The Philosopher of Ambiguity: Exploring Stories of Spirituality of People with Aphasia Through the Lens of Merleau-Ponty

Abstract

Spirituality as a concept has only recently begun to be considered in speech and language therapy research and practice, and phenomenology as a research methodology is also not widely used in SLT research. Yet, concepts propounded by the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty arguably offer a useful theoretical framework from which to view certain aspects of SLT including the concept of spirituality and how this is expressed by people with a communication difficulty. In this project, eight people with aphasia were interviewed about their spirituality. The interviews were transcribed, themes identified and stories created. These stories were viewed using one of the concepts propounded by Merleau-Ponty, namely ambiguity.

‘Emotion is of the essence. … Number one priority’: A nested qualitative study exploring psychosocial adjustment to stroke and aphasia

“…MacKenzie and Marsh (2019) point out that while spirituality has been discussed extensively in the general healthcare literature, it has received little attention in speech and language therapy research. They found that often patients’ physical requirements took precedent over their spiritual needs, and cautioned that this lack of attention to what makes life ‘meaningful’ may render therapy superficial.…”

“Is All in All”: Exploring Spirituality with People with Expressive Aphasia Using a Phenomenological Approach

“…Themes common to all eight stories were also identified, and these are presented in this paper. Analysis of the themes through the lens of some concepts propounded by Merleau-Ponty (2002), such as ambiguity, was also carried out, and is reported in a separate paper (MacKenzie and Marsh, 2018).…”

“…The concept of spirituality and spiritual care has to date been discussed little in the speech and language therapy (SLT) literature, and the spiritual concerns of SLT clients remain largely neglected (MacKenzie, 2015;Mathisen, 2015). Defining a term such as "spirituality" is a difficult, and arguably potentially reductive, task.…”

“…However, according to Mathisen et al (2015), SLTs may be doing their clients a disservice if they do not consider spiritual concerns during therapy; they cite the "largely neglected clinical relevance" (p. 2309) of spiritual issues within the sphere of speech and language therapy. Given that religion/spirituality has been shown to provide coping strategies for people with illness (Konig, 2012;Homan and Boyatzis 2010), may lead to healthier lifestyles (Konig, 2012) and that being aware of a client's spiritual concerns may foster empathy, compassion and rapport (Mathisen, 2015), it is puzzling why speech and language therapists have to date not fully embraced the idea of considering spirituality in the assessment of and intervention with their clients (MacKenzie, 2015).…”

“…If spiritual issues are not incorporated into therapy and therapy goals, this may negatively impact on the success of therapy. Clients may also need the help of an SLT in order to access religious or spiritual resources or practices which may help with the healing or therapy process (Mathisen, 2015).…”