Phenomenological Experience Research Articles

Healing experiences in Japanese rope bondage practice

The regular practice of Shibari, also referred to as Kinbaku, a Japanese rope bondage practice, appears to have an overall positive impact on people´s lives and their personal development by providing practitioners an explorative space to bring subconscious patterns into conscious awareness where healing is possible. The aim of this phenomenological study was to find common healing experiences among practitioners of Shibari. Within a framework of 10 semi-structured interviews, the study explored phenomenological experiences of individual practitioners. The following transpersonal topics surfaced dominantly throughout the interviews in reference to potential healing experiences: transformation and catharsis, embodiment and empowerment, communication and community; elucidating healing and transformative potential of Shibari practice. The study contributes to a growing field currently being explored by transpersonal psychologists and BDSM enthusiasts and promotes a more expansive way to look at these experiences as a path towards human wholeness and awareness within the practice and beyond.

"In a State of Flow": A Qualitative Examination of Autistic Adults' Phenomenological Experiences of Task Immersion.

There is considerable conceptual overlap between Autistic hyperfocus and flow, yet these phenomena have seldom been associated in the literature. Moreover, no studies have provided an in-depth empirical investigation of Autistic people's flow-like or hyperfocus experiences. In this study, we sought to address this gap by investigating Autistic people's phenomenological experiences of task immersion, and how their experiences relate to existing conceptualizations of flow, hyperfocus, and monotropism. To address this aim, we drew on data from a broader qualitative study, designed in partnership with Autistic community members, to understand Autistic people's experiences of Autistic inertia. For that broader study, Autistic and non-Autistic researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 Autistic adults about their everyday experiences of starting and stopping tasks. During these interviews, participants repeatedly discussed their experiences of task immersion and the benefits and challenges associated with it. We analyzed these responses specifically, using reflexive thematic analysis, adopting a combination of deductive and inductive approaches within an essentialist framework. Our participants' accounts closely matched conceptual understandings of flow, Autistic hyperfocus, and monotropism. Specifically, the analysis revealed the all-encompassing nature of task immersion experiences, and how it could be difficult to "find the balance" between the joy and other aspects of everyday life. Despite the drawbacks, participants were glad to be immersed because they felt they could be themselves, with no pretences. These results are important for reframing task immersion as a state of great potential value to Autistic people's lives, but one that may require additional support if it is to play its role in enabling Autistic people to flourish.

Virtual Dwelling and the Phenomenology of Experience: Museum Encounters between Self and World

This article provides an anthropologically derived philosophy of the nature of experience in relation to the lifeworld of virtual tourism. Framed around Martin Heidegger and Tim Ingold’s concept of dwelling, I interrogate what the implications of a virtually derived experience of tourism might be for how we understand what experience means and by extension the experience of being human-in-the-world; in effect, what it means to ‘experience’ virtual tourism. I illustrate my argument by focusing on extended reality (XR) technology within the context of three museums, since museum experiences are increasingly mediated by varying forms of XR. I am interested in what the virtual-tourism-world of a museum might reveal about the experience of being human, experience that I refer to as virtual dwelling. The museums are the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle and the Louvre, both of which are located in Paris, France, and the Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex in FL, USA. These examples provide a snapshot into the merging, blending or overlaying of the physical with the virtual. In other words, the inseparability of virtual, person and world. Drawing from Heidegger, I argue that the significance of technology does not lie in its instrumentality as a resource or as a means to an end. Its significance comes from its capacity to un-conceal or reveal a ‘real’ world of relations and intentions through which humans take power over reality. The nature of experience, as virtual dwelling revealed, concerns the relationship between humans and the natural world, understandings of cultural value and cultural wealth and notions of human exceptionalism. Ultimately, what technologically modified experiences of a virtual-tourism-world reveal is experience as virtual dwelling, experience of the embeddedness of being human-in-the-world.

