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Spatial imagery as key to two mystical experiences of transformation: a comparison between Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13674676.2011.607803

1469-9737

Lourens Minnema,

Medieval Literature and History

Abstract The mystical writings of Teresa of Avila and those of John of the Cross can be compared in many ways. The comparative approaches discussed in this paper focus on the use of spatial imagery. Both mystical authors express their transformative experiences in a variety of metaphors. Their choice of these metaphors is not arbitrary. On the contrary, it is very revealing. Several core metaphors display spatial patterns which will be compared and understood in terms of their cultural commonalities and psychological differences. Cultural-historical (von Balthasar), Jungian (Welch, Maas as opposed to Howe), Freudian (Erikson, Riemann), self-psychological (Julian, Frohlich) and object-relational (Barron) explanations will be discussed. It will be argued that psychological differences between the two mystics explain their different use of spatial imagery. Several models, by focusing on the use of spatial imagery, can shed light on the crucial differences between these two mystics, their mystical writings and their mystical experiences even though some models may seem more encompassing than other ones in explaining the specific psychological differences. Attention will also be drawn to the observation that the dynamics of these mystical experiences (as processes of transformation) are reflected in the ways their use of spatial imagery develops. Keywords: religion and human spacespaceimagerymysticismTeresa of AvilaJohn of the Crosspsychology of religionmetaphors of space Notes Notes 1. Welch's terminology is in need of some clarification. On p. 77 he proposes three categories, but on p. 194 just two. 2. The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza I: "Where have you hidden, Beloved, and left me moaning? You fled like the stag after wounding me; I went out calling you, but you were gone"; The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night, Stanza I: "One dark night, fired with love's urgent longings – ah, the sheer grace! – I went out unseen, my house being now all stilled." 3. In Teresa's Way of Perfection, Chapter XXVIII, para. 9, the talk is of a palace made of gold and precious stones. 4. The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza XIV: "My Beloved, the mountains, and lonely wooded valleys, strange islands, and resounding rivers, the whistling of love-stirring breezes!" 5. Interior Castle, Fifth Mansion, Chapter 2. Teresa's extension of the metaphor is also interesting for our theme: "When it is full-grown, then, as I wrote at the beginning, it starts to spin its silk and to build the house in which it is to die. This house may be understood here to mean Christ. … Here, then, daughters, you see what we can do, with God's favour. May His Majesty Himself be our Mansion as He is in this Prayer of Union which, as it were, we ourselves spin." 6. With regard to the last line of the first Stanza ("I went out calling you, but you were gone"), John comments in para. 20 of Stanza I: "This spiritual departure, it should be pointed out, refers to the two ways of going after God: one consists of a departure from all things, effected through an abhorrence and contempt for them; the other of going out from oneself through self-forgetfulness, which is achieved by the love of God." 7. Interior Castle, Sixth Mansion, Chapter 2, and Sixth Mansion, Chapter 4. 8. The Spiritual Canticle, Stanzas I, VII and IX. Stanza I, para. 20: "Thus the wounded soul, strengthened from the fire caused by the wound, went out after her Beloved who wounded her, calling for him that he might heal her." 9. Maas's emphasis on a complementary opposite bears a formal resemblance to Elizabeth Teresa Howe's conclusion on this subject (Howe, 1988 Howe, ET. 1988. Mystical imagery: Santa Teresa de Jesús and San Juan de la Cruz, New York: Peter Lang. [Google Scholar]). But Howe considers, not the opposition within each personality to be complementary, but the opposition between the two personalities. For Howe, the – as she terms it – complementary nature of the contrast between Teresa's and John's imagery has nothing to do with individuation, but is rather related to the paradoxical nature of all mysticism: Their different approaches to union … present the obverse and reverse of the same mystical coin. At the heart of virtually all mystical discourse is paradox, so that apparently antithetical ways of describing progress to union become, in fact, complementary means of speaking of the same thing. On the surface, Santa Teresa's imagery stresses a positive sense of completion in her mystical works. For example, the two dominant Teresian metaphors for mystical progress – irrigation of the garden of the soul and passage through the mansions of the interior castle – focus on movement toward peaceful fulfillment and repose. Although she does not ignore purgation with its