Table Of Content
This book argues that a silent axis of the unconscious world rests largely DT
iH
undiscovered. It recasts foundational concepts in the psychology of Freud, amE TTTHHHEEE PPPRRRIIIMMMOOORRRDDDIIIAAALLL
Jung, Carol Gilligan and R.D. Laing, as well as in cognitive science, to e
tP
highlight this hidden unconscious axis: primordial spaces of diametric riR
and concentric structures. The author generates fresh approaches to c aIM DDDAAA NNN CCC EEE
n
dO
understanding the philosophy of early Heidegger and Derrida, with CR
the idea of cross-cultural diametric and concentric spaces fuelling a oD
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radical reinterpretation of early Heidegger’s transcendental project, and cI
eA
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challenging a postmodern consensus that reduces truths and experiences tL
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to mere socially constructed playthings of culture. icD
SA D C S
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The book, which also examines projected structures in modernist art, cC
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sE
suggests a systematic refashioning of many Western assumptions, but it i
n
is more than a deconstruction. It also attempts to offer a new interplay t
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between structures and meaning, as a spatial phenomenology. This e
U
significant expansion of the boundaries of human subjectivity opens n
c
alternative pathways for imagining what it means to be human, in order o
n
to challenge the reduction of experience to instrumental reason. s
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i
o
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‘A fascinating study of unconscious space that quickens sensitive appreciation s W
of the depths of our nature.’ o
r
— Michael Eigen, PhD, author of Contact with the Depths and Feeling Matters, ld
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology, New York University
‘Paul Downes takes us on a fascinating interdisciplinary journey en route
to an explication of the primordial spatial structures that underlie and
unconsciously shape all of our experiences. Readers of Th e Primordial Dance
P
will be richly rewarded.’ a
u
— Robert D. Stolorow, PhD, author of World, Aff ectivity, Trauma: Hei degger l D
and Post-Cartesian Psychoanalysis, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA o
w
n
e
Paul Downes, Senior Lecturer (Psychology) at St Patrick's College, Dublin s
City University, holds a PhD as well as psychology and law degrees from Trinity
College Dublin. Designer of Familiscope Early Intervention Service and a
member of various Expert Advisory Groups with the European Commission’s
Directorate-General, Education and Culture, he has also been a Visiting
Research Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre, University of Cambridge.
ISBN 978-3-0343-0760-4
www.peterlang.com PETER LANG
This book argues that a silent axis of the unconscious world rests largely DT
iH
undiscovered. It recasts foundational concepts in the psychology of Freud, amE TTTHHHEEE PPPRRRIIIMMMOOORRRDDDIIIAAALLL
Jung, Carol Gilligan and R.D. Laing, as well as in cognitive science, to e
tP
highlight this hidden unconscious axis: primordial spaces of diametric riR
and concentric structures. The author generates fresh approaches to c aIM DDDAAA NNN CCC EEE
n
dO
understanding the philosophy of early Heidegger and Derrida, with CR
the idea of cross-cultural diametric and concentric spaces fuelling a oD
n
radical reinterpretation of early Heidegger’s transcendental project, and cI
eA
n
challenging a postmodern consensus that reduces truths and experiences tL
r
to mere socially constructed playthings of culture. icD
SA D C S
pN
a U W
The book, which also examines projected structures in modernist art, cC
e
sE
suggests a systematic refashioning of many Western assumptions, but it i
n
is more than a deconstruction. It also attempts to offer a new interplay t
h
between structures and meaning, as a spatial phenomenology. This e
U
significant expansion of the boundaries of human subjectivity opens n
c
alternative pathways for imagining what it means to be human, in order o
n
to challenge the reduction of experience to instrumental reason. s
c
i
o
u
‘A fascinating study of unconscious space that quickens sensitive appreciation s W
of the depths of our nature.’ o
r
— Michael Eigen, PhD, author of Contact with the Depths and Feeling Matters, ld
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology, New York University
‘Paul Downes takes us on a fascinating interdisciplinary journey en route
to an explication of the primordial spatial structures that underlie and
unconsciously shape all of our experiences. Readers of Th e Primordial Dance
P
will be richly rewarded.’ a
u
— Robert D. Stolorow, PhD, author of World, Aff ectivity, Trauma: Hei degger l D
and Post-Cartesian Psychoanalysis, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA o
w
n
e
Paul Downes, Senior Lecturer (Psychology) at St Patrick's College, Dublin s
City University, holds a PhD as well as psychology and law degrees from Trinity
College Dublin. Designer of Familiscope Early Intervention Service and a
member of various Expert Advisory Groups with the European Commission’s
Directorate-General, Education and Culture, he has also been a Visiting
Research Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre, University of Cambridge.
www.peterlang.com PETER LANG
The Primordial Dance
THE
PRIMORDIAL DANCE
Diametric and Concentric Spaces
in the Unconscious World
paul downes
PETER LANG
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Downes, Paul, 1970 July 12-
The primordial dance : diametric and concentric spaces in the unconscious world / Paul
Downes.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-3-03-430760-4 (alk. paper)
1. Subconsciousness. 2. Phenomenology. I. Title.
BF315.D69 2012
154.2--dc23
2012026838
Cover image by Aleksandra Jasniewicz
isbn 978-3-0343-0760-4 (print)
isbn 978-3-0353-0393-3 (eBook)
Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2012
Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
[email protected], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the
permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming,
and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
Printed in Germany
For Aleksandra Jasniewicz
and our daughter Eva Downes, with love
Contents
Acknowledgements xiii
List of Figures and Tables xv
Part I Setting the Stage for the Primordial Dance 1
chapter 1
Introduction 3
1.1 Dimensions of primordiality 5
chapter 2
A Spatial-Phenomenological Approach 13
2.1 A search for blind spots in the spatial assumption structure of a text
to uncover a more fundamental primordial truth level 14
2.2 The need to develop spatial structural criteria for priority of some
modes of experience and truth as being more primordial 24
2.3 A dif ferent, complementary phase to the narratives of lived
experience in phenomenological accounts 26
2.4 The need for a primordial cross-cultural phenomenology to go
beyond ethnocentrism 31
2.5 Dynamic a priori structures of diametric and concentric space 36
viii
chapter 3
Participants in the Primordial Dance:
Diametric and Concentric Space 43
3.1 Concentric and diametric structures as a cross-cultural truth 43
3.2 Concentric and diametric structures as a dynamic unity 50
3.3 Features of the primordial dance 56
3.3.1 First entailment of the relative dif ferences between concentric
and diametric spaces: Assumed connection and assumed
separation 56
3.3.2 Second entailment of the relative dif ferences between concentric
and diametric spaces: Symmetry as unity and mirror image
inverted symmetry 62
3.3.3 Third entailment of the relative dif ferences between concentric
and diametric spaces: Foreground-background interaction versus
noninteraction 65
Part II Spatial-Phenomenology:
Interpersonal and Intrapsychic Dimensions 69
chapter 4
A Spatial-Phenomenological Reinterpretation of the Relational
Subject in Gilligan’s Ethic of Care 71
4.1 Diametric and concentric spatial frames for moral choice 71
4.2 Beyond socio-cultural conditioning in Gilligan’s relational
pragmatism: Towards a primordial relational being via Taylor’s
ethics of authenticity 80
4.3 Extending some postmodern implications for Gilligan’s relational
pragmatism: Necessary spatial conditions in Gergen’s saturated self 89
4.4 Towards a primordial, cross-cultural extension of an ethic of care 98
