“That's Not Analytic”: Theory Pressure and “Chaotic Possibilities” in Analytic Training

Hoping to create my own analytic voice, I experienced complex pressure to conform to the venerated rules of American ego psychology. I could find myself looking over my shoulder, and my training could become saturated with received ideas. Using complex systems theory as a ground, I contrast the constricting pressure to conform that I experienced with three supervisors with the openness that I found with my fourth. I propose that analytic training is a nonlinear, complex developmental process that occurs in a space of “chaotic possibilities” (Glatzer-Levy, 2004)     

Mencius?? aesthetics and its position

Mencius’ aesthetics unfolded around the ideal personality in his mind. Such an ideal personality belonged to a great man who was sublime, practical and honorable, and it was presented as the beauty of magnificence or the beauty of masculinity. Mencius put forward many propositions such as “the completed goodness that is brightly displayed is called greatness,” nourishing “one’s grand qi 气 (the great morale personality),” “only after a man is a sage can he completely suits himself to his own form,” “the saints only apprehended before me that of which my mind approves along with other men,” being “conscious of sincerity on self-examination,” and flowing “abroad, above and beneath, like that of Heaven and Earth,” all of which described an ideal personality through the course of its formation and its psychological experience. As a prominent school before the Qin dynasty, Mencius’ aesthetics greatly developed the Confucian teaching of “internal sage.” It shared many similarities with Zhuangzi’s thought and was also an aesthetic mode opposed to the latter. Both kinds of aesthetics were prominent: Mencius’ teaching was like imposingly towering and muscularly overflowing majestic mountains; Zhuangzi’s thought was like gracefully flowing water with an air of femininity. In real life though, Mencius’ teaching has greater practical significance in addressing the unbearable lightness of being, a disease of modernity.     

Training and education for therapeutic practitionership: “Trans-modern” perspectives

In this paper I revisit the theme of therapy training, examined in this journal a decade ago in House (1996 House, R. 1996. The professionalization of counselling: A coherent ‘case against’?. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 9(4): 343–358. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar]. I first outline what I mean by the term “trans-modern” in the context of debates about “postmodern” and deconstructive approaches to therapy. I then explore the configuration that therapy training might plausibly take when technological rationality's positivistic certainties are dramatically undermined, and the path to becoming a therapy practitioner coheres more closely with the trans-modern, “New Paradigm” Zeitgeist–a world-view which both acknowledges the (albeit unbalanced) contributions of modernity, yet takes us well beyond modernity's constraining limitations. To illustrate my argument I focus on and problematize the role of theory in therapy training. I conclude with some speculations about plausible paths that a trans-modern approach to therapy training might profitably take in future.     

Affirmation and Denial in Aristotle’s De interpretatione

Topoi - Modern logicians have complained that Aristotelian logic lacks a distinction between predication (including negation) and assertion, and that predication, according to the Aristotelians,...     

Part and Whole in Aristotle‘s Political Philosophy

It is often held that according to Aristotle the city is a natural organism. One major reason for this organic interpretation is no doubt that Aristotle describes the relationship between the individual and the city as a part-whole relationship, seemingly the same relationship that holds between the parts of a natural organism and the organism itself. Moreover, some scholars (most notably Jonathan Barnes) believe this view of the city led Aristotle to accept an implicit totalitarianism. I argue, however, that an investigation of the various ways Aristotle describes parts and wholes reveals that for Aristotle the city has a unity (and thus a nature) quite different from that of a natural organism.     

Assessment of Li 利 in the Mencius and the Mozi

The attitude toward li 利 is often identified as a key difference between the Mencius 孟子 and the Mozi 墨子. A common view is that for the Mencius, rightness (yi 義) and li are incompatible; but for the Mozi they are not necessarily so. In this paper I argue that the Mencius and the Mozi are in broad agreement on the issue of li, and their attitudes toward li are not as different as may seem at first glance. If we take a finer-grained understanding of li in two ways, namely the self-regarding li and the other-regarding li, then both the Mencius and the Mozi would criticize the former but encourage the latter. The term li in the Mencius has a range of meanings, and it is not clear whether the Mencius actually opposes all li-pursuing activities. Mencius would agree with Mozi that, at least in some cases, one is obligated to seek li for others. Furthermore, despite their criticism of self-regarding li, both Mencius and Mozi allow that in some cases it is morally permissible to act from the motive of self-regarding li, as long as this motive coexists with the motive of rightness. That is, self-regarding li and rightness are not always mutually exclusive, even for Mencius, who seems to be more critical of li.     

