phenomenological approaches to personality_2009
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PhenomenologicalApproaches to
Personality(Ch. 5 & 6)
Humanistic Psychology&
Existential Psychology
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Phenomenology at Samford
2006 Society of Continental Philosophy and Theology Conference:The Theological Turn in French Phenomenology March 31-April 1, 2006
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What is Phenomenology? In the broadest sense, phenomenology is
the investigation or description ofconscious experience. In psychology, it is an approach to the
study of people that emphasizes their first-person experience of the world.
Unlike psychoanalysis, where what is importantpsychologically is outside of conscious experience,i.e., unconscious.
Also not prominent in trait theories, behavioraltheories, biological theories, and social cognitive
theories. It is also a general qualitative research
method found in nursing, communication,education, theology, and many otherfields.
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It started with philosophy. Phenomenology began as a school of
philosophy originated by Edmund Husserl(1859-1938).
Psychologists and others who take aphenomenological position always justifytheir methods with an appeal to thephilosophy.
Phenomenology is presented as a solution toprevious philosophical problems, namely Cartesian Dualism
What this mean? We will start with a candle.
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Michael Faraday (1791-1867)lectures to young children...
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A candle as publicly observed.
Faraday taught students to carefully observe a variety of candles, to takemeasurements, record observations, conduct experiments.He demonstrated laws of chemistry and physics, showing how chemistrycould explain relationships among flame size and color, quality of smoke,candle composition, etc.Masterful exposition of objective scientific method.
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Beyond candlesto humans Suppose you are a psychologist rather
than a chemist. Your object of study ispeople, not candles.
Shall we study human psychology just as
we studied chemistry, using the samemethods as Faraday?
We might still use candles in ourresearch, but only as stimuli. We might,for example, want to study how a personresponds to a candle.....
.
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Observe..
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What can we observeobjectively?
can observe and measure the candle (as before).
We can observe, measure and record the persons behavior, words,neurochemistry, and brain activity.Is that all we think is going on with the human? Are we missing some aspect
of psychological reality?
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What are we missing?
Most peoples intuitions scream out forsomething else: this something else isgenerally called consciousness or experience.
But where does it go in our picture? Howshould we represent it?
Cartoonists to the rescue.
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The Rise of Thought Bubbles
A container
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A dualism: Two candles
Audience
The public candle
The publicly observable person
Where and what is this?
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Descarte and Cartesian Dualism
Rene Descartes (1596-1650; French philosopher and
mathematician) is noted for formulating thedualism problem in its modern form. Descarte argued that mind and body are separate
substances (minds are not in space like physical bodies).
Problem 1: How do mind and body influence each other?
Problem 2: If we begin philosophy with thought bubbles,we can be lead to radical skepticism about knowledge. From a first-person perspective, we each have access only to the
contents of our conscious bubble.
How can we know that whats in the bubble reflects something real
outside the bubble?
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Descartes Demon
Descartes said we could imagine that ademon was deceiving us at all times aboutreality. The demon puts contents in ourconscious bubble, but these contents aremerely illusions with no reality behind them.
Modern Version: How do you know you arenot a brain in a vat?
You dont have a body. You are a brain suspended influid, attended to by scientists.
When scientists stimulate your brain, you experiencea candle, you experience touching a candle, etc. But there is no candle, no body, etc. All is illusion, a
mere appearance.
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Descartes Solution
Descartes started with the thoughtbubble problem.
He attempted to reason his way out ofthe bubble into certain knowledge.
He began by doubting everything he could. He wanted to find first principles, a
proposition (or a few), that could not bedoubted.
On the basis of his first principles, he woulduse reason and logic to deduce other truepropositions and provide universally validknowledge about reality.
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What Descartes could not doubt
After doubting all he could, Descartes
concluded that the one thing he couldnot doubt was that he was doubting.
If he doubted that he was doubting, he
was doubting. Descartes then made a deduction: since
I am doubting, I must exist. Doubtingrequires a doubter.
Descartes famous conclusion: Cogito ergo sum. I think, therefore I
am.
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Was this a sure foundation? No. All philosophers agree that Descartes
did not succeed in reasoning his way out ofthe bubble.
Nietzsche: Descartes began with I think.
This was already an assumption, not a necessity. The I in I think was forced by the structure of
language (Nietzsche was a philologiststudiedhistory of languages).
Descartes could have begun with there isthinking or some other construction.
Consider: It is raining. (What is raining?)
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Even if you grant Descartes his I think(and his existence), he never provided
a universally compelling argument forthe existence of anything else. Many of his arguments were based on
theological claims about God and His
nature (e.g., God would not deceiveanyone) that even some of his fellowChristians might not accept.
