Understanding the experience of discovering a kindred spirit connection: a phenomenological study

Preliminary existential-hermeneutic phenomenological analysis of data based on 24 protocols, and our own reflexive discussion, reveals how “kindred spirit connections” manifest in myriad elusive, evocative ways. These special connections are experienced variously from briefly felt moments of friendship to enduringly profound body-soul love connections. This paper explicates five intertwined dimensions: shared bonding; the mutual exchange and affirmation of fellowship; the destined meeting or relationship; immediate bodily-felt attraction; and the pervasive presence of love. A wide ranging literature around the theme of love is outlined and the concept of kindred spirit is briefly applied to the psychotherapy practice context

Understanding more fully: a multimodal hermeneutic-phenomenological approach

This article shares a research methodology that we argue supports human science researchers in their aim to understand lived experiences more fully. Drawing on Merleau-Pontian thinking, the article outlines three dimensions of sense experience that underpin our approach: the felt-sense, aesthetic aspects of language, and visual imagery. We then detail this approach: the data-collection phase is a creative interviewing method, adapted from Imagery in Movement Method (Schneier 1989) and focusing technique (Gendlin 1997). This results in multimodal data: drawings, and bodily and verbal accounts, rich in imagery. The analysis is an expanded hermeneutic-phenomenology, and in this article we focus in particular on our method for interpreting visual data. Three examples taken from a case-study about feeling guilty are provided to illustrate the potential of the approach. The article concludes with some reflections on the impact of using a multimodal approach in human science research

Hermeneutics: Interpretation, Understanding and Sense-making

Gadamer (1989: xxxiii) describes hermeneutics as ‘a theory of the real experience that thinking is’. In this chapter, we explore two main aspects of this experience of thinking - interpretation and understanding. We draw on the work of Schleiermacher (1768-1834) to review the origins of modern hermeneutics as an activity of interpretation, and on Heidegger (1889-1976) and Gadamer (1900-2002) for hermeneutics as a philosophy of understanding. We consider the ways in which Ricoeur (1913-2005) and Habermas (1929-) move hermeneutics towards critical theory, challenging the trustworthiness of text and the possibility of understanding, and urging reflection on their ideological construction and motivation. We use the most famous idea in the hermeneutic canon, the hermeneutic circle, as a leit-motif for the chapter. This illuminates a range of mutually constitutive relationships between context and text, whole and parts, general and particular, anticipation and encounter, familiarity and strangeness, presence and absence, and sense and non-sense. We discuss how hermeneutics has influenced contemporary organization and management research, inspiring an array of interpretive methods and inviting critical reflection on personal and organizational sense-making

‘I’m worried about getting water in the holes in my head’: a phenomenological psychology case study of the experience of undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery for Parkinson’s disease

Objectives: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a form of biotechnological surgery which has had considerable success for the motor improvement of Parkinson’s disease and related disorders. Paradoxically, this observed motor improvement is not matched with improved psychosocial adjustment. This study contributes to a small but growing body of research aiming to understand this paradox. We conclude by discussing these aspects from a phenomenological and health psychology understanding of decision-making, human affectivity and embodiment. Design: A hermeneutic phenomenological case study. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with one woman with Parkinson’s disease were carried out paying particular attention to (a) how the decision to have the procedure was made and (b) the affective experience in the time periods immediately prior to the procedure, shortly after and one month later. Results: The thematic structure derived from the hermeneutic phenomenological analysis comprises the following experiential aspects: Making the decision: ‘I was feeling rather at a dead end with my Parkinson’s’; Shifting emotions and feelings: ‘Terrified, excited, disappointed, overjoyed’; Embodied meaning: ‘This extraordinary procedure where they were going to drill holes in my head’. Conclusions: This research has elucidated the complexity of decision–making, the emotional landscape and specific bodily nature of the experience of DBS. It has suggested implications for practice informed by both existential-phenomenological theory and health psychology

Parallel returns: feelings, temporality and narrative in the experience of guilt

This paper tentatively sketches out a model of guilt. It is based on hermeneutic phenomenological analyses of five men’s accounts of feeling guilty and is informed by phenomenological and narrative theory. The model maps how guilt unfolds through time in a looping, iterative manner. Initially, guilt feelings are overwhelming and immediate, such that time seems to collapse. The guilt process then unfolds into two ‘parallel returns’; temporal loops wherein an individual first relives their guilt feelings (a ‘bodily return’) and then re-narrates the experience (a ‘narrative return’) in numerous iterations, in an attempt to make sense of what has happened. The final phase maps the resolution: as the narrative becomes more adequate, sense-making becomes easier, and bodily experience is incorporated into over-arching life narratives in a process of synthesis. When this happens, the experience shifts from feeling ‘stuck’ to progression. Mapping guilt in this way offers insight into the interplay between temporality, feelings and narrative in this particular experience, but may also provide a framework to consider how it is possible to ‘work through’ other difficult emotional experiences

