Journal of Phenomenological Psychology

Regards confusion within American phenomenological psychology as due to (a) lack of knowledge of the origin and development of the movement, and (b) ambiguous terminology. Husserl's phenomenological psychology is discussed as differing from his phenomenological philosophy and Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenology. Different uses of the terms "empirical," "ontology," "existence," "existential phenomenology," and "existentialism" create confusion. The need for students of this movement to turn to original published sources is emphasized. (41 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Integrates psychological observation and personal creation to present, in musical terms ("orchestrating a symphony"), the meaning of leaving home. The thought of Kierkegaard (1980) is used to reflectively illuminate the phenomenon. Leaving home is divided into symphonic movements: The 1st movement is the tempo and tones of leaving; the 2nd movement describes homesickness, heartache, and the dialectical possibility of not experiencing homesickness/heartache; and the 3rd movement reflects feelings on homecoming. The phenomenal and symbolic levels of leaving home are discussed. Other factors involved in leaving home—the qualitative leap, anxiety, the crisis and the presence of another—are also reviewed. (53 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Presents the "think aloud" method of data collection in descriptive reseach and concludes that this method can be a viable research technique when paired with a suitable means of data analysis. This would involve one that can handle the Ss' verbalizations in a structural manner to elucidate rather than prejudge their immanent sense. Phenomenology provides such a means of structural analysis. Some illustrations of results that were obtained by the use of these procedures are provided. (62 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Discusses the thought of A. De Waelhens (1978) as expressed in his book Schizophrenia: A Philosophical Reflection on Lacan's Structuralist Interpretation. De Waelhens's whole work is the affirmation that philosophical anthropology cannot be constituted without the help of psychiatry and psychoanalysis. De Waelhens viewed psychosis as the failure to reach the rationality that the individual is called to achieve. By considering the most radical human failing, De Waelhens wanted to comprehend most radically the constitution of the human being. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Draws on the fieldwork and observations of A. I. Hallowell (1960) in describing the world of the traditional Ojibwe Indians as an eminently personal one, an arena in which the actions of persons, human and otherwise, determine the shape of reality. Hallowell's notion of personalism as descriptive of the Ojibwe experience is examined in the areas of language, myth, dreams, behavior, and relationships. The Ojibwe universe is described as essentially peopled and crowded with meaning, but with a distinctly dark side, which is enacted in the figures of evil shamans or sorcerers and in the fear of the water monsters and the cannibalistic windigos. In this context, an incident is described in which an artist effected a mass community healing through creation of a painting, following the suicide of 7 teen-agers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Using Simone de Beauvoir's memoirs of her mother's death, an example is presented of how dying elicits an individual's existential defenses in an effort to avoid confronting the full impact of mortality. Referring to A. Schutz's phenomenological sociology, the article borrows the concept of "recipe knowledge" to depict how this avoidance occurs. "A framework or set of images" that "imprison" spontaneous experience, recipe knowledge, it is maintained, prevented de Beauvoir from seeing her mother in ways other than as a dependent, conventional, and conforming woman. However, her memoirs reveal that Madame de Beauvoir exhibited much more maturity than her daughter's "recipe" permitted, thus blinding the daughter to her own inauthentic mode of existence. Implications are drawn regarding the applied and pure phenomenology of dying. In particular, it is suggested that the institutions wherein people die ought to aim at minimizing the bureaucratic "rationalization" surrounding death. Congruences are noted between E. Husserl's "transcendental ego" and this paper's philosophy of dying. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Reexamines artistic creativity based on E. Husserl's (1913 [1931]) principles of phenomenology. Definitions of creativity and their conceptual and methodological limitations are reviewed. The problem with defining creativity is in the rigid dichotomy between objects and mental processes. To correct this problem, researchers need to ask how creativity makes sense as a human experience. Artistic activity is suggested to involve composition rather than creativity, eliminating the theoretical and methodological difficulties involved in delimiting and measuring an internal mental attribute. This framework provides a common base of communication between psychology and fine artists and suggests more ecologically valid assessments of artistic ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Describes 4 phases of the psychotherapeutic stance that together form a continuum of interaction: attentive being-with (ABW), focusing