A Heideggerian Phenomenological Perspective on the Concept of Person… Not Functionalist or Deterministic

LEONARD, V.W. (1994) A Heideggerian Phenomenological Perspective on the Concept of Person. In: P. BENNER (Ed.), Interpretive Phenomenology: Embodiment, Caring, and Ethics in Heath and Illness. Sage Publications, Inc. pp43-64

“Disputes in hermeneutic interpretation resolve based on the plausibility of alternative interpretations, and the plausibility of an interpretation, cannot be reduced to a-priori-derived, cut-and-dried criteria.” (p61)

Annotation:
Ihde (2009) states that a criticism of phenomenology is that it is perceived as antiscientific and “locked into idealism or solipsism” (p23). Hirsch (1967, p166) criticises the hermeneutic circle’s circularity of thinking as an imprisonment of thought that can lead to self-confirming hypotheses in the interpreter. The nature of interpretation as understood within a holistic and phenomenological perspective acknowledges that a ‘correct’ interpretation cannot be produced by functionalist or deterministic hard science, as science is not suited to the explaining how humans process and experience the world. From a functionalist and deterministic perspective the hermeneutic methods are viewed at best with scepticism and at worst academic hostility.

A Heideggerian Phenomenological Perspective on the Concept of Person… Interpretive Analysis

LEONARD, V.W. (1994) A Heideggerian Phenomenological Perspective on the Concept of Person. In: P. BENNER (Ed.), Interpretive Phenomenology: Embodiment, Caring, and Ethics in Heath and Illness. Sage Publications, Inc. pp43-64

“Interpretive Analysis

Transcribed interviews, observational notes, diaries, and samples of human action are treated as text analogues for interpretive analysis. The data analysis in a hermeneutic study is carried out in three interrelated processes: thematic analysis, analysis of exemplars, and the search for paradigm cases. In the thematic analysis, each case (all interviews, field notes, etc.) is read several times in order to arrive at a global analysis. (…) From this, an interpretive plan emerges. Each interview is then read from the perspective of the interpretive plan. As this microanalysis is carried out, additional lines of inquiry may emerge from the data and are added to the interpretive plan. (…) From this analysis come ‘exemplars:’ stories or vignettes that capture the meaning in a situation in such a way that the meaning can then be recognized in another situation that might have very different objective circumstances. (…) The last aspect of the interpretive analysis involves the identification of paradigm cases: strong instances of particular patterns of meaning. Paradigm cases embody the rich descriptive information necessary for understanding how an individual’s actions and understandings emerge from his or her situational context: their concerns, practices and background meanings. They are not reducible to formal theory – to abstract variables used to predict and control. Rather, what are recognized are ‘family resemblances’ between a paradigm case and a particular clinical situation that one is trying to understand and explain.” (p59)

Annotation:
Through the use of a hermeneutic interpretative analysis of what the observed describe in their experiences as a microanalysis of the themes that are revealed from it. Leonard describes a three-part interrelated process comprising of the thematic analysis [internal], followed by analysis of exemplars [external] and a paradigm case search [imaginative variation]. This interpretative analysis models to Moustakas’ (1994) phenomenological research methodology. The exemplars in this case are external as they are dependent on other studies and are part of the researcher’s analysis rather than what the researcher is revealing in the subject. The looking for exemplars is an act of external validation. The paradigm case search appears to be health practice specific, and therefore not in its entirety useful beyond healthcare. What the paradigm case search does suggest though is a way to examine the interpretations made by the researcher to ensure that there are no additional explanations. This appears to be what the imaginative variation phase of a phenomenological research methodology seeks to do.

A Heideggerian Phenomenological Perspective on the Concept of Person… Criticism: No Clear Termination

LEONARD, V.W. (1994) A Heideggerian Phenomenological Perspective on the Concept of Person. In: P. BENNER (Ed.), Interpretive Phenomenology: Embodiment, Caring, and Ethics in Heath and Illness. Sage Publications, Inc. pp43-64

“The interpretive process is necessarily circular, moving back and forth between part and whole, and between the initial forestructure and what is being revealed in the data of the inquiry. (…) The interpretive process follows this part-whole strategy until the researcher is satisfied with the depth of his or her understanding. Thus the interpretive process has no clear termination.” (p57)

Annotation:
‘No clear termination’ is a point of criticism that hermeneutics encounters frequently. As the act of interpretation continues until the interpreter “is satisfied with the depth of his or her understanding” (p57), it is indeed dependent on the background that the interpreter has. 

A Heideggerian Phenomenological Perspective on the Concept of Person… Reception Theory

LEONARD, V.W. (1994) A Heideggerian Phenomenological Perspective on the Concept of Person. In: P. BENNER (Ed.), Interpretive Phenomenology: Embodiment, Caring, and Ethics in Heath and Illness. Sage Publications, Inc. pp43-64

“Heidegger claims that these interpretations are not generated in individual consciousness as subjects related to objects but rather are given in our linguistic and cultural traditions and make sense only against a background of significance. (…) Nothing can be encountered independent of our basic understanding. Every encounter is an interpretation based on our background.” (p52)

Annotation:
Barbatsis (2005) has used reception theory to arrive at a similar point as Leonard does referencing instead Heidegger. The context in which the experience is held only begins to make sense within the background of the person experiencing it. As Barbatsis states the meaning comes from understanding and interpreting the parts and whole of an experience from within the self. It is not in the object being experienced as Heidegger states. What Leonard adds to this is to give a concise appraisal, “Every encounter is an interpretation based on our background.” (p52) 

A Heideggerian Phenomenological Perspective on the Concept of Person… Fundamental Reason

LEONARD, V.W. (1994) A Heideggerian Phenomenological Perspective on the Concept of Person. In: P. BENNER (Ed.), Interpretive Phenomenology: Embodiment, Caring, and Ethics in Heath and Illness. Sage Publications, Inc. pp43-64

“Thus to understand a person’s behaviour or expressions one has to study the person in context. For it is only in context that what a person values and finds significant shows up.” (p51)

Annotation:
The fundamental reason for choosing to develop a phenomenological methodology is expressed by Leonard, “to understand a person’s behaviour or expressions one has to study the person in context. For it is only in context that what a person values and finds significant shows up” (p51). The context of an experience gives the parameters of how the experience can be understood and interpreted to visualise the studied experience.