sometimes negative connotations, yet her underlying message emphasizes the via positiva rather than the via negativa. Thus, her tendency to amass seemingly disparate images within the context of a single work, or, indeed, a single paragraph, testifies to a penchant for embracing virtually the whole of creation as a manifestation of the Creator she claims to join in mystical union. … At first glance, San Juan's view of the mystical life appears to contrast with that of Santa Teresa's by emphasizing the via negativa … . Between the purifying message of the Subida-Noche and the purified vision of the Llama, however, one finds San Juan's Cántico espiritual, where the mystical landscape teems with the whole of creation in a veritable canticle of praise of God and soul searching for and finding union. San Juan's poetry achieves a lyrical embrace of all creation even greater than that manifested by Santa Teresa in her prose. (pp. 321–323) In this conclusion, Teresa's description of her via positiva and John's description of his via negativa are complementary because all mystical language is paradoxical. And the fact that all mysticism is paradoxical is illustrated by the fact that John's mystical language is complementary because it negatively repudiates creation and positively affirms it. The question remains unanswered of whether Teresa's mysticism is complementary in the same sense and to the same extent as John's, or is illustrative of all mysticism, as does the question of whether we can deduce the complementarity of John and Teresa from the complementarity of path and goal in John. 10. I define mentally healthy thus: as (self-)aware as possible, knowing and willing to go one's own way due to an ability both to develop oneself and to lose oneself. Cf. Fortmann (1968 Fortmann, HMM. 1968. Als ziende de Onzienlijke: Een cultuurpsychologische studie over de religieuze waarneming en de zogenaamde religieuze projectie. Band 3b: Geloof en geestelijke gezondheid [As if seeing the unseen: A psycho-cultural study of religious perception and so-called religious projection. Volume 3b: Belief and mental health], Hilversum: Uitgeverij Paul Brand. [Google Scholar]). Kuiper (1984 Kuiper, PC. 1984. Nieuwe neurosenleer [New theory of neuroses], Deventer: Van Loghum Slaterus. [Google Scholar], p. 105) speaks of the ability to love, work and play. Paloutzian (1996 Paloutzian, RF. 1996. Invitation to the psychology of religion, 2nd, Boston: Allyn and Bacon. [Google Scholar], p. 240) suggests to conceive of mental health as "a complex mixture of several variables" such as "lack of debilitating guilt, having a realistic perception and acceptance of one's limitations and faults, neither the absence of nor an excess of tension, effective coping mechanisms, a satisfying social life, a tendency to see the positive side of things, and an ability to feel a reasonable level of happiness." 11. First reservation: the differentiation into four basic forms of anxiety is not sufficient to carry out differentiated diagnoses. Second reservation: hysteria is an ambiguous category. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) III-R, the histrionic component (self-dramatisation and emotional instability) of hysteria, for example, is distinguished from the obsessive-compulsive component (intense, compulsive idealisation and identification, inflexible attraction/repulsion). For a complete overview and discussion of the most significant historical and current psychological approaches to the concept of hysteria and hysterical phenomena themselves, see: Slavney (1990 Slavney, PR. 1990. Perspectives on "hysteria", London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. [Google Scholar]). Third reservation: Hysteria, in classical psychoanalysis, is closely bound up with oedipal issues. The results of new research, however, point to a connection with oral issues, in that a neglectful or absent mother can prevent a child from developing its own distinct and recognisable identity: Sugarman (1979 Sugarman, A. 1979. The infantile personality: Orality in the hysteric revisited. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 60: 501–513. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Fourth reservation: Depression is, in itself, a mood, not a trait or type, whereas trait psychology looks for consistent traits that lead to a personality-type (Cf. Zuroff 1994 Zuroff, DC. 1994. Depressive personality styles and the five-factor model of personality. Journal of Personality Assessment, 63: 453–472. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, it does this without taking causes into consideration (oral/oedipal conflicts) and it also excludes the possibility of the same traits being manifested in different types. Several types can (simultaneously even) be depressive. However, as a person's fundamental mood, depression can develop, over time or as a result of a deeply affecting trauma, from being a dimension to being a dominant or typical character trait. Widiger and Trull (1992 Widiger, TA and Trull, TJ. 1992. Personality and psychopathology: An application of the five-factor model. Journal of Personality, 60: 363–393. