Phenomenological Structure Research Articles

Category theory in consciousness science: going beyond the correlational project

We discuss the potential of applying category theory to the study of consciousness. We first review a recent proposal from the neurosciences of consciousness to illustrate the “correlational project”, using the integrated information theory of consciousness as an example. We then discuss some technical preliminaries related to categories and in particular to the notion of a functor, which carries the bulk of conceptual weight in many current discussions. We then look at possible payoffs of this project—getting to grips with the hard problem, theory integration, and exploiting explanatory dualities—and discuss possible avenues for further research, stressing the need to better develop the categorical representation of consciousness, in particular its phenomenological structure. A better understanding of consciousness cannot be achieved by merely studying the physical brain. By contrast, the categorical treatment even suggests application beyond the domain of neuroscience, for example in computer science and artificial intelligence research, while also emphasizing the primacy of (phenomenal) experience.

Toussaint Louverture and the Undermining of the Haitian Revolution

This work using a structurationist, structural Marxist, phenomenological structuralism, understanding of practical consciousness constitution, explores the origins and basis for the Haitian Revolutionary leader, Toussaint Louverture’s (May 20, 1743-April 1, 1803), social, political, and economic policies. The eldest son of an Arada King, Toussaint Louverture, was a creole-slave born on the island of Saint-Domingue/Haiti. As the eventual leader of the Revolution from 1794-1801, Louverture attempted to have the island remain an independent French territory where slavery was outlawed, but the export-oriented plantation economy, with the slave trade, persisted. He, essentially, adopted the position of the French Royalists, the white plantation owners who wanted more autonomy from France and its “exclusif” mercantile economic system, which forced them to trade and do business exclusively with French merchants and bankers. Although, Louverture’s demeanor and position is typically juxtaposed against his successor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, all subsequent leaders, I argue here, would go on to adopt Louverture’s policies, the export-oriented agricultural economy, with variations based on who (mulattoes or members of the black grandon class) should serve in the position of the white planters once independence was declared from France in 1804. This decision, to maintain Louverture’s political and economic policies as opposed to redistributing the land to the African masses so that they can pursue their subsistence agriculture and komes, I conclude, has undermined the Revolutionary impetus of the Haitian Revolution and converted Haiti into the so-called poorest (periphery) country in the Western Hemisphere.

Peculiarities of the first time diagnosed mental disorders formationin after the coronavirus disease COVID-19

IntroductionThe world community is only at the beginning of awareness of the peculiarities of the formation, course and outcome of the psychopathological consequences of the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.ObjectivesTo investigate the clinical and anamnestic features and their influence on the formation of psychopathological consequences in patients with first diagnosed mental disorders who have experienced COVID-19 and were exposed to the stressors of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.Methods97 patients with first diagnosed mental disorders who have experienced COVID-19 and were exposed to the stressors of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic were examined (F 32.0-32.2 – 34 patients, F 40-45 – 32 patients, F 06.3-06.6 – 31 patients). Clinical-psychopathological, clinical-amnestic methods, including information about the experienced coronavirus disease COVID-19, the impact of the stressors of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic, and methods of statistical analysis were applied.ResultsThe conducted research made it possible to identify the phenomenological structure of mental disorders that develop after the coronavirus disease COVID-19. This structure includes depressive disorders (35.05%), neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders (32.99%), as well as mental disorders of organic genesis (31.96%). An important result of the study was the determination of the heterogeneity of mental pathology in the context of the influence of stressogenic factors of the pandemic and other psychogenies. In this aspect, all mental and behavioral disorders must be divided into 3 variants of pathology, which differ in the mechanisms of formation: caused by the pathoplastic factors of COVID-19 and the patient’s personal reactions to the disease; related to the psychogenic effects of the stressors of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic; with a combined mechanism of influence of pathoplastic and psychogenic factors. Certain diagnostic and phenomenological regularities characteristic of each of the options are defined. The influence of pathoplastic factors and personal reactions to the disease is associated with the formation of depressive disorders. Pandemic stressors most often cause the development of neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders. Under the influence of combined factors, disorders of organic genesis are formed to a greater extent. The initial manifestations of pathology also differ with different formation mechanisms: when pathoplastic factors predominate, asthenia, depression and sleep disturbances prevail; with leading psychogenic influences – anxiety and tension; when the above factors are combined - asthenia, stress and cognitive disorders.ConclusionsThe significance of the obtained data lies in the possibility of studying the role of the psychopathological consequences of COVID-19 in the genesis of mental disorders.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