Recentering the individual in context using the Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory: Applications for higher education

AbstractStudent development theory has been an important guide in practice; however, few theories focus on both the individual and the influence of the environment. Spencer's (1997) Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) examines the individual, the environment, and the role of environmental feedback on self‐perceptions, with a specific focus on how this feedback influences student experiences and outcomes. PVEST allows for assessing the processes by which an individual can develop strategies to resist negative feedback from oppressive environments, as well as how individuals use different coping mechanisms. In this chapter, we apply PVEST to individual student‐level exemplars, as well as examples within counseling and classroom microcontexts to demonstrate the importance of environmental influence as well as phenomenological individual differences in interpretations and self‐perception. Ultimately, we demonstrate how PVEST is a theoretical mechanism to focus on both the person and their phenomenological experiences (PEs), and offer larger implications for use in higher education contexts.Practical Takeaways While critical for student affairs (SA) and higher education (HE) practitioners to consider the influence of the environment on college student development, experiences, and outcomes, there can still be individual, subjective phenomenological differences across individuals who might share similar identities and be in similar contexts. We encourage practitioners to utilize PVEST—which examines the individual and the environment—with a specific focus on the role of environmental feedback on self‐perceptions, and how these self‐perceptions can impact student experiences and outcomes. PVEST is useful for understanding an individual's risk and protective factors, their available sources of challenge and support, and the coping mechanisms they use. Ultimately, PVEST can help a SA/HE practitioner assess processes by which the student can develop strategies to resist negative feedback from oppressive environments.

Worthy of your love: Queerness and ghosting in Assassins and Company

How would the plot of Assassins shift if Squeaky Fromme was singing to Jodie Foster in the song ‘Unworthy of Your Love?’ Or if Bobbie from Company does not want to get married because her girlfriend, Rifkele, is waiting for her offstage? Marvin Carlson’s concept of ghosting explains how an audience’s previous experience with a person or object can carry a trace into subsequent roles, which explains how these readings were possible for a certain portion of those watching Erin Markey as Squeaky Fromme in the 2017 City Center Encores! production of Assassins and Katrina Lenk as Bobbie in the 2022 production of Company. Although there was nothing inherently queer about these two characters within their respective Sondheim productions, Markey’s performance history and Lenk’s well-known role as Manke in Paula Vogel’s Indecent ghosted prior performances of queerness onto Markey’s Squeaky Fromme and Lenk’s Bobbie. This reading provides a way for a queer viewer to find representations of queerness in Assassins and Company that live outside of the gay male experience, which ends up being particularly inclusive for bisexual and lesbian women audience members and performers. By following the author’s phenomenological experience of reading these two roles as queer women within their specific musicals, this article posits that spaces for queer women, non-binary people and trans people can and should be explored in the works of Stephen Sondheim.

Brain microstate spatio-temporal dynamics as a candidate endotype of consciousness

Consciousness can be defined as a phenomenological experience continuously evolving. Current research showed how conscious mental activity can be subdivided into a series of atomic brain states converging to a discrete spatiotemporal pattern of global neuronal firing. Using the high temporal resolution of EEG recordings in patients with a severe Acquired Brain Injury (sABI) admitted to an Intensive Rehabilitation Unit (IRU), we detected a novel endotype of consciousness from the spatiotemporal brain dynamics identified via microstate analysis. Also, we investigated whether microstate features were associated with common neurophysiological alterations. Finally, the prognostic information comprised in such descriptors was analysed in a sub-cohort of patients with prolonged Disorder of Consciousness (pDoC). Occurrence of frontally-oriented microstates (C microstate), likelihood of maintaining such brain state or transitioning to the C topography and complexity were found to be indicators of consciousness presence and levels. Features of left–right asymmetric microstates and transitions toward them were found to be negatively correlated with antero-posterior brain reorganization and EEG symmetry. Substantial differences in microstates’ sequence complexity and presence of C topography were found between groups of patients with alpha dominant background, cortical reactivity and antero-posterior gradient. Also, transitioning from left-right to antero-posterior microstates was found to be an independent predictor of consciousness recovery, stronger than consciousness levels at IRU’s admission. In conclusions, global brain dynamics measured with scale-free estimators can be considered an indicator of consciousness presence and a candidate marker of short-term recovery in patients with a pDoC.

