EXPERIENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY AND SEMIOTIC PHENOMENOLOGY: A METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATION OF EUGENE GENDLIN'S THEORY AND APPLICATION OF FOCUSING

This inquiry is an investigation of the theory construction constituting Eugene Gendlin's experiential philosophy. The purpose is to expand upon Gendlin's theory by punctuating the implicit semiotic phenomenological structure within its development. The departure point is Gendlin's recognized influence on Carl Rogers' approach to phenomenology. The problematic is the function of a semiotic phenomenology in experiencing as a process which creates meaning. Thus, the investigation asks the following question: Does an experiential psychotherapy as theory and procedure entail a semiotic phenomenology, or conversely?; Chapter One defines the basic concepts of phenomenology as methodology. Also, it places psychotherapy in a semiotic phenomenological context by examining briefly examples of psychotherapies which make an applied use of the theories of semiotics, phenomenology, or both. Chapter Two addresses the problematic of method in psychology. It criticizes humanistic psychology for its failure to overcome the mechanistic and positivistic logic that it condemns in psychoanalysis and behaviorism, and presents semiotics and phenomenology as inclusive and inseparable dimensions of conscious experience (perception) and behavior (expression). Chapter Three is a phenomenological description of Eugene Gendlin's philosophy of experiencing and its implications for a theory and praxis of psychotherapy. Chapter Four is a phenomenological reduction where the main themes of experiential theory (Chapter Three) and semiotic phenomenology (Chapter Two) are defined and contrasted,; In Chapter Five, which is a phenomenological interpretation or hermeneutic, Gendlin's psychotherapy (Focusing) emerges as: (1) A theory that is unmistakably a semiotic phenomenology; (2) a praxis that presents a latent correlation (in the Hjelmslevian sense--either/or function) with semiotic phenomenology; and (3) a methodology that, though presently tied into a positivistic scheme, has the potential to become a semiotic phenomenological qualitative inquiry, and consequently more consistent with its theoretical premises.