Writing at the Edge

This chapter explores the role of language in the process of tracking the felt sense. Taking what Gendlin has to say about language as a starting point, it looks at how this process in action may be observed in Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Finally the chapter sets Gendlin’s thought in the context of the post-structuralist account of language which models language as a chain of signification with its own dynamics. The chapter concludes that, seen in this way, language is something more than a vehicle for expressing the felt sense which changes with regard to our experiencing; rather, language is also a player in the development of the felt sense which contributes to the way in which that sense unfolds in a dialectic process in which language itself becomes the edge of experiencing.