This monograph addresses the problem of Emmanuel Levinas’ hyperbole in his work Autrement qu’être ou au-delà de l’essence. In this text, he claims to provide a phenomenological description of the encounter the Other, yet his descriptions are deliberately hyperbolic and therefore do not seem to actually be descriptive at all. To address this problem, I propose that we can understand his hyperbole as descriptive if we understand that the subject’s encounter with the Other is a deconstructive experience. Deconstruction, which consists of both the faithful reading of a situation and the determinate destabilization of that reading, aligns with Levinas’ claim that the Other overthrows consciousness, but further explains why such an overthrow is only rarely felt in ordinary experience. Understanding the hyperbole as descriptively accurate while rarely felt will then offer a positive obligation for the subject in respect of being responsible for the Other. Cette monographie aborde le problème de l’hyperbole de Emmanuel Levinas dans son oeuvre, Autrement qu’être ou au-delà de l’essence. Dans ce texte, il prétend fournir une description phénoménologique de la rencontre de l’Autrui, pourtant ses descriptions sont délibérément hyperboliques et ne semblent donc pas du tout être descriptives du tout. Pour aborder ce problème, je propose que nous puissions comprendre son hyperbole comme descriptive si nous comprenons que la rencontre du sujet avec l’Autrui est une expérience déconstructive. La déconstruction, qui comprend à la fois la lecture fidèle d’une situation et la déstabilisation déterminée de cette lecture, s’accorde avec l’affirmation de Levinas que l’Autrui renverse la conscience, mais explique en outre pourquoi un tel renversement n’est que rarement ressenti dans l’expérience ordinaire. Comprendre l’hyperbole comme descriptive précise alors que rarement ressenti offrira alors une obligation positive pour le sujet en ce qui concerne la responsabilité pour-l’Autrui.

There is a significant volume of research evidence documenting the sexual problems experienced by women survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). Accordingly, existing treatment paradigms for sexual problems in this population tend to equate the absence of symptoms with adequate sexual functionality, implying that CSA survivors can aspire to sexual functionality at best. However, this false dichotomy reinforces a medicalized, genital-focused view of women's sexuality, and provides no information about what connotes a positive sexual experience for CSA survivors. The current mixed-methods study is centered on the research question, “how do women survivors of CSA experience 'good sex'?” Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 women who self-identified as CSA survivors and self-reported having experienced good sex. Participants were also asked to complete standardized quantitative measures of women's sexual functioning, sexual satisfaction, and sexual self-schema. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), four themes emerged from the qualitative portion of the study. The women expressed a clear definition of good sex (theme one), identified factors that contributed to their experience of good sex (theme two), conceptualized good sex within a developmental context (theme three), and discussed similarities in the experience of good sex between survivors and non-survivors, though noted that the pathways to this experience were different for survivors (theme four). Participants' scores on the quantitative portion of the study varied widely from each other and were inconsistent across individual scores of sexual functioning and sexual satisfaction. These findings demonstrate that women survivors of CSA can and do experience good sex, and this experience of good sex may not be captured accurately by constructs of sexual functioning, sexual satisfaction, and sexual self-schema as depicted in commonly-used questionnaires. Implications for health practitioners, clinicians and researchers are discussed. / Graduate

