Phenomenology • Derived from the Greek ‘phainomenon’ – ‘appearance’, i.e that which shows itself. Philosophers generally refer to phenomena as the appearance of things, how they manifest in the light of our awareness, as contrasted with the things themselves as they really are. • Phenomenology studies our lived experience – our thoughts and perceptions, emotions and feelings, memories and fantasies, bodily sensations and embodied actions. • It aims to describe experience, rather than explain it. It asks “what” and “how” our experience is, rather than “why” or “what caused it” Phenomenology • Phenomenology questions the existence of objective reality outside our conscious awareness of things. It also invites us to question our assumptions and biases implicit in our conclusions about how we understand life and being-in- theworld. • Phenomenologists believe that ‘true reality’ is both unknown and unknowable to us in a purely objective sense, as it is linked to our human need to construct meaning from experience. What we perceive as reality, is inextricably linked to our mental processes, own socio-cultural and historical experiences, and our innate capacity to construct meaning. Our experience of the world is the interaction between the ‘raw matter’ of the world and our mental faculties. • In the context of counselling and psychotherapy, phenomenology aims “to offer the means for individuals to examine, confront, clarify and reassess their understanding of life, the problems encountered throughout their life, and the limits imposed upon the possibilities inherent in being-in-the-world” (Spinelli, 1992:127) Origins of phenomenology • The term ‘phenomenology’ was coined and used by different philosophers (Kant, Hegel, Marx) as early as the mid-eighteenth century but the philosophical school known as phenomenology originated in the beginning of the 20th century. • Some of the predecessors of phenomenology were: - Rene Descartes (1596–1650) – formulated a modern version of the mind body problem by separating consciousness from physical substance and posited that the only thing we cannot doubt is our own mind / thinking processes: “Cogito ergo sum” - Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) – posited that our mind cannot know a thing as it is in itself (noumenon), but can only know it as it appears to us (phenomenon). In other words we only have direct access to phenomena (mental experiences of things), but not to noumena (the real concrete things in themselves) Origins of phenomenology (cont.) - Franz Brentano (1838–1917) – introduced the notion of intentionality, from Latin ‘intendare’ – ‘to stretch forward’. He coined the term intentionality to clarify his assertion that there is a real physical world outside our consciousness, and that all consciousness is always directed towards the real world in order to interpret it in a meaningful way (Brentano, 1973). Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) who is considered the founder of phenomenology was influenced by Brentano and developed his ideas further. Edmund Husserl Not the first to coin the term but considered the "father" of the philosophical movement known as phenomenology. Born in 1859, into a Jewish family in the town of Prossnitz in Moravia, then a part of the Austro – Hungarian Empire. His initial interests were in mathematics and the natural sciences, including psychology. Influenced by Brentano, he became interested in human consciousness and perception, and in the idea that there are truths that the natural sciences rely on, but which they don’t themselves account for. He developed phenomenology as a way to examine human consciousness in more depth without making the assumptions made by the natural sciences. Appointed Professor of Philosophy at the University of Freiburg in 1916. Martin Heidegger was his principal assistant and later provided his own contributions to phenomenology. Husserl’s ideas • ‘Reality’ is not directly available to us; we only have access through phenomena (our subjective experience of the world) • The natural sciences cannot provide a complete account of reality, they don’t account for our lived experience. • We have to ‘bracket’ the natural attitude in order to study phenomena without assumptions. We have to perform what Husserl called phenomenological reduction – suspending our normal attitude or assumptions by ‘bracketing’ them at least temporarily – in order to study phenomena and describe our experience of them properly • Intentionality – our awareness is directional, and already part of a worldview. Our consciousness is always consciousness of something; consciousness is directed towards something, whether it is an external phenomenon like sounds and light; or internal phenomena like thoughts and emotions. • A subject (ego) has a way of experiencing (noesis) an appearance (noema) of something Noema is the object (the what) that we direct our attention towards and focus