Thesis advisor: John Sallis / Maurice Merleau-Ponty's last essay about art, Eye and Mind, refers to many painters, to painting, and even to sculpture. Yet there is hardly any use of the traditional categories used in art criticism to categorize artistic movements or to evaluate painters' contributions to their period. Instead, he uses terms such as `body' and `flesh' that are alien to that tradition, thereby indicating that he clearly intends to go beyond commenting on and assessing the artistic value of the works he mentions. Instead, the essay is a reevaluation of meaning of painting as a whole. Merleau-Ponty says that all painting from Lascaux to our day has been a celebration of `the visible.' However, to understand what he means by `the visible' involves considerable complexity. The standard by which Merleau-Ponty evaluates painting emerges from his phenomenological and ontological research into perception. I argue that in fact Eye and Mind answers a question that arose in his first major book concerning the relationship between consciousness and nature. Because the evolution of the ideas underlying the Eye and Mind's answer is so vast, the goal of this dissertation is to trace the thread leading from his earlier work in order to provide a unifying viewpoint that will ground an adequate understanding of the essay's various arguments. The dissertation argues that Merleau-Ponty's notion of the Gestalt or structure is the framework for understanding the origin and depth of the aperçus developed in Eye and Mind. Ironically perhaps, this notion is not mentioned in Eye and Mind. As if it had lost its original meaning, it is only referred to indirectly and vaguely in terms of transcendence. Nevertheless, the main issue settled in The Structure of Behavior dominated his understanding of the body in The Phenomenology of Perception, and underwent a transformation when Merleau-Ponty discovered language as a diacritical structure. This made possible the radical use he made of it in Eye and Mind without expressly mentioning it. Once the interpretation of Gestalt in relation to Paul Klee and Rudolf Arnheim had been worked out, this dissertation could use this notion--usually undervalued in Merleau-Ponty scholarship--to make sense of Eye and Mind's main contention in light of the interpretive reconstruction of the notions of expression, reversibility, body, and flesh Merleau-Ponty elaborated on the way to that essay. Part I of the dissertation deals with the phenomenology of the Gestalt structure prior to Merleau-Ponty's ontological turn, which in turn frames and underpins many of the insights achieved in this pre-ontological period, especially those about the body. The first two chapters introduce the notion of structure as it emerges in its application to behavior, and explain Merleau-Ponty's own contribution to the notion through the overcoming of earlier psychologists' static reduction of the notion to the physical level. The third and last chapter of Part I discusses the structural dimension of the body. There are two extraordinary things in Eye and Mind: the first is Paul Valery's statement that the painter "takes his body with him"; and the second is the analogy between the problems of the body and the problems of painting, by which Merleau-Ponty proposes that understanding one is indispensable for understanding the other. To clarify his proposal we have to return to The Phenomenology of Perception's analysis of the body according to embodied intentionality or motor intentionality, in which the body operates according to an "I can" that must replace the mechanical reaction to a stimulus. Here Merleau-Ponty was helped by Kurt Goldstein's insight into the body as a Gestalt. The dissertation illustrates what this could mean for the structure of a painting by using examples. What was formerly Part II profiles Merleau-Ponty's embodied notion of the Gestalt form against Arnheim's aprioristic account, which explains the relationship between consciousness and nature through an isomorphism that is even more ambitiously totalizing than the ones envisioned by the original Gestalt psychologists. Because of the detailed nature of our account this part is in two appendices. What is now Part II focuses on the problem of painting more directly. Using both the Notes de Cours (where Merleau-Ponty's most extensive comments on Paul Klee occur) and Paul Klee's own celebrated Notes, Chapter Four on Paul Klee reconsiders the relationship between consciousness and nature as the one between the painter and the world. Klee interpreted abstraction in terms of Gestalt as a form of transcendence involving the visible and the invisible, in contrast to Sartre's idea of transcendence, which also employs the figure/ground formation of the Gestalt. In Eye and Mind the expression of painting is interpreted as "a `visible' to the second power, a carnal essence or icon of the first." So Chapters Five and Six discuss the notion of structure from the viewpoint of expression. The doubling of expression in painting is seen first as analogous to philosophy as a hyper-reflection, and then in the linguistic distinction between le langage parlé et le langage parlant, which allowed Merleau-Ponty to interpret and generalize the model of expressive language via the diacritical structure of language and not restrict expressive language to bodily gestures. Rather than a return to the original (as The Phenomenology may have suggested), the point of this doubling aspect of expression is the recognition of the qualities of reversibility and difference that constitute `depth.' With the clarification of terms such as `perceptual faith' and `style,' Chapter Seven introduces the notion of reversibility before exploring its meaning, specifically in the second