Selected Publications

Phd Thesis:

Action inChronic Fatigue Syndrome: An Enactive Psycho-phenomenological and SemioticAnalysis of Thirty New Zealand Women’s Experiences of Suffering and Recovering

JournalArticles

Hart, B ‘Constructing a Women’s University: AnAssessment of the Innovation of the Internationale Frauen Universität 2000’ Women’sStudies Journal, 17:2, 2002

Hart, B. and Grace, V.M. ‘Fatigue in Chronic FatigueSyndrome: A Discourse Analysis of Women’s Experiential Narratives.’ Health Care for Women International,21:197–201, 2000

BookChapters

Hart, B ‘What Was it Like to Be There?: A DiscourseAnalysis of Five Participants Experiences of the Project Area BODY, InternationaleFrauen Universitat (ifu) (International Women’s University) 2000’Corporealities:In(ter)ventions in an Omnipresent Subject, Ulrike Helmer Verlag, 2004

Gresch, N, and Hart, B, ‘Introduction’Corporealities: In(ter)ventions in an Omnipresent Subject, Ulrike HelmerVerlag, 2004

Hart, B, Trans. Fay, M, ‘ “Wie war es, dort gewesen zusein?” – Teilnehmerinnen des Projektbereichs ‘Körper’ erzählen, wie sie dieInternationale Frauenuniversität (ifu) 2000 erfahren haben.’ In: ProjectBody (Hg.): Korporealitäten. In(ter)ventionen in ein omnipräsentes Thema,Königsstein/Taunus, Ulrike Helmer Verlag, 2002

Gresch, N, and Hart, B, ‘Einleitung’ In: Project Body(Hg.): Korporealitäten. In(ter)ventionen in ein omnipräsentes Thema, Königsstein/Taunus,Ulrike Helmer Verlag, 2002

Reports

Hart, B. (1998) ADiscourse Analysis of Women’s Understandings of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,Health Research Council of New Zealand Summer Studentship Report

Selected ConferencePresentations

Latest NZAC researchconference papers

Presentation toSupervisors Group November, 2013

Presentation toNorth Shore group, May

Hart, B, ‘Doing Being: Using the ‘Wheel of Karma’ withRigour in Research on the Self in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: 2008 NZAC ResearchConference: Rigour in Research, 11.50-12.20pm, 21.11.08, University ofCanterbury, Christchurch, NZ

 Using IntuitiveTherapy in the Treatment and Management of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: OnePractitioner’s Daily Life: NZAIT 2008 Conference: Using Intuition in DailyLife, 9.50-10.30am, 17.05.08, Christchurch, NZ

Coleman, J, Hart, B, McCurdy, C-L, Scott, A, ‘StayingAlive: The Future of Feminist Education’ Invited Panel: Words, Action, Change:Women’s Studies Association Conference 2001, 1:30-3.30pm, 2.6.2001, Christchurch,NZ

Hart, B, (2001) ‘Assessing ifu as a GlobalPostgraduate Opportunity’ Poster Paper: APRU Doctoral Student Conference 2001:Global Pressures, Local Impacts: Challenges for the Pacific Rim, 2.00-2.30pm,3.2.2001, University of Auckland, NZ

Hart, B. (2000) ‘Postgraduate Advocacy andRepresentation’ Invited Panel Discussion at: Theory and Practice - Evolving orRevolving: The 7^th National Postgraduate Conference,9:00 am–10:30 am, 1.12.2000, University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ

Hart, B. (2000) ‘Evolving or Revolving: The ifuexperiment’ Conference paper presented as Guest Speaker at: Theory and Practice- Evolving or Revolving: The 7^th National Postgraduate Conference,11:00 am–12:00 pm, 1.12.2000, University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ

Hart, B. (2000) ‘Conundrums Concerning a Methodologyfor a Comparative Qualitative Analysis of Women’s Experiences of Chronic“Psycho/somatic Dis/orders” with a focus on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.’Conference paper presented at: ifu, 10:00-11.00 am, 4.10.2000, Universityof Hannover, Germany

Hart, B. (1999) ‘Toward a Method for a ComparativeQualitative Analysis of Women’s Experiences of Chronic “Psycho/somaticDis/orders” with a focus on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.’ Conference paperpresented at: Strength in Diversity: 6^th National New ZealandPostgraduate Conference, 19–21 November, Christchurch, NZ

Hart, B. (1998) ‘A Discourse Analysis of Women’sUnderstandings of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.’ Conference paper presented at:Society of Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP) Conference, 3:20 pm,17.4.1998, Centra Hotel, Christchurch, NZ