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], pp. 363–393, 387): "Depression is not simply a disorder of mood. It can also represent in part a disorder of personality". Fifth reservation: In classical psychoanalysis, depression as a fundamental mood is closely bound up with oral issues. The results of new research, however, reveal two subtypes of depression, so-called anaclitic (dependent) depression and introjective (self-critical) depression (Blatt & Maroudas, 1992 Blatt, SJ and Maroudas, C. 1992. Convergences among psychoanalytic and cognitive-behavioral theories of depression. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 9: 155–190. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], pp. 155–190; Ouimette & Klein, 1993 Ouimette, P.C., & Klein, D.N. (1993). Convergence of psychoanalytic and cognitive-behavioral theories of depression: An empirical review and new data on Blatt's and Beck's Models. In J.M. Masling & R.F. Bornstein (Eds.), Psychoanalytic perspectives on psychopathology (pp. 191–223). [Empirical studies of psychoanalytic theories, Vol. 5] Washington, DC: American Psychological Association [Google Scholar], pp. 191–223). Anaclitic depression is, according to this, completely oral, whereas introjective depression is based on oral-anal issues that are related to the transitional phase of early infantile separation/individuation. 12. It is noticeable that Teresa is frequently described or – unfairly – dismissed as a "hysteric". Any dismissal always involves hysteria being defined solely in terms of pathology, as a neurotic illness. See Vergote (1978 Vergote, A. 1978. Dette et désir: Deux axes chrétiens et la dérive pathologique [Guilt and desire: Religious attitudes and their pathological derivatives], Paris: Editions du Seuil. [Google Scholar], Chaps. VI–VIII). 13. Two quotations in advance: Interior Castle, Fifth Mansion, Chapter 2: "It is no longer bound by ties of relationship, friendship or property. Previously all its acts of will and resolutions and desires were powerless to loosen these and seemed only to bind them the more firmly; now it is grieved at having even to fulfil its obligations in these respects lest these should cause it to sin against God. Everything wearies it, because it has proved that it can find no true rest in the creatures." Sixth Mansion, Chapter 11: "Since she [the Soul] is absent from her God, why should she wish to live? She is conscious of a strange solitude, since there is not a creature on the whole earth who can be a companion to her – in fact, I do not believe she would find any in Heaven, save Him Whom she loves: on the contrary, all earthly companionship is torment to her." 14. The decisive criterion for judging them is their respective position in the process of spiritual growth. For example, Interior Castle, First Mansion, Chapter 2: "That person to whom I referred just now said that the favour which God had granted her had taught her two things: first, she had learned to have the greatest fear of offending Him, for which reason she continually begged Him not to allow her to fall, when she saw what terrible consequences a fall could bring; secondly, she had found it a mirror of humility." 15. Teresa of Avila, Life, Chapter XL, para. 5, and Chapter XL, para. 9f. In Peers (1946 Peers, E.A. (Ed.) (1946). The complete works of Saint Teresa of Jesus (Vol. II). New York: Sheed & Ward [Google Scholar], pp. 290–299). Chapter XL, para. 5: "On one occasion, when I was reciting the Hours with the community, my soul suddenly became recollected and seemed to me to become bright all over like a mirror: no part of it – back, sides, top or bottom – but was completely bright, and in the centre of it was a picture of Christ Our Lord as I generally see Him. I seemed to see Him in every part of my soul as clearly as in a mirror, and this mirror – I cannot explain how – was wholly sculptured in the same Lord by a most loving communication which I shall never be able to describe. This, I know, was a vision which, whenever I recall it, and especially after Communion, is always of great profit to me. It was explained to me that, when a soul is in mortal sin, this mirror is covered with a thick mist and remains darkened so that the Lord cannot be pictured or seen in it, though He is always present with us and gives us our being; with heretics it is as if the mirror were broken, which is much worse than being dimmed." Chapter XL, para. 9f.: "Once, when I was in prayer, I saw, for a very brief time and without any distinctness of form, but with perfect clarity, how all things are seen in God and how within Himself He contains them all. … I believe, if it had been the Lord's will for me to have seen this vision earlier, and if it had been seen by those who offend Him, they would have neither the heart nor the presumption to do so. […] Let us say that the Godhead is like a very clear diamond, much larger than the whole world, or a mirror, like that which symbolized the soul in my account of an earlier vision, except that it is of a far sublimer kind, to which I cannot do justice. Let us suppose, furthermore, that all we do is seen in this diamond, which is of such a kind that it contains everything within itself, because there is nothing capable of falling outside such greatness. It was a terrifying experience for me, in so short a space of time, to see so many things at once in the clear depths of that diamond, and whenever I think of it, it is a most piteous reflection, that so many foul things, like my sins, should have been pictured in that clearness and purity. So, whenever I remember this, I do not know how to bear it and at that time I felt so ashamed that I did not seem to know where to hide myself." 