being-with (FBW), interactive being-with (IBW), and invitational being-with (IVBW). In ABW, the therapist (TP) allows his/her attention to be absorbed into the phenomenological world of the other, and in FBW, the TP attends to an ongoing sense of understanding in the presence of the other's world. In IBW, the TP becomes aware of the quality of the TP–client relationship, and in IVBW, the attention of the TP becomes focused in a particular direction. The 4 phases provide an experiential language for the beginning TP that connects personal experience of the TP to the nature of the therapeutic situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Explores the bad-faith (BF) dimension of various regions of psychopathology, discussing J. P. Sartre's concepts of BF and existential psychoanalysis in Being and Nothingness (1943). The BF at the core of existential psychoanalysis is the BF of the obvious self-deceiver, relevant only to everyday phenomena. Through specific discussions of the issues of the unconscious and freedom (both intimately related to the notion of BF) and a series of examples of BF as modified in the different regions of psychopathology, a significant modification of Sartre's brand of analysis is attempted. It is argued that the modification is consistent with the direction of Sartre's later thought. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Sets forth basic psychological laws and sociopsychological issues manifest in the social phenomenon known as traumatic neurosis or compensation hysteria. In this phenomenon it is essential that the one afflicted feel an invincible drive-based compulsion that is independent of willful attention, that this shift of drive-based attention is induced by the previous appearance of some sickness, and that this attention already is directed along its path by the drive-based "will-to-sickness" that is conditioned by the mere prospect of compensation. A 2nd law concerns the effects of focusing of attention on the sensations that accompany automatic life activities, such as breathing or heart beat, in creating an illusion that all is not going well. Additional factors that may contribute to compensation hysteria include humanitarian, economic, and legal justifications for compensation; the reinforcing effects of social pity; and the mutual psychic contagiousness of suffering. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Contrary to phenomenology and psychoanalysis, behaviorism makes the implicit assumption that E and S belong to 2 different species. While Es have mental functions enabling them to design and carry out experiments, Ss merely respond to stimuli. The resulting paradox is discussed in terms of R. Rosenthal's E-effect experiments, S. Milgram's claim that he investigated "obedience." M. Rokeach's distinction between his "knowing" and Ss "believing" and Knapper's experiments on communication credibility. (33 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Describes the theory of phenomenology of perception as proposed by M. Merleau-Ponty (1966) and its relation to the character of Benjy in W. Faulkner's (1956) The Sound and the Fury, to discredit literary critics' use and definition of the words "consciousness" and "perception." Topics discussed include the multiplicity of (field–ground) configurations of objects, olfactory perception, touch perception, the field of vision and color, and the phenomenology of space. It is argued that critics who endow Benjy with intellectual, moral, and religious powers have accepted the false premise that Benjy's world was present to him the way it is present to other human beings. The present author contends that for Benjy, unable to separate reality from unreality, the illusory fields of dreamland and drunkenness and unconsciousness were no different from the perceptual fields. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Discusses R. K. White's (1947, 1951) method of value analysis and proposes a revised psychobiographical methodology for examining Wright's novel Black Boy. Value analysis is a method by which autobiographical and other personal data can be described quantitatively with attention to both objectivity and underlying emotional dynamics. Value analysis is criticized on 3 grounds: that it is fundamentally an a priori system (the values are imposed on the biographical data or material), that the attempt at quantification cuts short the depth of the method's qualitative beginnings, and that psychoanalytic interpretations are too readily imposed on emerging value structures. The new method, phenomenological psychobiography, is shown to avoid these shortcomings by allowing the novel's value meanings to unfold from a reading of the text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Sketches a theory of motivation "based on the assumption that motives are not efficient but final causes and that the living being himself is the efficient cause of his actions." A psychological and neurological explanation of the motive-action sequence is given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Explores the nature of the reality of the laboratory social psychological experiment and considers issues of deception. Analysis of the perceptions of both experimental Ss and the E is based on interviews with undergraduates who had participated in laboratory experiments. Topics discussed are the reality of the world of everyday life as opposed to the reality of the experiment, characteristics of "good" and "bad" Ss, and the E's role in getting cooperation and attention. Social psychology is challenged to evaluate the variables and conditions which can yield information concerning everyday reality when investigated within the confines of the laboratory, and those which cannot. It is suggested that future research designs include a comparison of laboratory data with observations of everyday reality. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Discusses reflective seeing in the context of the works of J. J. Gibson (published 1963–79) and E. Husserl (published 1960–83). Topics discussed include (1) naive-realistic seeing, (2) the nature of visual experiences, (3) the relation of reflective seeing to naive-realistic seeing, and (4) levels of consciousness with reference to reflective seeing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Discusses psychology's rejection of the "soul" and focuses on 3 thinkers in phenomenological psychology who struggled to find a middle ground between vitalism and mechanism: H. Lotze (1877, 1894); W. James ([1890] 1950) and M. Merleau-Ponty ([1945] 1962). A middle ground is sought between simple rejection of the soul and simple acceptance of traditional belief. It is posited that the works of these thinkers give meaning to the soul and aid in making it a necessary idea for psychological theory today. The focus of the evidence is on consciousness (Lotze, James) and perceived behavior (Merleau-Ponty). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Discusses the application of Straus's phenomenological insights to psychopathology. After criticizing some of the reductionist tendencies of traditional psychoanalytic and physiological approaches, the assumptions implicit in the phenomenological method are outlined. These include openness to the phenomenon, the concept of intentionality, and the concern for everyday experience. Straus's treatment of movement, the upright posture, and the importance of sensory experience is examined. This orientation is integrated with traditionally psychopathological topics (e.g., schizophrenia, depression, and temporal experience). The phenomenon of obsession is considered in terms of Straus's own studies of this disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Reviews the theory of constancy (for every physical sensory stimulus there is a corresponding experience) and considers it in terms of the historical development of Gestalt psychology. The theory is studied in conjunction with the empiricistic ideas from which it arose and in conjunction with the elaborate physiological-psychological constructs that were proposed initially to justify the constancy hypothesis. It is argued that because experience is described by empiricism both in terms of phenomenal data (sensory experience) and physiological constructs (stemming from the constancy-hypothesis bias), a confusing vocabulary of subjective and objective terms tends to characterize traditional psychology. Such "geographical" and phenomenally descriptive meanings are prone to being inappropriately united by empiricistic behavioral science. The works of F. Kafka, W. Köhler, and K. Duncker are reviewed in this connection. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Examines the difference between the type of conceptual system implied by the traditional notions of validity and reliability and the type of conceptual system used by humans to make their experience meaningful. The lack of success the human sciences have had in building a theoretical and predictive science based on an atemporal and aspatial conceptual system is described. The nature and function of the conceptual system used in science are addressed, and the development of notions about conceptualization and reality are outlined. Also discussed are problems inherent for the human sciences based on an unstable, context-dependent conceptual system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Discusses the confused understandings of phenomenology and its value for the interpretation and practice of psychological research within the psychological community. Ten differentiations of phenomenology from other methods or concepts with which it shares characteristics are delineated. Phenomenology is defined as the study of the phenomena of the world as experienced by conscious beings and as method for studying such phenomena. A phenomenological analysis of a research situation is performed to demonstrate what is essential to it regardless of the theoretical perspective that a psychologist may hold, and whether or not a correct understanding of phenomenology as applied to psychology can meet the essential features of a research situation is considered. It is concluded that if this can be demonstrated, then the phenomenological perspective should have its place within psychological research so that it can be judged by its fruits rather than dismissed a priori because it appears, on the surface, to be different. (65 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Discusses the distinction between the Context of Justification and the Context of Discovery introduced by H. Reichenbach (1952/1938). The distinction is used to clarify the difference between the reasons that a scientist holds a certain view and the viewpoint's truth value. Addressed are some of the assumptions and interpretations that go with this distinction that make it less than universal and unsuitable for certain types of psychological research, namely, those that call for descriptive endeavors and analyses of psychological meaning. Also discussed are the potentialities of a phenomenologically based descriptive science for psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