Selected Workshops

LifelineWorkshop

Hart, B, 'The Application of Qigong In PractitonerSelf Care': Presentation to the New Zealand Association of Counsellors, 5.15pm- 8.30pm, 20.03.10, NZ

Hart, B, Potts, A and Vares, T, ‘Introducing DiscourseAnalysis’, Feminist Studies Postgraduate Seminar Series, 12.00-1.30pm,1.7.2001, University of Canterbury

Hart, B, Training for Conference Convenors,Facilitators and Presenters: Pre-conference Workshop for the WSA Conference2001, 6.30-8.30pm, 29.06.2001, WEA, Christchurch, NZ

Publications inPreparation (journal articles)

Supervision

Lifeline

C4 and Tikanga

C4 and Reflective Supervision

EnactiveCognitive Science and Neurophenomenology

Toward a Sustainable Humanity: ATheoretical and Practical Model for the Generation of Viable, Meaningful andEmbodied Action

TheEmbodied Mind: A Review

Enactive Cognitive Science,Neurophenomenology and the Social Sciences: What This Exchange Could Offer

Enactive Intersubjectivity: Communicationas an Intersubjective Embodied Action

Sanction: An Extension to the Taxonomy ofEmpathy

Assessing the Direction of PresentNeurophenomenological Research: What did Varela Intend by the Neuro inNeuro-phenomenology?

Can Neurophenomenology Provide the Basisfor an Interdisciplinary Scientific Phenomenology?

Methodologyand Method

Ensuring Researcher Health and Safety inPsycho-phenomenological Research of Pathological Experience: Negotiating theEmpathy of the Second-person Position

Pragmatic and Theoretical Considerationsfor the Researcher of Suffering

Achieving the Saturation of Meaning withinQualitative Interviews: An Approach to the Process and Definition of Saturation

The Symbolisation of Phenomenal Invariants:How Greimasian Semiotics can provide the Theoretical and Practical Tools forthe Symbolisation of Phenomenological Invariants derived from Text and OtherMedium

Greimasian Semiotics as a Tool for theFormalisation of Structure in Experience

Using Cluster Analysis and the Graph TheoreticalModeling of Phenomenal Invariants in Qualitative Research:  The Theory and an Example of its PracticalApplication

Category Theory as a Foundation for theMathematisation of Phenomenology: New Tools with which to Speak to Husserl

The 7^th Step: ExtendingGendlin’s Focusing Process to Initiate Viable, Meaningful, Sustainable andEnvironmentally Appropriate, Embodied Client Actions

Health

Operating Beyond Reductionism in theAssessment and Treatment of Psychosomatic and Functional Disorders: TheoreticalTools from Gendlin, Mahayana Buddhism, Enactive Cognitive Science and ComplexSystem Theory

Somatisation in Psychosomatic andFunctional Disorders: Reassessing the Assumption of Pathology

Applying Neurophenomenology to Somatisationand the Psychosomatic

What is Suffering? Applying PrasangikaThought to Understanding Processes of Somatisation and Psychosomatic Illness

Towards a Science of Wellness: A PracticalExample of How Researching Recovery was Necessary to an Accurate Assessment ofIllness and Health

Towards a Science of Wellness: Know-How andKnow-What: How it is Necessary to Use both Operational and PropositionalKnowledge

Towards a Science of Wellness: What canPrasangika Thought Tell Us About Suffering and Wellness?

Process Knowledge: A Necessary Tool for theResearch of Health and Wellness

Process Knowledge: A Necessary Tool for theResearch of Chronic Illness

Process Knowledge: A Necessary Tool for theResearch of the Psychosomatic, Somatisation and Functional Somatic Syndromes

ChronicFatigue Syndrome

A Critical Review of the Literature on CFS inFemales

Reassessing the Diagnostic Criteria forChronic Fatigue Syndrome on the Basis of New Phenomenological Evidence

Key Components to Management and TreatmentProgrammes for CFS

A Treatment Program Manual for TherapeuticInterventions in Adults with CFS

An Assessment of the Successful Treatmentof 5 Adult CFS Clients Using Individual Consultation and Virtual Technologies

A New Look at the Neurological Correlatesof CFS

A Portrait of the Experience of CFS fromthe Perspective of the Ill and Recovered Participant

Searching for Solutions and Making Sense ofCFS from the Perspective of the Ill and Recovered Client

