寂寞身后事,蓄势待来年——让·皮亚杰(J.Piaget)逝世30周年祭

皮亚杰逝世已30年,但皮亚杰所创立的发生认识论研究不应走向历史。皮亚杰的理论遭到许多人的误解。遗传论和生物学化是两项最为不恰当的帽子。皮亚杰不是传统意义上的心理学家,心理学只是其研究康德意义上的"先验范畴"之个体发生发展的"方法论插曲"。发生认识论具有鲜明的跨学科性质,应该进行"发生认识论"与当代"认知科学"的比较研究。应正确认识理论生物学、结构主义方法论、代数工具和逻辑学在发生认识论研究中的作用和地位,尤其应注重晚年皮亚杰运用新的意义逻辑(logic of meaning)和态射(morphisms)、范畴(categories)等新的代数概念作为形式化认知结构之工具的价值和意义。要深入研究发生认识论对以"具身化"和"回归大脑"为特色的第二代认知科学的启示,探讨它们之间的联系。至少在两个方面可以明显看到这种联系:一是发生认识论中的"动作协调"及对由协调而产生的逻辑—数学经验的"反省抽象"这两个概念,表明了皮亚杰对心智具身性的卓越洞见;二是在皮亚杰所主张的"表型复制"(phynocopy)观点中体现的衍生论(epigenesis)和建构论(constructionism)思想,它们与第二代认知科学的动力系统理论之基本思想——所涉因素或变量之间的关系是一种互为因果、相互塑造的对偶(coupling)关系而不是线性的单向因果关系——两者是完全一致的。皮亚杰及其发生认识论定会随着认知科学的未来发展而被"再发现"。     

态射的建构与发展:发生认识论的一种动态形式化

发生认识论主要研究认识的心理发生及其形式化。对于后者的研究,上个世纪30年代皮亚杰建构了“群集”结构来解释儿童前运算阶段的思维方式,70年代又引入了数学范畴论来解释形式运算阶段的认知发展,再一次对儿童思维的发展与科学发展两者间的连续性给出了明证。数学范畴论是对数学对象的结构间变换进行形式化的一个数学分支,建构的思想以及对所建构结构进行转换是范畴论的本质,而其中作为范畴对象的态射与态射组合体现了其建构本质,且能最为妥贴地描述认识的动态发生与发展。新的理论建模将对应与转换揉合在一起更好地阐释认知发展过程中每一转换过程的机制与结构发展。本文试图通过介绍认识发生过程中对应、转换的发展,以及所引入数学范畴论中态射的概念,来阐释认识发生中认知生成工具———态射———的建构与发展,以及认知结构的系统发展,从而对皮亚杰晚年这一形式化工作予以简单说明与评价。     

论皮亚杰的方法论及其当代意义

皮亚杰从生物学的适应性和平衡化概念出发, 论证了有机体和外部环境之间的双向互动关系, 进一步通过认知过程与生物学过程的“同构”, 建立了一种结构论的发生认识论。发生认识论的主要论题包括:主客体相互作用论、认知结构的建构论, 以及心理逻辑论等。皮亚杰的理论建构方法有两个重要特征:第一, 皮亚杰强调功能相对于结构的逻辑先在意义。功能是有机体对环境的适应与平衡化。因此, 皮亚杰的方法论是一种功能论。第二, 皮亚杰方法论的思想基础是辩证法。皮亚杰的发生认识论一方面批判唯理论, 另一方面批判经验论, 最终形成了一套独特的认识论体系。皮亚杰的发生认识论对当今心理学和心灵哲学研究中诸多“难问题”, 诸如“他心问题”、“归纳问题”等, 可能提供了元理论层面和方法层面的引领和启发。     

皮亚杰发生认识论研究

近年来,国内学术界对皮亚杰的发生认识论表现出越来越浓厚的兴趣,对皮亚杰的儿童心理学和发生认识论的研究,已从一般性介绍进入较具体、较细致和较深入的探讨,兹将探讨情况,概述于后。一、关于皮亚杰发生认识论中的“活动”范畴“活动”(或“动作”)是皮亚杰发生认识论的逻辑起点和核心范畴,有关主体和客体的关系、认知的本质、主体认识与客体结构的一致性等问题的思考,都是建立在对活动范畴     

