Call for papers: 6th Central and Eastern European Conference on Phenomenology “In statu nascendi: Phenomenology, Pedagogy, Psychotherapy”

28 October – 1 November 2009, Vilnius

The conference has an interdisciplinary character and is aimed at clarifying the heuristic potential as well as the limits of the phenomenological method in the fields of pedagogy and psychotherapy. They are the fields, where corresponding theoretical reflection is immediately rooted in a certain social-cultural practice which, in its turn, deals with becoming and ‘renaissance’ of the Self. Moreover pedagogy and psychotherapy are intersubjective experiences of a special kind because both of them presuppose a constitutive asymmetry which conditions the very possibility of helping the Other in her/his self-renewal. What does the contribution of phenomenology to pedagogical and psychotherapeutic activity consist in? To what extent does (or should) the pedagogical/psychotherapeutic work involve the phenomenological one? These questions must be answered in the dialogue of the representatives of philosophy as well as psychology and pedagogy.

Topics for discussions:

1. The most important contributions of the (existential-)phenomenological philosophy to the development of the contemporary pedagogical reflections and psychotherapy. 
2. Therapeutic potential of phenomenology. 
3. The structural homology between the pedagogical experience and the psychotherapeutic one and its methodological meaning. 
4. The heuristic potential and limits of the phenomenological method. Possibility and necessity of its cooperation with other methods (e.g. psychoanalysis, communicative theory) for the purpose of understanding and desirable transformation of the pedagogical and psychotherapeutic practices. 
5. The relations between upbringing and psychotherapy for children. 
6. Sexual and age differences as a social-anthropological a priory of the pedagogical activity. 
7. Ethics of the pedagogical/psychotherapeutic practice. Normalizing and violence. 
8. Transformation of pedagogical practice in the post-traditional (information) society. 
9. Upbringing and psychotherapy in the a-religious world.

Conference is organized by:

• Center for Philosophical Anthropology of the European Humanities University (Vilnius);
• Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Heidelberg;
• Department of Philosophy and Political Theory of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University;
• Lithuanian Association for Phenomenology

Organizers:

- Prof. Thomas Fuchs (Heidelberg)
- Prof. Tatiana Shchyttsova (Minsk/Vilnius)
- Assoc. Prof. Tomas Kačerauskas (Vilnius)

The presentations are expected to be delivered in English or German and kept within 30 minutes.

Deadline for submission of proposals is May 1st, 2009.
Please e-mail attached abstract (300-400 words) and short CV in doc. or rtf. format to: shchyttsova@ehu.lt and Tomas.Kacerauskas@hi.vgtu.lt

All submitters will have received an answer by June 1st, 2009.

Further information will be published on the website of the conference.

Print version