This article examines the phenomenon of vision loss and its disruption of habitual body engagement, reorganizing patients› lifeworld in ways that often elude standard clinical descriptions. Drawing on Husserl’s analyses of tactile-visual synthesis, kinesthesia, perceptual optimality, and intersubjectivity in Ideas II, we retrospectively analyze qualitative interviews from a pilot study that investigates the lived experiences of chronic vision loss episodes in retinal disease. What we discovered …
Read moreThis article examines the phenomenon of vision loss and its disruption of habitual body engagement, reorganizing patients› lifeworld in ways that often elude standard clinical descriptions. Drawing on Husserl’s analyses of tactile-visual synthesis, kinesthesia, perceptual optimality, and intersubjectivity in Ideas II, we retrospectively analyze qualitative interviews from a pilot study that investigates the lived experiences of chronic vision loss episodes in retinal disease. What we discovered is that even when visual acuity remains near normal, patients experience significant change in the underlying structures that sustain bodily and spatial orientation, as well as social attunement. These changes are not merely compensatory techniques but a manifestation of a broader reconfiguration of the lived, habitual body and its temporal and interpersonal horizons. By applying a phenomenological approach to interpreting vision loss narratives, we elucidate the experiential dimensions of vision loss that matter most for post-diagnosis, individualized therapeutic interventions.