An anagram of the "unknown poet" in K.K. Vaginov's novel "The Goat Song"

The article analyzes the hidden semantic associations, allusions and reminiscences associated with the artistic technique of anagramming the surname of the main character of K.K. Vaginov's novel "The Goat Song" (1928) — the "unknown poet" Agafonov. The subject of our research attention was the linguistic and cultural complex of associations as part of an incomplete anagram of the writer's surname (Vaginov) in the family "mask" of the autobiographical hero (Agafonov). Special attention is paid to the analysis of the phenomenological structure of this image, based on elementary semantic connections with the formally absent linguistic and cultural complex of the reconstructed context: the "Dionysian" component (the motif of the "unknown god" in the Pradionysian cults); the cultural and semantic stereotype of the Silver Age (in particular, the features of the symbolist "poet-theurgist" are obvious); the Nietzschean image "the artist of intoxication and sleep"; and finally, with the ancient Greek etymology of the word-concept ἀγάπη ( love, Christian meals of love) in the structure of the surname of the character in question – Agafonov. The anagramming technique is presented from the perspective of the artistic teleology of Vagin's work and is considered by us within the framework of the methodological guidelines of historical poetics (O.M. Freudenberg) and selectively applied methods of deconstructivist analysis. As part of the analysis of the phenomenological structure of the image of the "unknown poet", we sought, using a wide range of interpretative possibilities of the Vagin text, to demonstrate the hidden semantic structures associated with the anagram of the surname of the main character of the novel – the "unknown poet" Agafonov. The main result of the conducted research is the conclusion that the anagramming technique is presented by K. K. Vaginov in the perspective of the artistic teleology of the novel narrative, which is based on the principle of multifunctional interaction between the author and the character. A special research contribution to the development of the presented topic is an indication of specific structural and semantic complexes linking the surname of the hero of the Vaginovsky novel with a wide linguistic and cultural tradition – from antiquity (Plato's "Feast" dialogue) to the modern era ("The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music" by F. Nietzsche).

Is there an affective neuroscience of spirituality? The development and validation of the OCEANic feelings scale.

Oceanic feelings represent a phenomenological structure of affective sensations that characteristically involve feelings of self-dissolution and feelings of unity and transcendence. This study presents the preliminary version of a self-report instrument to measure individual dispositions toward oceanic feelings in order to enable further research within the concept of primary emotions postulated by Jaak Panksepp. A first version of the questionnaire was applied to a total sample of 926 German-speaking adults of the general population. After performing item analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) in a first study (N = 300), the questionnaire was shortened. In a second study (N = 626), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted and emerged scales were related to the already established instruments for the assessment of primary emotions (BANPS-GL) and Big Five personality traits (BFI-44). The OCEANic scale exhibited reliabilities ranging from Cronbach's α = 0.82 (positive) to α = 0.88 (negative) and plausible correlations with behavioral traits related to the seven affective neurobiological systems (ANGER, FEAR, CARE, SEEK, PLAY, SADNESS, and LUST) as well as with personality factors measured by the Big Five Inventory. For CFA, a bifactorial model with an overall factor demonstrated good fit: RMSEA = 0.00 (90% CI:0.00, 0.03); TLI = 1.00; CFI = 1.00; NFI = 0.99. The OCEANic scale enables the operationalization of oceanic feelings comprising two subscales and one total scale. The results indicate good reliability and acceptable factorial validity. Establishment and further validation of the OCEANic scale within future research will be needed to fully understand the role of oceanic feelings within the human affective life, especially the personality trait of spirituality.

