Van Gogh and the life chart.

Adolf Meyer originally devised the life chart in order to chronologically document a person's major life events and significant illness experiences over his or her life span. It is the purpose of this report to update Meyer's life chart through the presentation of the life events and illnesses of the famous artist Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh's life illustrates significant early (predisposing) life stresses, as well as clusterings of stressful (precipitating) life events occurring proximal to the occurrence of his several illnesses. Through the use of a life chart an understanding of why an individual becomes ill at a particular time in their life is enlarged. In addition, a systematic basis for formulating prognosis becomes available.     

A response to Penrose’s “Sandel on enhancement: A response to Van Niekerk”

In this article the author responds to Brian Penrose’s critical response to his (Van Niekerk’s) article “Biomedical enhancement and the pursuit of mastery and perfection: a critique of the views of Michael Sandel” that appeared in the PSSA conference edition of the SAJP 33(2), 2014. While Van Niekerk is appreciative of the opportunity for spirited dialogue that Penrose’s response provides, he nevertheless takes issue with several charges Penrose raises. He responds to Penrose’s claims that Van Niekerk does not fully understand “the Sandel project” and thus that Van Niekerk creates and shoots down a straw man in his argument against Sandel. Van Niekerk argues that Penrose’s claims are indicative of significant methodological differences between their respective approaches. Penrose acknowledges the “fuzziness” of Sandel’s arguments with regards to biomedical enhancement. He then develops an interpretation of Sandel’s views that claims to have “filled in the complete picture” of what Sandel attempts to do, and then reproaches Van Niekerk for not responding to that “completed picture”, i.e. the “Sandel project”. Van Niekerk finds this to be an unreasonable and methodologically highly problematic demand on him. Van Niekerk responds to a number of Penrose’s arguments, and then concludes that while there are, of course, good reasons to exercise caution at the prospect of biomedical enhancement with regard to its risks, the possibilities offered by enhancement need not elicit a prima facie reaction of pessimism. Rather, such prospects can also be regarded in a positive light as an exciting opportunity to take our own evolution in hand.     

Heidegger’s Temple: How Truth Happens When Nothing is Portrayed

In his essay The Origin of the Work of Art, Martin Heidegger discusses three examples of artworks: a painting by Van Gogh of peasant shoes, a poem about a Roman fountain, and a Greek temple. The new entry on Heidegger’s aesthetics in the Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy, written by Iain Thomson, focuses on this essay, and Van Gogh’s painting in particular. It argues that Heidegger uses Van Gogh’s painting to set art, as the happening of truth, in relation to ‘nothing’, which is a key term in Heidegger’s essays leading up to The Origin of the Work of Art. This paper extends a similar analysis to the Greek temple as a way of offering an exposition of Heidegger’s concerns in the essay. It begins by briefly outlining Thomson’s argument that Heidegger relates Van Gogh’s painting to ‘nothing’, and indicating the way this argument can be extended to the Greek temple. It then discusses three ways in which ‘nothing’ can open up the significance of the temple as a work of art in which truth happens: (1) it is not concerned with objective representation; (2) it depicts the primal strife of earth and world, concealing and unconcealing; (3) it is fundamentally historical.     

Dutch immigrant policies before and after the Van Gogh murder

The murders of the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn and the filmmaker Theo van Gogh have made headlines internationally and made readers wonder what happened in the country that used to have a reputation for tolerance and practice integration policies for immigrants that were seen as progressive in the European context. This article outlines the background of these spectacular and tragic events. Specifically it tries to assess the consequences for integration policies in the Netherlands. First an outline is given of the “Ethnic Minorities Policies” started in the Netherlands in the early 1980s, how the framing of that policy changed gradually in the 1990s to a more Republican integration policy and underwent a final change from 2002 on towards an assimilationist policy that serves restrictive and selective admission of immigrants. Secondly, as a background to these changes the public and political discourse on immigration and integration and integration is analyzed: from a depoliticized, consensus-policy in the 1980s, the gradual politicization of these topics in the 1990s, towards the populist rhetoric and policy argumentations after the turn of the century. Thirdly, the murder on Van Gogh and its interpretations by politics, media and society is specifically analysed. Finally the consequences for integration policies in the Netherlands are assessed.     

