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Keywords Introduction
Phenomenal field · Life space · Intercorporeality · Body
memory · Ecology A phenomenological approach to psychotherapy is
confronted with a fundamental conceptual challenge.
The very notion of the “psyche,” like all terms derived
Abstract from it, implies the idea of a disembodied and nonspatial
Based on the phenomenology of the body and ecological inner world, be it conscious or unconscious, which is lo-
psychology, this paper introduces a series of concepts that cated inside of the individual, usually in the brain. Re-
enable us to overcome the still prevailing idea of an inner gardless of whether we presuppose the drives, introjects,
psyche and a corresponding individualistic view of psycho- or inner objects of psychoanalysis, whether we believe in
pathology. These concepts are the phenomenal field, lived the memory storages, “theory of mind” or “self-modules”
space, intercorporeality, and body memory; they correspond of cognitive science, or whether we take the brain centers
to an embodied, enactive, and ecological view of the mind. and nuclei of a phrenological neurobiology to be the real
On their basis, psychiatric illnesses may be conceived as re- substrate of the psyche – in any case the dominant scien-
lational disorders resulting in various restrictions and impair- tific paradigms are still characterized by the fundamental
ments of the patient’s lived space. The main tasks of psycho- separation of the subject from the living body, from his or
therapy, then, are to use the interactive phenomenal field as her relations to the environment and from his or her con-
a means of restructuring the patient’s relational patterns and nections to others in the shared life world. However, such
to support his or her capacity to engage in more beneficial a view seems inadequate to grasp what is happening in the
interactions with others. In this way, phenomenology can psychotherapeutic encounter.
valuably contribute to a deeper understanding of the intri- Phenomenology is in principle opposed to any intro-
cate processes of the psychotherapeutic encounter. jection of psychic life into a disembodied inner space. It
© 2019 S. Karger AG, Basel regards the person not as a separate monad which repre-
sents the world inside but rather as an embodied being
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memory “in the fingers” that is unavailable for explicit tured by physical or symbolic boundaries that put up a
knowledge. resistance to movement. This results in more or less dis-
Moreover, in the phenomenal field opened up by the tinct domains such as one’s peripersonal or intimate
lived body the others are always already included; they are space, one’s territory or property, and a person’s sphere
prereflectively understood in their bodily expressions and of influence but also domains of restriction, prohibition
implicitly addressed by one’s own bodily behavior. From or taboo, etc.
early childhood on, patterns of interaction with others are The life space is further permeated by felt field forces
sedimented in the infant’s body memory, resulting in or “vectors” [13], in the first place those which attract and
what may be called an intercorporeal memory [19, 21]. repel. They emanate from attractive or aversive valences
This means an implicit, practical knowledge of how to or affordances offered by the environment, which corre-
interact with others in face-to-face encounters [22]. In- spond to the basic needs of a human being, be they bio-
tercorporeality forms a superordinate system of extended logical or social. Competing attractive or repulsive forces
bodies which includes self and others, the conscious and in the life space lead to typical conflicts such as attraction
the unconscious; I do not have to search very far for oth- versus aversion, attraction versus attraction, etc. They can
ers: I find them in my experience, lodged in the hollows be considered as conflicting directions of movement or
that show what they see and what I fail to see. We are in possibilities which are offered to a person in a given situ-
no way locked inside ourselves [23]. ation. Moreover, the life space is characterized by effects
Hence, the intersubjective or relational dimension of of “gravitation” and “radiation” or by “curvatures of
the phenomenal field is crucially influenced by both part- space” [14].
ners’ intercorporeal memory, which formed over the A good example of conflicting field forces and curva-
course of their respective history of interactions. It now tures is offered by the situation of a small child who is torn
carries their implicit expectations of others, implied in between his bond to his mother and curiosity [29]. The
their manifest behavior mostly without their awareness. mother is first of all the “safe haven,” the center of gravity,
Moreover, intercorporeal memory and its enactment ex- so to speak, which curves the child’s experienced space in
press the basic attitudes toward self and others which such a way that he or she remains in her vicinity. The phe-
constitute one’s personality – as becomes obvious, for ex- nomenal field thus acquires a gradient: the further the
ample, in the submissive posture, inhibited gestures, and child moves away from the mother, the emptier or lone-
shy facial expressions of a dependent person [19]. lier the space becomes. Little by little, the child’s explor-
atory drive diminishes the tie to his or her mother so that
Life Space it becomes possible to increase the distance against the
On a wider scale, the currently experienced phenom- gradient – only until the bond is stretched too much and
enal field may be extended by the concept of the life space. the child runs back to his or her mother in the end.
