Editors’ Introduction to ‘Hegel and Sellars’: A Special Issue of International Journal of Philosophical Studies

ABSTRACT

In our Introduction to the special issue on Hegel and Sellars, we explain why there needs to be a more detailed analysis of the similarities and differences between Hegel and Sellars. Sellars is usually regarded as closer to Kant than to Hegel, but this obscures the more Hegelian features of his theoretical and practical philosophy. We briefly describe each article in the special issue.     

Psychoanalytische Neurosenlehre: Eine Einführung (Psychoanalytic Theory of Neuroses. An Introduction)

Abstract

Courage–a mental act that involves a decision to face and deal with emotional pain as honestly as possible without any guarantee of a positive outcome–resides at the heart of the therapeutic alliance and the work of psychodynamic group therapy. The author’s experience suggests that group therapists tend to take for granted or underestimate the courage required to join and participate in a psychodynamic therapy group. Written from the perspective of self-psychology, this article provides a theoretical rationale for courage recognition as a central and crucial leadership function. Examples of courage are presented and contrasted with behaviors that appear courageous but are not. A detailed case example discusses the courage it takes for dyads to work through reciprocal negative transferences. Suggestions are offered to assist the group therapist in recognizing and calling attention to courageous behaviors.

The author discusses some of the pitfalls of our profession’s preference for value–free language and then shows how and why the occasional and judicious use of non–neutral language, courage being an example, can facilitate and deepen group work.     

Community Coalition Building—Contemporary Practice and Research: Introduction

Over the last 20 years, coalition building has become a prominent intervention employed in communities across America. Coalitions provide community psychologists and those in related fields with a chance to work with whole communities and to better understand how to create community change. As we reflect on the past two decades of community coalition building, there are many questions to be answered about this phenomenon. Why has there been such an upsurge in community coalition building activity? What is the impact of this activity? What have we as students of community learned? What are the questions that we need to be asking to improve the effectiveness of coalition building efforts and their evaluation? This set of articles will review the state of the art of community coalition building in both practice and research. The structure of the articles reflects a collaborative process, with multiple contributors from different disciplines, using a variety of formats. Because this is an evolving phenomenon where the questions asked are as important as the lessons learned, many of the major sections include dialogues with community experts from across the country and from multiple fields, including community psychology, public health, political science, public administration, and grassroots organizing.     

Response to MacIntosh’s Review and Discussion of the Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy Journal Literature: A Self Psychological,Intersubjective Perspective

ABSTRACT

After expressing my appreciation to Heather MacIntosh and highlighting her article’s significant contributions to the field, I comment briefly on some of the implications of her methodology and findings. I then elaborate on her summary of the history of the application of self psychology (Kohut, 1971) and intersubjective systems theory (Stolorow, Brandshaft, and Atwood, 1987) to couple therapy, highlighting the key contributions of both theories and describing the current state of the field.     

The Shaping Influence of Film and Television on the Spirituality and Identity of Children and Adolescents: an educational response—part 3

This is the third in a series of articles in this journal which considers the shaping influence of film and television on children's spirituality (Rossiter, 1996, 1997). All three are framed within a particular conceptual scheme (discussed in detail in part 1) which sets out to promote theorizing (on the part of teachers and others interested in the question) about a range of possible psychological mechanisms through which film and television can have a spiritual and moral influence. The scheme is theoretical and pedagogical in focus; it is not directly concerned with research on causal links between the watching of film and television and children's thinking and behaviour. This article begins by concluding the discussion in part 2 on the potential influence of feature films and television. Then follows an exploration of the possible spiritual influence of television advertising.     

Self-constitution and “Infrastructural” Change: An Interdisciplinary Account of Psychoanalytic Action

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis - Beyond revealing unconscious pathological identifications and traits—including their past usefulness but current toxicity—what techniques in our...     

A Review of “Trauma and Human Existence: Autobiographical,Psychoanalytic and Philosophical Reflections”

Abstract

The author sets out to locate Bion's model of the mind within the developmental history of psychoanalysis, from Freud to Klein to Bion, using biographical material and clinical case examples, to illustrate Bion's concepts of container/contained, his understanding and use of projective identification, his extension of the use of the countertransference, and his differentiation between the psychotic and non-psychotic aspects of the mind. Links, and attacks against linking are discussed, as well as Bion's thoughts about learning versus knowing, being versus becoming and his emphasis on the essential importance of the development of the capacity to think.     

The Ethics of Accident-Algorithms for Self-Driving Cars: an Applied Trolley Problem?

