Gunnar Karlsson

The lived experience of memory impairment in daily occupation after acquired brain injury

The objective of this study was to identify what characterized the lived experience of memory impairment in daily occupations during the first year after acquired brain injury. Four participants were interviewed on four occasions during the year after the brain injury. The data were collected and analyzed using the Empirical Phenomenological Psychological method. The findings revealed four main characteristics that described the individuals experiences during the year of rehabilitation: a chaotic life-world, struggling for coherent doing in new contexts, conscious strategies in new contexts, and achieving new habits. After the brain injury, the life-world changed from a taken-for-granted existence to a chaotic world that was difficult to understand. The routine performance of daily activities and the habit patterns had broken down, so it was mostly the familiar activities that were already integrated in the “habit-body” that enabled coherent doings in everyday life during the year. The findings contribute to an understanding of how to use familiar and meaningful occupations as a therapeutic medium in the rehabilitation of clients with memory impairment following acquired brain injury.

A phenomenological psychological study of decision and choice

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the structure of the experience of decision and choice making, with the use of an empirical phenomenological psychological method.A phenomenological psychological approach to research yields structural descriptions of phenomena. The results then describe the what and how of a specific phenomenon rather than the explanatory why. The raw data of this study consisted of written descriptions of the experience of making decision/choice followed up by interviews. Thirty students participated in this study. The essence of the experience of making a decision is a subjective determination of future realizable possibilities. Every decision relates to a plan or, to speak in the terminology used in this article, to a project. Four different types of projects were found in this study; situational, fundamental, conflicting and non-conflicting. Furthermore, a decision is supported by a motive. Two main types of decision were discovered: (1) Decision to appropriate (adopt) the project; (2) Decision to realize or reject the appropriated project. Finally, a distinction is made between decision and choice.

The experience of spatiality for congenitally blind people: A phenomenological-psychological study

This phenomenological-psychological study aims at discovering the essential constituents involved in congenitally blind peoples spatial experiences. Nine congenitally blind persons took part in this study. The data were made up of half structured (thorough) interviews. The analysis of the data yielded the following three comprehension forms of spatiality; (i) Comprehension in terms of image-experience; (ii) Comprehension in terms of notions; (iii) Comprehension in terms of knowledge.Comprehension in terms of image experience is the form which is most concretely and clearly experienced. It is important to notice, that this kind of image experience is not synonymous with a visually based image experience — a fact which is discussed in the article. The following three features, which are to be understood as a description of what characterizes congenitally blind peoples image experience, are presented; (i) Experience of the whole; (ii) Synthesizing/Harmonizing; (iii) Spontanous presentation of the whole. Furthermore, comprehension in terms of image experience is made up of the following four constituents, which aim at specifying the conditions for the possibility of having an image experience; (i) The image experience is based on tactile experiences; (ii) The inner horizon of the object has to be limited in order for the tactile sense to constitute an image experience; (iii) The person must have reached a certain degree of familiarity with the object; (iv) The importance of the emotional investment in the object.Comprehension in terms of notions can roughly be said to contain a mixture of sensory experiences and explicit cognitive processes. The third and most abstract form of comprehension is comprehension in terms of knowledge, which is exclusively constituted by means of cognitive processes. This third form is briefly characterized by the following; (i) The comprehension is not based on sensory experiences, but conveyed through the descriptions of other people; (ii) The comprehension is not tied to clear personal experiences, but is characterized by a general description; (iii) The comprehension is not contextual, but has a stereotype character.

Correlating facts or interpreting meaning: Two different epistemological projects within medical research

Two different epistemological projects within medical research are presented and compared in this article. One project is the statistical approach that has long occupied a dominant position in medical science. The other project deals with the interpretation of meaning. The authors contend that these projects are different, but not contradictory. The importance of respecting the peculiarities of each is stressed. Several aspects of the projects are compared, including the character of the research object, the knowledge interests, and the use of empirical data. It is argued, among other things, that the phenomenological interpretation of meaning is epistemologically prior to the statistical correlation of facts. The article ends with a discussion of validation procedures based on the idea that all research is conducted starting from a certain perspective.