Interpretative phenomenological analysis

The Second Edition of The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology provides comprehensive coverage of the qualitative methods, strategies, and research issues in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology has been transformed since the first edition's publication. Responding to this evolving field, existing chapters have been updated while three new chapters have been added on Thematic Analysis, Interpretation, and Netnography. With a focus on methodological progress throughout, the chapters are organised into three sections: Section One: Methods. Section Two: Perspectives and Techniques. Section Three: Applications. In the field of psychology and beyond, this handbook will constitute a valuable resource for both experienced qualitative researchers and novices for many years to come

“Oh, this is What It Feels Like”: a role for the body in learning an evidence-based practice

This paper will present research that explored the experiences of couple and family therapists learning about and using an evidence-based practice (EBP). Using a phenomenological approach called Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, three themes emerged from the participants’ experiences: the supports and challenges while learning an EBP, the experience of shame while learning, and the embodiment of a therapy practice. This paper will focus on the theme of embodiment. Research participants’ experiences will be reviewed and further explored using Merleau-Ponty’s notion of embodiment and Gendlin’s (1978) more internally focused understanding of how awareness of a felt sense is experienced as a move “inside of a person”. As researchers, educators, administrators, policy makers, and counsellors struggle with what works best with which populations and when, how best to allocate resources, how best to educate and support counsellors, and the complexity of doing research in real-life settings, this research has the potential to contribute to those varied dialogues

“It’s like having an evil twin”: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the lifeworld of a person with Parkinson’s disease

This paper offers an understanding of the lifeworld of a person with Parkinson’s Disease derived from Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). A key feature of IPA is its commitment to an idiographic approach which recognises the value of understanding a situated experience from the perspective of a particular person or persons. The paper has two main aims: firstly, to demonstrate how a focus on individual experience chimes with and can inform current ideas of a more personalised humanized form of healthcare for people living with Parkinson’s disease; and secondly, to demonstrate how an IPA study can illuminate particularity whilst being able to make, albeit cautiously, more general knowledge claims which can inform wider caring practices. It achieves these aims through the detailed description and interpretation of one person’s experience of living with Parkinson’s disease and it applies a lifeworld lens to point to how the various constituents of the lifeworld, such as embodiment, selfhood, temporality and relationality enable the IPA researcher to make well-judged inferences which can have value beyond the individual case

One-to-one coaching as a catalyst for personal development: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of coaching undergraduates at a UK university

Objectives: This paper examines the experience of nine undergraduates who had six coaching sessions over an academic year. It is part of a wider study which explores how young people experience and understand personal growth in the context of university life. Design: A qualitative, longitudinal design was employed and semi-structured interviews were used. The transcribed interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), an experiential approach which focuses on how individuals make sense of a particular experience in a specific context. Methods: A volunteer sample of nine students, across various Arts and Social Science subjects, was recruited in a Russell Group university and each student received six one-to-one professional coaching sessions in person and/or by Skype. Findings: The students felt that the coaching sessions sped up the growth that would have happened eventually and thus they could put into practice what they had learned much earlier than they would have otherwise been able. Coaching benefited the students in four broad ways: it gave them an increased sense of control over their work and other areas, it helped them achieve greater balance and focus, it increased their confidence and enabled them to take new perspectives on various issues. Conclusions: Coaching helped the undergraduates address common concerns such as time management, stress, social relationships and confidence. Universities could enhance the student experience if they helped students address these concerns, perhaps by training personal tutors to take a coaching approach or by giving students access to professional coaches as a widening or pre-emptive component of their psychological services provision

‘Shutting the world out’: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis exploring the paternal experience of parenting a young adult with a developmental disability

Background: An in-depth exploration of the experience of midlife fathers of developmentally disabled young adults (aged 19-32 years) was motivated by a dearth of research in this area (McKnight, 2015). Method: Five fathers participated in semi-structured interviews which were subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith, Flowers and Larkin, 2009). Results: The final thematic structure comprises four inter-related themes. They demonstrate a high degree of concern for children’s well-being; the joy adult children confer on their father’s lives as well as the difficulties men experience in response to the limited opportunities available to their offspring. Importantly findings also illustrate the way in which men struggle to contend with painful emotion