Family Coping During Hospitalization of Children with Chronic Illnesses

Information about family coping when a child with a chronic illness is hospitalized for procedures related to his or her illness is needed. The current research presents the results of two pilot studies designed to assess family resilience and coping, during a hospitalization for medical procedures for a child with a chronic condition. Sixty-one parents participated in the first study and reported on their child’s hospital experiences and completed a survey designed to assess family coping. Twelve mothers and one grandmother completed interviews examining their perceptions of their coping, siblings’ coping, and coping of the child with an illness for study two. Results of Study 1 indicated parents’ perceived the family as resilient. Cognitive strategies were used to see the hospital stay as positive for the child or to accept what had to occur as having the possibility of improving the child’s life. Some of the mothers mentioned financial stress as being difficult for the family. Results of Study 2 also supported resilient functioning for mothers, siblings, and children with illnesses. Mothers reported they stayed strong for their child. Siblings could serve as protectors, helpers, and companions and were described as adapting well. Children with illnesses used distraction (e.g., play, art, music) to facilitate their coping. Findings of this study indicated parents perceived the family as coping well and supporting the child with an illness. Future research will need to assess perceptions of siblings and fathers and assess family members’ perspectives at different times over the course of children’s illnesses.     

Humanity in Schillebeeckx’s Hermeneutic Phenomenology. Towards a Methodology

This paper offers an analysis of Edward Schillebeeckx’s insights on different perceptions of revelation as related to concepts like salvation, God, church, human experience and creation in the work Jesus in Our Western Culture. The incentive of Schillebeeckx’s hermeneutical method in nowadays Western phenomenology, upon which God “breathed his breath of life”, triggered our interest in meanings which Schillebeeckx ascribes to human history as the realm of God’s work for the benefit of men and women. This meaning is suggested in the very beginning of the book by its original Dutch title If Politics is not Everything. As stated in this work’s introduction, Schillebeeckx’s main theme is the origin of salvation in the humanum, from the Abba experience to nowadays revelatory events. Our attempt is to see how Schillebeeckx’s humanum, which is the embodiment of human experience of consciousness, becomes relevant for the Christian doctrines and why Schillebeeckx reckons that bringing them together would impact both his worldview and Western culture.     

Sandel on enhancement: A response to Van Niekerk

Michael Sandel has criticised recent developments in, and towards, the biomedical enhancement of human beings. His view is criticised by Anton A. van Niekerk in a recent issue of this journal. Van Niekerk takes Sandel to task for rejecting enhancement tout court, for advancing inconsistencies, and for regarding enhancement as a “drive for mastery”. In this paper I argue that Van Niekerk’s critique fails. After discussing what we should mean by “enhancement”, and presenting an overview of what I call “the Sandelian picture” (of enhancement), I go on to address Van Niekerk’s criticisms. The first, I argue, either begs the question or attacks a straw person. The second pays insufficient attention to things Sandel says which, once on the table, leave his “inconsistency” critique inadequately argued for. The third also rests on misunderstandings and, as such, attacks a straw person. While stopping short of defending Sandel’s position outright, and allowing that Van Niekerk makes some important critical points, I maintain the three central criticisms fall short as an argued-for critique of Sandel’s view.     

Johann Christian August Heinroth (1773–1843): the first professor of psychiatry as a psychotherapist

Heinroth is known as the first professor of psychiatry. His chair was established 200 years ago on the 21st of October 1811. His major importance for the history of psychotherapy has not yet been acknowledged. Heinroth regarded restriction as well as activation as fundamental remedies for mental illnesses. Restriction meant making a voluntary decision to live a life based on religious faith and to abstain from earthly satisfaction. Within his specific psychotherapeutical module—the ‘‘direct-psychic’’method—he utilized the patient’s mental powers—mood, mind and will, but also his spirituality. His therapeutic approach additionally contained elements of cognitive,behavioral and conversational therapy.     