The Body Language of Adults Who Are Blind1

Abstract The body expressions of adults who are blind have been relatively unexplored. The aim of this study was therefore to deepen the understanding of different forms of body expression, or “body language”, in adults who are blind. More specifically the study aimed at answering the following questions: What forms of body expression do adults who are blind display? What can the conditions for some different forms of body expression be? What importance can individual, social and cultural factors have for different forms of body expression? Data consisted of video-taped interviews with five congenitally blind, two adventitiously blind and two sighted individuals. The data were analysed in a hermeneutical and phenomenological sense. The results consisted of a typology of 19 different forms of body expression. All in all, we found that the congenitally blind participants expressed themselves mainly in a functional and concrete manner. They also seemed to have limited experiences with abstract, symbolic body...

The question of truth claims in psychoanalysis

This article discusses the question of truth claims in psychoanalysis, revolving around the concepts “construction”, “reconstruction”, “historical truth” and “narrative truth”. In Part I of the article, these concepts are discussed in an historical context, in particular, Freuds view, the narrative tradition and some of Bions ideas. In Part II, an attempt is made to synthesize these concepts. It is argued that the constructed character of the unconscious has to be integrated into the patients reconstruction of his/her life story. The psychoanalytic project enables the patient to create a new narrative that claims to possess historical validity. It is important in this context not to understand the notion of “history” objectivisticallv as if it were a question of revealing certain objective historical facts. Instead, it is suggested that the connection between the present understanding of the past and the past as it was experienced in the past should be understood as a fusion of horizons. Finally, the necessary function of consciousnesslself-consciousness for the psychoanalytic project of acquiring knowledge about ones unconscious is pointed out.

Beyond the pleasure principle: the affirmation of existence

Freuds concept of the death instinct has given rise to many different interpretations which have often been contradictory. It is in fact already possible to discern two diametrically opposite meanings of this concept in Freuds work from 1920—Beyond the Pleasure Principle—in which he first introduced the concept of the death instinct. In this paper, it is argued that both these meanings are relevant in describing psychical life, although only one of these meanings actually qualifies for the concept “death instinct”. Beyond the Pleasure Principle was written in order to try to understand some everyday, as well as clinical phenomena which could not be explained by the so-called pleasure principle. Freud postulated something beyond the pleasure principle, which initially seemed to have to do with binding energy. I will preserve this idea and attempt to develop it within the context of a phenomenological analysis of time. The temporalization of the subject involves a very basic affirmation of existence, in t...

Masculinity as project: some psychoanalytic reflections

In this article the question of phallic masculinity is discussed from a subjective perspective, more specifically from a psychoanalytic perspective supplemented with phenomenological reflections. A vantage point for this discussion is the distinction between sex/being a male and gender/masculinity. The focus is on the boys/mans striving for a phallic masculine identity – a striving that can be described in terms of a ‘project’. The term ‘project’ indicates that phallic masculinity is a striving for a possibility which is not yet realized, and it is argued, will never be realized, since it essentially entails a denial of our existential conditions such as our vulnerability, transience and dependence. From a psychogenetic point of view phallic masculinity is conceived of as a repudiation of the feminine/motherly containment. The phallic masculine project can be seen as a response to a humiliated narcissistic ego. In the final section, I will discuss the alienating consequences of masculinity as project by means of the concepts ‘immanence’ and ‘transcendence’. Among other things it is argued that the masculine project misses: (1) recognition of the potentiality of an emergent sense of subjectivity made possible by an intersubjective containing experience; (2) recognition of the potentiality of immanence as a source of unconditional joy; (3) recognition of a mutually rewarding, dialectical relationship between immanence and transcendence.

Psychoanalysis and meaning – a comment on Arild Utaker’s “Images and words: a reconsideration of the psychic dimension”

Psychoanalysis and meaning – a comment on Arild Utaker’s “Images and words: a reconsideration of the psychic dimension”