A phenomenological analysis of the psychological manifestations of ontic conscience as derived from Heidegger's ontological conception of that phenomenon

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate ontic conscience, as derived from Heidegger's ontological conception of conscience, as it is lived in concrete experience. Having established, through a close examination of Heidegger's writings on conscience, a question which would elicit actual experience of this phenomenon, the researcher collected sixty-four written accounts of these experiences. Of these he chose the four psychologically richest accounts and, having interviewed each of these four subjects on his situated experience, analysed in detail (using the phenomenological method) the resulting protocols comprising the written accounts and interviews. He then explicated the structure of conscience within its context of authenticity and inauthenticity. The context of conscience was discovered to be such that the person, having surrendered himself to others' experience and expectations of him, lives a pretence in the service of (inauthentically) being-for-others. He loses his sense of (bodily) self in the process, and it is at this point of his living at the extremes of inauthenticity, that he is forced to realise his own (authentic) reality which he has hitherto been concealing both from himself and from others. His primary attunement is reflected in feelings of betrayal, guilt, shame, dread and ambivalence. Through openly and resolutely living his authentic experience, he heals the rupture in his existence between what is revealed (his being-for-others) and what is concealed (his authentic experience), and feels liberated in so doing. This structure of conscience was dialogued with the writings of existential and psychoanalytic philosophers and psychologists in the context of discussing particular areas of psychological significance such as self, others, meaning, awareness and psychotherapy.