GraphEx: visualizing and managing customer experience in its multidimensionality

PurposeCustomer experience has become a vital premise in service theory and practice. Despite researchers' and managers' growing interest, the customer experience remains a complex and multidimensional concept that is challenging for service providers to understand. This study aims to graph the experience in its multidimensionality by categorizing and proposing matching practices for service marketing managers to channel and foster customer experiences in customer journeys.Design/methodology/approachTo support the predominantly conceptual nature of the study, an abductive approach underpinned by the authors' vast experience in academia and practice, real-life autohermeneutic phenomenological experience tales and theory on customer experience and its management by providers is deployed to craft a model that addresses and highlights the multidimensionality of experience.FindingsThis study introduces the “GraphEx” (Graph Experience) hip-pocket model, which expresses customer experience in a simple yet multidimensional fashion and offers managerial practices to foster the customer's experience. The model contains three dimensions (valence, type of experience and visceral intensity) and five managerial practices (urgent patchwork, restoring, activating and stimulating desire, bolstering and safeguarding appreciation).Originality/valueThis study contributes to the service literature by creating granularity in the multidimensionality of customer experience. This study advances customer experience management in practice by providing service managers with novel possibilities for understanding and managing customer experiences intelligently. This can help service providers streamline and innovate customer experience strategies during customer journeys and foster customer loyalty.

Clients’ Experiences of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy

This study aimed to explore clients’ unique phenomenological experiences of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and their meaning-making regarding this therapeutic approach within the context of an adult mental health service in Ireland. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed to collect and analyze data from six interviews with individuals who had completed an EMDR intervention. Three Group Experiential Themes were identified: “Trapped in trauma—self-disorganization,” “Being ‘in’ the process of processing,” and “Moving on—adaptive resolution of trauma.” The study provides an in-depth insight into clients’ experiences of EMDR in terms of the many processes and outcomes, and clinical implications are discussed.

The (Personal) Experience of Values – Scheler and Hildebrand

Abstract There are several problems in conceiving of value experience in early phenomenology. What exactly does the experience of a value consist in? How are we to determine the morality of an action that is based on a value which is, as a reality in and of itself, imposed on us from without? How is the experience of values related to the person and in what way can an intuitive value response be reconciled with the application of acquired, personal value stances? In a joint reading of the early works of Max Scheler and Dietrich von Hildebrand, I propose a systematic solution to these various problems which revolve around the non-reflective self-awareness that a value experience entails: we cannot experience the real, material value quality without changing as persons. Rather than reflecting on an object, we experience the value as ourselves, dynamically reacting to it in the context of a given situation.

Exposing the world through Emanuel Lubezki's method

This article is based on the concept of exposing the world through the lens of cinema by a cinematographer. Without a cinematographer, movies are not as visually and emotionally impactful on audiences. Cinema is trying to penetrate beyond things and create an utterly phenomenological experience. Cinematographers are responsible for creating the audience's emotions through various cinematic techniques. It is perhaps one of their most significant roles is to promote the cinematic frame as a mediator. This research claims that the cinema’s camera illuminates the world through focusing and framing components. It provides the cinematic image with a cinematic presence and makes it feasible in a phenomenological sense (return to things themselves). And eventually, this leads to viewer buoyancy and immersiveness.