皮亚杰儿童智慧发展结构论概论

杰出的瑞士学者让·皮亚杰(Jean Piaget),一生致力于儿童智慧发展的研究。他所创立的发生认识论体系深受国际学术界的推崇,已成为当代儿童智慧发展理论中的主要学派。本文试对皮亚杰的结构论思想作一概略的评述。一、结构论是一种研究方法皮亚杰的发生认识论从一般方法论的角度分析,乃是一种发展的结构论。儿童智慧(思维)的发展是通过儿童主体的认知结构(从低级的不完善的行动格式到高级完善的形式运算结构)与从物理环境和社会环境的经验之间的同化和顺化的相互作用而实现的。因此,皮亚     

皮亚杰认知发展理论受到挑战

皮亚杰主张儿童从发生到成人的认知发展经历了人人共同的、按不变顺序相继出现的、有着质的差异的几个阶段。近十年来,有些心理学家发现问题比皮亚杰想像的要复杂得多,从不同角度提出了挑战。有人怀疑认知发展是否真正有明确的阶段,人类的思维活动是否真正有普遍性。皮亚杰的研究方法也受到批评。在中国,人们还从辩证唯物主义的角度评价了皮亚杰的发生认识论。阶段论是一个还待继续争论下去的问题。而且皮亚杰的贡献不限于阶段论。我们应继续研究皮亚杰。     

皮亚杰晚年的“新理论”及其思考

皮亚杰的经典认知发展理论堪称典范,但也并非尽如人意,以致20世纪60、70年代其理论经常遭受抨击。文章以对皮亚杰经典理论的批评和质疑为起点,重点介绍皮亚杰在生命的最后阶段所进行的理论建设,并试图对皮亚杰的新理论做出初步评价。作者认为,皮亚杰晚年的新理论建立在对应性、态射、范畴、转换等新的概念体系之上,并将发展视为从心理内态射到心理间态射,再到超态射的演变过程。由此,新理论强调了“水平”概念和“意义逻辑”,弱化了早期的“阶段”概念和“命题逻辑”。     

皮亚杰理论近期的若干发展──差别观点的贡献

皮亚杰认知发展理论的一个新趋势是从智力发展的认识论过渡到智力发展的心理学,差别心理学的近期实验研究为这一过渡提供了方法。后皮亚杰学派理论对差别心理的强调在教育学和临床心理学中有着重要意义。     

皮亚杰理论近期的若干发展──差别观点的贡献

皮亚杰认知发展理论的一个新趋势是从智力发展的认识论过渡到智力发展的心理学,差别心理学的近期实验研究为这一过渡提供了方法。后皮亚杰学派理论对差别心理的强调在教育学和临床心理学中有着重要意义。     

罗比·凯斯的儿童思维发展阶段论

以发生认识论者自称的皮亚杰不仅把人类认识的发展过程推向了一个新水平,而且给心理学的发展引进了一场范式的革命。皮亚杰认知发展心理学理论的最大优势在于:它能为个体心理发展的共性本质提供一个简洁而一致的解释,而且,以此理论为基础而设计的许多实验得到了大量有关数据,其中大部分支持皮亚杰的理论假设。然而,皮亚杰以结构建构论为基础的能力阶段模式本身,也是发展心理学建构发展过程中的一部分,它本身也是处于不断的同化和顺应、不断的平衡化过程之中的。     

Together – apart: in touch in a time of separation

This paper explores the experience of working as a Jungian analyst through the various phases of the global COVID-19 pandemic, examining the importance of the physical containing space alongside the analyst’s internal mind and how technology can both help and hinder understanding. A number of clinical vignettes illustrate the challenge of communicating over a distance, paying particular attention to the way countertransference phenomena can become re-attuned. Reference is made to mythology and symbols of hope, and consideration given to the meaning and purpose of the pandemic.     

Language,politics and dreams: the challenges of building resilience in refugees

This paper describes a case study of a 60-year-old Peruvian refugee in some detail, focusing on the importance of building emotional resilience in a patient in Spanish in order to create a space for learning the English language – the patient did not speak English after 20 years of living in Britain. The work was carried out with an interpreter and some of the literature on working with interpreters is referred to. The paper also briefly outlines the refugee journey in broad terms, which is a journey from the culturally known to the culturally unknown. The question of how well the literature on resilience, which sits firmly within a Western developmental perspective, can be applied to refugees, most of whom come from group and family-based cultures dominated by ideas of honour and shame, is discussed. The paper also touches on the importance of the receiving country enabling or not, as the case may be, a transitional space for refugees who have lost their home and are seeking to find a safe haven in a strange culture.     