The Algebraic Cluster Model (8Be, 12C) and the Cluster Shell Model (13C, 7Be, 19F, 8Be)

Bijker and Iachello’s algebraic cluster model (ACM) and its extension to the cluster shell model (CSM), provides a new theoretical platform for the study of alpha-clustering in light nuclei. It led to the discovery of the D3h symmetry in 12C and 20Ne, with the discovery in 12C of a new g.s. rotational band with the spin sequence of, 0+, 2+, 3-, 4+/4- and 5-, including the predicted 4+ and 4- parity doublet. Applications of the CSM shell model to particle molecular orbits in 9Be and 13C (C2’ and D3h’ particle symmetries, respectively), lead us to conjecture molecular hole states in 7Be and 19F. We observe in these nuclei the predicted phenomenological structure. And we further consider conjectured p-h states in 8Be with the predicted phenomenological p-h structure of rotational band at high excitations of approximately 20 MeV. A search for these rotational band in 8Be was performed at ISOLDE.

Phenomenological structure of anxiety disorders in persons who have transferred COVID-19

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is neurotropic because its adhesion protein has a high affinity for Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 receptors, which are expressed, among other things, on the endothelium of cerebral capillaries. There are several theories of the pathogenesis of brain damage in COVID-19: direct viral damage, hypoxia/ischemia and systemic inflamma-tion, autoimmune damage. The study was conducted to study the clinical and psychopatho-logical features of anxiety disorders in patients who suffered from COVID-19. During 2020–2022, 94 patients (49 men and 55 women) with an average age of (33.0±5.0) years who suf-fered from COVID-19 and were diagnosed with anxiety disorders were examined. According to the results of the study was found: a characteristic low mood background; feeling anxious; unmotivated anxiety; internal tension with inability to relax; anxious fears; intrusive anxious thoughts that intensify in the evening and at night, which prevents falling asleep; attacks of fear, which are accompanied by suffocation, a feeling of unreality, fear of death; exaggerated wariness; inability to control anxiety; feeling of loss of control over one's life; irritability; decreased ability to concentrate; motor tension; autonomic hyperactivity; sleep disorders. The data obtained in the course of the study formed the basis for the development of a com-prehensive personalized program for the correction of anxiety disorders in patients with COVID-19 with differentiated use of psychopharmacotherapy, psychotherapy and psy-choeducation. It was concluded that patients are characterized by pronounced manifestations of anxiety disorders: prolonged anxiety-depressive reaction, panic disorder, generalized anx-iety disorder; anxiety disorder of an organic nature. Keywords: SARS-CoV-2 virus, neurotropic virus, anxiety, depressive states.

The Cognitive Mechanism of Music

"Music clearly has a mathematical structure. From the ancient Pythagoreans we know that harmony is the mathematical ratio between the notes (the frequencies as has been discovered by physics). This operation can be performed by the brain which has been seen as a kind of computer by the philosophy of mind of the last decades. And it is an unconscious operation. The conscious presentation of music contains the intervals as phenomenal components, yet not in a mathematical form, obviously, but in a sensorial form, alongside the notes themselves. The experience of music must contain the intervals as cognitions (in the sense that they have phenomenal form), otherwise no music would be possible at all. The phenomenological structure of harmony shows us the notes themselves in the foreground but the intervals in the background that we can still hear and experience it fused with the notes. The experience of the intervals are also not the emotions that music evokes in us - though they are definitely connected in some ways by the neural circuits of the brain and compose further phenomenological structures. Keywords: Music, Mathematics, Intervals, Cognition, Computation, Phenomenology"

Black American Communities: From Pathology to Intersectionality

This article, using Mocombeian phenomenological structural theory, phenomenological structuralism, highlights black American community transition from a pathological-pathogenic community to an intersectional one, which dominates the contemporary global order. The work posits that the constitution of black American communities and their identities have been the product of their relations to the means and mode of production within the Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism. As such, black Americans have never been agents in the constitution of their own identities. They have always been and remain (reactionary) pawns of capital seeking, dialectically or negative dialectically, to integrate the American social structure. Contemporarily, their integration in post-industrial America is marked by their transition from a pathological-pathogenic community to a neoliberal intersectional one dominated by their youth, women, and queers.

