scholarly journals Art as a Vehicle for Compassion

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Xu
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Special Care ◽  
Negative Space ◽  
Painting Process ◽  
Physical Manifestation

I address the range of human experience and emotion in watercolor paintings. Watercolor, much like emotions, is unpredictable and requires special care to harness its infinitely varied and nuanced complexities. Creating such works requires forgiveness in how water and pigment interact, as well as the physical manifestation of subjective experience. These emotional paintings express topics ranging from gender and cultural identity, to mundane life experience. Vulnerability and empathy are required to portray hardship and loss in a manner that honors humanity’s lived experience. Working beyond the boundaries codified by narrative realism, this work seeks to offer a glimpse into the realm of the unknown. My primary themes focus on aspirations, secrets, and dreamlike qualities. For this reason, I call my work ethereal realism. These fleeting moments of inspiration, while difficult to grasp and attuned to distant memories, are fortified through an improvisational painting process. Using subtle symbolism in relation to nature and soft feminine figures, I invite the audience into an alternate space where trauma can be healed, and compassion takes hold. The paintings also make use of negative space, so that viewers can insert themselves in the paintings and infer what might lie beyond humanity. This work does not merely paint a picture of melancholy but opens a window to the divine.

The bird dancer and the warrior king: Divergent lived experiences of Tourette syndrome in Bali

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 540-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Lemelson ◽  
Annie Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Tourette Syndrome ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Treatment Modalities ◽  
Visual Anthropology ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Term Outcome ◽  
Long Term Outcome

In the past two decades, ethnographic, epidemiological and interdisciplinary research has robustly established that culture is significant in determining the long-term outcomes of people with neurodevelopmental, neuropsychiatric and mood disorders. Yet these cultural factors are certainly not uniform across discrete individual experiences. Thus, in addition to illustrating meaningful differences for people with neuropsychiatric disorder between different cultures, ethnography should also help detail the variations within a culture. Different subjective experiences or outcomes are not solely due to biographical idiosyncrasies—rather, influential factors arising from the same culture can have different impacts on different people. When taking a holistic and intersectional perspective on lived experience, it is crucial to understand the interaction of these factors for people with neuropsychiatric disorders. This paper teases apart such interactions, utilizing comparative case studies of the disparate subjective experiences and illness trajectories of two Balinese people with Tourette syndrome who exhibit similar symptoms. Based on longitudinal person-centered ethnography integrating clinical, psychological, and visual anthropology, this intersectional approach goes beyond symptom interpretation and treatment modalities to identify gendered embodiment and marital practices as influenced by caste to be significant determinants in subjective experience and long-term outcome.

scholarly journals The Ethical Experience of Nature: Aristotle and the Roots of Ecological Phenomenology

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dylan B. Van der Schyff
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Deep Ecology ◽  
Scientific Culture ◽  
Environmental Challenges ◽  
Moral Meaning ◽  
Ethical Experience ◽  
The Way

I demonstrate here how Aristotle's teleological conception of nature has been largely misunderstood in the scientific age and I consider what his view might offer us with regard to the environmental challenges we face in the 21st century. I suggest that in terms of coming to an ethical understanding of the creatures and things that constitute the ecosystem, Aristotle offers a welcome alternative to the rather instrumental conception of the natural world and low estimation of subjective experience our contemporary techno-scientific culture espouses. Among other things, I consider how his conception of orexis and eudaimonia (happiness or, as I prefer here, "the flourishing life") might be extended to include the eco-system itself, thus allowing us to better understand the moral meaning of nature. I conclude with a look at the way in which modern phenomenology re-addresses the fundamental Greek concern with ontology, meaning and human authenticity. I consider the ways in which phenomenology reasserts the value of direct human experience that was so important to Aristotle; and I consider how this view, and that of Deep ecology, may help us to experience nature - and all of Being for that matter - in a more authentic, meaningful and altogether ethical light.

scholarly journals CZŁOWIEK I ŚMIERĆ – MIĘDZY SEPARACJĄ A BLISKOŚCIĄ

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 191
Author(s):  
Piotr Ochotny
Keyword(s):  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Close Attention