R. E. Nisbett and T. Wilson (see record 1978-00295-001) claimed that Ss' reports based on certain types of direct introspections were unreliable and that verbal reports were often simply based on plausible judgments about probable causes of certain kinds of responses. To test the validity of this claim, the author analyzed the toothpaste purchase and lunch selection decision-making processes of 6 (3 per condition) undergraduate and graduate students. Nisbett and Wilson's finding was not replicated. Descriptions are interpreted within a phenomenological human scientific framework. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Presents a hypothetical experimental situation and discusses how the results actually constitute a study different from the one E planned, because neither E nor an S was honest with the other, i.e., Ss saw through E's explanation of the reason for the experiment and E was probably aware of it, yet neither mentioned it. 3 forms of solution to the hidden dialogue problem are noted: (a) a radical mysticism in the guise of formal theory, (b) an emphasis on part-processes as defined by the nonpsychological disciplines, and (c) Skinner's methodological position. "In place of formal theory or a reliance on part-processes . . . -Skinner's solution= offers what seems to be a straightforward way out of the experimentalist's problem that one should simply observe and record behavior in its own right." The possible consequences of changing the definition of psychology, i.e., substituting for theory a set of workable generalizations agreed to by knowledgeable persons having both descriptive and heuristic value, and of altering consequent behavior in the laboratory are discussed. Jaspers' description of "partners in destiny" to describe the therapist-patient relationship is considered applicable to experimental research. "Just as the therapist often begins with a statment of his own feeling-state, so the experimentalist might begin from a similar point." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Reviews the extant literature on the topic of loneliness and finds it simplistic and lacking. An empirical, phenomenological investigation of this emotional experience is described to clarify its meaning. The author employs self-reports and biographic descriptions of loneliness given by his clinical, pedagogic, and hospital Ss to examine the numerous ways in which this emotion manifests itself. Loneliness is a "multifaceted" phenomenon which has a distinct and separate identity apart from isolation or alienation (2 commonly-used synonyms for this feeling). Five dimensions of loneliness are described: the interpersonal (awareness of separation from individuals), the social (awareness of being divided in loyalty between competing groups), the cultural (akin to both alienation and anomie), the cosmic (estrangement from the total unity of existence), and the psychological (the natural sense of separation arising from biological individuation). Implications are drawn for therapy with individuals in crisis and for the general field of community treatment. (60 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Proposes a research methodology based on the phenomenological approach of experiential self-reports. The traditional methodologies prevalent in contemporary psychology (i.e., behavioral, inferential, empathic, and verbal reports) are discussed, and the new procedure is outlined. This distinguishes between the "what" and the "how" of the phenomenon researched. It is claimed that the "what" is the province of mainstream methodology, while the suggested self-directed approach is concerned with the "how." Three facets are important to it: contact with the "target" (i.e., the object of study); questioning and description of feelings toward the target; and generation of hypotheses from this experiential base. It is claimed that this approach permits a "systematic investigation of human experience" since it is grounded in immediately-lived situations. The example of anger and its relationship to violence is cited to illustrate the applicability of the method. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Notes that phenomenological methodology has been explicated for use within both eidetic and phenomenological reductions relevant to the development of eidetic sciences. Phenomenology, including its core methodology, is fundamental to the empirical studies of both experimental and nonexperimental psychology. Phenomenological methodology has precise parallels in the experimental and nonexperimental practices within the empirical sciences of the mind. The method of free eidetic variations (MFEV) is the basis for exploring the realm of pure possibilities not effected by empirical factualness. An overview of the method of optional variations (derived from MFEV) is presented as it relates to guiding models, meditative shapings, optionality, bias, empirical syntheses, and consistent confirmations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Psychology has typically regarded imagination as a special mental activity, and there has been a search for a factor of creativity independent of intelligence and for distinctive mechanisms of thinking. A phenomenological perspective shows that imagination is simultaneously an expression of being and an articulation of the world. Imagination is thus the fulfillment of pre-reflective intelligence, in which thought, feeling, and language have yet to emerge as separate categories of experience. Psychology distorts the nature of imagination by treating it as a special mental capacity and by denying the fundamental unity of experience. Phenomenology recovers the true meaning of imagination as the unity of cognition and feeling that allows both self-expression and the articulation of reality. