The Primal Scene Phenomenon: Witnessing Parental Sexual Activity and Sociosexual Orientation

Sigmund Freud coined the term urszene—or “primal scene”—to describe the experience of children witnessing their parents engaging in sexual activity. We examined the historical context in which the primal scene emerged, considered contemporary views of the primal scene, and conducted two empirical studies (N = 961, 1390) to investigate Freud’s proposition that children who witness the primal scene would later be prone to “attacks of falling physically in love,” which we operationalized as sociosexual orientation. In both studies, individuals who witnessed the primal scene as children had a more unrestricted sociosexual orientation than those who did not. Additionally, men had a more unrestricted sociosexual orientation than women. Altogether, these results suggest a possible link between primal scene exposure and sociosexual orientation. In contrast to psychoanalytic theories, we offer psychodynamic and normative social explanations of the primal scene phenomenon.     

Collaborative relationships and dialogic conversations: ideas for a relationally responsive practice

The author presents a set of philosophical assumptions that provide a different language for thinking about and responding to the persistent questions: “How can our therapy practices have relevance for people's everyday lives in our fast changing world, what is this relevance, and who determines it?” “Why do some shapes of relationships and forms of talk engage while others alienate? Why do some invite possibilities and ways forward not imagined before and others imprison us?” The author then translates the assumptions to inform a therapist's philosophical stance: a way of being. Next, she discusses the distinguishing features of the stance and how it facilitates collaborative relationships and dialogic conversations that offer fertile means to creative ends for therapists and their clients.     

Finding unconscious phantasy in the session: Recognizing form

The concept of unconscious phantasy has played – and still does play – a central role in psychoanalytic thinking. The author discusses the various forms by which unconscious phantasies manifest themselves in the analytic session as they are lived out and enacted in the transference relationship. This paper also aims at expanding the kleinian theory of symbol formation by exploring the impact that emotional aspects connected to early “raw’, “pre‐symbolic’ phantasies have in the analysis and how their corporeal elements interlock with the signifying process. The author follows the expressive forms of primitive unconscious phantasies as they appear in a psychoanalytic session and proposes that the emotional effect that can be experienced in the communication between patient and analyst depends in great measure on “semiotic’ aspects linked to primitive phantasies that are felt and lived out in embodied ways. Rather than a move from unconscious phantasies that typify symbolic equations to those showing proper symbolization, these can coexist and simultaneously find their way to what is communicated to the analyst. As early phantasies bear an intimate connection to the body and to unprocessed emotions when they are projected into the analyst they can produce a powerful resonance, sometimes also experienced in a physical way and forming an integral part of the analyst's counter‐transference.     

The Queerness of Distraction

Queer theorists most commonly challenge conventional pictures of the stable self by pointing out ways in which the self can be opened towards others (i.e. “spatially” disrupted). This essay demonstrates how the recent work of Paul North on “primal distraction” supplies material for an expansion of this critique by allowing theorists to better understand how the self can also be “temporally” disrupted, its apparently smooth progression through time being in fact punctuated by fundamental discontinuities. Taking up a recent monograph by Kent Brintnall as a case study in the fruitfulness of bringing North’s work to bear on queer studies of religion and subjectivity, the article discusses distraction’s relevance not just for understanding queer temporality but also for reimagining theological problems in areas such as soteriology, eschatology, and mysticism. The article thus both sketches out a particular project for queer theory and points to the broader research programs in theory and theology that such a project enables.     

THE FATE OF AGGRESSION IN MASO‐MASOCHISTIC RELATIONSHIPS

This paper examines an underexplored dimension of interpersonal relating: the relationship formed between two individuals who relate to each other in masochistic ways. The common assumption is that a sadist forms an alliance with a masochist, and that a balance is struck between an individual who is “one up” and another who is “one down.” However, relationships are frequently established between two people who both experience themselves as chronically “one down,” each playing victim to the other's aggression. This paper explores disavowed aggression in this type of couple, the implications of this disavowal for treatment, and the sadomasochistic reverberations within the therapist.     