The author, in his paper, pays close attention to the uncontrolled dialectics ofdeath within human existence; that which is actively experienced but passivelysustained; is the end of everything but the beginning of something new; is absolutecertainty but unpredictable uncertainty; is always and only personal for me but always and only personal for others, too. In fact, it is very difficult to explain themeaning of death from an ontological study of death: if and how death exists in thearea of human experience; if death is an immanent possibility for personal existenceor, is it introduced from outwith and occurs when we are not still living. To respondto these questions, the author proposes to use the bridging term, with which variousphilosophical positions can be qualified. This bridging term is ‘distance’ and ourdeath experience is defined as the distance between man (person acting) and hissubject (experience). The dialectical nature of this experience implies that deathmight be through an infinite separation or an infinite closeness to man. Driftingbetween those faraway shores, we can find in Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophy. Herefers to death as Other (something else for man), but this does not mean that deathis strange or unknown within one’s life experience.

scholarly journals “É som de preto, de favelado”: o funk como forma de (r)existência para crianças e adolescentes em acolhimento/“Its black marginalized music”: funk as a way of (r)existence for children and young's in foster

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 632-638
Author(s):  
Paula Fernanda De Andrade Leite Fernandes ◽  
Alice Fernandes De Andrade ◽  
Leticia Ambrosio ◽  
Clau Fragelli
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Therapy ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Black People ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Identidad Cultural

Contextualização: O artigo analisa a prática profissional terapêutica ocupacional em um Serviço de Acolhimento Institucional Infantojuvenil, em uma cidade no interior de São Paulo. Processo de intervenção: Compreendendo a raça como um marcador social de estereótipos e estigmas na vivência cotidiana dos corpos negros e a racialização das infâncias institucionalizadas, analisamos as experiências infantojuvenis nos processos de institucionalização. Análise crítica da prática: A partir de uma perspectiva decolonial e crítica da Terapia Ocupacional e de uma proposta contra hegemônica de atuação, discutimos a respeito de ações interventivas para valorização e reconhecimento da identidade cultural negra dentro do serviço, como uma possibilidade de prática afrorreferenciada e antirracista na/para Terapia Ocupacional.Palavras-chave: terapia Ocupacional. Prática Profissional. Criança Acolhida. Popoluação Negra AbstractContextualization: This article analyzes the professional practice of occupational therapist in an Institutional Childcare Service in a city of São Paulo state, in Brazil. Intervention / Follow-up process: We analyze children's experiences in institutionalization processes understanding race as a social marker. Critical analysis of the practice: The racialization of institutionalized childhoods causes stereotypes and stigmas in the day life experience of black kids. From a decolonial and critical perspective of Occupational Therapy and a counter-hegemonic proposal of action, we discuss interventional actions for valuing and recognizing black cultural identity within the service as a possibility of afro-referenced and anti-racist practice in/for Occupational Therapy.Keywords: Occupational Therapy. Professional Practice. Foster Child. Black People ResumenContextualización: El artículo analiza la práctica profesional terapéutica ocupacional en un Servicio de Acogida Institucional Infantil en una ciudad del interior de estado de São Paulo, en Brasil. Intervención / Proceso de seguimiento: Entendiendo la raza como un marcador social de estereotipos y estigmas en la vida cotidiana de los cuerpos negros y la racialización de la niñez institucionalizada, analizamos las experiencias de los niños en los procesos de institucionalización. Análisis crítico de la práctica: Desde una perspectiva decolonial y crítica de la Terapia Ocupacional y una propuesta de acción contrahegemónica, discutimos las acciones intervencionistas para la valoración y reconocimiento de la identidad cultural negra dentro del servicio como una posibilidad de práctica afro-referenciada y antirracista en/para la Terapia Ocupacional.Palabras clave: Terapia Ocupacional. Práctica Profesional. Ninõ acogido. Población Negra 

scholarly journals Reflections on a person's experience of mental illness: an innovative teaching pilot for second-year medical students

BJPsych Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (S1) ◽  
pp. S8-S9
Author(s):  
George Blanchard ◽  
Louis Quail ◽  
Grace Yang ◽  
Katherine Terence ◽  
Amisha Kalra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Medical Profession ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Innovative Teaching ◽  
Big Brother ◽  
Stigma Of Mental Illness ◽  
Students Attitudes

