Consent and the experience of touch

Touch is a foundational aspect of human experience that has been historically neglected in favor of vision and hearing. Drawing on phenomenology and micro-phenomenology, this work examines touch's role in shaping consciousness, intersubjectivity, and ethical engagement. It provides first-person accounts of tactile interactions and explores consent in professional therapeutic touch as an ongoing, mutually enacted process rather than a one-time event. The thesis argues that touch functions as both a sensory and ethical modality central to human interaction and subjectivity.

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Abstract

Bringing together insights from the philosophical traditions of phenomenology and the methodology of micro-phenomenology, this work explores the embodied, intersubjective, and ethical dimensions of tactile experience.The primary objectives of the thesis are: 1) to examine the philosophical significance of touch, highlighting its role in shaping human consciousness, intersubjectivity and ethical engagement (Husserl, 1964(Husserl, /2019;; Merleau-Ponty, 1945/2014; Levinas, 1969Levinas, /1979)); 2) to investigate the lived experiences of touch through the lens of microphenomenology, providing rich, first-person accounts of tactile interactions (Petitmengin, 2006; Valenzuela-Moguillansky & Va squez-Rosati, 2023); and 3) to explore the complexities of consent in professional therapeutic touch, recognising it as an ongoing, mutually enacted process rather than a one-time event (Manson & O'Neill, 2007;Beauchamp & Childress, 2019).The objectives of this thesis are met through the following chapters.Chapter 1 introduces touch as a foundational aspect of human experience, addressing its historical neglect in favour of vision and hearing.This section frames touch as a sensory and ethical modality central to consciousness in the subjectivity of human interaction.Philosophical insights from thinkers such as