upon Noesis is the process of our experiencing, the mode (the how) through which we define an object e.g. Past experience – we remember the events (noema) and the way we experienced them (the noesis) Phenomenological method The task of phenomenology according to Husserl is to arrive at more adequate knowledge of ‘the things themselves’ by stripping away as much as possible the interpretational layers of our experience. He proposed a phenomenological method of investigation which could be applied to all analyses of experience. • Step A “ The rule of Epoche” – from Greek “suspension of judgment” ‘bracket’ / suspend our assumptions, ideas, theories, usual explanations (‘the natural attitude’) • Step B “The rule of Description” – describe, don’t explain; focus on our immediate impressions, and avoid trying to make theoretical sense of them • Step C “The rule of Horizontalisation (the Equalization Rule) – avoid placing impressions in a hierarchy of significance, and treat them all initially as of equal significance (Spinelli, 2011) Existential phenomenology Husserl called his form of phenomenology pure or ‘transcendental’ Existential phenomenology is another branch that places different emphasis on issues of subjective experience. • Developed by Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) who was an assistant to Husserl at Freiburg University, Germany. • Not so much what we believe, but how we come to believe it ie: context and personal history . • Heigegger’s work stemmed from works of Nietzche and Kierkegaard and is based on philosophical notions of death anxiety, meaninglessness, isolation, freedom of thought and choice, and personal responsibility. It focuses on how our anxiety about these core “truths” can impinge on our experience of the world. Existential phenomenology Heiddeger did not agree with the idea of the phenomenological reduction. He argued that it is not possible to bracket our assumptions /perception of the world because we are already inescapably and concretely positioned in the world and cannot be isolated from a specific history or a particular experience or from the language we use to describe experience. He used phenomenology to try to understand everyday experience as a way to answer the question ‘what is being’. According to Heidegger we are all beings in the world and exist in states of : • Authenticity – being able to accept our mortality, the fluidity of existence and our responsibility to make choices. • Inauthenticity – refusing to acknowledge the above and having to create mental defences in order to do so. Phenomenological psychotherapy • Therapist works in the here and now. • Focus is on the clients’ interpretations of themselves and their own experiences of relationships with others in the world. • Belief that over-emphasis of technique can become an obstacle to understanding the client. • Not looking for a “cure or behaviour modification” although behavioural change can be a bi-product of the therapeutic experience. • Neurotic and psychotic defences are seen as blocks against a client’s fears of fundamental existential anxieties (death, meaninglessness, choice, etc.). • Therapist’s role is to help stimulate their client to explore what really matters to him or her. • Client as autonomous being. Phenomenological psychotherapy • Therapist as an empathic and neutral attendant. • Questioning should be descriptive rather than prescriptive. • Anxiety is a fundamental “given” of being-in-the-world. • For phenomenological psychotherapists, sources of human conflict stem from the core “givens” of existence such as death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness, rather than from instinctive biological demands not being met or being in conflict with the demands of others. • Helping clients recognise and understand their anxieties and the choices they have to deal with is the focus of therapy, rather than trying to eliminate “symptoms”. Further reading: • Binswanger, L. (1963) Being in the World: Selected Papers of Ludwig Binswanger. New York: Harper Torchbooks. • Boss, M. (1979) Existential Foundations of Medicine and Psychology. Northvale, N.J: Jason Aronson. • Buber, M. (1970) I and Thou 2nd edn: Edinbourgh: T&T Clark. • Cerbone, D. (2006). Understanding Phenomenology. Acumen Publishing. • Cohn, H.W. (1997) Existential Thought and Therapeutic Practice: An Introduction to Existential Psychotherapy. London: Sage. • Cooper, M. (2003) Existential Therapies. London: Sage. • Frankl, V. (1980) The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications to Logotherapy. London: Meridian. • Laing, R.D. and Esterson, A. (1964) Sanity, Madness and the Family. Harmondsworth:Penguin. • Spinelli, E. (2011). The Interpreted World: An Introduction to Phenomenological Psychology. London: Sage. • Spinelli, E. (2006). Demystifying Therapy. London: Constable. • Yallom, I. (1980) Existential Psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books.
