Past Reflections
The Freedom to Choose
24th
February 2007
By
Estelle Phillips
Nietzche
believed that freedom will give people the power to live life in a more
exciting and challenging way, but it was Heidegger who used the term Dasein,
being-in-the-world. Existential phenomenology focuses on Dasein
emphasising the immediate experience and on the Noesis (the How) and the Noema
(the what) of the experience.
The
presenters, Dr Alison Strasser, Carlos Webster and Trudy Adelstein differed in
manner and content, however all reflected and focussed on Dasein, the Noesis
and the Noema.
We
are who we are because of where we come from, but do we have to continue being
who we are or do we have the Freedom to Choose? It is in the understanding of
Dasein and the how and the what of our experiences
that (hopefully) brings awareness that we are indeed Free to Choose.
Carlos
spoke of a client’s world, his experiences and their shared discovery of how
these experiences created the client’s belief system. The therapeutic work has
been in staying with the how and the what of his client’s
experience. The questioning whether the “original others” and “the outside
world” validated or not? Or how and what was the experience of the word,
the touch and the look all played and continue to play a part in who we/our
clients believe we/they are. How we/they are:
- Self to Self
- Self to other
- The experience of self in being-in-relation-with-the-other
This
is how we all create our very own unique way of Dasein because of the Noesis
and this Noema of our experiences.
Alison
shared her client’s unique experience of being-in-the-world. Fearing she’d
become like her mother, stuck and unhappy, she searched for freedom and
happiness. Her fear led her to be stuck and unhappy! On discussion (with
us) it became apparent that trying to understand and stay with the how and
the what of the experience (stuck and unhappy) rather than fleeing would
allow (hopefully) the shift her client wanted. Alison pointed out how change
and freedom of choice creates anxiety. On reflection the pain of being stuck
and unhappy is known to this client, being free and happy, (no matter how she
yearned for it), is unknown. The Noesis and the Noema of being free and happy
could be explored too.
As a
mother with daughters, I sat listening to Trudy describing her client’s trauma
of a murdered daughter, aware that I didn’t want to hear the client’s
pain. She didn’t want to be in-the-world she wanted to be
out-of-the-world as was her daughter. Trudy explained that we tend
to revert to the age of the original trauma. Apparently this mother was
struggling to cope with previous traumas now compounded with the recent most
horrific one. Trying to understand the how and the what of her
experiences felt unbearable. On reflection I wonder if staying with the how
and the what of being-out-of-this world rather than on
being-in-the-world would help?
I'm
sure that there are many thought and reflections we could perhaps explore at
either another forum or through this web page?
