An exploration and explication of how human-being becomes personally transformed, the various modes of that transformation, whether that transformation is authentic or inauthentic, what enables transformation, what limits and inhibits it and how human-being engages with the process of transformation. The purpose is to build up a picture of human-being and his/her social context and to account for personal change/transformation in human-being, (with reference to a counsellor-training programme as an exemplar in which self-transformation is a focused intention of the programme). Primarily the mode of explication is philosophical and almost exclusively through the work of Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). 'What' or ' who' human-being is, is not presupposed in this dissertation, instead a particular understanding of human-being is explored in detail, an understanding that is worked with and sustained throughout the project. It reveals that human-being is not an object, but a finite mortal and transcendent entity one who wholly and completely has its being in the world, an entity that is always 'we ourselves' . As transcendent, human-being is always open to its possibilities and it is this latter transcendent possibility, and no other, that is deemed foundational to its having a 'self. Human-being is mostly inauthentic. This inauthenticity arises through an average, everyday way of being, in which the world, discourse and selfhood come to be understood, interpreted and lived through mostly in a conventional and ' received' manner, one that does not (and cannot) take into account the unique authentic possibilities of individual human-being. A tension is revealed between this average way of being and the manner in which individual human-being becomes authentically transformed. The multifarious ways in which that tension arises, how it is ' dealt' with, what precipitates the transformational process, what the relational consequences are and how personal authenticity and inauthenticity is experienced are explored and explicated.
It shows how authenticity for human-being is exceptional and that its attainment is not simply a matter of 'choosing' nor following an epistemological pathway. In addition, it is revealed that a dominant and potent technological presence has the capacity to treat human-being as raw material, material that is revealed as always 'standing by' awaiting transformation. It is within this latter mode that human-being becomes limited to and confined within whatever that technological presence allows. It is revealed that the two potent ' forces' impinging upon human-beings' capacity to become authentically transformed (the average way of being and the technological presence) are mostly hidden. Burgeoning awareness of these ' forces', and to human-beings' authentic transformational possibilities is precipitated by an acknowledgement and understanding of human-beings' own mortal finitude and by the consequential temporal experiences of such acknowledgement. As a result of this burgeoning awareness, human-being is revealed as having the capacity to become resolute in its turning towards who it is and turning towards whom it may authentically become. It is further argued that the mortal and finite nature of human-being is mostly hidden from human-being by its becoming ' suppressed' both within the average way of being and within the technological presence. An exploration is made of how human-being interrogates, interprets and comes to an understanding of itself and world. It is shown that this way of interpreting is consistent with the understanding of human-being as maintained within this project and is at odds with that which posits 'world' as an object over against human-being as subject. It is shown that human-being is immersed within the world in such a way that it is always that entity which already understands. It is argued that within this understanding, human-being requires neither an epistemological authority to act, nor a reflexive stance to accurately interpret. Immersement is shown to be the ordinary way that human-being abides in the world, an immersement that must neither be ' taken for granted' nor 'edited out' in any reckoning of what it is to be human. As 'immersed' and only as such, has human-being the capacity to become transformed. The writer demonstrates and illustrates this latter principle by locating himself explicitly within the stream of personal transformation by exploring this immersement within a separate chapter and by linking and locating the genesis and progression of this research project within that transformational stream. This dissertation contributes to an understanding of the various pathways to personal human transformation, (whether those pathways be either authentic or inauthentic). In addition it contributes to an understanding of how authentic transformation is experienced, the obstacles to such transformation and how human-being may come to sustain itself resolutely within an orientation towards its own genuine transformational possibilities. It also contributes to an understanding of the extreme difficulties entailed in embracing the consequences of relating to Dasein as Dasein ( especially to those relationships within the psychotherapeutic encounter) and raises questions of how such relationships may become possible.