"Beyond Healing: New Narratives for Making Sense Together"
Jan 30, 2025
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Amy Cohen Varela, a clinical psychologist and philosopher, Dr. Rika Preiser, an associate professor focused on sustainability, and Dr. Sanneke De Haan, a psychiatry and philosophy expert, discuss the complexities of healing. They explore the ethical implications of how we define suffering and the messiness of healing beyond conventional methods. The conversation emphasizes the importance of narratives, community, and relational dynamics in mental health. They advocate for epistemic humility and critique individualism, promoting a deeper understanding of interconnected healing and identity.
The podcast emphasizes that healing transcends traditional definitions, requiring a nuanced understanding of individuals' unique contexts and relational dynamics.
Participants advocate for participatory sense-making, viewing suffering as rooted in environmental mismatches rather than solely internal struggles, emphasizing community support.
The conversation highlights the necessity of epistemic humility, recognizing that embracing uncertainty fosters deeper connections and richer understandings in the healing process.
Deep dives
The Concept of Self as a Process
The discussion challenges the traditional notion of the 'self' as a fixed entity, proposing instead that the self is a dynamic process that evolves over time. Rather than being defined by rigid categories or labels, the self is seen as an enactment shaped by experiences and interactions with others. This understanding encourages a mindset of openness, suggesting that individuals should refrain from seeking definitive answers about the self, and instead embrace it as an ongoing quest. Such a perspective fosters acceptance and inner peace, allowing for deeper engagement with the complexities of human existence.
Nature of Healing and the Role of Ontology and Ethics
The conversation emphasizes the intricate relationship between ontology, ethics, and the practices of healing, highlighting that how we define a person directly impacts approaches to care and intervention. Healing is not merely about restoring individuals to a predefined state of health but involves a nuanced understanding of their unique contexts and relational dynamics. Participants note that healing processes must consider safety and risk, as well as the importance of shared engagement in producing meaningful outcomes. This necessitates an active dialogue that acknowledges the complexities of human relationships rather than adhering strictly to medical or normative models.
Participatory Sense-Making and Relational Authenticity
The discussion introduces the concept of participatory sense-making, which posits that individuals' suffering often stems more from misalignments with their environment than from internal issues alone. This approach counters hyper-individualistic models by emphasizing that healing and authenticity emerge through relational processes and community interactions. Participants agree that individuals should not bear the entire burden of their healing journeys but instead should feel empowered within a collective context. By promoting shared understanding and responsiveness, they pave the way for growth and transformation in both individual and communal contexts.
Transgression and the Balance of Safety and Risk
The participants explore the notion of transgression as a complex interaction that is essential to relationships and learning, discussing how it can facilitate growth but also may lead to harm if safety measures are not in place. They highlight the need to balance openness with protection, ensuring that individuals can engage authentically while feeling secure. The conversation illustrates that while risk is inherent in human interactions, establishing a foundation of safety allows for meaningful exploration and connection. This balance is crucial in healing spaces, where participants can navigate their relationships and vulnerabilities without excessive fear or retribution.
Epistemic Humility in Contemporary Contexts
The concept of epistemic humility is framed as essential for both individual and collective growth, especially in a rapid society that favors quick resolutions and defined categories. Participants recognize that acknowledging uncertainty allows for deeper connections and more nuanced engagements with others, contributing to a richer understanding of themselves and their contexts. Emphasizing the interconnectedness of knowledge and experience, they argue that belief in a singular truth can limit one's ability to learn and adapt. Ultimately, they see epistemic humility as a pathway toward deeper relationships, mutual respect, and shared experiences in the pursuit of healing and understanding.
In no other conversation this season has the relationship between ontology and ethics felt more pressing and more pregnant. How we define a person, how we classify their suffering and needs, radically determines the different interventions we might choose, either opening up a space for healing or, inversely, creating further harm. This conversation about healing drew together three researcher-practitioners of different horizons - Amy Cohen Varela, Dr Rika Preiser, and Dr Sanneke De Haan - to reflect on the ways in which practices of healing imply so much more than normative claims toward ‘getting better,’ and are so much messier than the cognitivist, medical, and colonial modes of epistemology would imply. Spaces of healing are alive with the tension of breakdowns and transgressions, overdetermination and underdetermination, safety and risk, and require a unique form of epistemic humility from those involved. Participatory sense-making provided a powerful frame for this conversation, wherein suffering could be understood anew—as a mismatch between one’s sense-making and that of one’s environment, rather than an intrinsic burden of the individual.
A couple references mentioned in the conversation:
