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Re: [xmca] varying definitions of perezhivanie
Hi Mike, Michael, and Andy
Mike, when I reflect on the experience(s) of a death of a spouse as a
situation of the IMPOSSIBILITY of living, of a disruption of life as
disorienting and without bearings, as grief and suffering with no sense of
future or meaning this is more than an individual rupture of
"self-regulation" or internal disorientation. It is NOT merely internal and
requiring the capacity for "differentiation" from the internal suffering..
The overwhelming pain is a pain of LOSS of bearing within the world. All the
familiar reference points are shattered.
Looking within for our bearings becomes IMPOSSIBLE because one's compass
points are shattered and the INscapes are barren deserts without meaning or
purpose. Signs [semiotic containers] become emptied of meaning and become
containers without content. The world has forsaken you. The "space of
reasons" fragments and the center does not hold [Yeats] This is a dark
night of the soul as the person is rudderless and adrift with no direction
home.
This way of considering perezhivanie as "experience" is still adverbial NOT
an entified entity. Experience IS movement and the various ways of
describing this "sensed" movement withIN the world as disoriented shattered
movement that is directionless [with the center not holding] is not a
"description OF" an experience. It IS the experience. I'm using words to
try to capture this movement of IMPOSSIBILITY. Getting distance and
reflection on THIS impossibility leaves one reflecting on THIS
impossibility of the LOSS of one's spouse. Impossibility reflected on is
still impossibility.
Vasilyk suggests the path through this impossibility [as actual
impossibility] is a work of "repair" , a work of "restoration" proceeding at
right angles to the line of actualization of life. I ask, Whose line?. Do we
need to "return" by restoring the previous line of actualization? Often the
answer is to return and find our previous bearings. But this previous line
may become an impossibility to return to. There may be no restoration of the
previous center. What then? There is still movement but AIMLESS movement
with empty sign-containers. This movement has adverbial qualities such as
despairing movement, hopeless movement, reflective movement of
impossibility. But no return to the "normative" bearings that previously
gave life purpose and direction as "self-regulated psychological systems" No
return to an ethical life of shared semiotics. No return to a "center" of
coherence.
What I'm describing is a shattering perezhivanie of lived experiencing, of
lived movement. The return to the self at these moments is a return to
impossibility.
Is there anywhere else to turn at these moments? I would suggest what is
required at moments of shattering impossibility is "holding environments"
where there is recognition of the shattering impossibility of perezhivanie.
The term "witnessing" captures the particular form of recognition I'm
pointing to. Witnessing as a recognition of the intersubjective "calling" of
the suffering impossibility of the other and the response to that calling.
Witnessing as engagement NOT reflective conceptualization OF the suffering
impossibility. Witnessing as living through with the other the impossible
suffering with no hope of transformation. This is NOT empathy or shared
feeling as identity with the other. The ethical premise I'm pointing to is
that this witnessing as an agentive act of being with suffering IS the
movement of reengagement not as transformation or catharsis but being with
suffering impossibility. The other as witness is a particular form of
agentive action with a particular qualified movement. [not a qualia or
entified essence] This witnessing has a particular ethical perspective that
I believe requires "maturity" and is a "skill" [Merleau-Ponty] that is
"possibly" acquired if one has previously been met in their suffering
despair.
Where we turn in our suffering is representative of the ethical normatively
in*formed knowledgeability [not info*mation] in our ways of life. The
knowledgeability that assumes we must turn towards our inscapes in a search
to return to our previous lines of actualization represents a particular way
of life. A way of life centered on the centering and decentering of the
encapsulated self. Self-regulation within particular "systems" of ethical
normative movements of perezhivanie. INscapes not landscapes as places to
find ones bearings. If you make it to the other side of this inscape and
re-engage in restored repaired lines of actualization you will be CONFIRMED
in your validation of self-regulation within systems as ways of life.
However not every person navigates the suffering impossibility by restoring
previous forms of self-regulated systems of personality [with a restored
center] There are other constellations of personality not so centered on
inscapes but rather on intersubjective commitments of creating "holding
environments" where suffering impossibility is met by the witnessing other
who participates in the suffering impossibility and "contains" or "collects"
the other in the witnessing encounter. THIS particular form of "meeting"
may in time be transformative in shifting the suffering impossibility.