TWO TYPES OF “EXPLAINING AWAY” ARGUMENTS IN THE COGNITIVE SCIENCE OF RELIGION

This article discusses “explaining away” arguments in the cognitive science of religion (CSR). I distinguish two rather different ways of explaining away religion, one where religion is shown to be incompatible with scientific findings (EA1) and one where supernatural entities are rendered superfluous by scientific explanations (EA2). After discussing possible objections to both varieties, I argue that the latter way offers better prospects for successfully explaining away religion but that some caveats must be made. In a second step, I spell out how CSR can be used to spell out an argument of the second kind. One argument (“Bias Explaining Away”) renders religion superfluous by claiming that it results from a cognitive bias and one (“Adaptationist Explaining Away”) does the same by claiming religion was (is) a useful evolutionary adaptation. I discuss some strengths and weaknesses of both arguments.     

Blind mothers of suffering babies

Abstract

In this paper, the author presents case material related to a patient who asked for psychotherapy as she was having difficulty managing her problems within the family. This clinical vignette reveals how some mothers have difficulties being, as Winnicott said, “ordinary devoted mothers.” These mothers are “psychologically blind,” in that they not able to psychologically “see” or feel the pain of their babies or children. The author discusses the case material using Winnicott and Bion’s essential concepts of how the patient is deprived of maternal functioning.     

The Essentialized Self: Implications for Motivation and Self‐Regulation

Persuasion attempts are more likely to stick and less likely to be counterargued if they fit the ways people naturally make sense of themselves and their world. One way to do that is to yoke persuasion to the social categories people experience as “true” and “natural.” Gelman and Echelbarger's (2019) integrative review of essentialism outlines the emergence of essentialism in children's reasoning. Connecting their discussion with identity‐based motivation theory (D. Oyserman, 2015) and a culture‐as‐situated cognition (D. Oyserman, 2017) perspective, this commentary addresses how an essentialized self can facilitate or impair motivation and self‐regulation and potentiate or undermine persuasive efforts.     

The cultural part of cognition

This paper discusses the role of cultural anthropology in Cognitive Science. Culture is described as a very large pool of information passed along from generation to generation, composed of learned “programs” for action and understanding. These cultural programs differ in important ways from computer programs. Cultural programs tend to be unspecified and inexplicit rather than clearly stated algorithms learned through a slow process of guided discovery, and involve the manipulation of content based rather than formal symbol systems. Cultural symbol systems often have affective as well as objective referents, giving them a strong directive effect. The argument is made that in the process of repeated social transmission and use, cultural programs come to take forms which have a good “fit” to the natural capacities and constraints of the human information processing system.     

Theological Educators and their Concerns about Technology

Abstract. Based on results from interviews with theological educators at forty‐five seminaries in North America, the author begins by listing twenty‐six concerns expressed about technology in theological education, particularly the concerns about electronically mediated distance education. These concerns are categorized loosely under three headings: Practical and Personal Concerns, Pedagogical and Educational Concerns, and Philosophical and Theological Concerns. More important than the list is the sociology of decision‐making surrounding technology among theological educators. In the final section of the article entitled, “how concerns about technology function within institutions,” the author discusses how it is that these concerns are allowed to function in very different ways across the spectrum of theological education today.     

Experience and the Absolute other

In Experience and the Absolute (2004) and other works, Jean‐Yves Lacoste develops a phenomenology of a way of life he calls “liturgy,” in which one refuses one's being‐in‐the‐world in favor of a more basic form of existence he calls “being‐before‐God.” In this essay I argue that if there is indeed such a thing as being‐before‐God, Lacoste has not sufficiently considered the possibility that it is characterized in part by a disturbance of one's being‐in‐the‐world similar to, or perhaps even identical with, the disruptive encounter with the human other that constitutes the self as responsible according to Levinas's unique notion of ethics. Lacoste's dismissal of Levinas, evidently based on a misunderstanding of what Levinas means by the word “ethics,” leads him to overlook the potential relevance of Levinas's ideas to his phenomenological project at a number of significant points in his work.     

