A Phenomenology of the Alien: Encounters With the Weird and Inscrutable Other

A Phenomenology of the Alien: Encounters with the Weird and Inscrutable Other considers both literal and figurative experiences of the alien from a psychological, psychoanalytic and philosophical perspective.

Throughout the book, the authors wrestle with the unexplained, ineffable, unspeakable, sublime, uncanny, abject and Miéville’s abcanny. This collection provides phenomenologies of encounters with the inscrutably alien from lights in the sky, dark corners of Weird fictional landscapes, architecture, technology, or the clinical symptom. The chapters examine fictional and nonfictional encounters with what exceeds the capacity to “make sense,” taking a new approach to the topic of alterity and inviting the reader to examine how these encounters reflect our contemporary condition culturally, individually, clinically, theologically and philosophically.

Bridging cultural, psychoanalytic, literary, clinical, media, and religious studies, the novel approaches in this volume will be of interest to students and scholars alike.

Aaron B. Daniels, PhD, is an associate teaching professor, mindfulness fellow, and leader of the Psychological Humanities Research Group at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.