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Investigated the establishment of meaning and purpose (M&P) in life as generated from self-reported descriptions of the transition (T) from meaninglessness and purposelessness to M&P. 19 "mature age" university students were recruited for taped interviews in which the T to an experience of M&P was described. Five invariant constituent elements were identified in the structure of the T: (1) acceptance and enactment of personal responsibility, (2) integration of resisted aspects of experience, (3) congruence between personally meaningful concepts and experience, (4) decisional turning points, and (5) greater balance of self in relation to the world. While nonessential to the underlying structure, idiosyncratic content was experienced as essential by the individual, thus indicating the need for an existential-phenomenological therapeutic mode. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Investigated the essential aspects of mutual gaze (MG) through the application of a systematic phenomenological method. Five adults described in written diary form over approximately 1 wk their experiences and thoughts regarding MG. The analysis of the diaries was based on an adaptation of the empirical reflective procedure (A. Giorgi, 1975). Generalized descriptions were obtained through comparison of thematic similarities across Ss. 10 major themes emerged from the data: (1) primacy of perceptual vision, (2) information seeking, (3) intentionality, (4) validating another's existence, (5) rules for MG, (6) couriers of affection, (7) emergence of a primordial archetype, (8) reading of the gaze, (9) projection onto others, and (10) transmission of intimate feelings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Summarizes M. Heidegger's (1962, 1971, 1985) conception of the Cartesian model of human experience and the primordial nature of Dasein. Passages from M. Sechehaye's (1970) Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Girl illustrate these concepts. The main character's lived-world can be best understood as a lived manifestation not of normal Dasein but as a derivative and deficient mode of existence associated with Cartesianism. It is shown that a schizophrenic world can be comprehended, although not using traditional cognitive/mechanist psychological views. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Clarifies the mode of understanding involved in the qualitative research interview in psychology by first pointing out a lack of theory for the interview. 12 aspects of the mode of understanding in the qualitative research interview are described as being (1) centered on the interviewee's life-world; (2) in search of the meaning of phenomena in his/her life-world; (3) qualitative; (4) descriptive; (5) specific; (6) presuppositionless; (7) focused on certain themes; (8) open for ambiguities; (9) open for changes; (10) dependent on the sensitivity of the interviewer; (11) in interpersonal interaction; and (12) a positive experience. It is postulated and argued that the analysis of the nature of understanding within the hermeneutical and phenomenological philosophical traditions may provide a frame of reference for clarifying the methodological status of the qualitative research interview. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Examines the question of whether phenomenology is a form of psychology, or whether it, by definition, excludes the psychological, using textual references to works by E. Husserl (published 1931–1981). The persistently problematic relationship between these two disciplines, said to be at the core of Husserl's philosophy, is described. It is argued that a universal, transcendental science (phenomenology) and an adequate psychology are complementary, and, rather than being mutually exclusive, are inseparable. It is suggested that when a universal philosophy and adequate psychology are achieved, the threat of psychologism will be eliminated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

A phenomenological analysis of protocols identified 4 main themes associated with shyness: experience of (1) the situation, (2) the self, (3) activity, and (4) aftermath. Subthemes of each are presented with illustrative quotes from the protocols. All protocols included a theme of anticipatory rehearsal. Based on these categories, an extended definition of shyness is developed. It proposes that shyness is a discomfort persons experience in a situation requiring them to communicate with others and in which they feel that they are on display or the center of attention. A description of shyness is presented, and findings are compared with those in the shyness literature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