chapter of Eye and Mind. In Chapter Eight the earlier focus on the beginning of the definition of a painting as "a `visible' to the second power, a carnal essence or icon of the first," shifts to the meaning of the term "icon." This rounds off the meaning of `depth' and completes the exploration of the theme of the Gestalt structure. Now it becomes clear that the meaning of `depth' is articulated as the depth between the visible and the invisible, because the model used to understand depth is the by now very familiar basic articulation of the perceptual Gestalt: the articulation of a figure over a ground. Like a stain on a rug--in painting, in history, in philosophy, in language, or in perceptual faith--the crystallization of what appears always disguises an invisible dimension, whose invisibility is what makes the visibility of the visible possible. Chapter Nine then concludes the dissertation. It first considers Jean-Luc Marion's use of the icon in painting, in which, as in our interpretation of Merleau-Ponty on depth, uses his own idea of the depth between the visible and the invisible; and second, it responds to observations on Merleau-Ponty's philosophy of art by Veronique Fotí and criticisms of it by Michel Haar. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

Orientador: Danilo Saretta Verissimo / Banca: Diana Pancini de Sá Antunes Ribeiro / Banca: Claudinei Aparecido de Freitas da Silva / Resumo: A transicionalidade talvez seja um dos temas mais amplos e complexos dentro da teoria de Donald Winnicott. Inicialmente, essa questão é abordada quando o autor descreve sobre a passagem percorrida pelo bebê entre o mundo subjetivo - isto é, puramente criado - e a realidade externa. Antes que o bebê possa encontrar o mundo externo, a fim de continuar a ser criativo e se sentir real, surgem os objetos e fenômenos transicionais, estes que ocupam uma área intermediária da experiência, onde as divisões entre sujeito e objeto, mundo interno e realidade externa, criatividade e princípio de realidade, não seriam questionadas. De acordo com Winnicott, essa área intermediária, denominada espaço potencial, continuará a existir por toda a vida do indivíduo, sendo a partir dela que surgiria o campo das artes, da religião, da filosofia, da ciência, do brincar e da experiência cultural. Além disso, seria apenas no espaço potencial onde poderia ocorrer uma verdadeira comunicação entre indivíduo e o outro. Neste sentido, poderíamos nos perguntar: como saber quando o sujeito está experienciando uma situação transicionalmente, isto é, por meio do espaço potencial? Seria possível pensar neste espaço concretamente, a partir do corpo, sem que, ao mesmo tempo, tratemo-lo de uma forma subjetivista ou puramente objetiva? Qual é a relação e o papel do corpo do outro (por exemplo, o analista) na facilitação dessa experiência? A fim de responder e problematizar estes questionamentos, propomos um diálogo... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The transitionality is probably one of the vast and most complex subjects inside the Donald Winnicott theory. Initially, this point is approach when the author describes about the passage traversed by the baby between the subjective world - that is the created world - and the external reality. Before the baby could find the external world, to continue been creative and feel real, the transitional subjects and transitional phenomena appears, they occupy an intermediate area of experience, where the divisions between the subject and the object, the inside world and the external reality, creativity and reality principle wouldn't be questioned. According to Winnicott, this intermediate area, named potential space, will continue exist through person's all life, from that will origin the fields like arts, religion, philosophy, science, to play and the cultural experience. Besides, it's only inside the potential space that the real communication happens between one subject and the other. In this case, we could ask ourselves: how do we know if the subject is experiencing one situation on a transitional way, that is through the potential space? Could we imagine this space in a concrete way, from body, without describing it in a subjectivist and objectivist perspective? Which is the other body's participation (like the analyst) in that experience? To answer and to problematize these questions we propose some dialogues between Winnicott and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, because a lot of academics suggest that there is a connection between potential space and perception concept, by Merleau-Ponty. In his works, we see a big interesting about the relation between body, perception and intersubjectivity, besides your sympathy with psychoanalysis, like the unconscious problem, the... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand, describe, and make meaning of the experiences of early childhood educators of young foster care students. The researcher examined the experiences of teachers regarding the attachment behaviors of their foster care students. This study also sought to explore how early childhood teachers implement their curriculum and how they design their classroom environment to meet the needs of young foster care children. Data collection and analysis included 20 questionnaires and 20 face-to-face semistructured interviews. Data analysis consisted of a three step process. The first step began by reading interviews through a holistic approach. During this step, the researcher read the entire transcript as a whole before digging deeper. The second step in coding was a selective reading. In this step, the researcher read through each transcript by finding key words and/or phrases. The third step in the coding process was a detailed reading. The