Analytical Attention

The second element in Pessoa’s philosophical method is that of impartial analysis. Pessoa’s technique of deliberately guiding the attention to one’s own experience, and, specifically, to the outputs of ‘dreaming’ or enactive imagination, has a modern echo in the psychological technique of descriptive experience sampling. Pessoan analysis is a sort of ongoing and self-cued application of descriptive experience sampling, directed less at the intentional content of one’s thoughts as at the phenomenal character of one’s experience. His description of an analytical attention to one’s own mental state might be held to constitute a theory of introspection. It is one which while claiming that introspection is based on attention also emphasizes the idea that introspection transforms the state of which one becomes aware, for example by intensifying, enriching, and sharpening it. I consider, and refute, two sorts of challenge to Pessoa’s analytical phenomenology, from choking and from transformative experience.

Inner Speaking as Pristine Inner Experience

Inner speaking is a directly apprehended phenomenon, not an inference or metaphorical claim about a psychological process. Investigations of inner speaking require a method that carefully explores phenomena as they actually occur. Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) is an attempt at such a method, and is described in this chapter, including an annotated case study of its results. DES investigations suggest that many claims about inner speech are hugely mistaken, leading to the conclusion that powerful presuppositions about inner speech can lead investigations astray; the chapter discusses the recognition and the bracketing of presuppositions. It suggests skepticism about claims based on Vygotskian or other theory, on introspection, on experimental manipulations, or on questionnaires unless the method used provides a principled rationale for the bracketing of presuppositions. The chapter describes aspects of inner speaking not frequently recognized as occurring: partially or completely unworded inner speaking, multiple simultaneous inner speaking, meaningless inner speaking.

On Investigating Self-Talk: A Descriptive Experience Sampling Study of Inner Experience During Golf Performance

Although self-talk has been shown to be an effective performance enhancement tool, accessing athletes’ ongoing inner experiences, including self-talk, has proven difficult. This study investigated the feasibility and desirability of using Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) to sample athletes’ inner experiences during competition, thus avoiding potential distortions that arise from retrospective reports and questionnaires. Golfers (N = 10) were trained as DES participants in their natural environments; then their experiences were sampled during a golf tournament. More self-talk occurred during tournament play than in natural environments. Self-talk was a frequent but not ubiquitous component of experience during tournament play, inner-speaking self-talk was six times as frequent as speaking aloud self-talk, and effortful System 2 self-talk was rare. The results of this research demonstrate that DES can be feasibly implemented in sport settings and may be a useful approach for researchers exploring athletes’ inner experiences.