The Psychology of Experiencing Fyodor Vasilyuk = HARVESTER W M WHEATSHEAF New York London Toronto Sydney Tokyo Singapore First published 1991 by Harvester Wheatsheaf, 66 Wood Lane End, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP2 4RG A division of Simon & Schuster International Group Translated from the Russian © 1984, 1988, 1991 Progress Publishers, Moscow All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission, in writing, from the publisher. Printed and bound in Great Britain by BPCC Wheatons Ltd Exeter British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Vasilyuk, F. The psychology of experiencing I. Title 155.9 ISBN 0-7450-1057-1 ISBN 0-7450 -1058-X (pbk) 1 2 3 4 5 95 94 93 92 91 CONTENTS Foreword . 5 Foreword to the English Edition . 9 Introduction . 12 C h a p t er I. Modern Ideas on Experiencing . 20 l. The Concept of Experiencing . 20 2. The Problem of the Critical Situation . 31 3. The Process of Experiencing . 54 C h a p t e r II. Typological Analysis of Regularities in Experiencing . 83 1. Construction of a Typology of “Lived Worlds” . 83 2. Type 1. The Internally Simple and Externally Easy Lived World . 96 3. Type 2. The Internally Simple and Externally Difficult Lived World . 104 4. Type 3. The Internally Complex and Externally Easy Lived World . 114 5. Type 4. The Internally Complex and Externally Difficult Lived World . 131 C h a p t e r III. Lived World—Critical Situation— Experiencing: Correlation of Types . 148 1. Correlation Between Critical Situations and Lived Worlds . 148 2. Correlation Between the Types of Critical Situations and Types of Experiencing . 159 3. From Ideal Types to the Specific Process . 172 C h a p t e r IV. Cultural-Historical Determination of Experiencing . 184 1. Schematism of Consciousness . 184 2. Crime and Experiencing of Rodion Raskolnikov . 189 3 C h a p t e r V. The Levels of Constructing Experiencing end Methods of Psychological Help. From the Theory of Experiencing to the Theory of Psychological Help . 203 The Level of the Unconscious . 205 The Level of Experiencing . 208 The Level of Apprehension . 211 The Level of Reflection . 214 Appendix . Coping with Grief . 221 Bibliography . 235 Name Index . 255 Subject Index . 257 FOREWORD In classical psychology the phenomenal world of conscious- ness, the world of subjective human experience, was viewed as internal by its very nature, and as having no connection with external objective reality. And alone with this, action was seen as mechanical execution of commands, and movement as con- traction of muscles and extension of tendons. Thus classical psychology did not allow action even to approach the threshold of the psychologist’s study. The subsequent history of psychological science is full of ingenious attempts to overcome this dichotomy between human consciousness and human ex- istence in the everyday world, and to lead psychology out of the self-enclosed phenomenal world of consciousness. A serious step towards bridging the gap between the internal and the external was achieved by L.S. Vygotsky, A.V. Zaporozhets, A.N. Leontiev, A.R. Luria, S.L. Rubinstein, and their pupils and successors, who laid the foundations for construction of a psychological theory of activity. According to this theory, a mediated structure of psychological processes in the human being emerges as a result of the social activity of that being. Mental processes are born of activity, and become functional organs of activity. The theory was originally developed on the basis of investigating cognitive processes — perception, atten- tion, memory, and thought. Within the framework of this theory these processes are seen as particular forms of perceptive, mnemonic and mental actions, which pass through a long period of development. The data accumulated make it evident that something in consciousness has existential characteristics (susceptible of being objectively analysed), characteristics which have their source in human object-oriented action; and the action has in turn its own biodynamic, sensory fabric. Here we have the content of the principle of unity of consciousness and activity. 5 At the same time, within the theory of activity there has been a certain gap between its treatment of cognitive processes and its treatment of consciousness. One cannot progress from cog- nitive processes to consciousness, bypassing an activity-related treatment of human emotions and experiences. Of course ad- herents of the psychological theory of activity have turned their attention to the sphere of the emotions and to the world of subjective experiences. Here one may mention first of all the name of L.S. Vygotsky, who towards the end of his life under- took a major theoretical study of Spinoza’s teaching on the pas- sions. He wrote of how the world of inner consciousness is generalised and perceived in a system of meanings — the human being emerges from “the slavery of affects” and