Aristotle,Plato and Bhagvad Gita on the “Soul”

This paper broadly aims at examining the idea of the “soul” or “atma” in ancient Greece and in India during the Axial Age. Against the backdrop of this general understanding, an attempt is made at comprehending the idea of the soul in Plato’s Phaedo in the light, on the one hand of Aristotle’s De Anima and on the other of Bhagavad Gita (or Gita in short). It is opined that Socrates’s views, in Phaedo, are closer in spirit to the Hindu ideas of “atma” in the Upanishads and the Gita than to the Greek ideas of the “soul”. An attempt has been made to provide a background for this paradoxical event.

     

Introduction to Special Forum on “Politics and Virtue”

The Journal of Value Inquiry -     

Training and Supervising Lay Providers in Kenya: Strategies and Mixed-Methods Outcomes☆☆☆

ObjectiveTraining lay providers to deliver mental health interventions is both effective and cost-effective. However, more research is needed to document training and supervision procedures and to collect lay providers’ feedback.MethodsThis study documents training and supervision from a randomized controlled trial of the Shamiri intervention, a four-session, school-based intervention that significantly reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression in Kenyan adolescents. We delivered a 10-hour training to 13 lay providers, M (SD)_age = 21.00 (1.95), %_female = 61.54. We also hosted 30-minute supervision meetings twice weekly. Training and supervision were delivered primarily by undergraduates. Independent raters coded session recordings for fidelity and quality of services, and we collected quantitative and qualitative feedback from lay providers.ResultsReliability and mean ratings for all six of our fidelity and quality measures (delivering required content, adhering to specified details, thoroughness, skillfulness, clarity, and purity) were very good to excellent. Lay provider quantitative ratings of training were also overwhelmingly positive, with an overall satisfaction rating of 6.46/7.00. We identified central qualitative themes in lay provider comments: Generally, comments about training style, content, and personal interactions were overwhelmingly positive, and many lay providers reported personal growth. Comments about timing and location of training were mixed.ConclusionsThis study provides preliminary evidence that a very brief training delivered primarily by undergraduates can teach high school-graduate lay providers to deliver effective mental health interventions. Additionally, we discuss lessons learned and implications for future research, including the importance of considering local context when planning and of continuously collecting and addressing lay provider feedback.     

Natural Tensions in Aristotle’s Polis and Their Contemporary Manifestations

Topoi - In this paper, I perform an analysis of Aristotle’s organic analogy when discussing the different “organs” of the Greek polis. I argue that this analysis demonstrates that...     

Zhi 志 in Mencius: a Chinese notion of moral agency

Zhi is an important Chinese notion that conveys among other things human capacity to set aims, to determine a course of action, or to persist in a resolve. The term naturally turns up in Chinese contributions to Western Free Will debate. In this paper, I explain zhi by working out a comparison that goes from East to West. I do a three-fold textual analysis of zhi focusing on the Mencius. I outline different usages found in the text, examine a nuanced, dominant meaning suggested in 2A.2, and discuss notional features based on language patterns. My analysis yields a more homegrown understanding of zhi which I shall compare with Western expressions of moral agency.     

Psychoanalytic Training: The “Faculty System”

The primary and ideal version of the task faced by training institutes is simple: to help aspiring candidates become competent. Candidates receive assistance in developing their knowledge and skills as practitioners. But to look at training more closely is to see a far more complex set of demands and expectations. Indeed, training as it is actually conducted in most institutes can easily seem inconsistent, contradictory, and, at times, self-defeating. Moreover, in the golden age of psychoanalysis, training was considerably more haphazard and casual than it has become, but our efforts to become more systematic and thoughtful about training coincide with a general decline in our level of originality. Why has training, the development of competence, seemingly so clear and simple a task, become so complex and confusing?     

Politics and Practical Wisdom: Rethinking Aristotle’s Account of Phronesis

This paper examines the nature of Aristotelian phronesis, how it is attained, and who is able to attain it inside the polis. I argue that, for Aristotle, attaining phronesis does not require an individual to perfect his practical wisdom to the point where he never makes a mistake, but rather it is attained by certain individuals who are unable to make a mistake of this kind due to their education, habituation, and position in society.     

The Pursuit of Perfection: Vice or Virtue in Judaism?

This article explores the issue of perfectionism, which the author asserts is the underlying dynamic in the emotional disorders of many religious patients. Judaism's attitude toward perfectionism, the use of religion as a defense by perfectionistic patients and the degree to which religious issues should be the focus of therapy are discussed. The role of a peer supervision group in counteracting the perfectionistic tendencies of some therapists is also addressed. These issues are illustrated with three clinical vignettes.