CFS: Relating to the Illness from thePerspective of the Ill and Recovered Participant

CFS and the Possibility of Recovery fromthe Perspective of the Ill Participant

Key Components to Recovering from CFS fromthe Perspective of the Recovered Participant

The Dis-integration of Self and Actionduring Illness: An Assessment of Ill and Recovered Participant Experiences

The Re-integration of Self and Action inRecovering from CFS: An Assessment of Ill and Recovered Participant Experiences

Evidence for the Efficacy of MeditativeTechniques in Promoting Recovery from CFS

Energy and Action in CFS from thePerspective of the Ill and Recovered Participant

Present Collaborations:

Lifeline collaboration with Eileen

Collaboration with Wini re: Tikanga and C4

Journal article: McGregor, A. D and Hart, A. A: Applying A New Modelfor Action to the Operation of Coast Guard Rescue Procedures in the CanterburyRegion of New Zealand

I am working cooperatively with AndrewMcGregor, avolunteer aircrew member in the Coast Guard Canterbury Air Patrol Unit. He ispresently writing a training module for the Coast Guard Canterbury Air Patrolof New Zealand to incorporate and apply the action model (developed in my PhD).

Most critically, this involves changing the action procedures appliedby staff during rescue missions to establish task specific orientationconsiderations. In other words, the action model is being used to improve theability of aircrew to orient to the necessary shared situational awareness.These procedures shape staff interactions and staff interactions with otherindividuals and outside organizations, such as other units within the CoastGuard and tasking agencies such as the police.

Future Research

CFSResearch

I wish to write two books based on my PhDresearch and the articles in preparation: a reference text for practitionersand a lay book.

A primary goal is to supervise a team ofresearchers who would repeat the phenomenological investigation of CFS, which Iestablished in my PhD, and extend this research to include men and a focus onvulnerable ethnic groups.

Given the opportunity, I would like to updatemy review of the literature on CFS and publish a review article. This could bedone in collaboration with a research student.

To investigate the social, environmentaland biomedical epidemiology of CFS in men and women is an area of deep interestI would like to pursue. This will require collaboration with at least oneepidemiologist.

I would also like to conduct apopulation-based study of the diagnosis patterns of CFS amongst men and women.

After I have published my PhD findings withrespect to the adequacy of the present diagnostic criteria for CFS, I wouldlike to see alternative diagnostic criteria developed, applied and theeffectiveness of these new criteria assessed and validated.

CFSProgrammes

In light of my research and the experiencegained from working with clients over the past two years, I believe it would bepossible to create and research management and treatment programmes for CFSclients. An awareness that it will be important to assess the effectiveness ofsuch programmes underpins my approach and I believe that such assessment willgenerate research opportunities.

Although very limited successes have beenreported by existing studies, research does suggest that cognitive behavioraltherapy that has been tailored to the needs of the client is one of the fewapproaches to the treatment of CFS that shows promise. Since completing my PhDI have begun developing a manualised form of CBT for the treatment of CFS andwith this I have successfully treated 5/5 CFS clients.

Research suggests that contextually sensitive language andmodels for service delivery are critically important to the success ofinterventions with CFS patients. Issues of communicationare critical.

CFS often involves co-morbidity with otherfunctional and somatic disorders, seasonal affective disorder, multiplechemical sensitivities, anxiety, depression and other mental health issues.These co-morbidities will need to be carefully monitored and accounted for.

First steps in the intervention processwith CFS clients necessarily involve establishing a trusting relationship andclearly communicating to clients that they are being heard.

My research suggests that Gendlin’s bodyinclusive psychotherapeutic approach to emotional awareness, combined withmindful awareness, and other approaches to emotion regulation need to be partof CFS programmes.

To recover successfully, CFS sufferers needto be able to accurately access their own levels of motivation and monitortheir activity level accordingly. This involves the selective use of ‘self-supervision’.Both the illness experience and the recovery process require the ability tomanage change.

Evidence from participants of my researchstrongly suggests that resilience is essential to recovery. Illness is astressful life event and in the case of CFS it often involves either acute orcumulative trauma. Cultivating resilience, particularly where trauma hasoccurred, is a necessary component to a CFS programme.

Both my research, and experience withclients, suggests that carefully graded sensory stimulation (proprioception andkinesthesia in particular), delivered in an easily accessible manner, is acrucial component in any intervention programme. Internet based tools that candeliver this stimulation to clients in their homes would be the ideal. Thesetools need to be designed so that the client can monitor their ability to holdtheir attention on the stimulation delivered, assess their ability to integratethis stimulation and choose the level of stimulation and the length of timeinvolved.