The Epistemology of The Absolute Vacuum and Its Worlds

This article highlights how we humans know about what Mocombe calls the absolute vacuum and the worlds that it produces in his theories of phenomenological structuralism and consciousness field theory. The absolute vacuum is the Mocombeian ontological name for the fifth dimensional probability wavefunction that gives rise to the material worlds, their facts, relations of ideas, and mathematical principles, we as a species experience. The work explores the epistemologies, which are divided between materialism and post-materialism, involved in knowing about consciousness, the absolute vacuum, and its material worlds.

Myoglobin content and oxidative status to understand meat products’ color: Phenomenological based model

Meat color is attributed to myoglobin concentration and redox state. Myoglobin is a water-soluble hemoprotein with iron in its prosthetic group, which defines myoglobin’s redox state via its valence state and ligand linked to the free coordination site. In fresh meat, myoglobin can be in one of three states in dynamic equilibrium: deoxymyoglobin, oxymyoglobin, and metmyoglobin. Myoglobin can chemically interact with numerous components in meat products, affecting its redox state. These structural alterations in myoglobin caused by processing conditions will affect its thermal stability and consequently meat product color. Presently, cured meat products are made with sodium nitrite, a curing agent that reacts with myoglobin in meat, forming nitrosomyoglobin, a stable compound that gives the final meat product a distinctive pink color. This work proposes a mathematical model for understanding myoglobin structural changes during the production of a cured meat product. Because of the phenomenological structure of the established model, valuable knowledge is obtained, allowing new possibilities to be explored in the color of meat products while considering the chemical state of myoglobin. The proposed phenomenological model is validated with an error of roughly 10%.

“There’s always someone else to blame”: a comparison of the political discourse surrounding “vocational maturity” in Germany and “employability” in the UK

ABSTRACT There is considerable international interest in transitions from school to work. This article approaches the issue as part of the debate around ‘vocational maturity’ (Ausbildungsreife) in Germany and ‘employability’ in the United Kingdom. Vocational education and training systems in these two countries differ significantly, so the article takes a historical approach to analysing and comparing the discourse used, focusing primarily on which training policy actors make which arguments about Ausbildungsreife or employability under which social, economic and training conditions. Specifically, it uses trade union, employer association and government documents from the period 1977 to 2018, evaluating them using the heuristic tools of interpretative models to create an understanding of Ausbildungsreife and employability, phenomenological structure and narrative structure. The findings demonstrate differences over time in the way individual actors structure their arguments and major divergences between the discourse in the two countries.

Grief over Non-Death Losses

Grief is often thought of as an emotional response to the death of someone we love. However, the term “grief” is also used when referring to losses of various other kinds, as with grief over illness, injury, unemployment, diminished abilities, relationship breakups, or loss of significant personal possessions. Complementing such uses, we propose that grief over a bereavement and other experiences of loss share a common phenomenological structure: one experiences the loss of certain possibilities that were integral to—and perhaps central to—the unfolding structure of one’s life. Grief can thus be conceived of in a broad but still univocal way. To develop this position, we focus on the example of grief over involuntary childlessness, where lack of a concrete, historical object of emotion serves to make explicit the way in which grief concerns future possibilities. We go on to suggest that the phenomenological complexity, diversity, and prevalence of grief are obscured when approached via an abstract, simplified conception of bereavement.

Lonely Places and Lonely People

Feeling lonely, being a lonely person, and living through lonely times can all be construed in terms of the emotional experiences of individuals. However, we also speak of lonely places. Sometimes, a place strikes us as lonely even when we do not feel lonely ourselves. On other occasions, finding a place lonely also involves feeling lonely, isolated, and lost. In this paper, I reflect on the phenomenological structure of loneliness by addressing what it is to experience a place as lonely. I suggest that approaching loneliness in this way can help us to see how it involves not merely the lack or absence of something but, more specifically, the sense of being unable to access social and personal possibilities that may still appear accessible to others.