Bioethics and Pastoral Concern: Some Possible New Directions in Pastoral Theology

This special issue of the journal is comprised of papers given at a conference in May 2011 at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston on the theme of “Social Justice and the Health Professions.” This article offers the following rationale for this special issue in particular and for pastoral theologians to contribute to bioethics in general: (1) two contemporary theological thinkers in bioethics, Karen Lebacqz and Lisa Cahill, argue that theological discussions of justice broaden and deepen discussions of justice in mainstream bioethics—thus the focus on social justice provides an area for interdisciplinary and intersectional work; (2) pastoral theologians have not, to a great extent, contributed to discussions of religion and bioethics—this has been the territory of theological ethicists, especially during the 1970s; (3) one influential pastoral theologian, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, has called for (a) a broader concern for health in pastoral theology beyond psychological health and (b) more disciplinary approaches within pastoral theology beyond psychology so as to attend to “the living human web”; and (4) one way to advance the theological contributions in bioethics is by inviting pastoral theologians to focus on matters of social justice (an established area of intersection) as identified by health professionals, thus providing (a) new areas for inquiry and (b) new theological perspectives in bioethics. This article also suggests that pastoral theologians can contribute to bioethics by focusing on both “macro” issues (issues relating to structures and groups) and “micro” issues (issues relating to persons and experiences) as a way of pursuing the topic of justice in bioethics. The bulk of this article focuses on “macro” issues, but, in closing, the author articulates how he has been addressing “micro” issues in his own work. The author argues that both of these approaches—“macro” and “micro”—are legitimate ways for pastoral theologians to express pastoral concerns in bioethics.     

BION'S “EVIDENCE” AND HIS THEORETICAL STYLE

The author discusses “Evidence” (1976), a brief but very intense and fascinating paper in which Bion provides a unique opportunity to see him at work in his clinical practice. In the story of a patient, Bion reconstructs two sessions that are all the more true for being imaginary—i.e., narrated (“dreamed”). The matter of language and style in psychoanalysis is of the utmost importance, according to Bion—one could say, literally, a matter of life or death. In Bion's discourse, writing, reading, and analysis converge in the same place, the author notes; all are significant if they involve an experience of truth and the ability to learn from experience.     

The Role of Fear in Our Love of God: A Lutheran Perspective

Abstract : Lutheran Christians in particular have been taught in the Catechism to “fear and love God.” This article questions the assumption that in a contemporary context, fear and love can helpfully co‐exist, examining the different ways in which “fear of God” is a challenging concept for twenty‐first‐century Christians to understand. The article concludes with suggestions for how “fear of God” might be re‐interpreted and re‐articulated in a constructive way, leading to a more meaningful Christian life in the world today.     

A case of sadomasochistic transference: the analyst's contributions to perverse enactments

A young woman who came for treatment of anxiety and depression is presented in a detailed case report. She developed an erotized transference that was predominantly sadomasochistic and included her intention to torture and castrate the analyst. The author demonstrates how the analyst's behavior, including countertransference contributions, assisted in shaping the vicissitudes of sadomasochistic transference paradigms. A collusion was established between patient and analyst in a manner that enabled the analytic dyad to work productively toward an eventual resolution of the patient's conflicts. The author discusses the case's complexities pertaining to enactments, while emphasizing the importance of carefully monitoring and addressing countertransference experiences that mold and shape such a collusion.     