No one has yet found an argument out
of thought bubbles that convinceseveryone. Even Husserl, as we will see, did not
argue his way out of thought bubbles.
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Enter Husserl.
Husserl did not find a way out ofthought bubbles.
Instead, his approach did not begin with
thought bubbles in the first place. In this sense, he did not solve the
problems, but rather dissolvedor by-passed them.
(My false start.)
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Edmund Husserl
Edmund Husserl thought dualism wasplague on Western society.
He believed they were the
source of too many philosophical,
personal, and social perplexities.
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Cartesian Dualism and the WesternSoulIn addition to the well-known
philosophical problems, thecontemplation of thought bubbles givesrise to alienation and a violation of oursense of reality.
Alienation: We are no longer athome in the world. We are
alienated from our surroundingsand from other people (thereality of which we might doubt).
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Husserls diagnosis: Thought bubbles are not a necessary starting place for
doing philosophy. We have thought ourselves into our predicament by our
assumptions and methods. We can change ourassumptions and methods to avoid the problems.
Thought bubbles arise (are postulated) only when weapproach consciousness from a certain perspective: Whenwe begin with the objective, third-person perspective.
(as we did in the Faraday example; at some point we hadto introduce the bubble because of our starting point:
what can we see objectively)
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The Naturalistic Attitude
It is the objective, third-person startingpointthe objective scientific methodapplied to peoplethat gives rise tothought bubbles.
H. called this starting point thenaturalistic attitude.
We dont have to start from thisperspective. If we start elsewhere, with
our own consciousness, our Cartesianproblems will disappear: Patient: Doc, it hurts when I do this. Doctor: Well, dont do that.
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Where to begin? Husserl said we must begin by
suspending, or bracketing, thenaturalistic attitude.
We must even bracket the question
of the reality of what we experience,starting with no presuppositions. We must then describe our implicit,pre-
theoretical experience from our first-
person point of view. When we do so, thought bubbles are
nowhere to be found in our experience.
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Pre-theoretical Experience
Waking in the morning as the alarmclock goes off, before we are reflecting. Before thinking and conceptualizing, we
simply experience the world
(phenomena). But our experience of phenomena is
always from a point of view
The world-from-a-point-of-view isexperienced as a whole.
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Intentionality
This is the first result ofphenomenology: CSness isconsciousness ofsomething. No experience of consciousness per se, an
empty bubble, or a container. No experience of the world from nowhere or
everywhere at once. No in-here vs. out-there in our immediate
given experience. Only after our first cup of coffee do we think
ourselves into bubbles and becomeCartesians.
I t ti lit th ld f i t f
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Intentionality: the world from a point ofview
The worldFrom a pointof view
Pre-conceptual Experience
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No more bubbles.
Audience
rchers and subjects are conscious of the same candle in the world.r researchers or subjects have thought bubbles.
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The Naturalistic Attitude as Filter
Experience Scientific Knowledge
+
Thought BubblesSkepticismSubstanceDualismsAlienataionAnd other Mind-Clots
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Phenomenology as Prism
Experience
Intentionality
No thoughtbubblesor their
problems
Many newexperiencesopen up to us,which would
have been
Prism
Piet Hutt on photography
Bracket naturalisticattitude;describe experience.
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According to Husserl
The naturalistic attitude is a choice or
act.
To split what is the case into the duality of subjectiveand objective is to make a distinction, very useful, even
essential for many purposes. But believed, the world is abroken egg. R.D. Laing (The Voice of Experience)
Phenomenology does not want to do away with scientificnaturalism; it wants to put it in its place, to view it as
one perspective in a broader world of experience. Wecan acknowledge its usefulness, but we must recognizethat we can always return home to our pre-scientificLebenswelt(Life World).
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One way of seeing
There are scientists who are fond ofrepeating that they are not philosophers,theologians, ontologists, metaphysicians,moral philosophers or even humble
psychologists. When this is a testament totheir modesty it is becoming and appropriate,but more commonly it is a cursory dismissalof whatever they cannot see with their way of
seeing. It is ironical that such scientistscannot see the way they see with their way ofseeing. -- Laing
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Existential Phenomenology
Phenomenology can be used to describe your first-person experiences of a candle, how it manifests itselfin your experience.
Some philosophers use phenomenology as a startingpoint for describing human existence.
What is my conscious experience of my existence?