Non-metric distance judgements are influenced by image projection geometry and field of view.

Despite its mathematical simplicity and ubiquity in imaging technology, there has long been doubt about the ability of linear perspective to best represent human visual space, especially at wide-angle fields of view under natural viewing conditions. We investigated whether changes to image geometry had an impact on participants' performance, specifically in terms of non-metric distance estimates. Our multidisciplinary research team developed a new open-source image database to study distance perception in images by systematically manipulating target distance, field of view, and image projection using non-linear natural perspective projections. The database consists of 12 outdoor scenes of a virtual three-dimensional urban environment in which a target ball is presented at increasing distance, visualised using both linear perspective and natural perspective images, rendered, respectively, with three different fields of view: 100°, 120°, and 140° horizontally. In the first experiment (N = 52), we tested the effects of linear versus natural perspective on non-metric distance judgements. In the second experiment (N = 195), we investigated the influence of contextual and previous familiarity with linear perspective, and individual differences in spatial skills on distance estimations. The results of both experiments showed that distance estimation accuracy improved in natural compared with linear perspective images, particularly at wide-angle fields of view. Moreover, undertaking a training session with only natural perspective images led to more accurate distance judgements overall. We argue that the efficacy of natural perspective may stem from its resemblance to the way objects appear under natural viewing conditions, and that this can provide insights into the phenomenological structure of visual space.

An encounter with the self: A thematic and content analysis of the DMT experience from a naturalistic field study.

N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is an endogenous serotonergic psychedelic capable of producing radical shifts in an experience that have significant implications for consciousness and its neural correlates, especially given the "disconnected consciousness" suggested by the "breakthrough" DMT state. Its increasing usage and clinical trial indicate the growing importance of a thorough elucidation of the experience's qualitative content, over and above the phenomenological structure. This is particularly in light of the intensely pervasive effects of DMT occasions in all dimensions of the self, which are often ontologically challenging yet potentially transformative. This is the second report on the first naturalistic field study of DMT use exploring its qualitative analysis. Screened, healthy, anonymized, and experienced DMT users were observed during their non-clinical use of the drug at home (40-75-mg inhaled). In-depth semi-structured interviews, inspired by the micro-phenomenological technique, were employed immediately after their experience. This study reports on the thematic and content analysis of one major domain of the breakthrough experiences elicited, the "self"; where analyses of the "other" were previously reported. A total of 36 post-DMT experience interviews with mostly Caucasian (83%) men (eight women) of a mean of 37 years were predominantly inductively coded. Invariably, profound and highly intense experiences occurred. The first overarching category comprised the onset of effects, encompassing super-ordinate themes including sensory, emotion and body, and space-time shifts; the second category comprised bodily effects, encompassing themes including pleasurable, neutral/both, and uncomfortable; the third category comprised the sensorial effects, encompassing open-eye, visual, and cross-modal and other; the fourth comprised the psychological effects, encompassing memory and language, awareness and sense of self, and time distortions; and the fifth comprised the emotional effects, encompassing positive, neither/both, and challenging experiences. Many further subthemes also illuminate the rich content of the DMT experience. The present study provides a systematic and nuanced analysis of the content of the breakthrough DMT state pertaining to one's personal and self-referential experiences of the body, senses, psychology, and emotions. The resonances both with previous DMT studies and other types of extraordinary experiences, such as the alien abduction, shamanic and near-death experiences, are also elaborated upon. Putative neural mechanisms and their promise as a psychotherapeutic agent, especially owing to deep emotional impact, are discussed.

