My research is about the emotional dimension and affectivity experienced in perceptual pedagogy as theorized within the paradigm of Somatic awareness.1 Today, emotions and affectivity are increasingly valued as research topics in human and social sciences, however semantic concerns persist when it comes to naming these experiences.
One the central features in the practice of perceptual pedagogy is the intimate relationship with one's self within the singularity of one's own body; an intimacy touched (Maine de Biran) because contacted literally and figuratively, and touching because the one who is contacting is moved by it. This thesis aims at establishing links between the emotional dimension and affectivity as discussed in different areas of research and in people's lived experiences. In this study, I hope to find a language adjusted to affectivity in a plural reality.
My research is based on extensive theoretical exploration within the fields of classical and contemporary research interested in emotion and affectivity on the one hand, and within the field of phenomenology on the other. It also relies on the empirical-theoretical corpus specific to perceptual psychopedagogy. These three corpuses allow me to establish a kind of map of a comprehensive territory of emotion and affectivity, from which, through resonances, I can go back and forth between my personal experiences, other studies carried out in the CERAP laboratories and my meetings with authors. Through intuitive inspirations, a hundred or so personal graphic illustrations were a way of passage to integrating the complexity of my research topic. Along the way of my explorations and interactions, I chronicled the evolution of my comprehension of my research topic, particularly in resonance with the phenomenological approach of emotion and affectivity.
The dialogical dynamic at work is an involved posture which I named the posture of a moved-researcher-practitioner because of the manner in which I invite myself to be moved when in contact with my data, whichever form it takes. "The moved man", this eloquent expression presents itself as a gateway to a reality at the heart of my research. Through a succession of resonances, four phenomenological narratives enrich the discussion on the possible links between the Sensory awareness, the affective nature of the experience it carries and a phenomenological understanding of the emotional dimension and affectivity. In favor of questioning the tight weave between the "sensitive man" and "the moved man", the qualitative research presented here leads to a reflexion on the "moved" as it supports the "sensitive".