acquires inner freedom. S.L. Rubinstein advanced the thesis that emotions are born of action, and that every action therefore contains at least some seeds of emotionality. A.V. Zaporozhets initiated investigations into the genesis of emotions in children, and saw these as functional organs of the individual, as specific forms of action. More than forty years ago A.N. Leontiev and A.R. Luria were stating the necessity of viewing complex human experiences as a product of historical development. In other words, during the time over which the psychological theory of activity has been elaborated, definite methodological theses have been advanced as to how an activity theory of human emotions and experiences might be constructed. The logic of development of the activity theory itself points in that direction. And this is the task which the author of this book, F.Ye. Vasilyuk, a disciple of A.N. Leontiev, has taken upon himself. Does this mean that we have here a book about the emo- tions? No, it does not. To view the book in that way would be to disguise new psychological content in old, familiar clothing. The problem of experiencing, as posed in this book, does not fit into the traditional range of questions relating to emotional processes. The activity theory in fact calls for thematic demar- cations quite other than those we have inherited from classical psychology. The author has taken as his object of study the processes whereby a human being copes with critical situations in life. F.Ye. Vasilyuk poses the problem broadly and boldly. One may summarise the basic thrust of his intention thus: to investigate from the psychologist’s standpoint just what a person does when there is nothing to be done, when he or she is in a situation 6 that renders impossible the realisation of his or her needs, at- titudes, values, etc. In order to fix this subject-matter within a theoretical framework, the author introduces a new category into the conceptual apparatus of the activity theory — the category of experiencing. In this book experiencing is not seen as a reflected gleam, in the subject’s consciousness, of one or another state — not as a particular form of contemplation, but as a particular form of activity, directed towards the restoration of mental equilibrium, of the lost meaningfulness of existence; directed, in a word, towards “the production of meaning”. The main aim of the study is to establish the regularities fol- lowed by the processes of experiencing. To do this, F.Ye. Vasilyuk employs the method of categorical typology. This method is one of various possible practical realisations of Karl Marx’s “ascent from the abstract to the concrete”, and it is this method which is responsible for the success of this work’s typological analysis of experiencing. Four principles are isolated to which the processes of experiencing are subordinated. These are the principles of pleasure, of reality, of value, and of creativity. It should be stressed that here we have the establishment (one might even say, the discovery) of a system of psychological regularities, rather than the mere addition of two new principles of experiencing, value and creativity, to those which have long been familiar to us. The latter principles, pleasure and reality, are subjected to critical reappraisal within the framework of the new system; they are in effect rediscovered, since their inner psychological structure is here elucidated for the first time. No less important is the fact that fitting these principles into an in- tegrated system of regularities indicates their true place in the human psyche and thereby demonstrates the philosophical and methodological limitations of psychoanalytical theory, which makes an absolute of the principles of pleasure and reality and in consequence reduces the higher, spiritual phenomena of mental life to the same level as the lower ones. The book presents a convincing demonstration of how the processes of experiencing are mediated by distinct patterns or “constructs” in social consciousness, while stressing that these patterns are not of natural origin, as C.G. Jung, for one, con- sidered, but are historico-cultural formations. Of very great importance and value to the psychological theory of activity as a whole (not only to the theory of experienc- ing) is the transition effected in this work from a schema of a single activity to a schema of the lived world. Within this on- 7 tology of the lived world the idea of experiencing is built up as of a person’s “working-over” of himself within the world, and of the world within the self, when crises occur. The concept of the lived world is important for the purpose of doing away with the lingering remains — still persisting in psychological circles — of the classical epistemological approach which saw subject and object as existentially separate and opposed to one another and as meeting only on the perceptual plane.