You can watch this part of the opening to appreciate how we are connected to philosophy, metaphor and the arts. In fact,
Dilthey pointed out a problem in the humanities that, since the enlightenment, try to emulate the natural sciences. Knowledge based in a rigorous approach to understanding. There began an approach of empirical knowledge of objective truth taken towards history, art and literature which eventually impacted the study of psychology.

If we only look for understanding ourselves in ways of containing our experiences to hard science, to only perceive meaning in feelings from conscious thought process, then we loose other meanings that can be made to broaden people’s views of themselves and their world. However, when we expand ourselves into broader ranges and colors of experience, then that will positively impact the range of our experiences and taking in more of others’ experiences, too.

We continue to color our world and should do so with appreciation and connection to history, good and bad. Psychotherapy, the understanding of mind and our behavior in the world, cannot only find verification in experimentation. No individual has an objective point of view, but every one of our is impacted by personal history as well as one’s surroundings.

If you have not already done so, check out the Opening Ceremony to the Milan Olympics where so much of artistic culture and history were celebrated. I thought that the Fantasia performance particularly showed the humanities as connecting our experiences but also important to embed music, history, art and philosophy and more into our understanding of ourselves. This would aid us in feeling that that we can color our lives in whatever various colors we choose.

^Reference: The Power of Phenomenology, Psychoanalytic and Philosophical Perspectives (2020)

by George Atwood and Robert Stolorow