Self-driving cars hold out the promise of being safer than manually driven cars. Yet they cannot be a 100 % safe. Collisions are sometimes unavoidable. So self-driving cars need to be programmed for how they should respond to scenarios where collisions are highly likely or unavoidable. The accident-scenarios self-driving cars might face have recently been likened to the key examples and dilemmas associated with the trolley problem. In this article, we critically examine this tempting analogy. We identify three important ways in which the ethics of accident-algorithms for self-driving cars and the philosophy of the trolley problem differ from each other. These concern: (i) the basic decision-making situation faced by those who decide how self-driving cars should be programmed to deal with accidents; (ii) moral and legal responsibility; and (iii) decision-making in the face of risks and uncertainty. In discussing these three areas of disanalogy, we isolate and identify a number of basic issues and complexities that arise within the ethics of the programming of self-driving cars.     

Introduction to Judit Mészáros' “Progress and Persecution in the Psychoanalytic Heartland: Antisemitism,Communism, and the Fate of Hungarian Psychoanalysis”

In this introduction, a rationale is developed for why these accounts of the historical movements and catastrophes in psychoanalytic institutional histories are so important. I argue that we need to contextualize theory and practice in political and historical terms, seeing that historical forces shape institutions, the fates of individuals, and the evolution of theory and practice. In particular, I consider the impact of the events in Hungary over nearly 50 years as crucial elements in the eclipse of Ferenczi and his school. I argue that we need to rethink our too-narrow focus on comparative theory and imagine the role of history in the fate of ideas. The impact of fascism and of Stalinism on psychoanalytic work and practitioners is seen here as a necessary element in our understanding of where we are now and from what cultural and historical experiences we have emerged.     

Extending the Field of Psychoanalytic Change: Exploratory–Assertive Motivation,Self-Efficacy,and the New Analytic Role for Action

Psychoanalysts' interest in the need for exploration and assertiveness, originally investigated empirically during the 1940s and 1950s, has recently been revived (Lichtenberg, 1989; Lichtenberg, Lachmann, and Fosshage, 1992, 1996). Exploratory–assertive motivation has been seen as a basic motive that interacts with several other forms of motivation to fulfill and regulate the person's basic needs, direct interpersonal relations, and maintain the organization of the self. In this paper, it is reasoned that recognizing and systematically and actively integrating the pervasive influence of this powerful motivational system outside, as well as within, psychoanalytic sessions can usefully redefine and broaden the scope and reshape the thrust of many psychoanalytic interventions. Three specific areas of psychoanalytic technique are probed in relation to exploratory–assertive motivation: enhancing patients' feelings of self-efficacy, shading interpretations toward action, and promoting adaptive coping skills. Patients' achieving enhanced feelings of self-efficacy—gaining confidence in their ability to perform—deserves to be elevated, explicitly, as an important aim of psychoanalysis. Clinical illustrations are offered.     

The Talking Cure in the Cross Fire of Empiricism—The Struggle for the Hearts and Minds of Psychoanalytic Clinicians: Commentary on Papers by Lester Luborsky and Hans H. Strupp

I outline the arguments advanced by Lester Luborsky and Hans H. Strupp on the current controversy regarding empirically supported treatment (EST). I support Luborsky's criticisms of some current attempts to provide empirical support for psychoanalytic treatment, but, unable to endorse the conclusion that therapies are equally effective, I argue that substantial evidence does exist to guide clinicians, even if this evidence is not yet accessible through a mechanical process of review. I also suggest that Luborsky's “open verdict” on the length-of-treatment issue is too conservative: Longer psychoanalytic treatments have been repeatedly associated with superior outcomes across a range of measures. I agree with Strupp that the current emphasis on EST is probably motivated primarily by economic rather than ethical conditions. However, I criticize Strupp's largely negative treatment of the issue of treatment “manualization” and argue that, though manualization is a mixed blessing, only a clear, structured, and coherent framework that guides the therapeutic process can enable the therapist to withstand the interpersonal pressures inevitably generated in the consulting room. I conclude by arguing that there is a need for refinement of the concepts and methods by which outcomes are evaluated in order to help psychoanalysis and psychotherapy become a more specific family of treatments for particular conditions.     

A Review of “The Relational Origins of Prejudice: A Convergence of Psychoanalytic and Social Cognitive Perspectives”

Abstract

Key concepts in social welfare and clinical social work - concepts such as person-in-environment, women's rights, prevention and outreach-had as precedents the pioneering theory and practice of Europe's free psychoanalytic clinics of the 1920s. Sex-Pol, a Viennese community-based clinical network created in 1927 by Wilhelm Reich, perhaps the most overtly political of the first psychoanalysts, was motivated by reformist social goals he shared with Sigmund Freud. This historical study of Sex-Pol draws on Reich's own words to explore his use of the term “social work” where clinical work is predicated on an activist ideology of human liberation.