These reflections address the disturbing phenomenon of ＂not knowing what to say＂ to someone who has experienced the immediacy of a traumatic event and who, nevertheless, seeks a word of consolation from us to ease t...These reflections address the disturbing phenomenon of ＂not knowing what to say＂ to someone who has experienced the immediacy of a traumatic event and who, nevertheless, seeks a word of consolation from us to ease the suffering. The author addresses the inadequacy of consolation as mere verbiage, and then brings to mind an expanded understanding of discourse-as-comportment to offer the possibility of deep consolation for the suffering other in the groundlessness of the tragic situation, which the author calls ＂abysmal consolation＂. In the realization that discourse is also the embodied consolation of being-with the suffering other in a shattered lifeworld, both sufferer and carer of souling are freed up to meet each other in a place that was heretofore presumed to be an alienated and speechless place.展开更多
文摘These reflections address the disturbing phenomenon of ＂not knowing what to say＂ to someone who has experienced the immediacy of a traumatic event and who, nevertheless, seeks a word of consolation from us to ease the suffering. The author addresses the inadequacy of consolation as mere verbiage, and then brings to mind an expanded understanding of discourse-as-comportment to offer the possibility of deep consolation for the suffering other in the groundlessness of the tragic situation, which the author calls ＂abysmal consolation＂. In the realization that discourse is also the embodied consolation of being-with the suffering other in a shattered lifeworld, both sufferer and carer of souling are freed up to meet each other in a place that was heretofore presumed to be an alienated and speechless place.