The interpretation of a phenomenon: telepathy in psychotherapy among therapists trained under Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao

ABSTRACT Filipino psychologist Fr. Jaime C. Bulataosuggested that a shared collective consciousness allows for telepathy to occur. In the context of psychotherapy, telepathy may strengthen rapport between therapist and client, as well as enrich insight. This paper aims to describe and discuss a framework of Bulatao-inspired psychotherapy that integrates telepathy as part of the therapeutic practice. Thus, the paper asks the question: What does the Bulatao therapeutic process of telepathy look like? Descriptive phenomenology revealed four phenomenological structures: (a) Mental quietude and psychic openness; (b) Perceiving the client; (c) Receiving and reacting to telepathic stimuli; and (d) Anomalous insight. This paper has the potential to inspire a conversation with regard to the potential therapeutic uses of Bulatao’s transpersonal world view.

New Hopes in Psychopharmacology

Psychiatric disorders are very common all over the world, cause significant disability, and impose a heavy burden on both the individual and the society due to the loss of workforce. Unlike other diseases, phenomenological structure is still used in the diagnosis of mental disorders. The etiology of psychiatric disorders is not fully known. Because of this situation, treatment for the etiology cannot be performed. Treatment of psychiatric disorders differs from person to person, according to genetic characteristics. Existing treatment approaches take time to take effect, and resistance and unresponsiveness to treatment constitute serious problems in a significant portion of patients. Understanding the etiology and psychopathological processes of mental disorders is extremely important in terms of developing new treatment strategies. The number of studies aimed at understanding the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders is increasing rapidly. New pharmacological approaches in the treatment of obesity, delirium and sleep disorders, which have come to the fore in this field in recent years, have created excitement. Studies examining the effects of naltrexone/bupropion and phentermine/topiramate extended-release forms in the treatment of obesity are promising. Similarly, it is interesting to suggest that dexmedetomidine, a selective alpha 2 adrenergic agonist agent, may be a suitable option for the treatment of delirium. One of the promising psychopharmacological treatment approaches in recent years is the use of Orexin Receptor Antagonists (ORAs) in the treatment of insomnia. It has the potential to revolutionize the pharmacological treatment of insomnia. In this article, it is aimed to contribute to the literature by reviewing studies on current and new pharmacological treatment approaches in the treatment of obesity, delirium and insomnia.

DERRIDA’S OTHER TRANSCENDENTAL AESTHETIC

By going back to the starting point of Derrida’s debates with some of the main representatives of structuralism in France, I propose to highlight the ambiguities that cover the very notion of structure, and to take the measure of the exact role that the reference to phenomenology plays then and will continue to play thereafter. Among these ambiguities: the one that touches the mathematical notion of structure, central in the triumphant structuralist mathematical current in France at that time; and especially: the one called “groups of transformations,” the most important one to understand at the same time the audacities and the impasses of structuralism. The hard core of mathematization of modern physics, with Galileo’s principle of relativity, then developed in a masterly way in Einstein’s theory of relativity rest on this very structure. After tracing the broad outlines of these initial discussions, we engage in an analysis of how it is possible to understand the “epistemological contemporaneity” of relativity theory and Husserl’s transcendental aesthetics. Based on a thorough exploration of the analyses of the intersubjective constitution of space, time and the objective common world, we identify this central structure that Husserl calls “intersubjective group of transformation.” Equipped with this phenomenological structure, we trace this motif in Derrida’s work. Its insistence allows us to understand how the phenomenological premises of his critique of structuralism can help to understand his theoretical positions, especially in contrast to Jean-Luc Nancy.

The Ontology of The Absolute Vacuum

This article highlights the ontological nature of the absolute vacuum in Mocombe’s phenomenological structuralism and consciousness field theories. Mocombe posits that the human mind or consciousness is presented with brute facts, relations, and things of the multiverse, which it attempts to reify and universalize through concepts of language, mathematics, and social structure. The facts, relations, and things of the world emanate from what Mocombe calls the absolute vacuum, a nonlocal and nonspatial material substance (subatomic particles) where all of the information, including consciousness, of the multiverse are one, existing as a probability wavefunction, and recycled to reproduce entangled and superimposed material worlds. It (the absolute vacuum) is, as the Eleatic philosophers posited about the void, one, whole, uncreated, and limited.