researcher read the text word-by-word. This step aided the researcher in finding those words that captured the phenomenon of the teachers. The researcher found three major overarching themes: social and emotional behaviors, triad relationship, and classroom accommodations. This study revealed three main themes: attachment-related behaviors of social and emotional development, teacher relationship strategies with student and caregiver, and classroom curricular and environmental adjustments. Within all three of these themes was an underlying theme of a teacher-as-mother perceived attachment from the teachers. The teacher-as-mother perceived attachment was embedded in the experiences of the teachers. It is recommended that this main theme be explored in future research. The experiences of the teachers were completely based on their experiences in this study. The way they intervened on behalf of their foster care students did not appear to relate to any professional development or training; it was entirely based on their experiences. It is recommended that the arena of early childhood would benefit immensely with a course, training, or professional development in learning about the foster care system and dealing with young children in foster care. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Pretendemos realizar um exame crítico do debate do filósofo Merleau-Ponty com as teorias psicanalíticas contemporâneas a ele, mostrando como tal foi determinante no desenvolvimento de seu pensamento. Não se trata de mostrar que há somente uma convergência entre a sua interpretação da psicanálise com a fenomenologia, mas uma verdadeira necessidade de diálogo. Longe de afirmar que este tenha sido o único debate importante de Merleau-Ponty com as não-filosofias ou que ele foi homogêneo em sua obra, pretendemos mostrar como alguns conceitos clínicos foram incorporados em seu trabalho se confundindo com os próprios conceitos-chave que o filósofo cunhou para cumprir seu projeto filosófico. / Our objective is to perform a critical analysis of the debate between the philosopher Merleau-Ponty and the psychoanalytical theories contemporaries with him, demonstrating how this debate was determining in the development of his thought. We do not aim at demonstrating that his interpretation of psychoanalysis simply meets the phenomenology, but that it configures itself as a real need for dialog. Far from stating that this was Merleau-Pontys only important dialog with the non-philosophies or that his work is homogeneous, we aim at demonstrating how some clinical concepts were embodied in his work, fading among the key concepts created to accomplish his philosophical project.

詮釋馬勞龐蒂的身體理論 / 論文(碩士)--香港中文大學,1994. / 參考文獻: leaves 119-121 / 趙子明. / 符號說明 --- p.ii / 全文摘要 --- p.iii / 前言 --- p.iv / 目錄 --- p.viii / 導論: --- p.2 / Chapter §1 --- 感知經驗及以感知為首要的身體理論 --- p.3 / 身體結構的分析: --- p.13 / Chapter §2 --- 感知中的身體──充滿歧義的在世存有 --- p.14 / Chapter §3 --- 身體活動與活動意向 --- p.38 / Chapter §4 --- 說話和會說話的思想者 --- p.68 / 結論: --- p.94 / Chapter §5 --- 身體結構及以感知為首要的哲學理論 --- p.95 / 註釋 --- p.106 / 參考書目 --- p.119

Zhu, Xinqu. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

Infrared (IR) singularities are a salient feature of any field theory containing massless fields. In Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), such singularities give rise to logarithmic corrections to physical observables. For many interesting observables, these logarithmic corrections grow large in certain areas of phase space, threatening the stability of perturbative expansion and requiring resummation. It is known, however, that IR singularities are universal and exponentiate, allowing one to study their all-order behaviour in any gauge theory by means of so-called webs: specific linear combinations of Feynman diagrams with modified colour factors corresponding to those of fully connected trees of gluons. Furthermore, infrared singularities factorise from the hard cross-section into soft and jet functions. The soft function may be calculated as a correlator of Wilson lines, vastly simplifying the computation of IR poles and allowing analytic computation at high loop order. Renormalisation group equations then allow the definition of a soft anomalous dimension, which may then be directly computed either through differential equations or by a direct, diagrammatic method. Soft singularities are highly constrained by rescaling symmetry, factorisation, Bose symmetry, and high energy- and collinear limits. In the case of light-like external partons, this leads directly to a set of constraint equations for the soft anomalous dimension, the simplest solution of which is a sum over colour dipoles. At two loops, this so-called dipole formula is the only admissible solution, leading to the complete cancellation of any tripole colour structure. Corrections beyond the dipole formula may first be seen at three loops, and must take the form of weight five polylogarithmic functions of conformal invariant cross-ratios, correlating four hard jets through a quadrupole colour structure. In this thesis we calculate this first correction beyond the dipole formula by considering three-loop multiparton webs in the asymptotic limit of light-like external partons. We do this by computing all relevant webs correlating two, three and four lines at three loop order by means of an asymptotic expansion of Mellin-Barnes integrals near the limit of light-like external partons. We find a remarkably simple result, expressible entirely in terms of Brown's single-valued harmonic polylogarithms, consistent with high-energy and forward scattering limits. Finally, we study the behaviour of this correction in the limit of two partons becoming collinear, and discuss collinear factorisation properties.