16. The image of flowing water, of the spring, the river, the sea, would, in my opinion, be a possible alternative. Cf. Interior Castle, First Mansion, Chapter 2; Fourth Mansion, Chapter 2; and Sixth Mansion, Chapter 5. In the case of the image of the sea, I am thinking in particular of the reflecting sea of glass in the biblical vision of the Book of Revelation 15:2. 17. See also the phenomenon of "polarized construing" in Neimeyer (1983 Neimeyer, RA. 1983. Toward a personal construct conceptualization of depression and suicide. Death Education: Pedagogy, Counseling, Care, 7: 127–173. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar], pp. 127–173). 18. For the distinction between separation (dependent subtype of depression) and guilt (introjective subtype of depression), see note on five reservations. 19. Three quick quotations here: The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza XIII: "Return, dove!" Stanzas XIV and XV, para. 1: "Since this little dove was flying in the breeze of love above the flood waters of her loving fatigues and yearnings, which she has shown until now, and could find nowhere to alight, the compassionate father Noah, stretching out his merciful hand, caught her on her last flight and placed her in the ark of his charity [Genesis 8:9]. This occurred when in the stanza we just explained the Bridegroom said, 'Return, dove!'" The Living Flame of Love, Stanza III, para. 22: "Although the suffering is not as intense as is the suffering of the next life, yet the soul is a living image of that infinite privation, since it is in a certain way disposed to receive its plenitude." Arraj (1986 Arraj, J. 1986/19882. St. John of the Cross and Dr. C. G. Jung: Christian mysticism in the light of jungian psychology, Chiloquin, OR: Inner Growth Books. [Google Scholar], 19882, p. 119): "While the torments predominated, he began to have moments of sublime mystical experience as well: 'One evening, when he was in very low spirits, he heard a young man's voice singing a villancico or love song in the street outside … I am dying of love, dearest. What shall I do? – Die.'" 20. It is God as mother, not father, who weans the infant. The maternal figure's role is not just to nurture but also to educate. In this, John differs from the Patres (Bouwman, 1991 Bouwman, K. 1991. Gespeend tot aan de dood voorbij: Het spenen en het moederbeeld van God in de mystieke werken van Joannes van het Kruis [Weaned beyond Death: Weaning and the mother image of God in the mystical works of John of the Cross], (MA-thesis) KTUA,: Amsterdam. [Google Scholar], p. 67). Cf. in more generally biographical vein: Ackermann (1990 Ackermann, J. 1990. The childhood of John of the Cross and "the living flame of love". Studia Mystica, 13: 4–17. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). 21. This constitution is not pathological in John, because he himself perceives the manifestation symptoms of a potential illness: The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book II, Chapter 13, para. 6. 22. Lachmann (1989 Lachmann, FM. 1989. Beatrice Beebe, oneness fantasies revisited. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 6: 137–149. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]); Auerbach (1993 Auerbach, J.S. (1993). The origins of narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder: A theoretical and empirical reformulation. In J.M. Masling & R.F. Bornstein (Eds.), Psychoanalytic perspectives on psychopathology (pp. 43–110). [Empirical studies of psychoanalytic theories, Vol. 5]. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association [Google Scholar], p. 47): "Each of the two most popular theories of narcissistic disorder (Kernberg, 1975; Kohut, 1971 Kohut, H. 1971. The analysis of the self, Madison, CT: IUP. [Google Scholar]) posits an objectless, undifferentiated phase at the beginning of development"; Auerbach (1993 Auerbach, J.S. (1993). The origins of narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder: A theoretical and empirical reformulation. In J.M. Masling & R.F. Bornstein (Eds.), Psychoanalytic perspectives on psychopathology (pp. 43–110). [Empirical studies of psychoanalytic theories, Vol. 5]. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association [Google Scholar], p. 92): "According to this theory, narcissism exists because human selfhood is divided by self-reflexivity […] and by the concomitant experience of separateness. The attempt to escape this tension results in two characteristic fantasies … . These … are illusory omnipotence, associated with subjective self-awareness, and the oceanic feeling, associated with objective self-awareness. Narcissistic fantasies are endemic to human life but are usually well regulated by the capacity to integrate subjective and objective self-awareness." 23. Howe (1988 Howe, ET. 1988. Mystical imagery: Santa Teresa de Jesús and San Juan de la Cruz, New York: Peter Lang. [Google Scholar], p. 287f.): "Whereas Santa Teresa's use of the río in the Vida suggests "fertility and the progressive irrigation of the soil", San Juan's references to the running water reflect "the irreversible passage of time and, in consequence … a sense of loss and oblivion." … Santa Teresa emphasizes positive aspects of refreshment, cleansing, and quenching while San Juan suggests a necessary emptying out as a prerequisite to the inundating or obliterating effect of the 'ríos sonorosos'." Howe (1988 Howe, ET. 1988. Mystical imagery: Santa Teresa de Jesús and San Juan de la Cruz, New York: Peter Lang. [Google Scholar], p. 270) equally points out that the conventional image of the desert plays no overly emphasised or specific role. 24. For the diagram, see either Kavanaugh and Rodriguez (1991 Kavanaugh, K., & Rodriguez, O. (Eds.) (1991). The collected works of Saint John of the Cross (Rev. ed.). Washington, DC: ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies [Google Scholar], pp. 110–111), or Longchamp (1981 Longchamp, M.H. de. 1981. Lectures de Jean de la Croix: Essai d'anthropologie mystique [Readings of John of the cross: An essay in mystical anthropology], Paris: Beauchesne. [Google Scholar], p. 20f.). On the authenticity of the diagram, see Howe (1988 Howe, ET. 1988. Mystical imagery: Santa Teresa de Jesús and San Juan de la Cruz, New York: Peter Lang. [Google Scholar], p. 318, note 5). 25. The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Stanzas I and II: "One dark night, fired with love's urgent longings – ah, the sheer grace! – I went out unseen, my house being now all stilled. / In darkness and secure, by the secret ladder, disguised, – ah, the sheer grace! – in darkness and concealment, my house being now all stilled" (Kavanaugh & Rodriguez, 1991 Kavanaugh, K., & Rodriguez, O. (Eds.) (1991). The collected works of Saint John of the Cross (Rev. ed.). Washington, DC: ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies [Google Scholar], p. 113). 26. Balthasar (1986 Balthasar, H.U. von. 1986. The glory of the lord: A theological aesthetics, vol. III: Studies in theological style: Lay styles, San Francisco: Ignatius Press. [Google Scholar], pp. 116–117): "It is like St John of the Cross's own leap when he escaped by night from the Toledo convent after nine terrible months in the custody of the Calced Carmelites. He improvised a rope by knotting together his sheets, but it did not reach far enough, and so he had to jump down onto the ramparts, narrowly missing the chasm of rocks by the banks of the Tajo, where he would have been dashed to pieces." 27. Kristeva (1993 Kristeva, J. 1993. Les nouvelles maladies de l'âme [New maladies of the soul], Paris: Fayard. [Google Scholar]); Eagle (1984 Eagle, MN. 1984. Recent developments in psychoanalysis: A critical evaluation, New York: McGraw-Hill. [Google Scholar], p. 73f.); Guillaume (1987 Guillaume, M. 1987. "Post-Moderne Effekte der Modernisierung". In Verabschiedung der (Post-)Moderne? Eine interdisziplinäre Debatte [Farewell to the (post-)modern? An interdisciplinary debate], Edited by: Rider, J. Le and Raulet, G. 75–88. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. [Google Scholar], pp. 75–88) speaks of there "becoming evident a certain crumbling away of the position of the subject, a kind of infra-individualization". 28. Frohlich (1993 Frohlich, M. 1993. The intersubjectivity of the mystic: A study of Teresa of Avila's "Interior Castle", Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press. [Google Scholar], pp. 323–345). Crucial already here are Chorpenning (1985 Chorpenning, JF. 1985. The monastery, paradise, and the castle: Literary images and spiritual development in St. Teresa of Avila. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 62: 245–257. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Coelho (1987 Coelho, MC. 1987. St. Teresa of Avila's transformation of the symbol of the interior castle. Ephemerides Carmeliticae, 38: 109–125. [Google Scholar]), both of whose contributions Frohlich refers to. 29. The Spiritual Canticle, Stanzas XIV and XV, para. 1: "Since this little dove was flying in the breeze of love above the flood waters of her loving fatigues and yearnings, which she has shown until now, and could find nowhere to alight, the compassionate father Noah, stretching out his merciful hand, caught her on her last flight and placed her in the ark of his charity [Genesis 8:9]" (Kavanaugh & Rodriguez, 1991 Kavanaugh, K., & Rodriguez, O. (Eds.) (1991). The collected works of Saint John of the Cross (Rev. ed.). Washington, DC: ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies [Google Scholar], pp. 524–525). 