Background: Personality Disorder treatment is a contentious subject in health care. Despite available research concerning the diagnosis itself and also available treatments, there is little research regarding treatment thresholds or defining how treatment decisions can be formulated. This problem has been identified by clinicians, patients, supervisors and specific organisations, particularly linked to recent healthcare changes associated with austerity measures. Research Question: How can mental health care staff use a formulated decision process concerning therapeutic interventions for people with PD, when considering the recent service changes and rationalisation of available treatments? Methods: An Action Research study has been conducted over a four year period, using predominantly qualitative methods including: a hermeneutic literature review (n=144 papers), patient questionnaires (n=15) and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of clinician and supervisor semi-structured interviews (n=10). Results: Difficulties have been found when making decisions with people who either do not accept their diagnosis and/or do not accept the current evidence-based treatments for personality disorder. Other challenges have been identified regarding the patient/clinician relationship, the level of distress the patient presents with, and also the clinician view concerning the individual, the diagnosis, and the available treatments. The IPA produced five super-ordinate themes related to decision-making regarding treatment choices for people with personality disorder, including: difficulties with boundary management, diagnostic stigma, a focus upon time, metacognitive ability, and the potential for iatrogenic harm. Conclusions: Multiple factors require consideration when examining treatment choices for people with a personality disorder, concerning the patient's individual symptom profile, needs, attitude towards treatments; the clinician's profession, attitudes, opinions, and wellness on the day of the assessment, and also the treatments available within the locality. A diagram has been presented summarising these formulation factors. Recommendations have been made based upon the results, analysis, synthesis and discussion sections, indicating potential practice changes and areas for future research.

The present study involves an exploration of the phenomenological expenence of posttraumatic growth in the context of a traumatic bereavement. An idiographic case study of a student who had witnessed her mother's death twelve years previously was conducted. Semi-structured interviews elicited data which was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IP A). Posttraumatic growth was found to have developed with regards to self-perception, relationships, and also in a broader spiritual and existential domain. The findings of this study shed light on the extant posttraumatic growth literature. In particular, findings were discussed in relation to the posttraumatic growth model as proposed by Calhoun and Tedeschi (2006). As posttraumatic growth is a relatively young concept, further research is needed in order to understand the meaning of reported growth more fully. While posttraumatic growth has been investigated in the context of bereavement, future research should distinguish more clearly between growth following traumatic and non-traumatic bereavement. Posttraumatic growth has received minimal empirical attention in South Africa, and therefore exploration of this area is suggested in the future. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

Psychotherapeutic practice often involves the telling and retelling of a client’s stories of life in collaborative, meaning-making dialogue with a counsellor. This study demonstrates and explores the dynamics of counsellor contribution to this narrative co-construction, particularly the ways in which the counsellor’s inner conversations, reflexivity and interpretive style may emerge in practice and have an influence on the client’s understanding, re-evaluation and cohering of his or her own story. The multi-voiced, multi-layered intersubjective space and time in which this kind of narrative collaboration takes place is a difficult area to access for study but one whose potential impact on the client should make it the focus of respectful, ethical monitoring and careful reflective practice. Using phenomenological theories of reader-response and dialogical play, my research sets up an analogy between the way a reader might reflexively interact with life story episodes in a written text and the ways a counsellor might listen to and interpret a client’s stories of life over the course of a counselling contract. My project uses a comprehensive and episode-rich story of a life, the iconic ‘womb to tomb’ story of Jacob in the book of Genesis. My own hearer/reader response to the story gives rise to the creation of a set of imaginary dialogues between two interlocutors, Jacob as an elderly client reviewing his life story and myself as counsellor, listening to his stories of life. This methodology is used as a means to access an in vivo lived experience, as it might unfold in practice, of my counsellor contribution to Jacob’s story and the interplay of voices and standpoints which characterise it. Attention is drawn to the inchoate, but deeply human, intersubjective aspects of narrative co-construction as a process and the value of this form of reflective practice to surface actual praxis experience for analysis. Insights surfaced by this reader-response methodology point to the significant extent to which the hermeneutical standpoints and dialogical voices of a counsellor are actively involved and implicated in narrative co-construction.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo investigar as aplicações do método fenomenológico à pesquisa empírica em psicologia. O foco da investigação é o passo reflexivo designado redução fenomenológica, considerado elemento fundamental da identidade analítica na tradição da fenomenologia. O trabalho foi dividido em três estudos. O Estudo I tratou da transposição da fenomenologia pura descrita pelo filósofo Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) para a fenomenologia empírica, com especial atenção para o desenvolvimento conceitual da redução fenomenológica e sua aplicação à psicologia. No Estudo II, foi realizado um levantamento de artigos empíricos que utilizaram o método fenomenológico nos últimos dez anos de publicação. Revelou pluralidade lógica e técnica na aplicação do método entre os artigos publicados no Brasil, e homogeneidade aplicativa entre os relatos de pesquisa publicados em um periódico norte-americano especializado na temática. No Estudo III, a aplicação da redução fenomenológica foi exercitada e discutida no cruzamento entre relatos de percepção corpóreo-motoras, em um contexto de tarefa motora induzida, e respostas a uma Escala de autoconsciência. O cruzamento evidenciou associação entre perfis extraídos do sub-fator autoconsciência privada e autoconsciência geral a padrões de resposta e engajamento na tarefa experimental. A evolução dos três estudos almeja descrever uma tendência histórica ascendente de aproximação entre teoria fenomenológica e prática científica. / The aim of the current work is to investigate the applications of phenomenological method in the psychological empirical research. The investigation locus applies to the reflexive step known as phenomenological reduction, considered fundamental piece of the analytical identity in phenomenology. The work is divided in three studies. The first one debates the transition between pure phenomenology, described by German philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), to the empirical phenomenology, with special attention to the conceptual development of phenomenological reduction and its application in the framework of psychology. The second study was conducted within a survey on empirical articles that have used phenomenological method, published in psychology journals in the last ten years. It reveals logical and technical plurality on the application of method between the Brazilian articles, and the opposite, coherent application in an specialized North American journal on the theme. On the third study, the application of phenomenological reduction was exercised and discussed in the intersection between the exam of perceptual proprioceptive reports, obtained in an experimental setting of induced motor tasks, and results of self-consciousness scale. The intersection evidenced association between the profiles extracted from factor private self-consciousness and general selfconsciousness to reaction verbal patterns and engagement on experimental task. The evolution of three studies indicate an ascendant tendency of approximation between phenomenological theory and scientific practice.