Digital Entanglement: Thinking With and About Digital Artifacts

Object-oriented cognition suggests that human thinking and perception are largely based on our interactions with objects in the world, and that our ability to recognise objects and understand their properties is fundamental to how we make sense of the world. Similarly, Enactivism emphasises the role of bodily interactions and experiences in shaping our cognitive processes, from imagining or remembering to scientific models that help advance our understanding of the world. However, the ubiquitous presence of digital technologies in our daily life implies that the nature and properties of artifacts as a means of directing cognition are impacted by a redefinition of the material properties of those artifacts. Digital Ontophany (Vial, 2018, 2019) argues that technologies generate cyclical changes in the way we perceive things (ontophanic shifts). These shifts affect our phenomenological experience of the world and have the power to change our idea of what is possible. Through a mix of micro-phenomenology and micro-ethnography, this research collects first-person accounts of the experience of learning with digital devices in a secondary school in Aotearoa New Zealand, as a way to shine light onto the black-boxed assemblage of learners and devices. The main aims of this presentation are to introduce a comprehensive literature review that supports this research and to discuss the initial findings, which indicate the emergence of a new dynamic of digital artifactuality that materialises new conditions of possibility and a redefinition of embodied dexterity.

You just want a break from the hatred of failure: the lived experience of being a student physiotherapist perfectionist and considerations for educators

Perfectionism is a personality orientation associated with mental health and adjustment problems. Recent evidence demonstrates that perfectionism is widespread among students and on the rise, with recent generations of students placing increasingly more importance on perfection. Whilst the extant literature is vast, it tends to focus on psychopathology and identification of perfectionism correlates rather than the experience of student perfectionism. Furthermore, the education literature is scant and there is a need to understand the deeper processes and nuances of perfectionism, particularly within health professions education where intense study demands, competition to gain entry to educational programmes, and professional cultures may nurture the problem. This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of ten physiotherapy students as they wrestled with perfectionism in the various facets of their studies. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken, and participants completed log sheets to document perfectionism-related experiences. Idiographic profiles were composed and interview transcripts were analysed, drawing upon features of both phenomenological and thematic analysis. Perfectionism was found to have toxic consequences for the learning experience. Harmful phenomenological experiences included perpetual and excessive achievement striving, punitive self-criticism and health and wellbeing difficulties. A range of sabotaging learning behaviours such as self-handicapping and feedback avoidance was also illuminated, and cultural and organisational influences perceived to foster perfectionism emerged. Findings are discussed in relation to underlying processes and implications for educators. The prospect of findings transferring to other educational contexts is highlighted.

Architectural Landscape. A New Interpretation of the Sloping Ceiling of Rekhmire’s Tomb Chapel (TT 100)

The tomb TT 100, belonging to the vizier Rekhmire, in the Theban necropolis (Luxor, Egypt), one of the best examples of funerary architecture of the Egyptian New Kingdom, has been widely studied since the beginning of the 20th century from the iconographic, historical and archaeological points of view. However, it has an anomalous structural feature for the classic Theban tomb typology of this period: a longitudinal corridor with a sloping ceiling ending in a combination of false stela and niche for a funerary statue. The anomaly, widely noted in classical literature, has been vaguely explained and often forgotten due to the celebrated decorative program that occupies the tomb.This study aims to offer a reinterpretation of this architectural feature of the tomb based on a landscape archaeology approach. According to this methodology, the ancestral landscape of the necropolis, and the architectural and artistic features of the tomb of his relative and predecessor in the vizierate Useramun are significant elements for the interpretation of this element. The main result is Rekhmire’s clear intention to emulate and replicate Useramun’s double funerary structure, not only from the artistic point of view (already demonstrated in previous studies) but also from the spatial point of view, copying the phenomenological experience of space and landscape in the architectural development of his tomb. An example of how landscape archaeology can be useful in the study of the art of this ancient culture.

Refugees, asylum seekers, and practitioners' perspectives of embodied trauma: A comprehensive scoping review.