A pesquisa apresenta um estudo teórico desencadeado pela tentativa de se alcançar a compreensão sobre um sentido de lugar relacionado ao plano das ideias, sendo estas entendidas como o resultado de elaborações mentais fundadas a partir das experiências, percepções e também do imaginário das pessoas. A abordagem ancora-se num enfoque transdisciplinar a fim de desenvolver uma reflexão a respeito das muitas questões simbólicas e subjetivas que tangem o tema. Considerando-se a hipótese de que o lugar não é apenas uma construção física, já que no âmbito dos usos e das apropriações o contato entre indivíduo e obra edificada é determinante para trazer à tona um sentido essencial de lugar, entende-se que essa essência esteja intimamente conectada às ideias que as pessoas têm acerca dos lugares, refletindo o fenômeno existencial da habitação. Tal perspectiva aponta para a adoção da fenomenologia como um método de análise preocupado com as questões referentes ao problema das essências e que, no caso específico do estudo de lugar, repercute os domínios das emoções e do pensamento humano. Ao integrar-se a essa esfera subjetiva, permeada pelas práticas existenciais estabelecidas entre sujeito e mundo vivido, nota-se que o sentido de lugar enfocado pela pesquisa se traduz por um forte caráter simbólico, que ultrapassa a perspectiva das localizações físicas e da materialidade do ambiente construído. Dessa forma, fundamenta-se a elaboração da tese que aponta para o entendimento de que a arquitetura não constrói lugares, mas, ao agir na configuração espacial, repercute os ecos de uma atividade que auxilia a humanidade a compor suas próprias ideias de lugar. Tanto o pensamento por detrás do projeto arquitetônico quanto as qualidades físicas da obra executada são capazes de lançar as ordens conceituais, utilitárias e estéticas sinalizadoras das diretrizes interpostas na relação das pessoas com os lugares. A arquitetura estimula a percepção dos usuários e convida-os a uma experiência deflagradora de ideias formatadas pelo uso, apropriação e/ou contemplação de determinado ambiente, cristalizando um sentido de lugar propício à habitação que, na prática, corresponde aos atos de entrar, permanecer e contemplar o/no mundo. / This research presents a theoretical study brought about by an attempt to achieve an understanding of a sense of place in relation to the realm of ideas, which result from mental elaborations created from people’s experiences, perceptions, and imagination. The approach is grounded on a transdisciplinary perspective in order to develop some reflective thought on the many symbolic and subjective issues around the theme. Taking into account the hypothesis that place is not a mere physical construction, given that within the scope of use and appropriation the contact between individuals and erected buildings is a determining factor to bring forth an essential sense of place, there is an understanding that this essence is intimately linked to the ideas that people have about places, reflecting the existential phenomenon of inhabiting. This perspective indicates the adoption of phenomenology as an analytical method concerned with questions regarding the problem of essences and which, in the specific case of a study on place, echoes the domains of emotions and human thought. By adjoining this subjective sphere permeated by existential practices established between subject and the experienced world, one can observe that the sense of place addressed by the study is perceived as having a strong symbolic character which goes beyond the perspective of physical locations and the materiality of the built environment. This is the foundation of the thesis pointing towards the understanding that architecture does not build places, but rather, upon acting on spatial configuration echoes an activity that helps people compose their own ideas of place. Both the thought behind an architectural project and the physical characteristics of the executed work are capable of disposing the conceptual, utilitarian, and aesthetic orders that signal the guidelines interposed in the relationship between people and places. Architecture stimulates users’ perception and invites them to an experience that entices ideas formatted by the use, appropriation, and/or contemplation of a given environment, thus solidifying a sense of place suitable for inhabiting which, in practice, corresponds to the acts of entering, remaining in, and contemplating the world.

