Abstract
Our life is full of invisibility that exerts power on our acts, relationships, and construction of the self. This paper discusses psychological processes in which invisibility plays an essential role, and constructs a typology of invisibility in society and in our lives. After a brief look at the crucial role of invisibility in prevailing theories of psychology, I first show how invisibility works in children’s meaning constructions, the process in which their selves become clear for observers (the presentational self, Komatsu 2010). The development of children’s meaning making is led by different types of invisibility concerning the children themselves. Second, I extend the discussion from the development of individuals to the role of socially regulated invisibility that controls our acts and relationships with others, introducing examples concerning religious belief in history. After these discussions, I present a hierarchical classification of invisibility from a simple spatial-temporal separation of concretely existing objects and ourselves to an abstract aspect of invisibility in which the object and its meaning are unclear.
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Notes
Gestalt quality is defined as “a positive content of presentation bound up in consciousness with the presence of complexes of mutually separable (i.e., independently presentable) elements” (von Ehrenfels 1988, p. 93). The term presentational self comes from “die Vorstellung” in the German language that is used by von Ehrenfels (1988), signifying presentation (Komatsu 2010).
Excerpts 2 and 3 are from Komatsu and Konno (2014) and were translated into English by the author. Small revisions were made from the original and translations in Komatsu (2015). All the names are pseudonyms. Words in brackets show additional information included for clarification and omitted subjects or other pronouns. Omission of the first person is common and natural in the Japanese language. The academic year in Japan begins in April and ends in March.
These regions are in the west end of Kyushu Island that is situated in the west end of four big islands constituting the Japanese Archipelago.
The number of the believers during the prohibition of Christianity is not clear. In the beginning of Meiji era when the prohibition of Christianity ended, there were seven districts that kept the communities of crypt Christian (Miyazaki 2014).
From her standpoint of iconography, Wakakuwa (2008) discussed that Maria-Kannon is not a mere substitution for the original figure of the Virgin Mary, but an integration of the indigenous religious tradition, worship for goddess that prevails in East Asia and in the Christian tradition. She also stresses that the name Maria-Kannon was given by researchers and the figures were simply called “Maruya (Maria)” by worshippers.
Word origin of Orasho is said to be Oratio in Latin. Orasho is sometimes accompanied with melody (Miyazaki 2014).
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Author Koji Komatsu declares that he has no conflict of interest.
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Komatsu, K. Not Seeing is Believing: the Role of Invisibility in Human Lives. Integr. psych. behav. 51, 14–28 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-016-9364-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-016-9364-4