Hermeneutic Existential Phenomenology as a psychotherapeutic and philosophical attunement to educate novice researchers

Steven  Segal

doi:10.24377/EJQRP.article3101

Authors

Steven Segal Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24377/EJQRP.article3101

Keywords:

emotions, research, hermeneutic, existential phenomenology

Abstract

This paper develops a hermeneutic existential phenomenological (HEP) approach to the research education of novice researchers. Drawing from HEP in psychotherapy and philosophy leads to the identification of the importance of lived experience in educating novice researchers. It demonstrates the significance of responding effectively to existential struggles for embodying and inhabiting the way of being of research with competence and confidence. HEP provides a framework for turning the messiness and chaos of the lived experience of research into opportunities for research education and development. Creating the space for turning the emotional “roller coaster” ride of research into educational opportunities requires the skills of a psychotherapist who enables the novice researcher to stay with and learn to listen to their research doubts and anxieties. These skills are also formulated by existential philosophers who write about being resolute in moments of vulnerability and anxiety. A HEP approach to research education is a contribution that psychotherapy and philosophy have to offer research education in psychotherapy and in general. Working educationally with the existential anxiety of research is useful in any research area that acknowledges the importance of being attuned to lived experience in the process of becoming a researcher.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Alemany, Alex., (1977). Algo Personal https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lex_Alemany

Bager-Charleson, S., & Kasap, Z. (2017). Embodied situatedness and emotional entanglement in research: An autoethnographic hybrid inquiry into the experience of doing data analysis. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 7(3), 190-200.

Bager-Charleson, S., Du Plock, S., & McBeath, A. (2018). Therapists have a lot to add to the field of research, but many don't make it there: A narrative thematic inquiry into counsellors' and psychotherapists' embodied engagement with research. Language and Psychoanalysis, 7(1), 1–18.

Bager-Charleson, S., McBeath, A., Du Plock, S., & Adams, M. (2020). Becoming a research practitioner: A meta-synthesis. European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy, 10, 93-109. https://doi.org/10.24377/EJQRP.article2999

Dreyfus, H. L. (1991). Being-in-the-world: A commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time, Division I. MIT Press.

Dreyfus, H. L. (1993). Being-in-the-world: A commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time, Division I. MIT Press.

Eikeland, O. (2001). Action research as the hidden curriculum of the Western tradition. In P. Reason & H. Bradbury (Eds.), Handbook of action research (1st ed.), (pp.145-155). SAGE.

Gallagher, S. (1992). Hermeneutics and education. State University of New York Press.

Guignon, C. (1983). Heidegger and the problem of knowledge. Hackett Publishing Company.

Heidegger, M. (1971). The origin of the work of art. In Poetry, language, thought. Harper & Row.

Heidegger, M. (1985). Being and time. Basil Blackwell.

Kierkegaard, S. (1980). The concept of anxiety. Princeton University Press.

Kierkegaard, S. (1959). The journals of Søren Kierkegaard (A. Dru, Trans. & Ed.). Harper & Brothers.

May, R. (1977). The meaning of anxiety. Simon & Schuster.

Mitchell, C. E. (2021). The novice researcher and the phenomenological pilgrimage. European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy, 11, 60-71. https://doi.org/10.24377/EJQRP.article3071

Nietzsche, F. (1984). In W. Kaufmann (Ed.), The portable Nietzsche. Penguin Books.

Polt, R. (1999). Heidegger: An introduction. Cornell University Press.

Sartre, J. P. (1956). Being and nothingness: An essay in phenomenological ontology. Methuen.

Sartre, J. P. (1975). Existentialism and humanism. Eyre Methuen Ltd.

Palmer, H. (1969). Hermeneutics: Interpretation theory in Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, and Gadamer. Northwestern University Press.

Hill, L. (2003). Becoming a manager: How new managers master the challenges of leadership. Harvard Business School Press.

Segal, S. (1995). Meaning crisis: Philosophical counselling and psychotherapy. In R. Lahav & M. Tillmans (Eds.), Essays in philosophical counselling (pp. 101-119). University of America Press.

Wrathall, M. A. (2005). How to read Heidegger. W.W. Norton & Company.