Results: Two central themes were identified through the thematic analysis which highlighted distinct developmental phases in clinical improvisation and reflected intersubjective processes as described by Jessica Benjamin: (1) Emerging musical recognition: approaching “one in the third”; (2) Recognition of musical separateness: reaching “third in the one”. Discussion: Embedded in Jessica Benjamin’s intersubjective theory, this paper dealt with the complex construct of thirdness and possible manifestations of it within clinical improvisation. This paper showed how improvisational processes may allow the opening of an intersubjective space between client and therapist and enable mutual recognition in each other’s otherness.

Peer support amongst autistic children: an examination of the communication structure in small-group discussions

Purpose Over the past decade, many studies have investigated peer support between neurotypical and neurodivergent children. Less is known about how autistic children support each other in educational contexts, especially in basic education, where child-adult interactions are still predominant. This study aims to investigate whether and how autistic children supported each other in small-group discussions in the first years of basic education. This paper focused on unraveling the communication structures of these supportive events, aiming to understand further how autistic children make sense of social interactions and intersubjective processes that require peer support. Design/methodology/approach Building on conversation analysis methods, this paper analyzed the transcripts of the small-group discussions, identifying and analyzing the construction of support in children’s dialogues. Nine Finnish children (7–10 years old) attending mainstream school in Finland under intensified support in part-time special classrooms participated in this study. The study adopted a specific method called Idea Diary to frame the small-group discussions. The teacher guided the conversations, providing a dynamic structure for children’s interactions, but students were encouraged to interact among themselves. This paper recorded 11 sessions within the six-month implementation of the Idea Diary, totaling 240 min of data. Findings Results show that the children recognized situations where other children needed support in interactions and intervened in ways that promoted the continuation of the conversation and the clarification of ideas. Autistic children were sensitive to peers’ unspoken needs, capable of identifying subtle nuances of conversation dynamics and able to express support through comments and questions during the small-group discussions. Originality/value This study provides insights into the understudied phenomenon of peer support among autistic children in small-group discussions. It contributes to the growing corpus of research dedicated to exploring and revealing social competencies among autistic people. It discusses implications for developing educational practices that foster social interactions respecting the quality of autistic interactions and the interests of autistic students.

Public Health Challenges for 2050 in the Netherlands

Abstract Every 4 years, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) carries out the Dutch Public Health Foresight Study, commissioned by the Ministry of Health. The ninth edition (PHFS-2024) compiles an outlook on future public health and the health care system in the Netherlands. It combines a business-as-usual Trend Scenario with literature study and a range of qualitative and mixed-methods approaches. The Trend Scenario comprises projections up to 2050 for a broad range of epidemiological indicators. Such as (healthy) life expectancy, disease burden, life style factors. The qualitative and mixed methods approaches supported an incremental intersubjective process. Methods were a focus groups study, stakeholder sessions and workshops. An important innovation in this study was the Citizen Council and Panel. The outcomes show that demographic development, in particular growth of the group people at high age with multimorbidity, will lead to high pressure on the formal and informal health care system but also on e.g. mental health. A life course approach applied shows that decreasing mental health of youth will have long term consequences. Also, overweight will deeply impact older people’s health in the future. Lastly, climate change in combination with e.g. energy transition will deeply affect our society and living environment. Next to these challenges, there will also be opportunities to improve health. Building a climate-proof living environment that also stimulates healthy life styles and social interaction is one of them. However, improving health has linkages with policy areas outside the traditional public health domain as well and requires, firstly, a Health in/for All Policies approach. Secondly a whole-of-society approach in which companies and civil organizations take action is needed. All these efforts can only be effective if people and communities are put at the core of all health policies.

Refugee recognition: reconsidering Honneth in light of Benjamin and Klein

AbstractUsing data collected from participant observation through creative workshops in two regions of the UK in 2019 and 2020 with participants going through the asylum system, this paper seeks to redress the under-theorisation of Axel Honneth’s use of critical and psychoanalytic theory including the work of Donald Winnicott within Honneth’s book The Struggle for Recognition. Crucially, this approach sees Honneth’s primary intersubjective process of recognition, love, as ambivalent, as opposed to monolithically conceived, a common criticism of Honneth’s early work, and applies this conception to empirical data. Following the work of philosopher Amy Allen, this paper also resolves to apply Jessica Benjamin’s use of the Third to a number of empirical case studies relating to creative workshops conducted with participants going through the asylum system. By taking this ambivalent approach, this paper shows how meaningful recognition might more successfully be achieved beyond the limits of such the punitive regimes of asylum.