It traces back to the “topological” or “field psychology” of This example also illustrates the fact that the respective
Lewin [13] and was later revived by ecological psychology field structures are based on body memory, in this case
[24–26]. The life space – or lived space1 – may be regard- the history of the experiences the child has had in close-
ed as the totality of the space that a person prereflectively ness and security with his or her mother – attachment
inhabits and experiences, with its situations, conditions, research has shown this in detail. Another proverbial ex-
and movements and its horizon of possibilities – i.e., the ample lies in the saying: “a burnt child dreads the fire,” or
environment and sphere of action of a bodily subject. “once bitten, twice shy,” which illustrate the aversive ef-
This space is not homogeneous but rather is centered fect of body memory: as a result of negative experiences,
around the person and his or her body. It is characterized objects or zones of danger will be avoided intuitively. A
by qualities such as vicinity or distance, wideness or nar- third example is given by the zones of prohibition which
rowness, and connection or separation, and it is struc- restrict the child’s movements so that his or her spontane-
ous impulses interfere with parental imperatives inas-
1 Both terms are not clearly distinguished; in the phenomenological tra-
much as these have left a negative gradient on his life
dition, “lived space” as introduced by Minkowski [27] is the more common space.
term. I use it in what follows for emphasizing the experienced or felt aspect The life space of an individual in his or her environ-
of the life space. For a history of the concept of “lived space,” see also Griffero ment may also be conceived as his or her “ecological niche”
[28]. Another related notion is the “life world,” which I rather take to denote
the more general intersubjective and cultural background of life, including [14]. In analogy to the biological niche, it signifies the
shared assumptions, norms, rules of common sense, etc. physical and social environment that corresponds to the
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space is positively curved around such areas, as it were, relationship, empathy, attachment and positive outcomes
and they have become “attracting zones.” At the same as measured in symptom reduction and self-efficacy
time, others take part in these relational patterns, result- [49, 50].
ing in maladaptive collusive dynamics through which The phenomenological field engages and influences
both partners do not see, as for example in couples or both partners, to a large extent without their awareness.
other dyadic relationships [36, 37]. It creates a shared affective space, which is also manifest-
In this way, the unconscious is extended in social space ed as an interpersonal atmosphere – e.g., the typical atmo-
as a horizontal or relational unconscious which emerges sphere of depression, in which both the patient and the
from the history of individuals and influences their be- therapist may experience a sense of heaviness, resigna-
havior. It manifests itself in the interactive phenomenal tion, and futility, or the atmosphere of schizophrenic
field such that it draws both partners into its preset dy- alienation, well known as the “praecox feeling” [51, 52].
namics, often through the slightest bodily signals such as These qualities of the field already convey important di-
a moment of hesitation, an averted gaze, a lowered voice, agnostic information. Moreover, as pointed out above,
etc. In this way, early patterns of attachment are implic- the field also reactualizes both partners’ embodied mem-
itly reactualized and enacted, which happens in particular ories and relational patterns which are reenacted in the
in intimate relationships and, last but not least, in psycho- encounter.
therapy [38, 39]. In this way, the attractive or avoidance zones, the blind
spots or gaps in the patient’s lived space may become vis-
ible by the special illumination of the interactive field.