This classic 1936 work in vision science, written by a leading figure in Germany's Gestalt movement in psychology and appearing in English for the first time, addresses topics that remain of major interest to vision researchers today. Wolfgang Metzger's main argument, drawn from Gestalt theory, is that the objects we perceive in visual experience are not the objects themselves but perceptual effigies of those objects constructed by our brain according to natural rules. Gestalt concepts are currently being increasingly integrated into mainstream neuroscience by researchers proposing network processing beyond the classical receptive field. Metzger's discussion of such topics as ambiguous figures, hidden forms, camouflage, shadows and depth, and three-dimensional representations in paintings will interest anyone working in the field of vision and perception, including psychologists, biologists, neurophysiologists, and researchers in computational vision--and artists, designers, and philosophers. Each chapter is accompanied by compelling visual demonstrations of the phenomena described; the book includes 194 illustrations, drawn from visual science, art, and everyday experience, that invite readers to verify Metzger's observations for themselves. Today's researchers may find themselves pondering the intriguing question of what effect Metzger's theories might have had on vision research if Laws of Seeing and its treasure trove of perceptual observations had been available to the English-speaking world at the time of its writing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Describes love as a developing exercise of the primary activity of human existence. Focus is on mutual love, because a consideration of this love can also reveal something about less personal, reciprocal, or fulfilled loves. The guiding definition of love is derived from the writings of M. Scheler (d. 1928): Love is a person's emotional self-transcendence toward participating in and enhancing the beloved. Mutual love is personal love that unites 2 or more subjects in a shared subjectivity and world. Topics discussed include identity as lover, shared existence, being loved, pleasures and sorrows, and hope. (0 Ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

M. Merleau-Ponty's theory of childhood development is examined and critically assessed. After reviewing his 4 stages of development from birth to age 3 (i.e., introceptivism, myelinization, integration, and syncretic socialization) his metatheoretical assumptions are questioned. In particular it is doubted whether a "mirroring" component, wherein the child realizes a sense of uniqueness and separation by encountering his or her specular reflection, need be postulated. While it is agreed that Merleau-Ponty's emphasis on consciousness as an embodied entity is an important contribution to a theory of selfhood or identity, it is disputed whether the development of a bodily self-concept and, hence, an identity is necessarily accomplished through an actual visual confrontation with a mirror image. It is theorized that selfhood emerges through the child's "perspective upon his body," which must be "integrated" to achieve identity. Emphasis is placed upon the body's historical continuity, which transcends itself through reflection. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Examined the experiential character of tragedy by collecting data, in the form of written protocols, and elaborating on them in open-ended interviews in which 8 research participants described experiences they considered tragic. The constituents of tragedy are discussed in the context of (1) pre-tragic innocence; (2) the social, existential, and sensorial dimensions of constriction in tragic displacement; (3) tragic return and the transcendence of incongruity and inadequacy through reeducation and action; and (4) tragic innocence. Recovery from tragedy is seen, not as a recovery, but as a return to a social world and to a sense of belonging. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Discusses Straus's contribution to a phenomenology of pychopathology. His application of the phenomenological approach to understanding how space, time, and interpersonal relations are constituted in human experience serves as the basis for examining his psychology. It is particularly noted that Straus was (a) holistic in his approach to behavior, (b) neither subjectionistic nor idealistic in his epistemology, (c) descriptive or everyday behaviors with their implicit "norms," and (d) concerned with articulating the manner in which reality is presented to the senses. Straus rejected simple physiological explanations of the phenomena of auditory and visual hallucinations. Instead he believed that they resulted from a transformation of sensory relations to the world. These, in turn, are founded on the implicit norms present in everyday life. Straus's approach is applied to the pathology of compulsion. It is concluded that psychopathological phenomena are manifestations of altered modes of "being-in-the-world." