Experience on the Edge: Theorizing Liminality

Description

Liminality has become a key concept within the social sciences, with a growing number of publications devoted to it in recent years. The concept is needed to address those aspects of human experience and social life that fall outside of ordered structures. In contrast to the clearly defined roles and routines that define so much of industrial work and economic life, it highlights spaces of transition, indefiniteness, ambiguity, play and creativity. Thus, it is an indispensable concept and a necessary counterweight to the overemphasis on structural influences on human behavior. This book aims to use the concept of liminality to develop a culturally and experientially sensitive psychology. This is accomplished by first setting out an original theoretical framework focused on understanding the ‘liminal sources of cultural experience,’ and second an application of concept to a number of different domains, such as tourism, pilgrimage, aesthetics, children’s play, art therapy, and medical diagnosis. Finally, all these domains are then brought together in a concluding commentary chapter that puts them in relation to an overarching theoretical framework.  This book will be useful for graduate students and researchers in cultural psychology, critical psychology, psychosocial psychology, developmental psychology, health psychology, anthropology and the social sciences, cultural studies among others. Series Editor’s PREFACE to Stenner Volume Liminality Fields as the Arenas for Development Introduction Contents About the Editors Contributors Part I: Innovations in Psychology Lecture Chapter 1: Theorising Liminality between Art and Life: The Liminal Sources of Cultural Experience Preamble Introduction This Is Not … What I Was Expecting: Spontaneous and Devised Liminal Experience Liminal Affective Technologies as Cultural and Symbolic Media for Transition: The Aesthetic, the Sacred and the Ludic as Varieties of Liminal Experiencing This Is Not … a Space: A Wavering between Worlds Experienced as the Liminal Sacred This Is Not … me: Winnicott and the Initial Emergence of a World and a Self The Liminal Sources of Cultural Experience Postscript: This Is Not … Judy Garland References Part II: Commentaries and Extensions Chapter 2: From Liminalities to Limbo: Thinking through Semiotic Elaboration Liminality in Winnicott: A Psyche and Semiotic Elaboration Arrival: A Liminal Experience to Reflect on Semiosis Semiosis and the Periphery of Consciousness And Yet: Undreamt Dreams—What Escapes Semiosis To Conclude: Undreamed Dreams, Unlived Lives, Living Creatively References Chapter 3: On/at the Edges of Liminality: Analytical Extensions Betwixt and between Thresholds An Analytical Prelude St. Teresa’s Ecstatic Body Philip Larkin’s Inbetweenness An Emersonian Gloss The Tones of Liminal Thresholds Liminal Nature References Chapter 4: Moral Holidays: The Cases of Expatriates and Nightlife Tourists Research on Sojourners and their (Im)Morality Representations Moral Holidays Away from Home Conclusion References Chapter 5: On the Way: Pilgrimage and Liminal Experiences Overview of Pilgrimages Victor Turner and Liminality Spontaneous and Devised Liminal Experiences The Pilgrimage Path: Between the Known and Unknown Worlds Conclusion References Chapter 6: Liminality in Play: The Role of Materiality and Patterns Introduction Liminal Sources of Cultural Experiencing Two Sociocultural Propositions about Play Playing School Conclusion: Materiality and Patterns References Chapter 7: Maintenance Art: Paul Stenner’s Liminality and the Case of Older Caregiving Spouses Stenner on Liminality End-of-Life Care and Liminality The “Uh Oh” Donna Biomedicine’s “Uh Oh” Moment The “Ah Ha” Carol Helen Conclusion: Ta-da? Note References Chapter 8: Art Therapy as a Liminal, Playful Space: Patient Experiences during a Cancer Rehabilitation Program Introduction Liminality, Play, and Emotions The Cancer Rehabilitation Program The Art Therapy Intervention Data Collection Analysis Findings Engaging in a New Creative Realization or Refusing to Do So Therapeutic Change Reintegration: Contemplation and Peace Discussion Conclusions References Chapter 9: “I Must Have Contracted Swine Flu, Bird Flu or Ebola.”: How Patients and General Practitioners Negotiate Liminality during Consultations Introduction Studies on Liminality in Health Liminal Uncertainty and Affectivity The Temporality of Liminality in Health How Patients Manage Liminality Management Strategies Involving Closure Management Strategies for Being with Liminality Liminality in Healthcare Encounters How Patients and Physicians Manage Liminality in General Practice Collaborating around Liminality Liminality and Point-of-Care Tests (CRP) Negotiating the patient’s Will to Knowledge Being with Liminality in General Practice The Paradox of Improved Healthcare and Intensified Liminal Affectivity References Part III: Concluding Response Chapter 10: A Feast of Liminal Experiences and Expressions Alien Food: Aesthetic Technologies and Dream Ecstatic Wafer and Communion Wine: Between the Sacred and the Aesthetic Samosa and a ‘Sex on the Beach’ Cocktail: Time out for Ludic Pleasures Bento Box on the Road: Pilgrimage as Awakening of the Sacred Imaginary Milk from a Bottle: Repetition and Ludic Becomings The Stone Guest Interrupts the Feast: Liminality Abandoned Bird Food: Therapeutic LATs A Taste of one’s Own Medicine: Hidden LATs Conclusion References Index