Emergent group understanding: Investigating intersubjectivity in sociotechnical interdependencies

Teaching with virtual worlds provides new means for collaborative learning but creates challenges for teachers in terms of IT skills. To address these challenges, we developed a teaching model for using virtual worlds in classroom practices and applied it to Minecraft in several rounds of design-based research experiments. Our conceptual framework combines ideas from software engineering (sociotechnical congruence) and social sciences (intersubjectivity and emergence). Empirically, we addressed the problem of how shared understanding evolves in computer-mediated learning activities. We video-recorded classroom activities and analyzed them using interaction analysis. The teaching model engaged the students in two interdependent processes, referred to as objects: (1) a social object (discussions) that led to a shared knowledge object (video-recorded role-play) and (2) a technology object (Minecraft buildings) for staging the role-play. Our findings include an empirical phenomenon that we call emergent group understanding, which arose from the complex social interactions between social and technology objects when Minecraft was used as a virtual world in a social studies classroom. This revealed two connected subprocesses: (1) a spontaneous act of providing information to assist learners in contextualizing their actions and interactions against a common background, and (2) setting localized goals to guide future actions and interactions. This finding extends previous research by identifying fine-grained processes of intersubjectivity that contribute to collaborative learning. More generally, our teaching model addresses the problem of balancing creative and instructional learning goals.

Ternary Moral Empathy Model from the Perspective of Intersubjective Phenomenology.

The phenomenon of empathy is an intersubjective process of feeling and a particular form of intentionality. Moral empathy refers to a type of empathy that can trigger moral action, with the embodied intersubjectivity laying the foundation for its emergence. This paper attempts to propose a comprehensive theoretical model of moral empathy from the perspective of intersubjective phenomenology, which includes the following. (1) The moral dimension of perceptual empathy: at the subpersonal, unconscious, and perceptual-motor level, embodied empathic practices are essential for the formation of moral consciousness and the emergence of moral empathy. (2) The moral dimension of situational empathy: following the development of shared attention mechanisms, children can direct towards the intentional objects of others through embodied situational cues to perceive the psychological state of others and generate the moral empathy of "ought", leading to dyadic morality that promotes cooperative behavior. (3) The moral dimension of narrative empathy: the narrative practices of moral empathy refer to the processes by which children could perceive and understand the moral situation of characters within an embodied narrative structure, subsequently generate prosocial motives such as empathic concern, and then accept the "objective" moral norms of the group consciousness embedded in the narrative.

Banter as transformative practice: linguistic play and joking relationships in a UK swimming club.

This article investigates the multiple interpretations and uses of banter as an inclusive and exclusionary practice amongst competitive youth swimmers inthe Southeast of England. As a metacommunicative act, banter is a form of linguistic play that focuses on the ways in which the words are delivered, and the social relationships involved between those engaged in banter. Through an immersive "apprenticeship" within a competitive swimming club from 2018 to 2022, I was party to particular forms of English "humorous" communication and invitations to join in banter with coaches and swimmers. As competitive swimming can be a monotonous activity, with long periods between competitions and nigh endless repetition of training drills, coaches encouraged swimmers' engagement in banter as an inclusive strategy for squad cohesiveness and to stave off boredom throughout the swimming season. Playful teasing was used to invite engagement in banter from one or more people, helping to foster social bonds, develop joking relationships, and create a relaxed atmosphere within training spaces. Mockery and teasing used to initiate banter were also mobilized as exclusionary social positioning strategies to test the limits of social interaction and define oneself against others. This article asserts that despite the nearly-totalitarian position of the coach within high-performance swimming humorous or joking banter does not simply function as a morale-booting activity or as a substitute for active resistance against monotonous training requirements. By paying attention to the intersubjective processes within joking relationships, here through banter, we can see how youth actively navigate sociality and assert their agency within institutional training environments.

The anxious and resilient European Union: experiencing FOMO in the increasingly geopolitical world order

ABSTRACT In this paper, we draw on insights from the literature on social psychology and marketing in order to account for the emotional mechanism through which resilience became a key aspect of the EU’s strategy in world politics. We argue that faced with the deep uncertainty created by multiple and overlapping crises, the EU’s response was shaped by its experience of the ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO). FOMO represents the intersubjective process through which actors compare their own experience with those of their peers, and experience anxiety due to the realisation that they are not benefitting from similar opportunities or managing risks and challenges as effectively as their peers in the context of limited windows of opportunity. The article presents a model for understanding FOMO as a cycle that occurs under conditions of uncertainty and can be used to study other settings.