What does experience reveal about what isfundamental about human being?
c
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Martin Heidegger German philosopher Husserls research assistant
In Being and Time, Heideggerdescribed the fundamentalcharacteristic of the humanway of being as
Dasein: being-there(a fancy way of saying thathumans are conscious andconsciousness is intentional)
Human being is being-in-the-world
c
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Heidegger
Thrownness: We findourselves in-the-world
Not our choice to be Not a world of our choosing Dont know where we are going
Dasein must question its ownexistence: we are the beings for whom
being is a question. Humans seek meaning.
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Jean-Paul Sartre
French Philosopher Being and Nothingness
Sartre emphasized the radical freedom
of human being. Phenomenologically, we are free.
Scientific determinism, like thoughtbubbles, are constructions.
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Sartre For humans, Existence precedes
essence. An essence is a defining characteristic of
something.
Human beings define themselves; wechoose our essence because we areradically free.
With freedom comes responsibility and
anxiety; people will therefore attempt toescape or deny their freedom.
But: You are free; therefore choose.
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Maurice Merleau-Ponty
French philosopher Main work: The Primacy of Perception
Phenomenologically, human experienceis always embodied. We experience the world from an
embodied perspective: we feel our
bodies from the inside. Our embodiment is experienced as
boundary: we are not completely free.
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Clinical PhenomenologyThe detailed description of the
subjective experience of people withpsychological disorders (i.e., theinsiders guide to psychopathology).
The DSM-IV is largely an outsidersguide to disorders: emphasis onbehavioral description, with a grudging
mention of experience when necessary. c
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Clinical Phenomenology
In clinical phenomenology, we ask What is itlike to be X?
X is a mental disorder In the DSM-IV, there are over 400 mental
disorders. In theory, we could have over 400
phenomenological descriptions to accompanythese classifications.
In fact, we have very few. Everyone talksabout phenomenology, but no one seems todo it.
Obsessive Compulsive
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Obsessive-CompulsiveDisorder Obsessions are defined by:
Recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, orimages that are experienced as intrusive andinappropriate and that cause anxiety or distress.
Germs, dirt, smells, contamination, symmetry,sexual or violent impulses
Compulsions are defined by: Repetitive behaviors or mental acts that the person
feels driven to perform in response to an obsession,or according to rules that must be applied rigidly.
Washing, cleaning, checking, counting, organizing
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What is it like to be Monk?
Ch.6. The World of the Compulsive,
V.E. von Gebsattel
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Phenomenology of OCDThe common core experience in OCD:
Anti-eidos (eidos=form): In OCD, theperson feels the constant presence of aforce acting on the world that destroys ordisorders the form of the world.
Physical order: dirt, debris, clutter, asymmetry Biological order: decay, disease, germs, pollutants Moral order: dirty thoughts, nasty actions,
destruction of purity Social order: breakdown of formality; broken rules
Causal Order: actions dont take. Must check,repeat.
Order of time: Past haunts the present (as clutterhaunts the perfect room). Persons with OCD areactive, making up for lost time, ruminating aboutthe past.
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Phenomenology of OCD A phenomenological description makes
no causal claims. OCD might be based on brain
dysfunction or anal fixation.
Descriptions can still be helpful: Increased empathy Can help OCD person feel understood (they
are often ashamed, feel like freaks)
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Schizoid Personality Disorder A pervasive pattern of detachment from social
relationships and a restricted range of expression of
emotions in interpersonal settings. neither desires nor enjoys close relationships almost always chooses solitary activities lacks close friends or confidants other than first-
degree relatives
appears indifferent to the praise or criticism ofothers
shows emotional coldness, detachment, orflattened affectivity
Do not confuse with shyness and normal introversion
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What is it like to be a schizoidpersonality?
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Schizoid from inside (according to Laing)
The basic experiential phenomenon:Ontological Insecurity Most people are ontologically secure: the
self, others, and the world are experiencedas substantial, real, enduring, andmeaningful. Self: feel real, with unique identity, feel embodied
in control of actions. Others: others same as yourself, real and alive,
can share experiences, enrich each other, acttogether in the world. The world: natural processes are reliable and
predictable; you are at-home in the world.
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For Schizoids Ontological insecurity (insecurity about
existence) give rise to 3 forms of existentialanxiety: Engulfment: feeling that ones selfhood, identity,
and autonomy will be smothered, absorbed,
engulfed by others. Petrification: fear of being turned into a thing, a
tool, a function for others. Implosion: physical reality as such is experienced
as threatening or hostile. (Winnicott: the
impingement of reality) E.g., flu and fever: covering head: world is too much
d f
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In defense
Real Self(in here)
False self/ body
(out there)
Othersroles/unreal
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