Bratman on identity over time and identification at a time

According to reductionists about agency, an agent’s bringing something about is reducible to states and events (such as desires and beliefs) involving the agent bringing something about. Many have worried that reductionism cannot accommodate robust forms of agency, such as self-determination. One common reductionist answer to this worry (which I call “identification reductionism”) contends that self-determining agents are identified with certain states and events, and so these states and events causing a decision counts as the agent’s self-determining the decision. In this paper, I discuss Michael Bratman’s well-known identification reductionist theory and his general strategy of grounding an agent’s identification at a time in the agent’s identity over time. I develop two constraints that an adequate identification reductionist theory must satisfy, argue that Bratman’s theory cannot satisfy both, and show that his general strategy for grounding an agent’s identification at a time in the agent’s identity over time is without merit.     

Stability of Majority Attitudes toward Multiculturalism in the Netherlands between 1999 and 2007

The success of multiculturalism as an ideology to deal with cultural differences depends upon the level of support for multiculturalism by majority members. It has been argued that support for multiculturalism in the Netherlands has substantially changed in response to various national and international events, such as the terrorist attacks on New York (2001), Madrid (2004), and London (2005), and the assassinations of popular politician Fortuyn (2002) and controversial movie director Van Gogh (2004). We compared survey data on Dutch majority attitudes in 1999 ( n = 333), 2001 ( n = 1,266), 2004 ( n = 246), 2005 ( n = 170), 2006 ( n = 306), and 2007 ( n = 464). Contrary to popular belief, we found little evidence for enduring attitude changes over the nine-year period. Implications for studies of multiculturalism and for policy-makers are discussed.
Le succès du multiculturalisme en tant qu'idéologie pour appréhender les différences culturelles dépend du soutien dont il bénéficie de la part de la majorité de la population. On a dit que l'approbation du multiculturalisme s'était profondément altérée aux Pays-Bas à la suite de divers évènements nationaux et internationaux, telles que les attaques terroristes sur New York (2001), Madrid (2004) et Londres (2005), et les assassinats du politicien populaire Fortuyn (2002) et du metteur en scène controversé Van Gogh (2004). On a comparé des données d'enquête sur les attitudes majoritaires chez les Néerlandais en 1999 ( n = 333), 2001 ( n = 1,266), 2004 ( n = 246), 2005 ( n = 170), 2006 ( n = 306) et 2007 ( n = 464). A l'encontre de la croyance populaire, un changement d'attitudes durable est loin d'être évident sur cette période de neuf ans. On discute des conséquences pour les études sur le multiculturalisme et les projets politiques.     

Pattern as Inspiration and Mode of Communication in the Works of Van Gogh

A close study of specific patterning in Van Gogh's drawings (revelatory because of their absence of his celebratory color) provides new insight into pattern as a direct expression of nonverbal meaning. A study of his articulation of pattern through form, plus a close reading of his writings about difficulties he encountered because of his unique vision, show how Van Gogh's creativity reflects a need to express the inexpressible that derives from an idiosyncratic way of perceiving self and the world. We apply critical theories of modern art as a manifestation of unconsciously expressed meaning and explications of differences between the experience of color versus form, and indices of how nonverbal meanings are noted and anchored. We conclude that Van Gogh's unique and personal perceptual style both served his developmental needs and exacerbated his distress, contributing both to his mental instability and his artistic greatness.     

Immediacy ‐ subjectivity ‐ revelation

Kierkegaard's fundamental view of life was negative and Gnostic. It was through his interpretation of life that his vision of the nothingness of existence became positive. What formed the material of Kierkegaard's interpretation was the common experience of existence, what ‘all’ men know. His concept of existence has a threefold content : immediacy, subjectivity, and the Christian Revelation. Immediate reality that is not made content of subjectivity becomes empty changeableness, and subjectivity that does not appropriate immediacy deprives itself of the concrete (as with the mystic). Immediacy's ‘text’ first acquires a qualitative transcendent content through the ‘repetition’ of subjective choice. Kierkegaard takes this appropriation of the immediate to be also the self‐development of subjectivity. Consciousness of guilt is an expression of a God‐relationship. Implicated with this consciousness is the consciousness of the nothingness of everything — echoed in man as dread. Yet even when subjectivity is conscious of guilt the truth remains immanent in subjectivity. In the Christian Revelation truth is outside man: subjectivity is untruth (sin).     