Solving online conflicts by sensing the other. The role of social presence and closeness in improving the effectiveness of online intergroup contact

While intergroup contact in online contexts has been acknowledged as effective in reducing stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination, i.e. intergroup bias, the underlying processes remain unclear. This study focuses on intersubjective processes and tests perceived social presence and closeness, as a means for strengthening the effects of online intergroup contact on attitudes towards the outgroup member and intergroup bias. We conducted a pre-post multigroup (White and Black) study on 267 participants (females n = 162, 60.7%; Mage = 22.19, SD = 4.90) who chatted online with a fictitious outgroup member (online bot). Multigroup path analysis results showed that, regardless of the participant’s membership in the majority group (White people) or minority group (Black people), social presence and closeness, i.e. intersubjective processes occurring during online intergroup contact, are positively related to attitude toward the outgroup member, but not to intergroup bias, which is positively related to attitude toward the outgroup member. Theoretical implications for the literature on online intergroup contact will be discussed.

Examination of self patterns: framing an alternative phenomenological interview for use in mental health research and clinical practice.

Mental disorders are increasingly understood as involving complex alterations of self that emerge from dynamical interactions of constituent elements, including cognitive, bodily, affective, social, narrative, cultural and normative aspects and processes. An account of self that supports this view is the pattern theory of self (PTS). The PTS is a non-reductive account of the self, consistent with both embodied-enactive cognition and phenomenological psychopathology; it foregrounds the multi-dimensionality of subjects, stressing situated embodiment and intersubjective processes in the formation of the self-pattern. Indications in the literature already demonstrate the viability of the PTS for formulating an alternative methodology to better understand the lived experience of those suffering mental disorders and to guide mental health research more generally. This article develops a flexible methodological framework that front-loads the self-pattern into a minimally structured phenomenological interview. We call this framework 'Examination of Self Patterns' (ESP). The ESP is unconstrained by internalist or externalist assumptions about mind and is flexibly guided by person-specific interpretations rather than pre-determined diagnostic categories. We suggest this approach is advantageous for tackling the inherent complexity of mental health, the clinical protocols and the requirements of research.

The Parent in the Corridor – Thoughts on Treating Parents and Adolescents

ABSTRACT Throughout childhood, but especially in adolescence, parents play a pivotal role in shaping their child’s personality and when they face developmental difficulties. This in turn, makes the parents an integral part of their adolescent child’s psychological treatment. As part of the adolescent’s growth process, changes in the relationship between parent and adolescent are required. Thus, the adolescent constructs their parents as parents of an adolescent and the parents, in a process of “general rehearsal,” assist their child in getting through adolescence while perceiving them as a future adult. In this intersubjective process, the parents’ ability to tolerate ambiguity and “becoming” is critical and significant. This paper explores this intersubjective process, following Ogden’s conceptualization of the parent as an oedipal transitional object. The parent recognizes the complexity of this developmental stage, and at the same time, views the adolescent as the adult they will become without pressuring their child into adopting “false solutions.” To enable this, it is important that the parents be part of their child’s therapeutic process.

Experto crede

Abstract The article explains the processes involved in knowledge sharing and support giving in an open FB forum dedicated to endometriosis. It builds on the existing understanding of experiential knowledge, as well as adopts Jovchelovitch’s (2007) perspective on knowledge diversity and representation which views knowledge construction as an intersubjective process. The analysis looks at the what, the who, and the how of the community in question, focusing in particular on three areas: identity work (self- and other-categorisation); perspective sharing and recognition by “significant others”; and epistemic self-other positioning. The analysis determines the most common strategies of categorisation, identifies ways of constructing shared understanding, as well as reveals that the participants’ personal truths are based primarily on their embodied experience and hearsay.

From Deritualization to Ritualization: The Arbaeen Walk Based on the Experience of Female Iranian Pilgrims

Abstract Despite the rich Shi’i literature, the Arbaeen Walk as a collective ritual remains a rather newly-emerged phenomenon. Without a recognized ritual for the Arbaeen Pilgrimage, the principal hypothesis of this paper is founded on ritualization in a social and intersubjective process. This research studies the experience of pilgrimage in the Arbaeen Walk using the thematic analysis and deep semi-structured interviews with 25 female Iranian pilgrims. The five main issues discussed in these narratives include the pilgrim’s body in the dichotomy of imposed and deliberate suffering, identification with the historical suffering of the Shia and hope toward the promised future, overlapping with everyday life and contradicting with the anti-everydayness, from being sought to being left behind and the feeling of sin, and Arbaeen as an incomplete pilgrimage and feeling of nostalgia. In general, the ritual avoidance and anti-cliché nature of the Arbaeen Walk is a pleasant experience for the pilgrim; however, to recompensate for the feeling of the incompleteness of pilgrimage and the lack of experiencing religious conducts, the deeds of pilgrimage and the fixed time and place will be gradually established as a part of the Arbaeen ritual.