Background and aims: The qualitative literature that has examined the topic of sudden and profound transformation has mostly focused on the antecedent and facilitative factors associated with this form of change. However, previous empirical research has noted the great difficulty participants experience when trying to arrive at an explanation for their change. Within this study, I have aimed to explore the lived experience of sudden personal transformation. Having experienced a life altering epiphany myself, I was compelled to investigate how others, who also identified as having experienced a sudden, transformative change, made sense of it. Participants' struggle to find the 'words that work' when retelling and interpreting their transformation experience developed to become one of the central focuses of this thesis. The lived body is conceptualised as an essential source of meaningful understanding, and therefore, is sought to be used as an instrument of data analysis. Method: Six participants took part in unstructured interviews which were transcribed, before applying an interpretative phenomenological analysis. With the aim of facilitating the development of emotionally receptive forms of understanding, an embodied interpretation was applied to each account, via the application of Gendlin's method of focusing. Found poems were also constructed. Findings: Five master themes were identified: 1) Making sense of what it is difficult to make sense of; 2) Who I was, what happened, who I am now; 3) Illuminating purpose; 4) Compelled to act; and 5) Attempting to capture the ineffable quality. Each master theme was identified as having two related sub-themes. The acceptance and appreciation of the experience as one which can never be fully explained played a vital role in the emerging meaning of the experience. Participants appeared to make sense of their transformation through the separation of their lives into the temporal categories of before and after the event. The lives of the participants were changed. New life paths became clear, and purpose was suddenly illuminated. For all the participants in the study, purpose appeared to be intimately linked with the creation of positive connections with others. Conclusions and Implications: Examination of how people experience positive change outside of the therapy room is of use to those seeking to support people who want to change within the realms of psychological therapy. Attendance to the researcher's bodily response to the research data was understood as enabling movement towards a fuller understanding of the phenomenon under examination, as well as facilitating the production of 'words that work'. It is concluded that therapeutic practitioners and other mental health professionals may benefit from understanding the dimensions of transformative change described here, in such qualitatively rich terms.