The Pedagogy of the Online Wisdom Community: Forming Church Ministers in a Digital Age

Abstract. While electronic learning is transforming the face of higher education today, some in the theological community question whether it is appropriate for the specific goals of graduate level theological formation for ministry. Drawing on the work of one theological faculty, this article answers yes. The author describes the school's hybrid model of distance education pedagogy. He discusses the underlying teaching and learning principles that guided the faculty in their development of this model, and, in particular, the pedagogical ideal of the learning cohort as a “wisdom community.” Web‐based instruction can be effectively designed to nurture wisdom communities for integrative learning. The author describes the “pedagogy of the online wisdom community” from his experience of Web‐based distance education teaching. The growing demand for ministry formation programs, particularly in mission areas, underlines the urgent need for continued study of the role of technology in theological pedagogy.     

Does intention involve belief?

Cognitivists think that intention necessarily involves belief; noncognitivists deny this claim. I argue that both sides of the debate have so far overlooked that the beliefs involved in intention are first‐personal beliefs and therefore relevantly different from ordinary beliefs that stand in need of justification through evidence. This move substantially changes the cognitivist thesis, and in such a way that the noncognitivist objections can be avoided. In Section 2, I lay out the intuitions behind cognitivism and the arguments against it that motivate noncognitivist positions. Section 3 discusses and dismisses Velleman's cognitivist response to these arguments. In Section 4, I introduce the distinction between “ordinary” and “first‐personal beliefs.” In Section 5, I argue that intention invariably involves a first‐personal belief that one will do what one intends to do. Finally, in Section 6, I return to the noncognitivist objections and show how my proposal answers them.     

From Mortification to Metamorphosis

The psychoanalyst treating primitively organized people has to be primitive and porous enough to carry the projections and enter into a seemingly undifferentiated envelope to establish contact. Like a member of a dysfunctional couple, he or she must evolve a separate skin so that language has the clout of bridge, rather than discharge. In this way, the analyst is trying to provide a distinct outcome to the formerly thwarted separation–individuation journey and in so doing functions simultaneously as a leading out and identificatory other. Language is only trusted when one trusts that living in one's own skin will not result in annihilation of self or other.

Inevitable breakdowns and failure of attunement occur in any treatment. An undiscovered countertransferential conflict can open up creative space, rather than ossify unresolved painful conflicts into stultified reenactments of sadomasochistic exchange. In two cases, feeling mortified, “Why couldn't I have known this sooner; how could I have done this?” the author finds that honest handling of such exposures marked the beginning of opening of creative space rather than a continuation of futile repetition.     

Teaching Exodus as “Problem Text”

This essay explores how one might use the “problem” of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart as a learning opportunity in the classroom. The author identifies two pedagogical aims: (1) cultivating more sophisticated, critical readers of the Bible; and (2) helping students reflect on the contextual nature of interpretation. The essay discusses in some detail various ways of teaching the text, including an exercise in close reading, examination of sources, and a selective study of the history of interpretation. It also explores various lessons to be learned from these exercises, and addresses applicability of the approaches to other teaching contexts. An earlier version of this paper was prepared for the “Problem Texts” group of the consultation “Teaching the Bible in the 21st Century,” held at the Wabash Center in Crawfordsville, Indiana.     

rethinking domestic violence in theory and practice

Drawing on the author's previous work, this article suggests that conceptual advantages result from envisioning domestic violence on a larger continuum of “normalized” to “extreme” sadomasochistic interactions (including gendered interactions that can also range from “ordinary” to “deviant” in how they are perceived). Thereafter, it may be harder to ignore how redressing social inequities involving gender as well as racial and class imbalances can amount, at least in terms of prevention, to anti-domestic violence measures of one important kind. More concretely, proceeding from the assumption that domestic violence remains disturbingly common (even though its exact scope is difficult to ascertain), this article contrasts how this social problem would best be approached in theory and how it often continues to be dealt with in practice. In making this comparison, a cursory review of recent policy developments in this area, from mandatory arrest policies and laws (and the criticisms these have engendered) to more recent interest in restorative justice and collaborative empowerment, is presented and incorporated into the paper's larger argument.