About the Project

The Reinhart-Koselleck-Project "Entwicklung eines interdisziplinären Konzepts der „ambivalenzsensiblen Nachdenklichkeit“. Reflexive Resilienz für junge Fachkräfte im Gesundheitswesen und in Seelsorge/Spiritual Care" builds on the results of various research projects belonging to the research group "Resilience and Humanities". All of these interdisciplinary research projects and teaching formats showed that professional settings of different disciplines demand the ability to reflect and to accurately assess crises while being confronted with complex situations and vulnerability, ambiguities and ambivalences.

Aims

The term "ambivalence" (and adjacent concepts such as ambiguity, uncertainty ans vulnerability) is used and discussed in Theology as well as in Medicine. But both disciplines focus on different aspects of ambivalence, examine it in different settings and evaluate it differently. On the basis of our cooperation during our research on "Resilience and Humanities", this project aims at taking up the perspectives of theology and medicine on ambivalence respectively, comparing these perspectives and developing an interdisciplinary concept of ambivalence. This concept is supposed to not only take a theoretical approach, but to include specific situations taken from the practical application of both disciplines. This way, we hope to develop a concept that can be used in interdisciplinary and interprofessional teaching formats for the professions of both disciplines.

The project develops the theoretical approach of "ambivalence-sensitive thoughtfulness", including both the (mediopassive) enduring and the reflection of ambivalent situations. Through this acceptance of the ambivalence inherent in the respective situations without the loss of agency, the ambivalence can display its full constructive potential.

Eine Wissenschaftlerin und ein Wissenschaftler arbeiten hinter einer Glasfassade und mischen Chemikalien mit Großgeräten.

Method

The interdisciplinary research project combines impulses from Theology and Medicine to develop an encompassing theory of "ambivalence-sensitive thoughtfulness" that can be applied practically. For this purpose, the concepts of ambivalence existing in both disciplines will be compiled and a regular exchange will be practiced, during which the practical application will also be taken into consideration. The collaboration builds upon the exchange between disciplines that was cultivated during earlier cooperational projects.