We have seen a rapid increase in opportunities to use online conference system such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams since the COVID-19 pandemic began. In this article the authors aim to clarify the qualitative differences between online and face-to-face conversation in terms of intercorporeality, which means a latent reciprocal relationship between one’s body and the body of the other (Merleau-Ponty, 1960). In interpersonal communications, intercorporeality manifests itself through interactional synchrony and behavior matching in nonverbal communications. We intend to clarify the qualitative differences between the two by comparing and analyzing data from scenes of face-to-face conversation and online conversation. In the former, the process and content are largely influenced by the “field in between” that emerges through embodied interactions among the participants. In the latter, in contrast, online conversations are less constrained by such a field and tend to facilitate the exchange of explicit verbal messages.

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This study examined the new concept “Indigenous Psychology (IP)” through the journal Hentai Shinri in the Taisho period. With the perspective of “History of Psychology ”, each contribution that concerned with the indigenous concept or indigenous knowledge was sampled for analyzes. As a result, the indigenous concept or indigenous knowledge tended to be discussed within the folk psychotherapy and psychic phenomenon in the journal. Also, there was a tendency for the way of discussion to change over time. Moreover, from the papers sampled from the journal, the research object as well as the methodology is likely to be consistent with the current IP research. Analyzing Hentai Shinri while incorporating the perspective of Indigenous Psychology may help us to re-evaluate this journal’s position in the history of psychology in Japan. However, the interpretation and discussion of the indigenous concept or knowledge were insufficient. I analyzed the lack of interest in bodily experience that narrowed Hentai Shinri’s deeper discussion of the indigenous concept or knowledge. Meanwhile, this is also a good lesson and experiences that the current IP should learn.

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Modern science is characterized by the use of mathematics as its language. This article shows the possibility of using topology, a field of mathematics, as a language. Concretely, after explaining its basic concepts, the article shows the possibility of picturing a new world image by the use of topology as a language. For example, it shows the possibility of picturing a world in which everything becomes things, the self becomes empty, the external world also becomes empty, and there is only a barrier between the self and the external world. On the other hand, it shows the possibility of picturing a world in which there are no things at all, the self and the external world are maximally fulfilled, and there is no boundary between the two. Furthermore, there is the possibility of picturing a world in which the external world clings to the self and they cannot be distinguished, or conversely, a world in which the external world and the self are extremely distinguished. In addition, the intuitively obvious concepts of continuity and discontinuity are deconstructed, and we can see the possibility of its new recognition. Trying to describe the world by the use of topology as a language, we can see the emergence of a new world told by topology.

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The Society for the Foundation of Mind Sciences

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