The Phenomenal Field in Psychotherapy However, the unconscious manifests itself less in the ob-
vious behavior than in its hidden or reverse side. When a
On the basis of the concepts developed so far, the main patient shows a labored smile that conceals an uncon-
task of psychotherapy is to modify and restructure the scious fear of devastating shame, this may only be under-
patient’s lived space so as to increase her degrees of free- stood if the expression is taken as a “negative” (i.e., like a
dom, to extend her horizon of possibilities, and to enable negative film). This presupposes, however, looking for
more satisfactory relationships with others. How is this the repressed not in the “depths of the psyche” but rather
restructuring brought about? The traditional aim of psy- already in the seemingly superficial bodily expression and
chotherapy is to produce change primarily in the patient behavior.
and thus to treat his or her malfunctions. In contrast, the In order to change such implicit relational patterns,
phenomenological approach shifts the focus from what they have to be activated as enactments in the therapeutic
happens inside of the patient to what emerges in the in- process. Only then can they be replaced by corrective ex-
teractive phenomenal field which becomes the major periences, above all in special moments of empathic cor-
agent of change. Such a perspective is in line with the re- respondence between the patient and the therapist (“mo-
lational and intersubjective turn taken by psychoanalysis ments of meeting” [22]). This requires the therapist to be
[40, 41] and psychotherapy in general, not least under the sensitive to his or her own intercorporeal resonance (tra-
influence of infant and attachment research [42, 43]. Fur- ditionally called countertransference), using it as a kind
ther valuable contributions have been put forward by the of seismograph for subtle changes in the field [10, 32].
ecological approach of Willi [31] and by the PHD method The interactive field not only actualizes the past but also
of Stanghellini [44]. projects potential routes towards the future. With in-
The interactive field unfolds between the patient and creasing intuition, the therapist may develop a sense of
the therapist, emerging from their bodily presence in the openness and curiosity for the implicit possibilities of the
situation, their posture, facial and gestural expressions, phenomenal field and modulate it through slight reac-
breathing, and voices. This generates an interbodily reso- tions in a moment-to-moment way, without attempting
nance, which may also be described as a mutual extension to control the process.
and superposition of the body schemes [19, 45]. It in- Certainly, empathic understanding and interaction
cludes components such as imitative movements, syn- alone are not helpful in all cases. To avoid the pitfalls of
chronized behavior, and rhythmic covariation of expres- the patient’s relational patterns, the therapist should be
sions [46–48]. As could be shown in psychotherapy stud- well aware of the interpersonal process in which he or she
ies, the extent of interactive coordination between the is involved. Otherwise, he or she will risk being drawn
patient and the therapist is connected with the quality of into the patient’s “attracting spaces” or, on the other
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such they also constitute the implicit layer of the psycho- er precisely a nonexpected behavior of the therapist which
therapeutic process. From a phenomenological point of allows the patient to make a corrective relational experi-
view, the unconscious is then no longer located in an in- ence and to break out of ingrained behavior patterns.
ner mental sphere but rather in the interactive field that On the basis of a phenomenological, embodied, and
emerges from the encounter of patient and therapist. enactive view of psychiatric disorders, various psycho-
Their body memories form a historical structure of past therapeutic approaches and methods may be applied, of
relational experiences which are reenacted in the thera- which I have named only a few examples. Of course, oth-
peutic process, resulting in what may be termed bodily ers could be mentioned such as gestalt and body-oriented
transference and countertransference. A phenomenolog- therapies, which have a particular affinity to the phenom-
ical approach may enable the therapist to increase his enology of the body [63]. In any case, their common aim
awareness of the related phenomena, such as posture, ex- is to use the interactive phenomenal field to further or
pression, resonance, synchronicity, presence, distance, restore the patient’s capacity to engage in more adequate
and atmosphere. Using this scenic information for diag- and beneficial interactions with others. On this route,
nosis and therapy requires in particular the therapist’s phenomenology can valuably contribute to a deeper un-
bodily presence and authentic interaction. derstanding of the intricate processes of the psychothera-
Hence, from a phenomenological view point, the pro- peutic encounter.
cess of psychotherapy is experiential and embodied rath-
er than cognitive, insight oriented, or “archaeological.”
The patient’s habitual or implicit ways of relating to oth- Acknowledgement
ers are reenacted in the “here and now” of the therapeutic
I am grateful for 2 anonymous reviews who helped me to im-
relationship and may be changed through new experi-
prove this paper.
ences. In such a view, it is not so much the explicit past
that is in the focus of the therapeutic process but rather
the implicit past which organizes and structures the pa- Disclosure Statement
tient’s phenomenal field of relating to others. As we have
seen, however, it is frequently not a concordant but rath- The authors have no conflict of interests to declare.
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