Individuals seeking refuge and asylum commonly present to health care practitioners with embodiment of mental distress resulting from the traumatic nature of their migration experiences. The number of displaced individuals has doubled over the past decade due to the impacts of war, religious and political conflict, climate change, and COVID-19. Studies point towards the need for a comprehensive scoping review to fully explicate the concept of embodied trauma, bridging the gap between phenomenological lived experience and the many treatments available. To inform psychotherapy guidelines by identifying the evidence for embodied trauma, clarifying key terms, examining how research is conducted, and identifying gaps in the knowledge. A five-stage scoping review protocol was operationalized to explore and analyze the existing literature and associated terminology by (a) identifying the research question, (b) identifying the relevant literature, (c) selecting the studies, (d) charting the data, and (e) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. Highlight the need for a clear definition of terms, the development of a culturally informed assessment and formulation for individuals experiencing embodied trauma, and reveal a gap in the research for the best treatment approach(es). Proposal of a clear definition of embodied trauma and key themes for future research including culturally informed care, psychosocial support, language considerations, relational belonging, and inclusion of sexual, spiritual, and existential factors, moving away from purely Westernized diagnoses and treatments towards culturally informed care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The Chiasm: The Inverse Parallel of Le Corbusier

The “axis” is ubiquitous in Le Corbusier’s architectural oeuvre. “The Chiasm: The Inverse Parallel of Le Corbusier” examines the concept of the axis in the essays, “Architecture, Pure Creation of the Mind,” and “Architecture, The Illusion of the Plan,” published in Vers une architecture (1923). Le Corbusier writes: “…a sense of the harmonious that gives rise to a resonance…” and “…the trace of an indefinable absolute preexisting at the core of our being.” And decisively, “This must be the axis along which man is organized…”. The axis Le Corbusier described is, in fact, a chiastic device he employed in his writings, drawings and architecture. Chiasmus, conceptually defined, is the “inverted repetition of grammatical structure.” Inversion, as two sides of the axis, identifies representations of things related and simultaneously different. The twentieth century French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty identifies the chiasm as a concept to describe the body as sensible and sentient, a reflection in relation to the self, others, and the perceived world. Merleau-Ponty uses the chiasm to clarify reversibility and the phenomenological experience. Merleau-Ponty’s theories of chiastic inversion substantiate the chiastic structure that supports Le Corbusier’s ideology and his search for a harmonious milieu that is based in the axis.

Stillbirth: Metaphors and Uncanny in They Were Still Born: Personal Stories About Stillbirth

ABSTRACT The 2010 collection of autobiographical narratives edited by Janel C. Atlas – They Were Still Born: Personal Stories About Stillbirth – encapsulates the phenomenological experiences of stillbirth and its trauma. This paper analyses these memoirs to unveil the significance of the figurative language used to encapsulate the phenomenology of these bereaved family members. The World Health Organisation defines stillbirth as a baby’s death after twenty-eight weeks of pregnancy. It is either intrauterine or during labour death. This ubiquitous event leaves a long-lasting psychological impact on the family. This paper aims to uncover the conceptual systems of metaphor that the parents employ to communicate their lived reality and emotional undercurrents. Further, the paper establishes the connection between their lived reality and the uncanny. The paper draws on Lakoff and Johnson’s conceptual theory of metaphors and Jentsch and Freud’s notion of the uncanny to demonstrate the enmeshment of experiencing stillbirth with the uncanny as foregrounded by the metaphors.

Reflections on energy, information and fields from psychoanalytic and systems theoretical perspectives

AbstractThe story of energy as a focus of psychoanalysis began with Freud and was conceptualized further by C. G. Jung. For him, energy enlivens the human psyche, drawing people towards ideas and activities, forming and re‐forming us through the ways it moves and the content it carries. This article examines how psychological energy forms the experience of individuals, informing us about conscious and subconscious states of the human psyche as it engages with its environment. We examine how psychological energy forms the experience of groups, creating qualitatively linked behaviours, constraints and potentials that Jung and others conceived of as psychological ‘fields’. The concept of energy as a property of psychological systems contributes to our understanding of the human experience. Though rarely conscious, it impacts the phenomenological experience of both individuals and groups, who cope with it in both generative and destructive ways.