Establishing the appropriate introductionof physical activity is of particular concern given the fear that has oftenresulted from inappropriate interventions of this kind. Although a necessarycomponent to recovery, the inappropriate use of physical activity can causesymptom exacerbation. Establishing how to change behavior and beliefs withrespect to exercise will be of critical importance.

Nutrition is also an important factor inthe management or treatment of CFS.

The ActionIntervention

A first priority is to develop and assessnew approaches to intervention that are based on the action model developed inmy PhD. This model explains how an individual or a group can achieve accurate, viable, sociallysustainable, meaningful and embodied action. The model pertains to anysituation of human endeavour where processes require fast, accurate, actioncognitions, particularly in situations where time and safety are critical, andwhich might involve incomplete information and ethical considerations. Intervention approaches based on this ‘action model’ will besimilarly wide scope. ‘Action interventions’ will have applications in thefields of: mental health, psychology, psychotherapy, counseling, social work, human services, socialpolicy, social sustainability, conflict resolution, diplomacy, education,business, health science, sports science, medicine, the operation of surgicalteams, aviation and transport human factors, software design, and lawenforcement. It will be necessary to assess theeffectiveness of each action intervention. These projects will offer manycollaborative opportunities.

Health

The theoretical approach, methodology andmethod developed in my PhD stands to improve present understanding of manypsychosomatic disorders. I wish to participate in research teams that utilizethese new tools to investigate disorders such as depression, anxiety,fibromyalgia and other functional and somatic disorders. This base will thenmake comparative studies possible.

These research endeavors will offer manyopportunities for me to coordinate with colleagues throughout Australia andinternationally. Colleagues who have the complimentary expertise are likely tobe in areas of enactive cognitive science, social enaction, neurophenomenology,cognitive and behavioral neuroscience, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology,mathematics and quantitative and qualitative research methods, semiotics,psychology, counselling psychology, sports psychology, social psychology,mathematical psychology, psychotherapy, sociology, gender studies, counselling,social work and human services, medicine, dentistry, health, nursing,midwifery, aviation and transport human factors, software design, architecture,engineering, management, education, law enforcement and human movement studies.

EnactiveCognitive Science and Neurophenomenonolgy

I wish to work with colleagues to reviewpast and current research in the field of enactive cognitive science. In 2011,it will be twenty years since enactive cognitive science was established with thepublication of Varela’s book The EmbodiedMind.

I would like to undertake neurological andneurophenomenological investigations of the action model developed in my PhD.This will require expertise from cognitive science, neuroscience andneuropsychology.

I believe a worthy research project wouldinvolve creating a synthesis between enactive cognitive science, other aspectsof Varela’s work, and scholarship relating to diversity and difference. Thissynthesis has the potential to generate both theoretical and eminentlypractical means to counteract discrimination, and its effects, and create moreequitable and sustainable societies. This research project would not onlytackle ethical issues but also provide the impetus for new developments inethics.

MathematisingPhenomenology

In my PhD I propose that category theory beused in the mathematisation of phenomenology. Mathematising the phenomenalityof language comprehension, including the phenomenality of mathematicalcomprehension, is an initial area for which tools developed in my PhD could beutilised. Mathematising the phenomenality of language comprehension could serveas an initial step towards a mathematisation of the phenomenality of learning.Such research stands to contribute significantly to education and provide aplatform for further investigations.

A mathematisation of phenomenology wouldreveal the kind of manifold within which emotion exists. This ‘emotion space’may have a complicated topology, potentially involving multiple if not infinitedimensionality. Mathematising the phenomenality of emotion would contributesignificantly to disciplines concerned with emotional health. Such anunderstanding would be a powerful tool in combating illnesses such asdepression or schizophrenia.

Given that the architecture of the brain inmany animals is similar to that of humans it is likely that the basic structureof the ‘emotion space’ of animals will be similar to that of humans. Researchwith respect to humans, therefore, could contribute to animal welfare.

The objects (nodes) of phenomenality areconstantly in process. Similarly the relations between these objects changeacross time. Future research into phenomenology needs to develop methodologiesand methods that are capable of studying phenomenology as process and relationand evolving within either linear time or time conceived according to a systemsinternal events. Methodological material in my PhD has contributed towards thisgoal. Category theory and dynamic systems theory are other approaches that arelikely to be efficacious.