Transformative Phenomenology:  Implications for Embodied InterpretationAn overview

Luann Drolc Fortune, PhD Faculty, College of Mind-Body Medicine, Saybrook UniversityFellow, Institute of Social Innovation, Fielding Graduate Universitylfortune@email.fielding.edu

PrefaceTransformative Phenomenology, represented in a book of the same name, represents the contributions of Valerie Bentz and David Rehorick and a host of supporting castFielding Graduate University-Model for Adult Advanced Degree Learning- Distributed learning graduate institute- Multidisciplinary studies: Human & Organizational Develoment- Practical scholarship: social research & practice should define each other

- Overview – Indepth – AppliedIntentions: To further discourse around our approach

Level 1: Overview of Transformative

Phenomenology Rehorick and Bentz (2008) define phenomenology as encompassing studies of consciousness and its objects as viewed from a full spectrum of lived experience. Theoretical foundations from classic phenomenology and the influence of Alfred Schutz for applied social research Applied in setting of midlife professionals seeking to inform their practice with formal knowledge: Scholar-practitionersAn approach and a phenomenon: Hermeneutic phenomenology applied to elucidate the tactic in practice

Applied Gadamerian Hermeneutics

Level of Inquiry Characteristics Metaphor

Level 1 Examine, critique, and interpret relevant text in the appropriate context, revealing themes and patterns

View a herd of wild horses from a distance

Level 2 Examine how various texts interact, both individually and to create an overarching body of knowledge, remembering that the text were authored by humans, fallible and in context of their own individual history.

Inspect the wild horses in close proximity, observe and sense how they inter-relate

Level 3 Become an involved, active participant in the conversation

Jump onto the wild horse and ride along, guided by horse

Four Essential Characteristics

An inner spaciousness: Husserl’s “transcendental ego” pure consciousness that serves as the basis for all thought, perception, and meaning Collaboration: Lifeworlds are cocreated within a network of relationships Consciousness of typifications as applied in lifeworld: Social and mental constructs that simplify shared understandings of people, behavior and settings Embodied awareness: Experience in our preconscious corporeal bodies, how that aspect of self is interconnected to cognition, and how we interrelate with other bodies in groups and environments

Dimensions of Embodiment

Basic research techniques: Hermeneutic

Scholar-Practitioners Welcome!: praxis platform for research is the preferred path to new knowledgeGadamerian self-reflective, hermeneutic perspectiveCombine Husserlian mandates for eidetic transcendence with Schutzian lifeworld social research Relies on second-generation strategists: Moustakas, van ManenEmphasizes three principle research tactics: bracketing, imaginative variations, and horizontalization

Applied Transformative Phenomenology

Tactics

bracketing: identify and set aside specific ideas and concepts imaginative variations: identify structure by applying creative possibilities and reversals to collected datahorizontalization: the utility that normalizes all possible factors to open new understandings and provide over-arching meaning

Landmarks

Immersion in the subject matterClearing the space: continual levels of bracketingWriting or collecting a series of descriptionsExploring the experience Identifying lifeworld based typificationsDetermining the overarching meaningCreating text to convey interpretation

What is “Transformative”

Based on Bentz & Rehorick’s anecdotal reports, the inquirer is also changed in the research process

Inevitable, given the requisite heightened self and environmental awareness

One meaning is for the explorer to own the sense of wonderment (Lewin, 2010)

The other is to recognize the power and meaning of the process itself and how it will manifest in the explorer’s next turn, a sort of double-loop learning in the midst of transformation.

Level 2: Bentz and Rehorick Scholar-

PractitionersFormally trained as sociologistsExtensive teaching and research practicesFollowers of Alfred Schutz Subsequently adopted phenomenenology Conventional university posts for decadesCollaborated over Human Development: Multidisciplinarity at Fielding University (with Jeremy Shapiro)Musicians Bentz is also a psychotherapist, massage therapist, and yoga instructor

Level 2: Bentz and Rehorick Amongst

ScholarsClassical FoundationsHusserl: Back to the things themselvesHeidegger: Manifestations of being, temporality and changing natures, and platform for applied researchMerleau-Ponty: Embodied awareness and mind-body connectiveness

From Sociology:Schutz: typifications, relevance, multiple realities,

contextualization, and possibilizing (Rehorick) Bentz: Mead’s symbolic interaction theory, concept

of selfRehorick: Talcott Parsons (Rehorick, 1974), Berger and Luckmann (1966), and Helmut Wagner (1983)

Level 3: How this Author Joined the Herd

Three touch points: Legitimized my topic and practitioner-based knowledgeOffering practical solutions for body-based inquiryShaped my role as advocate

Critical concepts for my development:Authenticity (Heidegger, 1953/1996) conveys to horizonitalizationImportance of place and one’s environmentRole of the practitioner’s intimate topic knowledge & phronesisSomatics as scholarship and beacon

Values and directives for my scholar-practitioner self

Expectations of a Scholar-Practitioner-Advocate

Added element implicit in Transformative Phenomenology: A call to action and promoting transformational growth through applied phenomenology

Bentz defined me in our work together Conferences reinforced my call to be a voice of change in scholarshipPractice experience fortified my resolve to conduct exploratory, indepth researchActivism, e.g. regulatory reform Mission: to promote better understanding of all alternate wellness practices and translational knowledge

Reflectivity, Reflexivity, Entrainment, and

Synchronicity

Resonating episodes appeared to accelerate, both in their factual reality and my recognitionAwareness, recognition and coconstruction of reality: synchronicityMy experience of the continuing spiral is one of personal transformation

Predisposed to personal reflectionMy reading phenomenology: a sequence of bizarrely coincidental eventsThrough writing and conversation, extended circumspection, engendering reflexivityThrough interaction, people subsequently and dynamically recreate our understanding of lifeworldMutual volleying of ideas, plus an energetic and transpersonal alignment, resulted in a state of entrainment (subliminal)

In summary, Transformative Phenomenology...

Brings to applied phenomenology a posture. Borrowing from Schutz and Gadamerian hermeneutics, its application is inherently embodied in its lifeworld. Four essential elements: collaboration, spaciousness, embodiment, and creating typifications provide guidance. Invoking the precepts mindfully and strategically enriches the research process, findings, and the researcher’s development. Offers tenets for the scholar-practitioner to convey to practice. To the extent that the lifeworld is constructed by its members, the resulting state is authentically transformative.

The wind horse. A translation from the Tibetan lungta, it refers to the experience of raising a wind of delight and power, and then channeling that force to good fortune.

ReferencesBerger, P. L. & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality. New York, NY: Anchor Books.Bentz, V. M. & Shapiro, J. (1998). Mindful inquiry in social research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.Lewin, P. M. (2010). Problems and mysteries: Book Review of Rehorick and Bentz (eds.) Transformative Phenomenology. Human Studies, 33, 333-338.Moustakas, C. (1996). Phenomenological research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.Rehorick, D. A. & Bentz, V. M. (2008). (Eds.), Transformative phenomenology: Changing ourselves, lifeworlds and professional practice. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books.] Rehorick, D. A., & Bentz, V. M. (2012). Re-envisioning Schutz: Retrospective reflections & prospective hopes. Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the Society for Phenomenology and Human Sciences (SPHS). Rochester, NY, October 27 - 29, 2012.Wagner, H. R. (1983). Phenomenology of consciousness and sociology of the Life-World: An introductory study. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: University of Alberta Pressvan Manen, M. (1997).  Researching lived experience:  Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy.  2nd edition, London, Ontario:  The Althouse Press.