Body And Expression-A Study Of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenological Psychology And Its Application

The particularity of Merleau-Ponty lies in the fact that he is not only a phenomenologist,but also one of the pioneers that introduces phenomenology to the field of psychology.In the intersection of philosophy and psychology,his psychological and philosophical thinking guide and complement each other.Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological psychology displays different purport and interest with that of Husserl's,while the latter treats phenomenology psychology as an introduction of transcendental phenomenology,the aim of which is to manifest the eidos of mental activities.According to Husserl,phenomenology psychology as a eidetic discipline has the features as transcendentalism,intuition,intentionality and transcendence,corresponding to psychological science.Merleau-Ponty bases his phenomenological psychology to Husserl's phenomenological reduction and suspension,while endows his own original thinking and horizon to this discipline.Endowing the root of transcendence to the world,he refuses to reduce the root of transcendence to subjectivity and consciousness,thus repudiates the transcendent dimension of consciousness.His thinking path follows the psychological studies of perception and then conducts the route to phonomenological methodology,with suspension,intentionality,description and reduction as categorical tools to reconstruct traditional psychology.The phenomenological psychology brings integration to psychology,which is torn apart by naturalist and humanistic orientation.Merleau-Ponty's construction of body phenomenology,which treats the body as the origin of meaning and an ever-opening to the world,overthrow the traditional philosophy of consciousness.The living body is regarded as the beginning of expression,and the expression is reduced to the transcendence of body-subject,the unfolding of the world,and the capability of perception of body-subject.Together with the concept of body-subject are such concepts as flesh,inter-corporeality,in the light of unfolding the world which is no long a pure objectified one,but the one in which the body-subject lives.The flesh is treated as subject-object,the mediate of the world.The object on the side of flesh is explicated as object immersing in flesh.Thus the apprehension of meaning is not confined to the field of consciousness,but a perception linked by body-subject.The real "subject" is actually neither the perceptual body,nor the affecting object,but the flesh of the world,in which the flesh of the object and body merge.Through the flesh of the world,the body and the thing are in their flesh.It is no longer the human being as consciousness who talks about the world,but the world in flesh who talks about themselves through human beings.The relationship between human beings and world is no long that of knowing and being known,subject and object,but the chiasm in the depth of being.The living body is taken as the beginning of expression in the later works of Merleau-Ponty.The expression is reduced to the transcendence of body-subject,the unfolding of the world and the ability of perception of body-subject.In the detour of expression,world,meaning and perception,Merleau-Ponty is returning the wild world through expression,which is the birthplace of meaning and guidance of perception.It also interrogates into the wild world and reveals the world in the nascent state in the perceptual field of body-subject,and thus throws light on the soil of nature,history and culture.The phenomenological description,phenomenological body,perceptual field and expression are indices to Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological psychology,which extend to the application of mental health counselling.Thus,the thinking of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological psychology bridges the ontology and utility of philosophy and psychology.