This thesis is concerned with the impact of professional background on role fulfilment. In the United Kingdom current policy in health and social care in mental health is underpinned by integration; the idea that responsibilities can be accomplished irrespective of profession. Approved mental health practice is one example of a psychiatric statutory role and function, until recently carried out by the profession of social work, which is now extended to other, non-medical, mental health professions. This thesis aims to explore the role and experiences of current practitioners in order to understand the impact, if any, of professional background on the fulfilment of approved mental health practice and the way in which it is experienced. Qualitative data are generated through semi-structured individual interviews with twelve approved mental health practitioners: five nurses, two occupational therapists and five social workers and the use of rich pictures to supplement the interview discussions. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was applied to the verbatim transcripts. Key findings were that approved mental health practice can be accomplished irrespective of professional background. Its practitioners require particular shared attributes, specifically a cognitive and affective capacity to deal with and use discord and to manage the disparate emotions that occur. Conceptualised in this thesis as "pull," this finding constitutes a different understanding of the use of emotion in the workplace and provides evidence of a new emotional dimension; the active use of dissonance. Professional identity is also found to be influenced by approved mental health practice thereby turning on its head the original hypothesis of this thesis. Last, personhood is found to be an additional aspect of the moral framework for approved mental health practice and is being practiced in a different circumstance than previously considered. The implications of this work are that it challenges the perception that approved mental health practice is synonymous with the profession of social work. It also revives the theory that its normative moral framework is inherently contradictory. The present study appears to be the first to associate personhood with approved mental health practice and shows role fulfilment as sophisticated emotion management, primarily the active use of dissonance. Both provide new insights into the enactment of approved mental health practice and are important issues for the future training and development of practitioners. The influence on role of professional identity may also help policy makers better understand the impact that new ways of working in mental health might have on traditional professional roles and boundaries in integrated services.

Background: Therapeutic training is considered as the beginning of therapists' professional development. Research exploring the experiences of therapeutic training, particularly the experiences of trainee counselling psychologists is scarce. Additionally, research exploring the experiences of therapists integrating a new model of therapy is also limited; this is a surprising fact given the growing development of the integration movement in the therapeutic world. Aims: The present study explores how trainee counselling psychologists, with a prior training in a 'core' therapeutic model, experience and make sense of their current training in counselling psychology. As a secondary aim, this study explores how these trainees experienced integrating a new model of therapy in their practice and the process of integration within the context of counselling psychology training. Participants: Six trainee counselling psychologists from three different training courses based in the UK, who had all been previously trained in a single school model (primarily person-centred) participated in the study. Method: The present study is an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study. Data were collected through single, semi-structured, in-depth interviews during which participants were invited to reflect on their experiences of training. Findings: The five super-ordinate themes that were identified in the participants' narratives are: 'Desires, Expectations and Needs from counselling psychology training', 'The turbulence of counselling psychology training', 'The Questioning I', 'The Changing Self' and the 'Finding Peace'. Each of these themes described different components of these trainees' experience of counselling psychology training and reveal that it is a challenging experience on both an emotional and an intellectual level. Discussion: The identified findings of the present study deconstruct, illuminate and are illuminated by existing theoretical and empirical literature. These findings shed light on the cyclical process of professional development within the context of professional training in counselling psychology in the UK.

The phenomenon being explored in this study was the understanding of minority clients' perceptions in relation to their rehabilitation counselors' cultural competence. A descriptive qualitative research methodology consisting of eight participants was used. Hycner's (1985) phenomenological analysis was used to investigate the in-depth interviews. The investigation revealed seven different themes that comprised of the essence of the phenomenon. The themes include: clients' understanding of the term cultural competence, self, attitudes, advocacy, understanding culture is important, role of culture, and expectations from the agency. The invariant structure that was consistent through all the above mentioned themes was the representation and manifestations of culture in the lives of the clients that continually challenged rehabilitation counselors' cultural competence through different phases of the vocational rehabilitation counseling experiences. The essence behind cultural competence was - perceiving the phenomenon as an experiential relationship based concept, where the client and the rehabilitation counselor educate one another about the all inclusive nature of the term culture and its role in the vocational rehabilitation process.