Phenomenology: An Overview
By Shea Stevens
What Is Phenomenology?
Phenomenology began mainly with the work of Husserl who proposed a phenomenological method, and it was continued through the work of existential philosophers Merleau-Ponty and Martin Heidegger.
Gary Yontef sums up phenomenology as:
“…a search for understanding based on what is obvious or revealed by the situation rather than the interpretation of the observer.... Phenomenology works by entering into the situation experientially and allowing sensory awareness to discover what is obvious/given.”
Joyce and Sills summarize the phenomenological approach in therapy as follows:
“The phenomenological approach means to stay as close to the client’s experience as possible, to stay in the here-and-now moment and rather than interpreting the client’s behavior, to help him explore and become aware of how he is making sense of the world…the phenomenological method is in fact as much an attitude as a technique. It involves approaching the client with an open mind and a genuine curiosity, where nothing matters except the discovery of his personal experience.”
The above quote mentions staying in the here-and-now moment and helping the client explore how he makes meaning of the world. Yontef talks about this also in his essay, Gestalt Therapy: Clinical Phenomenology:
“Gestalt therapy is based on patients’ learning to use their own senses to explore for themselves, learn and find their own solutions to their problems. We teach the patient the process of being Aware of what he is doing and how he is doing it rather than talk about the content of how he should be or why he is as he is.”
Husserl’s Three Steps
Husserl’s articulation of the three steps of bracketing, description, and horizontalization “provided gestalt with the gift of learning to appreciate the client’s reality as far as possible,” in the words of Dave Mann.
Bracketing: we put our experience of the world in a pair of brackets. We acknowledge, and set aside as much possible, our own values, assumptions and expectations of how things are or should be.
Description: to prioritize the description of what is perceived and how it is experienced, rather than an explanation of its cause (the why). To avoid interpretation and instead simply observing what is immediately noticeable or obvious. To prioritize the client’s own awareness rather than the therapist’s interpretation.
Horizontalization: Anything we see or hear is potentially of equal significance, as well as the possibility that there is something equally significant that is out of view; something that has gone unmentioned. This is an attitude that is impossible to fully adapt, but this openness is something to strive toward nonetheless.
Existential Phenomenology
Many aspects of Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology have limited application in gestalt therapy because in focusing on the “essence” of a person or thing, he moves away from a field theoretical viewpoint. The existential phenomenology of Heidegger which focused on existence and being-in-the-world “holds greater clinical relevance in gestalt therapy” (Mann).
Following are quotes from Mann on existential phenomenology:
“Existential phenomenology is the phenomenology of being-in-the-world and as such defines existence as relational. It is precisely the clients process of relating with the world that is of interest to gestalt therapists. Existential phenomenology is an instrument of inquiry into my dialogue with the world and my worlds dialogue with me. From an existential perspective we are ultimately alone with the meanings that we give to our experience and to things. No one can experience what we experience in our separate life-spaces.”
“Paradoxically in our separateness there is togetherness. We are all in the same boat and although we may all have a different experience of that boat, through dialogue we can experience something of the other’s perception and their being-in-the-world.”
“In gestalt therapy the therapist's reality is no more or less valid than the client’s.” (quotes from Mann, p. 155)
So, the phenomenological approach also means acknowledging intersubjectivity. This includes what is happening between client and therapist, the immediate experience of being in relationship with another person, as an “I” and “Thou”. This relational aspect of phenomenology leads into the concept of dialogue.
References:
Joyce and Sills. Skills in Gestalt Counseling and Psychotherapy, 4th edition. Chapter 2, pp 17-28.
Mann, Dave. Gestalt Therapy: 100 Key Points and Techniques. Part 3.2, numbered sections #50-61.
Yontef, Gary. Awareness, Dialogue and Process: Essays on Gestalt Therapy. pp 186-187, 190, 197.