AimsWe sought to develop a teaching pilot to help year 2 medical students meet the following learning outcomes: Develop a better understanding of patient and carer experiences of mental illness; Recognise and challenge unhelpful attitudes towards people with mental illness; Promote a broader understanding of cultural issues surrounding mental illness, including stigma and discrimination.Method337 medical students were invited to attend a lecture by author LQ, a documentary photographer who presented a narrative of his brother Justin's lived experience of schizophrenia (louisquail.com/big-brother-introduction). 197 students attended the session, which was recorded and made available online. Students were invited to enter a competition to win a signed copy of LQ's book, ‘Big Brother’ and asked to submit either a 500-word written reflective piece, or a creative work accompanied by a 200-word statement. 13 submissions were received, including paintings, drawings, collage, photography, and poetry, all of which were blind rated by authors SR and GB, based on originality and quality of reflection. Of the six shortlisted, three winning entries were chosen by author LQ.ResultAll reflections moved away from a technical understanding of schizophrenia, towards person-centred interpretations, with dominant themes of ‘stigma’, ‘disempowerment’, ‘understanding people as individuals’, ‘subjective experience of mental illness’, ‘inclusion’ and ‘healing power of nature’.The three prize winners (authors GY, AK and KT) used different mediums: GY painted an osprey over a chaotic collage of disordered and stigmatizing words (the osprey representing empowerment and the “reservoir for wellbeing in nature”); AK's sonnet began as an ode to the chaos of Justin's experience, but the concluding lines reframed this struggle, conveying feelings of hope and beauty; and KT's self-portrait, produced with a slow shutter-speed photograph, powerfully conveyed a sense of disorientation and disturbance. She reflected on how the stigma of mental illness affects self-perception. The talk was well-attended, and reflections were of high quality. A limitation of this pilot was that only a small proportion of students completed the reflective assignment.ConclusionInnovative teaching strategies are needed to address negative attitudes towards mental illness and psychiatry, which are prevalent amongst the medical profession. This pilot provides a model for combining carer-led, reflective, and creative elements in undergraduate psychiatry teaching, with the aim of challenging stigma. This model will be evaluated in a further study involving fifth year medical students, which will use a validated scale to measure change in students’ attitudes towards mental illness and psychiatry.

The Felt Body and Embodied Communication

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermann Schmitz
Keyword(s):  
Life Experience ◽  
External World ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Paradigm Change ◽  
Intellectual Culture ◽  
Inner Sphere ◽  
Embodied Communication ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
Inner World ◽  
Western Intellectual

AbstractIn the 4th and 5th centuries B.C. the most significant paradigm change in Western intellectual culture occurred, later affecting Christianity and subsequently science. In the interest of personal empowerment over spontaneous stirrings, a private inner sphere, a so-called soul (psyche) was ascribed to every conscious subject which was taken to contain their whole experience, like a house, conceived of as an inner world in which reason was to be the master of spontaneous impulses; the empirical external world between these inner spheres was cleansed of all gripping forces and, for this purpose, ground down to a few elegantly selected types of features and their carriers (atoms, substances): the remainder of this grindingdown was deposited in the souls or overlooked to nonetheless be found in the souls in changed form. Man was dissected into body and soul. In the transposition into the soul’s huge amounts of life experience were forgotten. Among them can be counted the felt body which disappeared between body and soul as in a crevasse, even though it is the closest thing to human experience.

The Articulating-Self Inside Out

2020 ◽  
pp. 73-86
Author(s):  
Somayeh Noori Shirazi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The Self ◽  
Iranian Woman ◽  
Inside Out ◽  
The Way

This chapter maps the different ways with which an Iranian woman artist, Katayoun Karami, critically responds to the stereotypes about the depiction of cultural identity in the artworks of female artists with a Middle Eastern background. The key point of Karami's response is the way she applies her self–portrait to articulate the self and her subjectivity, which is analysed in this chapter by examining one of her works named the Other Side. In this installation, the artist demonstrates the construction of gender identity in today's Iran through her personal perception of veiling. Working within the frameworks of feminist and Orientalist discourses, this chapter aims to explore how Karami's lived experience as a continual activity of becoming has been formed through the experience of veiling, and what strategies are deployed by her to interrogate the presumptions about the image of the veiled body in Western and Iranian contexts.

scholarly journals Loneliness, adolescence, and global mental health: Soledad and structural violence in Mexico

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 673-687
Author(s):  
Janis H. Jenkins ◽  
Giselle Sanchez ◽  
Olga Lidia Olivas-Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Global Mental Health ◽  
Health Claims ◽  
Screening Tools ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
School Students ◽  
Gene Effects