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Discusses the history and gradual relationship between phenomenology and psychotherapy. Phenomenology is defined as the science of divergent thinking about people and their world. This worldly orientation is its connection with psychotherapy—it is in the patient's world that the neurosis develops, and it is in that world that he/she regains health. A brief case study is presented to illustrate this. Finally, convergent thinking is contrasted with the divergent thinking of phenomenology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Daniel Burston and Roger Frie present an excellent and concise journey through the historical background that informs the development of psychotherapy, and then proceed to deal with many of the important facets of modern psychology and psychiatry from Dilthey and Husserl to the postmodern. Perennial issues in philosophy--the nature and scope of self-knowledge and self-deception, the roots of inner and interpersonal conflicts, the nature of love and reason, the relationship between reason and faith and imagination--take on new depth and meaning in light of nineteenth and twentieth century concepts of the unconscious, alienation, authenticity, alterity and the like. Burston and Frie not only demonstrate that European philosophers laid the foundations for the way many contemporary clinicians think and practice today but provide a theoretical orientation that is too often missing in today's medicalized practice environment. This book invites readers to delve deeply into the history and theory of existentialism, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, depth psychology and humanistic psychology. The authors both explore the implications of these approaches for clinical practice and assert the significance of theory for clinical endeavors, encouraging mental hearth professionals, students and theorists to widen the scope of psychotherapy practice and training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

E. Straus's phenomenological writings on shame are examined in the light of the author's own research. Using open-ended unstructured interviews, the phenomena of embarrassment and shame were investigated from self-reports regarding both emotions by 40 Ss. It was found that no essential, structural difference exists between the 2 feelings. Both are characterized by a sudden perception of an extremely unpleasant discrepancy between who one is and who one must be. This finding is contrasted with Straus's own analysis of shame. It is concluded that Straus is inconsistent in his definition of the word, since at times he confuses it with "modesty," and at other times with "disgrace." (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

After a brief perusal of the various meanings of phenomenology in psychopathology, the contributions to schizophrenia of phenomenological psychology (psychiatry) in the European sense are reviewed. The last twenty years are deemed fruitful and productive. Following the central themes and motives of this literature allows us to come to a different and perhaps wider understanding of schizophrenia than that proposed currently by mainstream psychiatry. These diverse investigations converge in seeing as the core of schizophrenia the disorders related to inter-subjectivity and ipseity (mineness), in turn related to what Bleuler had once called Autism. Finally, a critical discussion of the limitations and the strengths of the phenomenological approach is offered.

This essay introduces the concept of deictic abstraction (deictic ideation), taking as a point of departure Husserl's prototypical but insufficient description of the act of ideation in which a shade of color comes to givenness as an ideal object, i.e., a non-individual or abstract object, on the basis of a perceived individual object. This concept comprises not only color-ideation and ideations (abstractions) of universalities of the sensuous sphere (species infima of certain sounds, noises, smells, tastes), but all acts founded in perceptions in which ideal objects are directly referred to by means of demonstrative expressions (“this,” “like this,” “such,” etc.). This allows various types of deictic ideations or abstractions, corresponding to the degree of universality and the kind of ideal object concerned, to be brought to light through the analysis of particular cases of everyday acts of deictic abstraction, including deictic abstractions of predicative universals of the lowest level of universality (e.g., “this smell of perfume,” “a bug like this”); deictic abstractions of non-predicative universals, especially of universal ways (manners, schemata) of doing something (e.g., of tying a shoelace); and deictic abstractions of individual styles of doing something (e.g., of playing a musical composition in a typical individual way). Deictic abstractions not only turn out to be constitutive for the formation of perceptual concepts of the lower and lowest levels, but also prove to be foundational for all kinds of learning in which schemata of actions are acquired from a model (observational learning).

Because of the recent rapid transition in Britain from an elite system of higher education (HE) to one in which a much larger propor tion of the population is intended to participate, many students—whose social backgrounds would previously have (to a large extent) precluded their involvement in HE—experience strangerhood within academia in a particularly acute form. This paper deals with the experiences of members of an one particular HE course, especially designed for students over 21 years old—such "mature" students are a group who has not been traditionally found in large numbers in British HE Such students describe dramatic changes in their sense of self and in their relationships with others—to the extent that their biographical continuity with their own past becomes problematical.The applicability of an idea touted by certain postmodern writers, "the new selfconsciousness," is considered. Attention is also paid to the practical implications of the findings.