A Phronetic Ethics of Securitization

Abstract Intervening in recent debates on normativity in securitization theory, I draw on Aristotle’s notion of phronesis and Morgenthau’s formulation of prudence to articulate an ethical theory that takes seriously the idea that securitization is a deeply intersubjective process. First, I critique Rita Floyd's extant “just securitization theory,” which develops universal moral criteria akin to those of just war theory. While insightful, I argue that both her approach to the study of securitization as an empirical phenomenon and to moral theory are flawed. Then, I develop a novel theory by articulating how securitizing actors ought to exercise phronesis as a mode of ethical reasoning rather than a set of rules to follow. Securitizing actors exercise phronesis when they continuously deliberate about the ends of their actions, consider potential long-term consequences, utilize both abstract knowledge and experience, engage in critical self-reflection, and practice restraint. Throughout the paper, I redeploy the “universal” just securitization concepts of just cause and proportionality as rhetorical devices to help stimulate phronetic judgement.

Miscellaneous Care: Bridging the In-between of Translational Medicine

Based on fieldwork in China on oncology clinical trials for immunotherapy which involve foreign patients as trial subjects, in this paper, I illustrate how the source material needed for the trial (the patient’s T cells) is a scarce biological substance that needs to be generated and crafted though the efforts of patients, doctors, nurses, or lab technicians, as well as other staff: chauffeurs, translators, and foreign patient coordinators. Among the varied tasks done by these support staff, I focus on the intersubjective practices they perform to respond to the needs at the bench and the bedside, what I call “miscellaneous care.” I argue that although invisible and neglected, these practices are constitutive of the techno-scientific assemblage of translational medicine. Miscellaneous care suggests that the capitalization of life itself does not only refer to the capitalization of biological substances and biological processes, it in fact includes capitalization of intersubjective processes, such as responding to the presence of others.

Communication and Affectivity in the being and Pedagogical Doing of the Teacher of the Communication Career

This article makes an epistemic journey of communication in man, its relevance in everyday intersubjective processes and empathic communication problems in university contexts. Purpose to interpret the communication and affectivity of being a teacher of the Communication career of the National University of Chimborazo from its Pedagogical work. In addition, the relevance of the word for communicators and the vision of communicative competence from the communication career are discussed. Communicative competence is seen not as a doing, but from being, to understand and achieve processes of teacherstudent intersubjectivity. Then bridges are established with the theory of communicative action of Habermas (1999) who offers a phenomenological vision of communication to achieve consensus and meetings mediated by the word. From the interpretive paradigm and the phenomelogical-hermeneutical method, and discourse analysis. It ends with the reaffirmation that it is only.

Reading the self-other drama of the clinical encounter: The role of literary reading and writing as a challenge for psychiatrists.

The purpose of this article is to suggest ways in which literary practices such as reading of fiction and creative writing may be beneficial for psychiatrists in their clinical practice. Concepts from literary theory, phenomenology, and psychodynamic thinking will be used to move the therapeutic thinking of the medical paradigm beyond the dichotomic body-mind model. The ability to listen and respond to subjective and intersubjective processes, and the understanding of the dynamics and structure of the verbalized qualia will be emphasized. We will draw on our personal experiences from a pilot project applying literary techniques for psychiatrists and psychologists to improve their clinical practice. In our analysis, we suggest a framing of the clinical encounter as a hermeneutic situation with a gradually growing scenic and poetic understanding of the texts enunciated in the therapeutic actions and of the texts being produced by the patient's mind. This theoretical study suggests two ways in which literary practices and concepts are highly valuable for the clinical practice of psychologists and psychiatrists. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

ON THE POTENTIAL OF USING PHENOMENOLOGICAL METHODS IN THE RESEARCH OF BARRIER SITUATIONS IN UNIVERSAL DESIGN

The article is focused on the study of individuals' perception of (exclusive) objects in the environment. The paper also describes the potential of extrapolating the phenomenological method to the field of design science, since design is perceived as a social and intersubjective process. The article proposes the idea that phenomenological methodology, unlike analytical methodology, (focuses on the study of) the "causes", the meanings of the design object and also explores the meaning-producing constructions that influence the formation of the object in the process of its emergence. This article suggests that by studying the contextual history of the process of creating a certain universal design object, rather than the finished (completed) object, it is possible to identify the meaning-producing factors, characteristic contextual features of the social (or physical) environment that influenced a particular designer's decision at different stages of the design process. Phenomenological methods have the potential to become a valuable tool for researching the phenomena of universal design, in particular for the analysis of barrier situations.

Intersubjective processes in psychodrama groups with adolescents

Intersubjective processes in psychodrama groups with adolescents