Experimental Phenomenology and the Need for Psychology to Reconnect with its Philosophical Origins

Excerpt

The present paper responds to Lundh (2019) and other phenomenological thought that has been applied to mindfulness research through proposals to use phenomenological methods to study the experiences associated with mindfulness and meditation practice. I have previously commented on the inadequacy of phenomenological inquiry in the context of nondual awareness (Krägeloh 2019). As nondual awareness refers to pre-reflective experience and is commonly understood in the context of the Buddhist philosophy of emptiness, the phenomenological process of working up a structure or a co-generated essence of experience results in an objectification of nondual awareness and thus places it within the domain of language and concepts. Certainly, nondual awareness is only a very specific phenomenon that has been discussed in the mindfulness research literature, and Lundh’s (2019) proposal for an experimental phenomenology applies to a much broader range of mindfulness-related experiences. Nevertheless, philosophical reflections such as the ones I presented in relation to nondual awareness (Krägeloh 2019) will continue to be relevant here, particularly since the techniques used in mindfulness-based interventions have originally been adapted from Buddhist traditions where philosophical reflection, meditation, and experience are intertwined (Sayrak 2019). Even if the secularized mindfulness practices are considered purely from the scientific perspective of Western psychology, Lundh’s (2019) proposal to study experience in terms of independent and dependent variables and to provide so-called fine-grained descriptions requires that experience be clearly defined. Lundh’s (2019) article reveals psychology’s more recent tendency to shy away from philosophical discussion, including in the mindfulness literature (Krägeloh et al. 2019). Below, I briefly highlight how experimental phenomenology is linked to the early literature on introspection and how the philosophical considerations at that time continue to be relevant. …