Mike, exploring suffering perezhivanie as movement of e*motion and where we
turn [or where we are met] in our suffering, crystallizes different notions
of experiencing . Merleau-Ponty, Ingold, Shotter pointing at perception and
conception as skills of orientation developed within social interactions, as
ways of normative life, is a tradition with potential. Suffering
impossibility, within this perspective should be "met" not "overcome" or
"undergone"
Larry
On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 6:53 PM, Michael Levykh <mlevykh@shaw.ca> wrote:
> Refusal to confront, Andy, is already a step away from the ACTUAL
> experience
> in the past.
>
> _______________________________________
>
> Dr. Michael G. Levykh, Ph.D.
> Therapist & Educational Psychologist
> www.affectivetherapy.com
> http://about.me/michaelglevykh
>
>
> "How we nurture our social emotions is what makes us who we are."
>
> ~ M. G. Levykh
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
> Behalf Of Andy Blunden
> Sent: October-01-11 6:41 PM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: Re: [xmca] varying definitions of perezhivanie
>
> Isn't it the case, Michael, that a peerezhivanie has to be followed by a
> catharsis in order to foster a development? The war veteran who refuses
> to confront the traumatic experience they had in the war, kind of fails
> to make the development which the lived experience they shared gives
> them the possibility for.
>
> Michael Levykh wrote:
> > Mike,
> >
> > perezhivaniye, in my interpretation of Vygotsky, is the ability, when
> being
> > in the moments of crisis, to step away from the immediate experience: "In
> > order to explain and understand experience, it is necessary to go beyond
> its
> > limits; it is necessary to forget about it for a minute and move away
> from
> > it" (Vygotsky, 1999, p. 243). Feeling good is the ideal result for an
> > individual who is able to step away from his immediate struggle with
> social
> > demands, reflect on his/her past experience, and contemplate
> (extrapolate)
> > his/her future experiences.
> >
> >
> >
> > Michael
> >
> > _______________________________________
> >
> >
> >
> > Dr. Michael G. Levykh, Ph.D.
> >
> > Therapist & Educational Psychologist
> >
> > www.affectivetherapy.com
> >
> >
> >
> <
> http://email.about.me/wf/click?c=e86tqVWFYsEogZdu8cwmbnGfDLgcCO7Yb6%2Fms%2F
> >
>
> w5hSbigpUHIH%2B3q%2FJ6rl44%2F7kv&rp=kkuZYPlTP6K8%2BlaQBcUVvhUiY0sq8vL6S2PHrN
> > %2B%2FLwtoGfL%2FI%2FIYjajJunJ9DkZu&u=XTSF8JjpQReWbaUoYNTI-A%2Fh0>
> > http://about.me/michaelglevykh
> >
> >
> >
> > "How we nurture our social emotions is what makes us who we are."
> >
> > ~ M. G. Levykh
> >
> > _____
> >
> > From: mike cole [mailto:lchcmike@gmail.com]
> > Sent: October-01-11 4:16 PM
> > To: Michael Levykh
> > Cc: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: Re: [xmca] varying definitions of perezhivanie
> >
> >
> >
> > OK, everyone is far away from being an expert.
> > But........
> >
> > How do you respond to the notion of "Self-regulated psychological system
> of
> > personality" as a synonym for perezhivanie and the discussion of similar
> > terms
> > in German and Spanish?
> >
> > I find it interesting that Vasiliuk argues that perezhivanie is a special
> > kind of experience of "activity on oneself" in moments of crisis. The
> whole
> > idea of "individual activity" is a constant source of confusion for me,
> but
> > confronted with an example of a person's mate dying as the medium for
> > discussion of perezhivanie makes me stop and think.
> > mike
> >
> > On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 4:04 PM, Michael Levykh <mlevykh@shaw.ca> wrote:
> >
> > Thank you, Mike. But I am far from being an expert. As for the
> discussion,
> I
> > have been only passively following on and off this one.
