An Experience of an Experience

When we experience something (a phenomenon) our self-perception that this is familiar or new is typical. If familiar this is because we have experienced similar processual units of activity in the past, from which we try to make sense of the current phenomena. If it is new then that means our recognition of the phenomena is not causing a replaying of previous experiences from which we can understand what to do now. These processual units of past experiences can be articulated from our own prior experiences, or from the experiences of others expressed to us through narratives. We are not only having an experience of an experience but also performing a new meaning based on re-construction.

References used:
BRUNER, E.M. (1986) Experience and Its Expressions. In: V.W. TURNER & E.M. BRUNER, ed(s). The Anthropology of Experience. Chicago: University of Illinois, pp3-30.
ABRAHAMS, R.D. (1986) Ordinary and Extraordinary Experience. In: V.W. TURNER & E.M. BRUNER, ed(s). The Anthropology of Experience. Chicago: University of Illinois, pp45-72.

I::MY::YOU

I Experience MY Experience of YOU

We can empathise but we cannot experience directly what another experiences. It is our own. We can reflect on our experience and make it 'storyable' to communicate the essence to another. Within that recounted narrative on another person's experience, I experience through my embodied situation observing and listening to that person, what I experience. I make that person's experience MY own, but it is constructed based upon MY past experiences of similar processual actions and emotions. This construction is a socio-cultural construction, and happens within a familiar and shared socio-cultural context.

References used:
KAPFERRER, B. (1986) Performance and the Structuring of Meaning and Experience. In: V.W. TURNER & E.M. BRUNER, ed(s). The Anthropology of Experience. Chicago: University of Illinois, pp188-203.