30. Arraj (1986 Arraj, J. 1986/19882. St. John of the Cross and Dr. C. G. Jung: Christian mysticism in the light of jungian psychology, Chiloquin, OR: Inner Growth Books. [Google Scholar], 19882, p. 124): "St. John loved to find small, hidden places, but ones which had peep-holes looking out on wide vistas. Some of these views were from his tiny cell into the Chapel where the Blessed Sacrament was, but other views were out over the sweep of hills and fields to distant mountains. The physical beauty of the earth had become a symbol of the spiritual journey." 31. For example: Interior Castle, Fifth Mansion, Chapter 4: "I am only making a rough comparison, but I can find no other which will better explain what I am trying to say than the Sacrament of Matrimony." 32. The Living Flame of Love, Stanza IV, para. 5: "And here lies the remarkable delight of this awakening: The soul knows the creatures through God and not God through creatures. This amounts to knowing the effects through their cause and not the cause through its effects. The latter knowledge is a posteriori, and the former is essential knowledge" (Kavanaugh & Rodriguez, 1991 Kavanaugh, K., & Rodriguez, O. (Eds.) (1991). The collected works of Saint John of the Cross (Rev. ed.). Washington, DC: ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies [Google Scholar], p. 710). 33. The Spiritual Canticle, Stanzas XIV and XV, para. 6. The German translation by Irene Behn: "Diese Gebirgswelt ist mein Geliebter für mich." ("This world of mountains is my Beloved to me.") 34. Ströker (1965 Ströker, E. 1965/1977. Philosophische Untersuchungen zum Raum [Philosophical studies of space] (2nd rev. ed.), Frankfurt a.M.: Vittorio Klostermann. [Google Scholar]/1977) distinguishes between three forms of space: (1) mood space; (2) action space; (3) visual space. Mood space is not measurable or quantifiable. It is qualitative, animate, abundantly expressive; it constitutes surroundings, the "atmospheric"; the mood-affected being becomes aware of it in its own immediacy. This awareness is not cognition, it is much more a being gripped, being moved. While the space does indeed exercise its "effect", it does not stand in any causal relationship with purposeless experience, rather it "imparts itself", it "speaks to you". The absence of specific directions, positions and distances in this space corresponds to the absence of intentionality and detachment in the experiencing bodily subject. My phenomenological location in mood space cannot be determined. The object as vehicle of expression does not have qualities that can be perceived; it "suggests itself" in its "characteristics". Action space is formally defined as the "wherein" of potential actions. Actions, as realisations of a plan, are intentional. This intentionality is directed in space towards a centre of action. Action space is thus a centred, inhomogeneous space. What makes it an orientated space is its directional inequality. Each "where" and "there" is localisable by means of specific directions, right, left, up, down, forwards and backwards, where the forwards dimension is the one into which action space actually extends via the forward movement of the body. The respective plan of action determines the fact that "directly" by no means signifies a path along a straight line, nor does "circuitously" mean the long way round in the sense of the scenic route. "Directly" means, rather, the quickest way to make the goal achievable, as opposed to circuitously. The multiple "to-what-end" [Woraufhin] of intentionality makes action space a transitional space and a locational multiplicity for the object at hand. Visual space is a perspectival and horizon-bounded space, centred on the sensually contemplative bodily subject. At the edge of visual space, the subject belongs nonetheless to lived space. The bodily subject removed to the periphery of this space finds itself in absolute opposition to the world as totality of sensually contemplatable objects. "Object of contemplation" means the "full" object in its total real abundance of qualities, including any presently unperceived "hidden" properties. In the constant shifting of multiple perceptions, the abstracted object remains identical and is contemplated as such. Torn from its utilitarian contexts, the object at hand stands freed of any functional connection to other objects. This positional unconnectedness of the object of contemplation renders visual space indifferent to any movement or change in objects. It makes it an open space of free play and a room for manoeuvre and long-distance space, a homogeneous void. 35. Looking [schauen] or watching in the sense of "being present", of being carried away by the sight, of participation, not a doing but an undergoing: Gadamer (1960 Gadamer, H-G. 1960/19754. Wahrheit und Methode: Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik [Truth and method], Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr. [Google Scholar]/19754, p. 118).