In this article, we call into question recent public health claims that loneliness is a problem of epidemic proportions. Current research on this topic is hindered by an overreliance on limited survey data and by paradigmatic imbalance that delineates the study of loneliness to psychological, cognitive, neuroendocrinological and immunological effects, social functioning, physical health, mortality, and gene effects. The article emphasizes that scientific approaches to the phenomena of loneliness are more appropriately conceived and investigated as inherently matters for social, relational, cultural, and contextual analysis of subjective experience. Studies of loneliness and possible relationships to mental health status require investigations of social, environmental, and institutional structures as well as families, peers, friends, counselors, and health providers. This article takes a step in this direction through examining the lived experience of 35 high school students and their families living under conditions of social adversity in Tijuana, B.C., Mexico, with attention to anxiety and depression. Utilizing ethnographic interviews, observations, and psychological screening tools, we provide an overview for the group and illustrate the interrelations of subjective experience and social environment through a case study. These data reveal the vital role of understandings of loneliness, depression, and anxiety from the perspectives of adolescents themselves. We conclude that future studies of loneliness are best informed by in-depth data on subjective experience in relation to social features to advance understandings within the field of global mental health and allied fields.

Heuristic Inquiry in Teacher Education

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rochelle Fogelgarn
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Sensory Input ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Heuristic Inquiry ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Children And Young Adults ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Study Participants

Teacher educators often encounter novice pre-service teachers who naively declare that their chief motivation for choosing a teacher training course is their passion for teaching children and young adults. Our challenge is to sustain that passion and transform it into effective pedagogical practice. As education is a profession with a crucially important affective dimension, preparing pre-service teachers for the rigors of daily teaching requires more than facilitating the acquisition of pedagogical technique and strategy. Heuristic inquiry is a methodological approach that affords teachers-as-researchers the means to portray the lived experience of teaching so that both pre- and in-service teachers can identify with, and learn about, the holistic experience of teaching. In contrast to other methodologies, the heuristic researcher’s own experience regarding the phenomenon informs, guides, and interacts with the lived experience of the study participants. The multidimensional, multiperspectival, and multifaceted “story” of the lived experience of teaching which emerges from a disciplined heuristic inquiry provides pre-service teachers with a window through which they can vicariously experience the joys, challenges, and risks inherent in the work of teaching. Being more deeply aware of what to expect may better prepare novice teachers to remain within the profession with their initial passion intact. As a methodological approach, heuristics involves self-inquiry and dialogue with others in order to discover the meaning, significance, and implications of pertinent human experience. Knowledge crystallizes within the researcher in consequence of sensory input, perception, transpersonal communication, belief, and judgment. The individual and composite portrayals and the creatively synthesized essence of the phenomenon that evolve from heuristic exploration coalesce to give a powerful picture of human experience. When heuristic inquiry depicts the dedicated efforts of dynamic teachers who have managed to make a real and enduring impact on their students’ learning and transformative growth, insight is likely to emerge regarding how to ensure the vibrant sustenance of inspired, effective teaching.

Transformative Life Experience as a Glimpse Into Potentiality

2020 ◽  
pp. 002216782093748
Author(s):  
Pninit Russo-Netzer ◽  
Jonathan Davidov
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Hermeneutic Phenomenology ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Theoretical View ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Phenomenological Exploration

Many clients cope with the consequences of transformative life experience (TLE) in psychotherapy. TLE often involves a radical, profound reorganization of or change in one’s life because of resulting formative, life-changing choices. Yet the essence of the mechanism people use to process and make sense of a TLE is unclear. This study is a phenomenological exploration of such experiences that aims to offer a heuristic theoretical view of how such change is constructed and played out. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 120 adults who had coped with the consequences of a TLE. Data analysis was guided by a hermeneutic phenomenology paradigm that postulates that people account for their experience within the four existentials of temporality, spatiality, corporality (embodiment), and relationality. Those lifeworld existentials were utilized as a framework and lens through which to organize the data. This procedure was followed by a hermeneutical interpretation to identify common features of lived experience along all four domains of analysis with the purpose of constructing a conceptual model that illustrates the essence of change during TLE. Implications are considered for utilizing theoretical and applied insights from the model.

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