On The Nature of the Oceanic Experience

Werman, David S.

doi:10.1177/000306518603400106

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…An abundance of similar accounts indicates that feelings of fusion with paintings are not uncommon during the creative process (for further descriptions and discussion, see Ehrenzweig ; Hagman ; Krausz ; Maclagan ; Milner ; Nelson and Rawlings ; Newton ; Rose ; Saarinen ; Spitz ; Townsend , ; Werman ). Put broadly, fusion consists in the loosening and/or expansion of strictly demarcated self‐boundaries and the concomitant sense of merging with (certain parts of) the environment.…”

Section: Paintings As Solid Affective Scaffoldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paintings as Solid Affective Scaffolds

Saarinen

2019

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

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We humans continuously reshape the environment to alter, enhance, and sustain our affective lives. This two‐way modification has been discussed in recent philosophy of mind as affective scaffolding, wherein scaffolding quite literally means that our affective states are enabled and supported by environmental resources such as material objects, other people, and physical spaces. In this article, I argue that under certain conditions, paintings function as noteworthy affective scaffolds to their creators. I begin with a theoretical overview of affective niche construction and affective scaffolding. Then, based on the criteria of robustness, concreteness, and dependability, I specify a more restricted, solid type of affective scaffolding and propound paintings as a cogent case of such. In support of my argument, I highlight two feelings typical to painterly creativity: the feeling of aesthetic resonance and the feeling of fusion. To conclude, I discuss the overall contributions and limitations of my account.

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Section: Paintings As Solid Affective Scaffoldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paintings as Solid Affective Scaffolds

Saarinen

2019

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

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“…Indeed, it has become a near‐given that oceanic states may emerge in different contexts, engender various ideational contents, and serve many functions ranging from the rigidly defensive to the profoundly transformative (cf. Werman, 1986; Parsons, 1999). It is also relatively uncontested that, despite sharing a set of distinctive features, oceanic states are varyingly conditioned by personal aims, expectations and developmental histories, and by the wider socio‐cultural context in which they occur.…”

Section: In Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the whole, discussions of oceanic states have appeared in a wide range of interrelated areas: from artistic creativity and aesthetics (Stokes, 1978; Milner, 1987; Fuller, 1980; Newton, 2001, 2008) to literary poetics (Rooney, 2007); from religious mysticism (Masson, 1980; Kakar, 1991; Merkur, 1999, 2010; Ostow, 2007) to meditation and altered states of consciousness (Werman, 1986; Epstein, 1990); and from the history of Freud and psychoanalysis (Fisher, 1976; Harrison, 1979; Parsons, 1999; Fried, 2003; Vermorel, 2009) to the philosophy of emotion (Goldie, 2008). These discussions are all – more or less, explicitly or implicitly – based on one or more of the accounts I call primary, namely those of Romain Rolland, Sigmund Freud and Anton Ehrenzweig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The oceanic state: a conceptual elucidation in terms of modal contact

Saarinen

2012

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

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Despite its lengthy history in psychoanalysis, the psychological origins, essential features and value of the oceanic state remain open to dispute. This ambiguity has come at a cost to the clarity of theoretical discussions on the topic. In working towards a conceptual elucidation, the author maintains that there are three primary accounts of the oceanic state: the metaphysical one of Romain Rolland, the developmental one of Sigmund Freud, and the cognitive-perceptual one of Anton Ehrenzweig. Based on the notion of modal contact, he argues that the accounts share a general theoretical structure that establishes as the necessary criterion for all oceanic states the loosening of ego boundaries and sufficient contact between differentiated and undifferentiated modalities of the mind. However, within this common structure, the accounts employ dissimilar metapsychologies to promulgate oceanic states of appreciably distinct kinds. To support this view, the author carries out a comparative examination of the modal contacts involved in the primary accounts' oceanic states. To conclude, he reviews the main implications of the notion of modal contact vis-à-vis recent discussion on oceanic phenomena, and puts forward for consideration a pluralist account of the mind that can accommodate the existence of several kinds of oceanic states.

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“…I draw the reader's attention to a discrete literature dealing with certain extremely early, uncanny types of feeling states that serve as the core of religious experience, some of which are highly sensory and not yet representational in the formal sense of the term, such as awe, rhythmicity, the sense of membranous engulfment, and the oceanic experience (Andresen 1999;Epstein 1990;Harrison 1975;Werman 1986). 9 Wright (2005Wright ( , 2006, to give a recent example, has written very effectively about the relationship between the sense of the sacred and the preverbal perception of the maternal face.…”

Section: A New Conceptual Placement Of Religious Representationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Touched by Grace during the Psychoanalytic Hour: the Transformation of a Religious Resistance

Spero

2008

The Psychoanalytic Quarterly

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Case material is presented illustrating a phase in religious transformation in which the quality of the religious moment -first expressed in transference hints and a dream, and finally augmented by an idiosyncratic enactment of the patient's-became sufficiently intense that it crossed formal religious boundaries. The patient resisted direct reference to her religious beliefs, yet the deeper roots of her God representations took alternative forms of expression. The analyst's appreciation of this, which was rendered articulable through a carefully refined countertransference experience, eventually enabled a sincere experience of joining, one that superseded apparent religious differences between analyst and patient.

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On The Nature of the Oceanic Experience

Cited by 14 publications

References 2 publications

Paintings as Solid Affective Scaffolds

Paintings as Solid Affective Scaffolds

The oceanic state: a conceptual elucidation in terms of modal contact

Touched by Grace during the Psychoanalytic Hour: the Transformation of a Religious Resistance

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