著者

岡村 心平

出版者

関西大学東西学術研究所

雑誌

関西大学東西学術研究所紀要 (ISSN:02878151)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.55, pp.A147-A185, 2022-07-01

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This article explores the idea, that the body knows the answer, using the perspectives of Gendlin philosophy and therapeutic culture theory to focus on a method of self-help or psychotherapeutic support. Eugen Gendlin’s practice of focusing attends to bodily felt senses and seeks meaning in personal problems and circumstances. This approach emphasizes “hunches” or “forefeelings,” allowing bodily senses rather than rationality to determine ways of resolving problems and working on the future. ” The perspective has been critiqued as empiricism and antiintellectualism with the agenda of explicating its dubiousness. Using focusing processes postulated in Gendlin’s philosophy, this article initially discusses the characteristics of the body that forefeels the unknown future and through which the body itself knows the solution to its problems. In this context, the paper also references Arakawa and Madeline Gens’s concept of the architectural body. Gendlin argues that the body infers a change in itself. From this point of view, the body forefeels the future and can indicate occurrences by focusing. Also, the future is conceived differently in Gendlin’s philosophy from the usual linear view of time. It is hence theoretically comprehensible why forefeeling is suspiciously viewed. In the next section, the paper investigates the characteristics of forefeeling from the perspective of therapeutic culture and clinical philosophy, with particular references to Hisao Nakai, Satoshi Kimura, and Seiichi Washida. Forefeeling is encompassed in the characteristics of the ante-festum in schizophrenics and is commonly found in the manner in which the bodies of poets forefeel the next line as a blank. ” Forefeeling is also relevant to poetry, in which both the poet’s forefeeling and waiting become significant occurrences. Focusing also highlights the importance of waiting at the level of technique. However, according to Kimura, most schizophrenics are characterized by their inability to wait. The function of waiting denotes a crucial difference between forefeeling through focusing and the characteristics of the ante-festum. In conclusion, this paper demonstrates that the “forefeeling body” or the creative character of the body of the focuser (speaker) in a focusing session is underpinned by waiting, whether for clients in therapy or poets. Such considerations will propel further therapeutic subcultural discussions on forefeeling and waiting.