Sovereignty at what price? Existential displacement at the Lebanese/Syrian border

AbstractIn 2014, Islamist jihadist groups overran a Lebanese border town and besieged it for four days, spreading terror across the town and the country as a whole. In response, the Lebanese army launched a violent counterattack on these groups with the aid of Hizbullah in what became known as the Battle of Arsal. Declaring the area a security zone, the army restricted mobility and placed Lebanese citizens and Syrian refugees under military confinement. While the battle ended with a government‐declared victory that celebrated the ‘reclamation of state sovereignty’, these events disrupted social life in unprecedented ways. This article focuses on the phenomenological experience of sovereignty and the price paid for the desire for this state. I explore the ruptures people experienced in their existence (their right to life, subsistence, and movement under indiscriminate shelling) and existentiality (their reflections on their human existence in time, place, and relationship to others in a social world that is no longer recognizable). I argue for a concept of existential displacement that focuses on the experience of citizens as well as refugees for a broader understanding of the ruptures and dispossessions taking place in conflict.

Making mathematics together by modeling shared experiences

IntroductionThis article illustrates a pedagogical approach to integrating models and modeling in Geometry with mathematics teacher-learners (MTLs). It analyzes the work of MTLs in a course titled “Computers, Teaching, and Mathematical Visualization” (or “MathViz”), which is designed to engage MTLs in making mathematics together. They use a range of both physical and virtual models of 2-manifolds to formulate and investigate geometric conjectures of their own.ObjectivesThe article articulates the theoretical basis and design rationale of MathViz; it analyzes illustrative examples of the discourse produced in collaborative investigations; and it describes the impact of this approach in the students’ own voices.MethodsMathViz has been iteratively refined and researched over the past 6 years. This study focuses on one iteration, aiming to capture the phenomenological experience of the MTLs as they structured and pursued their own mathematical investigations. Video data from two class sessions of the Fall 2021 iteration of the course are analyzed to illustrate the discourse of collaborating students and the nature of their shared inquiry. Excerpts from this class’s Learning Journals are then analyzed to capture themes across students’ experience of the course and their perspectives on its impact.ResultsAnalysis of students’ discourse (while investigating cones) shows how they used models and gesture to make sense of geometric phenomena; forged connections with investigations they had conducted throughout the course on different surfaces; and articulated and proved mathematical conjectures of their own. Analysis of students’ Learning Journals illustrates how experiences in MathViz contributed to their conceptualization of making mathematics together, using a variety of models and technologies, and developing a set of practices that that they could introduce with their future students.DiscussionAn argument is made that this approach to collective mathematical investigation is not only viable and valuable for MTLs, but is also relevant to philosophical reflections about the nature of mathematical knowledge-creation.

“If I talk about it, I'm weak, and I'm supposed to be strong”: experiences of body-related shame in women athletes

ABSTRACT Body-related shame – operationalised as feeling inadequate about one’s appearance, fitness, function, and bodily behaviours – is an emotional experience with particular relevance to athletes given the evaluative, social, and achievement-oriented nature of sport. To date, in-depth explorations of athletes’ body-related shame have been scarce and have had a restricted focus on the domain of bodily appearance. Exploring body-related shame is particularly important for women, given consistent evidence for the gendered experience of shame contextualised to the body. As such, the present study explored the phenomenological experiences of body-related shame in women athletes. Sixteen purposefully sampled women athletes aged 18–26 with a history of body preoccupation were recruited to participate in two semi-structured interviews separated by a week-long reflective journaling exercise. Participants shared experiences of body-related shame related to appearance, health behaviours, training, and performance in the sport context. Using reflexive thematic analysis, researchers identified five themes that highlighted women athletes’ experiences of body-related shame. Themes included (a) striving to be a worthy athlete; (b) conflicting body ideals and changing roles in sport; (c) the objectified sport body; (d) anti-fatness as the bedrock of sport; (e) shame resistance and athletic invincibility. Results from this study highlight the unique factors that contribute to body-related shame among women athletes from a variety of sport backgrounds and provide preliminary insight to inform the measurement of body-related shame and potential individual and systems-level interventions to improve the emotional well-being of women athletes.