Phenomenological research is “animated by the desire to do justice to human existence” , says, Halling (2002, p. 20). I agree. In my teaching and writings, I have advised students “to seek – in whatever way works – richness in complexity, depth in ambivalence and poignancy in paradox” (Finlay, 2011, p. 244).
"Ultimately, the phenomenological description/analysis must capture the experiential sense and tap into the more of what is present. As always I turn to Merleau-Ponty who says it just right: Phenomenological description “must stick close to experience, and yet not limit itself to the empirical but restore to each experience the ontological cipher which marks it internally” (Merleau-Ponty, 1960/1964, p. 157).
Finlay, L. (2021). Thematic analysis: the ‘good’, the ‘bad’, and the ‘ugly’. European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy, 11, 103-116.
Halling, S. (2002). Making phenomenology accessible to a wider audience, Jounal of Phenomenological Psychology, 33, 19-39.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1960/1964). Signs (Trans. R.C. McCleary). Northwestern University Press.