> >
> > Michael
> >
> > _____
> >
> > From: mike cole [mailto:lchcmike@gmail.com]
> > Sent: October-01-11 3:57 PM
> > To: Michael Levykh
> > Cc: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: Re: [xmca] varying definitions of perezhivanie
> >
> >
> >
> > Good to have an expert involved, Michael.
> > What is your interpretation of the recent discussion of this issue?
> > mike
> >
> > On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 3:27 PM, Michael Levykh <mlevykh@shaw.ca> wrote:
> >
> > I hope the following paragraph from my 2008 PhD Theses might shed a bit
> more
> > light on your discussion:
> >
> >
> >
> > Vasilyuk (1984) writes in his annotation to Psikhologia Perezhivaniya
> > (Psychology of Perezhivaniye), that in order to manage (perezhits)
> > "situations of stress, frustration, inner conflict, and life crisis,
> quite
> > often a painful inner work has to be done in re-establishing inner
> > equilibrium and reconstructing a new meaningful life" (para. 1, my
> > translation). For him, even a painful experience in the past can be
> > recreated as a positive, pleasurable, meaningful future-oriented
> experience
> > of personality. Hence, perezhivaniye is a future-oriented, conscious, and
> > individual emotional experience of past events achieved in the
> > "here-and-now" through reflection on the individual's struggle within
> > himself/herself (e.g., as if struggling between the dual consciousness of
> > self and the character he/she portrays) and with the social environment
> > (e.g., his/her audience). Although perezhivaniye connotes mostly negative
> > (painful) experience of the past, its future-orientedness provides
> > possibilities for positive outcomes. Such positive possibilities are also
> > reflected in Vygotsky's optimistic views on cultural development in
> general.
> >
> >
> >
> > Michael Levykh
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
> On
> > Behalf Of mike cole
> > Sent: October-01-11 2:53 PM
> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture,Activity
> > Subject: [xmca] varying definitions of perezhivanie
> >
> >
> >
> > Below are two snippets from Vasiliuk's book which have informed my,
> >
> > still forming, understanding (s) of perezhivanie as used by Russians.
> >
> >
> >
> > Its from Vasiliuk's book, The psych of experiencing. There is a ton to
> the
> >
> > book of interest but
> >
> > these citations bring out a feature of perezhivanie that is not evident
> in
> >
> > "lived through experience"
> >
> > nor even in "a mixture of emotion and cognition" versions.
> >
> >
> >
> > This book is written within a dialogue with activity theory. perezhivanie
> is
> >
> > translated as experiencing.
> >
> >
> >
> > mike
> >
> > ---------------
> >
> >
> >
> > But in this real world, in life, situations exist where the main problem
> >
> > cannot be solved either by practical activity, even the best-equipped, or
> by
> >
> > the most highly accurate reflection of that problem in the mind. If a
> person
> >
> > is threatened by danger he can try to save himself by running away, but
> as
> >
> > R. Peters writes, "if a man is overcome by grief because his wife is
> dead,
> >
> > what can be done of a specific sort to remedy *that *situation?"
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > . when we speak of "generating meaning" what we have in mind is a
> >
> > special *activity
> >
> > on the part of the individual*. 7
> >
> >
> >
> > The specifics of this activity are determined by the peculiarities of the
> >
> > situations which put the individual under the necessity of experiencing.
> We
> >
> > shall refer to these as critical situations. If one had to use one word
> only
> >
> > to define the nature of such situations one would have to say that they
> are
> >
> > situations of impossibility. Impossibility of what? Impossibility of
> living,
> >
> > of realising the internal necessities of life.
> >
> > The struggle against that impossibility, the struggle to realise internal
> >
> > necessities - that is experiencing. Experiencing is the repair of a
> >
> > "disruption" of life, a work of restoration, proceed-ing as it were at
> right
> >
> > angles to the line of actualisation of life.
> >
> > __________________________________________
> >
> > _____
> >
> > xmca mailing list
> >
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > __________________________________________
> > _____
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *Andy Blunden*
> Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1
> Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
> Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
>
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