Phenotypic plasticity and archetype: a response to common objections to the biological theory of archetype and instinct

Since Jung’s death in 1961, scholars have attempted to integrate growing biological science data into Jungian concepts such as the collective unconscious, instincts and the archetypes. This enterprise has been challenging due to persistent false dichotomies of gene and environment occasionally arising. Recent works by Roesler (2022a, 2022b) for example, have raised objections to the biological theory of archetypes, but the objections are plagued by such dichotomies. The concept of phenotypic plasticity, however, helps to both avoid this problem as well as bridge the gap between competing theories into a more integrated model with solid biological foundations.     

The Possibility of Meaning in Human Evolution

Science undermines the certitude of non-naturalistic answers to the question of whether human life has meaning. I explore whether evolution can provide a naturalistic basis for existential meaning. Using the work of philosopher Daniel Dennett and scientist Ursula Goodenough, I argue that evolution is the locus of the possibility of meaning because it has produced intentionality, the matrix of consciousness. I conclude that the question of the meaning of human life is an existentialist one: existential meaning is a product of the individual and collective tasks human beings undertake.     

When is it time to stop? When good enough becomes bad enough

This article draws on Winnicott’s concept of the good enough mother to discuss how to know whether a therapeutic situation is good enough to continue or bad enough to end. This dilemma is explored in terms of clinical syndromes, such as anorexia and pathological gambling, but focuses mainly on analyst-initiated endings, which are termed the ‘Casablanca dilemma’, based on an amplification of the ending of the film Casablanca. The author goes on to discuss such one-sided endings, drawing on interviews with 40 analysts and therapists about their clinical experience. A typology of bad enough endings is presented. The psychological differences between a good enough analysis as opposed to a bad enough one are explored through the ideas of Winnicott and Neumann.     

The transcendent function in Spitteler’s Prometheus and Epimetheus

In August 2020, John Beebe and Steve Myers met via Zoom to discuss their differing interpretations of psychological typology and the different sources within Jung’s writings that influenced their books: Integrity in Depth: Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type (Beebe), and Myers-Briggs Typology vs Jungian Individuation (Myers). The discussion centred on Spitteler’s epic poem Prometheus und Epimetheus, which forms the basis of chapter V of Psychological Types. This is both the largest chapter and one of two chapters that Jung highlighted in the Argentine foreword as containing the essence of the book. Jung’s book is primarily about the transformation of personality rather than the categorization of people. Although it contains a critical psychology that deconstructs the nature of consciousness, that is only one half of the book and a stepping-stone to the other half, which is the reconciliation of opposites with particular emphasis on the relation of consciousness and the unconscious. Jung assumed that readers were already familiar with Prometheus und Epimetheus, an understanding of which sheds light on the nature of the transformation that Jung described – the development of a new attitude towards attitude itself.     

Kann Es Ein Argument Für Den Skeptizismus Geben? Das Epistemische Problem Der Irrtumsmöglichkeit

Summary  Is there any argument for scepticism? The epistemic problem of the possibility of error. Arguments for scepticism rest on the assumption that knowledge claims are fallible. For this reason the concept of knowledge appears to be questionable. Since it is necessary to distinguish doubts from possible doubts, the arguments for scepticism appear to be unconvincing. If we take it into account that we know something that is immune to doubt, we should draw the conclusion that, contrary to scepticism, knowledge claims have to be compatible with being fallible. Thus any knowledge claim is capable of being doubted.     

Seeing in the Dark: A View into Dissociation and Healing

In this paper, I will explore the role of art-making, the experience of trauma and dissociation, and the process of working with self-states from an analytic and creative frame. Relevant literature on dissociation, trauma, and the use of art will be discussed. A case involving my work with an adolescent girl who had experienced sexual abuse from a family member will be shared, with an emphasis on the meaningful role images played during the therapeutic process. Both Jungian and psychoanalytic models of conceptualizing and working with dissociation are included, following Donald Kalsched’s (2013) recommendation for a “binocular stance” to treatment, including both a focus on the inner, intrapsychic world and the interpersonal, relational realm, and how art images both illuminated and expressed these realms. Within the therapeutic process, art images allowed the therapist a view into the client’s unconscious process, and created a meeting ground for dissociative barriers to be gradually seen, felt and known, by both therapist and client. The experience of dissociation, in images and in session, provided a reference point for myself and my client, Taylor, to develop a shared understanding and a framework for growth.     

Chapter 6: Biblical Foundations for a Practical Theology of Aging

SUMMARY

This article reviews Biblical sources pertaining to the elderly, particularly the frail elderly. Founded on these sources, implications for elderly with Alzheimer's Disease and other forms of dementia are addressed through a personal perspective informed by writings of Christian mystics.