Integrative psychological & behavioral science
December 28, 2024
Cristóbal Pacheco, Pablo Fossa
2 citations
Phenomenological Mapping is a novel research method for systematically studying pre-reflective consciousness—experiences occurring before reflective thought and language. Grounded in Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Heidegger, and integrating contemporary work by Zahavi, Gallagher, and Thompson, the method guides researchers through eleven phases from preparation to integration. It employs phenomenological reduction, embodied perception, and being-in-the-world, enriched by intersubjectivity and embodiment concepts. Multisensory data collection techniques—visual diaries, audio recordings, experiential practices—provide a multi-dimensional analysis of subjective experience, bridging empirical and theoretical domains while remaining faithful to philosophical foundations.
October 13, 2025
Cristóbal Pacheco, Pablo Fossa
Hermeneutic phenomenology integrates phenomenological reduction with hermeneutic interpretation to explore subjective human experience. Rooted in the philosophical work of Husserl, Heidegger, and Gadamer, the approach uses principles such as epoché, noesis-noema structures, and the fusion of horizons. Contemporary adaptations—Van Manen's poetic inquiry, Giorgi's descriptive steps, Petitmengin's microphenomenology, and Smith and Osborn's Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis—offer distinct tools for accessing and interpreting experiential meaning. Practical aspects of research design, data collection, informed consent, and interview strategies are described, presenting the methodology as both rigorous and flexible, respecting individual experience while seeking universal insights about the human condition.
October 13, 2025
Cristóbal Pacheco, Pablo Fossa
This chapter proposes a synthesis of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and microphenomenological interviewing to study borderline personality disorder (BPD). Drawing on philosophical traditions including Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Ricoeur, Gadamer, and Varela, the integration captures experience across reflective, prereflective, and linguistic dimensions. Five experiential themes are presented: thought patterns, interpersonal instability, emotional fluctuations, and existential rupture, culminating in analysis of the unfolding and resolution of emotional instability. The authors argue that this methodological bridge reveals how these phenomena interweave across identity, behavior, embodiment, and social interaction, providing a multidimensional view of BPD.
Integrative psychological & behavioral science
December 1, 2025
Cristóbal Pacheco, Pablo Fossa
The article introduces 'protoexistence,' a pre-reflective, affective layer of experience that resists narrative integration and challenges conventional ideas of time and self. Drawing on Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and other phenomenologists, it argues that certain dimensions of lived experience emerge through rupture, silence, bodily intensity, and incoherence rather than articulated meaning. The work critiques qualitative research for prioritizing coherence and excluding affective gaps and somatic dislocations. It also proposes extending Phenomenological Mapping to trace these unstable phenomena through methods like mapping corporeal disruptions and preserving temporal incoherence, expanding the epistemological horizons of phenomenological inquiry.
Human Arenas
May 24, 2025
Cristóbal Pacheco
Stillness, silence, and contemplation are active practices that suspend habitual thinking and restore embodied presence, countering modern fragmentation. Drawing on phenomenology, existential philosophy, Buddhist and Christian contemplative traditions, and contemporary psychology and neuroscience, the article argues that stillness opens space for attunement to bodily and affective life, silence enables depth in intersubjective encounter, and contemplation cultivates openness and insight. Together, these practices reorient the self toward deeper contact with itself, others, and the world, with implications for psychotherapy, philosophical inquiry, and healing.