This dissertation identifies and explores a genre of performance I term the “theatrical uncanny.” Intermingling aesthetics and psychology, the uncanny is the realm of “intellectual uncertainty” (for Ernst Jentsch) and “the familiar made strange” (for Sigmund Freud); it is an obscure but palpable disruption of our expectations. The genre of the uncanny has received a great deal of scholarly attention in both film and literature, but has, by contrast, been minimally explored in performance. This neglect is particularly striking considering theatre itself can be viewed as inherently uncanny. The repetitions and representations of performance, its interdependence of the real and the imaginary, imply a kind of ever-present déjà vu. The very pervasiveness of this quality can in fact render it insensible. The genre of uncanny performance is therefore a valuable designation for works that actively elicit this psycho-emotional response. The productions I study are remarkable for their ability to capitalize on theatre’s uncanny potential. I demonstrate that this category of performance is not limited to any particular style or status, locating the effect as potently in popular entertainments (such as the junk opera Shockheaded Peter and punchdrunk’s Sleep No More) as in more esoteric or avant-garde work (like that of artists such as the Quay Brothers and Tadeusz Kantor). Drawing on a variety of methods – including phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and cognitive science – I engage with these performances as sensual experience. Through subjective impression and extensive description, I gradually elucidate the scenographic parameters of the theatrical uncanny. The productions that achieve this effect, while greatly disparate in nature, share certain approaches and techniques in common. They position the spectator (physically, emotionally, perceptually) in an unstable relationship to the objects and bodies of the performance, creating the sensation that the inanimate actually possesses its own unique vitality. Uncanny performance interweaves elements of object theatre, memory theatre, and intermediality, but cannot be encompassed by any of these terms in isolation. These performances question our basic qualifications for declaring something ‘live,’ as the term is used both theoretically and colloquially. They ask what it would mean for a memory to behave as an object, or for an object to have memories. This study is both a critique of how the uncanny works on stage and an attempt to rethink the concept of the uncanny through theatre practice. I argue that the uncanny is best understood as an embodied experience, a feeling mediated through and registered within our flesh. It results from unsettling interactions between our bodies and the matter and space around us. The concrete and present spatial relationships of theatre are ideal for exploring these tensions. Through the materiality of theatre, I offer evidence that the uncanny response, rather than being a marginal or naïve interpretation of the world (as it is sometimes portrayed), is actually a fundamental and profoundly productive state of mind.

This study explores how some mental health nurses are therapeutic, in terms of the art of healing, and how they have learned to be this way. The study originated in my experience of feeling abject while working as a mental health nurse. The research question addressed this situation through exploring whether or not therapeutic education was needed in mental health nursing. Ten mental health nurses participated in the study. Giorgi’s (2009) empirical phenomenological method was chosen because of its established status, and its grounding in Husserlian phenomenology which places a primacy on experience. A review of the literature included commentaries, qualitative empirical studies, case studies, and theoretical models, and indicated that mental health nurses may be therapeutic in idiosyncratic ways. A crucial aspect to these ways unfolded in this study as openness, through which the other may come to be in her own truthfulness. Significant methodological considerations were how we ‘constitute’ meaning, how meaning can ‘force itself’ like a gestalt, empathy may be self-alienating, and words ‘sedimented’ in tradition. These linked to how we can question being captivated in ‘experiences of truth’. Findings from Giorgi’s (2009) method were that mental health nurses are therapeutic through ‘being with’ others, through innate characteristics, that learning is through openness, and is facilitated through a therapeutic environment. Giorgi’s (2009) method is critiqued, and compared to a phenomenology of the therapeutic in relation to the research interviews (after Husserl and Merleau-Ponty). It was shown that the phenomenological ‘opens up’ language while method narrows meaning. The phenomenology showed that allowing an uncertain relation between two people was crucial, and how recognising the sensual aspect of meaning opened a healing space for another to be, through which a person’s own truthfulness may emerge. Openness appears to be innate, indicating one question for further study.