In view of nursing's dialogical character it may be assumed that many phenomena of major concern would be intersubjective or transactional. It is important then for nurses, attempting to develop openness to their own perspectives, to consider whether the phenomenon involves two subjects and their between. Does the action go both ways? Are both persons calling and responding to each other simultaneously? Take the phenomenon of "timing" for example. The nurse's verbal response to a patient depends not only on her perception of her own here-and-now and his perception of his here-and-now but rather it also involves their perceptions of their shared here-and-now situation. The nursing world is filled with intersubjective phenomena such as, eye {82} contact, touch, silence. To describe these fully the nurse must be open to her perspective, the patient's perspective, and their between. Analysis, Synthesis, and Description After a nursing phenomenon is grasped intuitively, it is desirable to find as many instances of it as possible for the sake of description. Keeping the phenomenon in mind and reflecting on it from time to time, the nurse becomes more alert to its occurrence in her lived world. The phenomenon may be experienced directly. In which case, it is described and reflected on and descriptions, reflections, and questions are recorded. When she observes the phenomenon in others, the nurse may ask them to describe it and verify her own observations. Some nurses have involved other staff members in discovering and describing instances of the phenomenon being studied. Similarly, one becomes more open to descriptions of it in the literature--any literature--or in any form of human expression, for example, poetry, drama, art, science. As many descriptions of the phenomenon are gathered from as many angles as possible, these are the data to be analytically examined, synthesized, and described. The three processes of analysis, synthesis, and description are so interrelated and so intertwined in reality that it is simpler to discuss techniques in relation to all three. Some techniques are equally useful in the analytic examination and the description of phenomena. In a sense, a person does both at once. And often, it is during this process of shifting back and forth, analyzing and describing an experience that synthesis occurs. A person gets a sudden insight, "everything falls into place," "it clicks." One gets a gestalt, a whole, not necessarily a whole in the sense of complete and entire, but a whole frame, form, or structure that allows for further developing and filling in of details. There are many ways of going about the analysis and description. The following are some that have been found useful in the explication of nursing phenomena.