转基因食品与人类健康初探

随着转基因食品不断地进入市场,学者和公众对转基因食品是否危害人类健康展开了激烈的争论.介绍转基因食品安全性评价的科学指标,运用伦理学的基本原则对两种观点进行了分析,并提出对转基因食品采取"有罪推定"的战略.     

扑朔迷离的转基因安全之争--转基因食品争论述评之一

自问世以来,转基因食品存在风险的观点和报道层出不穷,相关专家或机构一直争论不休。支持者认为转基因食品与非转基因食品的营养性是一样的,甚至优于传统食品,故可以安全食用;反对者则认为转基因食品对人体有过敏、致癌等风险,对机体的生殖发育、代谢等方面也有不可预期的危害,甚至对生态环境有不良影响。相对于传统食品,转基因食品需要更多的科学研究和试验,以及更加严密的监管制度和透明的公开制度。     

转基因食品安全不确定性决策的伦理思考

《科学时报》最近报道了两则有关转基因食品的科技新闻再次引起人们对转基因食品安全性的关注.转基因食品对人类健康和生态环境的危害具有科学上的不确定性,导致政府对转基因食品安全发展决策的不确定性.本文认为转基因食品安全发展决策的不确定性是长期存在的,但在转基因食品发展不确定性决策中应该有确定性的伦理准则,那就是“尊重生命健康,避免遗传物质跨物种感染”和“不伤害其他生命,保持生物多样性”.政府要建立起符合伦理道德的管理机制来规避转基因食品发展中的风险,即建立道德责任追踪制度、完善效益与风险评估检测制度、尊重知情选择的合理标识管理制度和健全公平公正的利益分配制度.     

转基因食品的伦理问题研究综述

1983年,美国利用转基因技术获得第一例转基因作物--转基因烟草.1994年,美国实现第一例转基因植物--延迟成熟转基因番茄的商业化种植.随后,转基因作物在一些国家像美国、阿根廷等逐渐推广,中国也种植少量的转基因作物.目前,上市的转基因食品已达几千种.转基因食品将给我们带来巨大的利益,但也有许多风险和负面影响.由此,对转基因食品伦理问题的研究成为学术界关注的一个热点.     

转基因食品安全隐忧与公众知情选择权

转基因食品具有巨大的社会价值和广阔的市场前景,但同时也存在一些安全隐忧,其潜在的对人体和环境的危险性引起国际社会的广泛讨论.因此,对转基因食品应持审慎的态度,并努力建立长期安全监测机制.此外,在转基因食品的安全性还没有定论之前,应充分尊重消费者的信仰和消费习惯,尊重公众的知情选择权.     

转基因技术安全性的生态伦理浅析

以转基因技术为基础的生物技术是本世纪最具影响力的高新技术产业带。转基因技术在农业、食品、医药、环保等方面有广泛应用,它给人类社会的发展带来巨大的经济效益和社会效益的同时,也存在着潜在危险,即有可能影响生态环境,危害人类健康。本文试图从生态伦理的角度来思考转基因技术的安全性问题。     

基于不公平感的谣言对转基因风险评价的影响

谣言是常见的社会现象,但其传播过程的"心理黑箱"还是缺乏探索的问题。在情绪评价理论的基础上,采用对照实验,通过转基因食品情景模拟来考察不公平谣言及辟谣行为对风险认知评价及情绪的影响。结果表明:(1)转基因风险评价产生的情绪可分为后果型和伦理型;(2)不公平感会导致更强烈的伦理型及后果型情绪,并使得被试倾向于高估转基因风险;(3)辟谣对转基因风险评价能起到一定干预作用,但不能完全抵消谣言对情绪的影响。     

农业转基因研究和应用过程中预防原则及其伦理学解读

转基因食物作为转基因技术的产物,其安全性存在许多不确定的因素,引起了世人的广泛关注和担忧。通过对转基因技术在研究和应用过程中实施安全预防并进行伦理评价、规范和指导,可以防止转基因食物可能造成的危害,使转基因食物更好地造福于人类。     

转基因大米人体试验的伦理审视

转基因水稻能够提高产量、改善品质、满足不断增长的人口对粮食的需求、增加农民收入,代表了杂交水稻育种的方向.从转基因水稻的研究到转基因大米摆上我们的餐桌,中间必然要经过转基因大米人体试验的环节.目前,转基因大米的人体试验之所以引发全世界舆论的轩然大波在于两点:一是以现在的技术生产出来的转基因水稻,还具有安全的不确定性;二是转基因大米安全的不确定性引发的人体试验的伦理争议.转基因大米人体试验要得到伦理上的辩护,首先,要用新的转基因策略,如创制智能不育系等,使得转基因大米的安全性大大提高之后,再进行转基因大米的人体试验;第二,必需遵循转基因大米人体试验的伦理原则:个人知情同意原则、不伤害原则、公平分配利益与承担风险原则;最后,人体试验要严格依照相关管理程序提交申请,由特设的伦理审查委员会审议批准后才能进行.     

多一点科学理性会让我们生活得更美好

社会上普遍关注PX项目、转基因、食品添加剂等多个科学发展问题。谈及色变,霎时间科技这个温和的可爱的人物似乎在谈论间变得那么不可理喻和不值得相信。然而盲从盲信甚至反智带给人们的不是温暖安全,而是更加容易为神神鬼鬼和神功异能等所俘获。掌握科学理性的方法和拥有科学质疑探索的精神将会是我们所需的抗生素,多一点科学理性,多一份美好生活。     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Mythological Underpinnings of Feminine Development

In the manner of Oedipus Rex, the myth of Myrrha—a story about a daughter's initiation of sex with her father—promises to divulge insights about feminine development. Given parallels between these two myths, the author asks why Jung identified Electra rather than Myrrha as the feminine counterpart to Oedipus, and revisits Freud's and Jung's differing interpretations of the incest theme in personality development. To break open the metaphor of Myrrha's incest, the author analyzes a similar account of incest in the Old Testament story of Lot and his wife and finds that they share a theme of female bitterness related to wounding of the mother and its arresting effect on the daughter's maturation. The article then considers the Demeter-Persephone myth, a tale not of incest but rape in Persephone's initiation into womanhood. In contrast to Myrrha, Persephone's development unfolds with strong maternal support tempered by the opposing claims on her by the masculine. The article draws these stories together to illuminate the archetypal forces that drive feminine development as well as the human affairs that resist and complicate them. The article concludes with a case study of a client whose developmental “stuckness” follows the contours of the Myrrha myth.     

Alchemical dragons: Winnicott’s reaching towards the objective psyche

This paper was presented to the inaugural joint conference of The Society of Analytical Psychology and the West Midlands Institute of Psychotherapy in the autumn of 2020. It develops the author’s interest (2011, 2015, 2016) in Winnicott’s engagement with Jung by looking at the imagery of Michael Maier’s alchemical work of 1617, Atalanta Fugiens, through the lens of Matte Blanco’s bi-logic.     

In Memory of Anthony Stevens: A Career Retrospective with Emphasis on His Formative Role in the Archetype Debate

This paper celebrates the life and legacy of psychiatrist and Jungian author Anthony Stevens, who passed away at age 90 on July 13, 2023. It outlines Stevens's origins as a research fellow in Greece, where his work on infant attachment led to a lifelong dedication to establishing the biological and evolutionary foundation of psychiatry. It details his instrumental role in the debate about the theory of archetypes and describes the current state of the literature including the responses and reactions to Stevens's biological innatist position. The paper concludes with a career retrospective in which Stevens's major works are introduced and briefly described.