This project is an in-depth study of the psychological experiment of the Danish philosopher Søren A. Kierkegaard (1813-55). Psychological experimentation is an enhanced form of indirect communication, consisting of ‘the original author(Kierkegaard) - ...
This project is an in-depth study of the psychological experiment of the Danish philosopher Søren A. Kierkegaard (1813-55). Psychological experimentation is an enhanced form of indirect communication, consisting of ‘the original author(Kierkegaard) - the psychological observer(pseudonym) - the character of the experiment.’ This study is a new task that researches the historical background of Kierkegaard's psychology, examines the concepts related to indirect communication, and closely analyzes the motifs of the psychological experiment. The three-year task of “A Study on S. Kierkegaard’s Psychological Experiment” was conducted as follows.
1. Research paper for the 1st year: S. Kierkegaard's Psychological Experiment
The goal of Kierkegaard's psychological experiment is to study the source of movement that animates the existing individual. However, he is not interested in the representation of historical individuals in actual situations, but in the construction of fictional characters that are placed in imaginary situations. The psychological experiment enables him to dramatize an existential conflict in an experimental form. Kierkegaard’s psychology is very different from contemporary psychology as a science. The first part of this paper examines the early history of philosophical psychology in Copenhagen, in the 19th century as the formative background of Kierkegaard’s psychology. In the next step, the conception of an imaginary psychological construction as a performative strategy for indirect communication is discussed concretely.
2. Research paper for the 2nd year: A Study on S. Kierkegaard's Psychological Experiment as Indirect Communication
The subject of this essay is Kierkegaard's psychological experiment as a category of indirect communication. The indirect communication is most clearly discussed in Anti-Climacus' Practice in Christianity. In the framework of Kierkegaard's work, Anti-Climacus representing the Christian standpoint is a pseudonym in a higher stage of existence as compared to the earlier esthetic pseudonyms. In Practice in Christianity, Anti-Climacus discusses two methods of indirect communication, including double-reflection. The psychological experiment is a doubly reflected communication. Therefore, this paper attempts to grasp the status of the psychological experiment as a double-reflection in Kierkegaard's authorship based on the perspective of Anti-Climacus.
3. Research paper for the 3rd year: A Study of Kierkegaard's Motif for Psychological Experiment
This treatise is a study of Kierkegaard's motif for the psychological experiment. In 1841, Kierkegaard broke up with Regine Olsen, in a religious collision, which directly motivated indirect communication. Numerous variations on stories of unhappy love related to a broken engagement attest to its influence. One of the most representative works among them is a psychological experiment, "'Guilty?'/'Not Guilty?'" by a pseudonymous author Frater Taciturnus. This study summarizes the four central motifs for indirect communication encompassing psychological experiments and develops a discussion step by step from historically proven motifs to beneath-the-surface motifs. Part 2, Section 1, "Satisfaction," starts by examining Kierkegaard's will to dedicate the entire authorship to his former fiancee Regine. Section 2, "Fear and Trembling," discusses how he became an author after his disengagement. Section 3, "Inclosing Reserve," deals with Kierkegaard's relationship with his father and his unhappy love with Regine. Section 4, "Confession," argues that the experiment itself by Taciturnus, who wrests a sigh from Quidam's inclosed soul, is Kierkegaard's confessional act breaking his enclosing reserve. Chapter Ⅲ, "Vocalization," attempts to interpret the six thematic, titled pieces inserted in "'Guilty?'/ 'Not Guilty?'". These pieces help Quidam-Kierkegaard's inclosing reserve to vocalize.