Expanding Microphenomenology: The Researcher-as-Obstacle Approach to Continuous Phenomena
January 8, 2026 Raphaël Julliard, Damien Roy, Marion Botella preprint
Standard micro-phenomenology, which reconstructs short, bounded episodes after they end, struggles to investigate phenomena that practitioners experience as continuous. The Researcher-as-Obstacle (RAO) framework adapts the method by introducing precisely timed interruptions during a pretext experience that mobilizes the continuous process. A case study with a professional artist compared a standard retrospective interview to an RAO session. Standard micro-phenomenology captured fine-grained experiential content but could not temporally anchor the regulative dynamic of the “creative engine.” RAO sacrificed exhaustive diachrony to obtain multiple anchored samples of recurrent patterns, such as the search for a “feeling of life.” RAO extends micro-phenomenology to continuous phenomena while preserving evocation and pre-reflective access.