Second Nature and Historical Change in Hegel’s Philosophy of History

Hegel’s philosophy of history is fundamentally concerned with how shapes of life collapse and transition into new shapes of life. One of the distinguishing features of Hegel’s concern with how a shape of life falls apart and becomes inadequate is the role that habit plays in the transition. A shape of life is an embodied form of existence for Hegel. The animating concepts of a shape of life are affectively inscribed on subjects through complex cultural processes. This paper examines the argument Hegel puts forward in his Lectures on the Philosophy of World History for why civilizations come to atrophy and examines the decisive role habit plays in this process. The paper concludes with a discussion of the way in which the central role of second nature in historical transitions and norm formation conflicts with Brandom’s account of norm formation in Hegel’s thought.     

A serious misunderstanding: synchronicity and the generation of meaning

Abstract: This paper points to the problem caused by the fact that numerous academic ‘Jung studies’ are conducted on the basis of the English translation of Jung's works without any knowledge of his original texts and illustrates it with the misconstrual that Jung's concept of synchronicity suffered in the studies of many recent authors, as exemplified by two articles in the September 2011 issue of the JAP. The translation of ‘sinngemäße Koinzidenz’ as ‘meaningful coincidence’ seduced those writers to take synchronistic ‘meaning’ as meaning the meaningfulness of life or even as ‘transcendent meaning’, which is incompatible with Jung's synchronicity concept, and to replace Jung's strictly intellectual project of establishing an explanatory principle for synchronistic events (in addition to the principle of causality for all other events) by the fundamentally different project of focusing on the impact that such events may have for the experiencing subjective mind, on ‘human meaning‐making’, and, with a decidedly anti‐intellectual bias, of hoping for ‘shifts into non‐rational states of mind’.     

Therapy and the aesthetics of the self

Post-structuralists argue that personal identity is a function of societal power dynamics. This becomes especially problematic for persons recruited into problem-saturated identities. In this paper, inspired by Foucault's call for us to ‘create ourselves as a work of art’ (p. 262), I explore the therapeutic value of an aesthetic approach to identity. Instead of orienting to the client as one to be known and understood, we might envisage his or her life as an open-ended, never quite finalised oeuvre. Identity is therefore conceptualised not as something one ‘is’, but as a creative performance. A therapeutic case is presented to highlight some of the possibilities and challenges associated with such an approach.     

Bowlby before Bowlby: The sources of an intellectual departure in psychoanalysis and psychology

John Bowlby's first scientific papers express a viewpoint of the etiology of childhood disorders that gradually developed during his university years and the first years of his professional life. As becomes clear from, among other things, Bowlby's private correspondence, it was the period spent as a student at Cambridge, his work as a teacher at two progressive schools, and his work at a child guidance clinic that allowed him to articulate a view on childhood deviancy that was at variance with the Kleinian variant of psychoanalysis. Bowlby's position as an ‘independent’ thinker in the British Psycho-Analytical Society can be understood against the background of these intellectual influences. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Bhaskar on Open and Closed Systems

Bhaskar’s articulation of his ‘transcendental realism’ includes an argument for a form of causal emergence which would mean the rejection of physicalism, by means of rejecting the causal closure of the physical. His argument is based on an analysis of the conditions for closure, where closed systems manifest regular or Humean relations between events. Bhaskar argues that the project of seeking closure entails commitment to a strong (and implausible) reductionism, which in turn entails the impossibility of science itself; and concludes that we should endorse causal emergence. I argue that Bhaskar’s case grossly overreaches itself; and that he fails to establish the emergentist conclusions which he asserts. Consequently his programme poses no significant threat to physicalism.     

Dion, Theon, and Daup

Abstract: Peter van Inwagen's puzzle of Descartes's foot, and Chrysippus’ similar puzzle of Dion and Theon, do not have as much bearing on the Doctrine of Arbitrary Undetached Parts (or DAUP) as is usually supposed. Van Inwagen's argument against DAUP works via his rejection of the “Remainder Principle”, which, I argue, is in fact independent of DAUP itself.