Existential Communication as a Post-Secular Negotiation: In Research and Practice

In a post-secular society, the secular and non-secular co-exist and a negotiation can therefore be needed to secure the secular grounding of professional approaches and the respect for the diversity of subjective lifeworlds of individuals. Post-secular negotiation is a theoretical concept and methodological approach enabling the meeting between the secular and the non-secular in a post-secular society at three levels: (a) the societal, (b) the inter-/disciplinary, and (c) the local level in the meeting between professionals and help-seekers. Post-secular negotiation is theoretically grounded in an understanding of societies as social constructions, on existential theory, and on the phenomenological concept of the Ontological Epoché. Post-secular negotiation can be applied in qualitative research and clinical practice in existential communication as an approach to the diversity of the subjective lifeworld of the individual that does not compromise the secular grounding of the professional. For professionals in research and clinical practice to conduct a post-secular negotiation, a double-loop self-reflective practice is significant, and keeping a logbook is presented as a tool supporting this. The article presents post-secular negotiation as an approach to existential communication in research and daily clinical practice and discusses it as an ethical demand and potential for resonance.