Abstract Among the scientific disciplines to be impacted by postmodernity will be the study of consciousness, not only in theory but in research and practice. Narratives, key aspects of postmodern approaches, are already replacing abstract generalizations in theoretical formulations about such aspects of consciousness as memory and imagination. Research studies, both quantitative and qualitative, can be looked upon as attempts to tell stories that yield new information. The use of narrative in psychotherapy can be seen as the co-construction of life stories by the therapist and the client. Postmodernity requests that scientists question their own assumptions, and learn from non- Western perspectives, alternative conscious states, and narratives of exceptional human experiences. Twenty propositions are offered for a postmodem project in the study of consciousness that would entail utilizing narratives that are embedded in a time and a place - and the constant evaluation and questioning of the usefulness of these narratives.
We have to abandon the arrogant belief that the world is merely a puzzle to be solved, a machine with instructions for use waiting to be discovered, a body of information to be fed into a computer in the hope that, sooner or later, it will spit out a universal solution.
Vaclav Havel (1992), "The End of the Modern Era"
A hallmark of postmodernity is "deconstruction" which began as a method of literary criticism that reduces the language of a text to a multiplicity of possible meanings rather than to any single meaning such as that supposedly intended by the author (Derrida, 1974; Sampson, 1983). Deconstruction takes apart a "text", i.e. a story, a phenomenon, an event, or a concept, revealing its contradictions, disclosing its assumptions, and undoing its constructions.
The postmodern scientist strives to identify, describe, and understand human activities as deeply and as thoroughly as possible.
A postmodern approach to consciousness studies, with its emphasis on local narratives, can bring a vigor to the field that may yield results in the understanding of cultural differences, the reformulation of mind/body interactions, the development of new research strategies, and the enhancement of psychotherapeutic discourse.
Consciousness studies investigate experiences that exist simultaneously as fictional discourses and as empirical events - and it is never quite possible to decide which of these altemative descriptions is more accurate.
Investigators realize that people in each culture construct conscious experience in terms of the categories provided by their own linguisitic system, coming to terms with a "reality" that has been filtered through their language.
Consciousness researchers can profitably study nature and other species, as well as the role of ecological awareness in personal and social development.
The concept of "truth" needs to remain arbitrary because all knowledge is language-bound; hence this concept needs to be reconceptualized as personal, local, and community specific.
The nervous system, the immune system, and the endocrine system (among others) actively construct meaning that continually impact conscious experience.
There exists a rampant debate among postmodernists about the usefulness of any scientific method employing mathematics because it, like other abstractions, distances one from lived phenomenological experience.
Postmodernists can bring increased attention to the way philosophers and theoreticians of consciousness use language.
If we are to entertain the notion that any disciplined scientific inquiry is yet another narrative that can provide useful information for our understanding of the world, chaotic systems analysis is one of several avenues that can provide new and valuable ways of conceptualizing and studying consciousness.
From a postmodern perspective, all research methods can be viewed as inherently political, intertwined with issues of power and legitimacy.
The scientific experiment can be reconceptualized as a narrative describing an event that occurred in a specific time and place.
Postmodernists could continue to bring folklorists and their research methods into the field of consciousness studies, as well as similar groups and approaches, e.g., social construction, discourse analysis, cultural psychology, feminist psychology.
Just as art uses one or more types of media to portray as vividly as possible lived activity and experience, consciousness researchers need to use one or more investigative methods to identify, understand, and describe asaccurately as possible lived activity and experience.
Just as creativity is often totally engrossing to the creator, dream reports enrapture the dreamer; creative production and dream reports can both be utilized as "texts" requiring reasoned discourse for their understanding.
Narratives of exceptional human experiences demand attention and respect if the totality of human activity is to be appreciated.
Modesty is required when researchers depend upon language to convey the experience of a life-changing vision, a dream that came true, an interpersonal adventure, an encounter in nature, a personal loss, a terminal illness, or any other exceptional human experience that is worth studying, albeit with tools that are not completely adequate.
The premises of modern psychotherapies do not qualify as a universally acceptable body of psychological knowledge, and those principles that are likely to be most useful need in be adapted or abandoned when dealing with women, people of color, and/or clients from economic and social groups with which the therapist lacks familiarity
The psychotherapist's intervention should proceed in a way that enhances a client's sense of self-worth, makes no absolute claims about "truth" or "reality," and places no immutable value on "adjustment" as the most desired outcome.
Unusual alterations in consciousness such as "past life" "near-death," "out-of-body" or "born again" experiences should not necessarily be seen as "delusions" or "hallucinations" or as symptoms of "schizophrenia" or some other pathological category, but rather as dramatic - and possibly valuable - episodes in a client's lifestory.
Postmodern therapists understand that they are engaged in a process of cooperative construction as their clients attempt to revise or change the meanings and values of their life narratives, and develop an ethical code consistent with this realization.
The long-term effects of postmodern approaches to the study of consciousness may shift Western psychology's perspective from one that recognizes the value of only a single "normal" state of consciousness to one that values multiple states; from one that sees human development as having a ceiling to one that views such limitations as culturally determined; from the dismissal of exceptional human experiences as pathological or illusory to the appreciation of their potential in illuminating neglected human capacities; from the devaluing of non-Western psychologies as "primitive" or "quaint" to the honoring of their richness and complexity; from ridiculing experiences of "union" with the Earth and the Divine to an awareness that this sensibility may well be critical for the survival of the planet and its inhabitants.
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