Numerous empirical studies have been conducted to examine first-generation college students, those individuals whose parents have not attended college. Their personality characteristics, cognitive development, academic preparation, and first-year performance have all been topics of research; yet there appears to be little in the literature exploring the motivation of these individuals to seek higher education. There are even fewer studies targeting academic motivation in Hispanic students. The purpose of this study is to conduct a phenomenological examination of the desire to attend college among first generation Hispanic students participating in an academic support program. One-hour taped interviews were conducted with three volunteer participants enrolled in the Student Support Services program at Sul Ross State University. Meaning units and constituents were extracted, and general structures were developed using the Descriptive Phenomenological Method (Giorgi, 1985). The phenomenological analysis resulted in two structures that address the effectiveness of academic outreach programming and identify the roles of self-efficacy, successful experiences in high school, a desire for improved socioeconomic status, a need to contribute to the well-being of others, a break with tradition, and the influence of respected role models in facilitating a desire for higher education in first-generation Hispanic college students.

Phenomenological research is of great value to clinicians, policy makers, and ordinary persons because of its distinctive emphasis on making human behavior and experience intelligible with reference to the point of view of the actor. Unfortunately, the phenomenological tradition is not readily accessible to readers who are unfamiliar with it. This article discusses specific ways that researchers within this tradition can reach more of the readers who might benefit from their findings without compromising the integrity of their scholarship.

Our objective is to corroborate Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of speech perception and intersubjectivity through an analysis of A. R. Luria's account of semantic aphasia. By emulating Merleau-Ponty's style of analysis in dealing with the work of a contemporary leader in the field of aphasiology, we are able to take up Merleau-Ponty's thought and test whether his conclusions are inevitable or whether they are based on outmoded problems of the psychology and psychopathology of his day. These reflections also enable us to present arguments against both the assumptions of the natural attitude, as well as those of transcendental phenomenology, and so enable us to cast some light on the relation between existential phenomenology and empirical research. By contrasting aphasic and normal perception, we intend to show that ultimately even the aphasiologist is able to characterize aphasic perception only in terms of the aphasic's loss of an "openness" to meanings present in the uttered sounds. We argue that this notion of openness, like that of Merleau-Ponty's notion of "perceptual faith, " requires the reduction but also points to the impossibility of a complete reduction.

This article is concerned with the childhood experience that seems to be preparatory for the onset of bulimia. Three women's serial experiences of bulimia (reported in 4 interviews describing specific binge-purge episodes) were investigated and one pattern of experiencing that led to bulimia emerged. As the interview process deepened (interview 1 to interview 4), the data moved from symptom-related to life-related. The general structure that captured the essence of the lived experience of bulimia remained the same but the individual experiences varied as these women live out their unique lives. In understanding the totality of the phenomenon of bulimia, it is important to remember that although each of the six key constituents is described separately, in the life-world all the constituents merge together as they interact with each other and with the whole of the experience. These bulimic women reported having family backgrounds in which they experienced a sense of diminished self and dissatisfaction in interactions with significant others and self. They found themselves pressured to maintain a less than integrated life, and in rapid transition from 'awareful' behaving to automatic and anonymous functioning. A psychological hunger seems to possess them and this is lived out during the anonymous phase of their existence. Their need for the mastery and control ordinarily lacking in their lives becomes a symptomatic expression that has relevance for them in respect to the deep psychological pain that is only partially expressed. The phenomenal body and self are given priority over objective reality, resulting in distorted perceptions of "fatness" and feelings of terror of "fat."

The fact that psychic life is not merely given externally and as mutual externality, but is given in its nexus, given by self-knowledge, by internal experience, constitutes the basic difference between psychological knowledge and knowledge of nature. (Husserl, 1977)