From Incommensurability to Dialogue: A Response to David Lichtenstein

This response to David Lichtenstein (this issue) explores the opportunities and challenges that arise from the conceptual pluralism within the field of psychoanalysis. It argues that the Kleinian and Lacanian theoretical frameworks are in many ways incommensurable, but it also maintains that this should not translate into an either/or approach that privileges one framework over the other. Acknowledging the foundational differences between Kleinian and Lacanian theories should not forestall the possibility of productive and mutually beneficial dialogue carried out in good faith.     

Nation-State and Cosmopolis: A Response to David Miller

ABSTRACT The contemporary world is politically organised on the assumption that there exists an international community which should be governed by the rule of law under the authority of the United Nations Organisation. This idea may be called cosmopolitan liberalism. It is commonly criticised for ineffectiveness caused by excessive respect for the sovereignty of states. Recently, it has become apparent that cosmopolitan liberalism is inadequate to conceptualise and consequently to solve the practical problems posed by nationalism. David Miller has sought to rehabilitate 'nationality'in left-liberal political philosophy. Reasons are presented for believing that his defence of nationality is inadequately articulated with cosmopolitan liberalism and consequently morally dangerous from a liberal point of view.     

Christian Ethics In Jewish Terms: A Response to David Novak

While appreciating the illuminating qualities of Novak's account of natural law, Hauerwas also regards it as problematic precisely because of the unhealthy tension that remains between Novak's claim regarding the inseparability of theology and ethics, on the one hand, and his contention that the Noachian laws may 'be taken to be a universal requirement'of human reason, on the other. Hauerwas' central reservation is that Novak's account is the danger of abstracting from the law's sanctifying intent; i.e., its purpose to form a holy people. A consequence for Jewish-Christian dialogue, then, is a misplaced concentration on the role of the law in these respective traditions rather than different understandings of sanctification between (and within) these respective traditions.     

Development of the Grief Experience Questionnaire

The development of the Grief Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) is reported. This questionnaire is an instrument for measuring various components of grief, including somatic reactions, general grief reactions, search for explanation, loss of social support, stigmatization, guilt, responsibility, shame, rejection, self-destructive behavior, and reactions to a unique form of death. Initial results with the GEQ suggest its potential to differentiate grief reactions experienced by suicide survivors from those experienced by survivors of accidental death, unexpected natural death, and expected natural death. Conclusions support its use in redressing common methodological criticisms of suicide survivor research. Six additional benefits derived from use of this instrument are discussed.     

Author Response to Reviews of Grief: Contemporary Theory and the Practice of Ministry

The purpose of this article is to respond to three reviews in Pastoral Psychology of the author’s text, Grief: Contemporary Theory and the Practice of Ministry (Kelley 2010). This article considers in particular the grief born of injustice, the need for pastoral caregivers to cultivate skills and sensitivities for grief ministry in multicultural and multireligious settings, and the centrality for many of a secure relationship with the Divine as a primary source of hope after loss.     

Another Side to Downsizing: Survivors' Behavior and Self-Affirmation

Downsizing is one of the terms used to describe the efforts of companies to gain a competitive edge. The effects of global competition, mergers, market saturation, and automation are forcing the streamlining of the American workforce. This study addresses the gap in empirical data on the effects of self-affirmation opportunities to employee survivors and victims. Specifically, the conceptual model developed in this research examines the interactive effects of self-affirmation and the perception of procedural justice, distributive justice, and job insecurity on the induced psychological states of the individuals involved with companies engaged in downsizing. The conceptual model suggests that layoffs have an impact on the induced psychological states of the individuals affected. At play in the model is the moderating variable of re-affirmation. This, in turn, will affect the attitudes and work behaviors of those same individuals and their ability to maintain their self-image. Specific recommendations to management, based on these findings, conclude the study.     

Grief Counseling: An Investigation of Counselors' Training,Experience, and Competencies

Grief is prevalent in counseling, but little is known about the current status of counselors’ preparation and competencies to provide effective care. This exploratory study surveyed counselors (N= 369) on grief training, personal and professional experiences with grief, and grief counseling competence. Multiple regression analyses found training and experience were statistically significant predictors of competence. The strong relationship between variables suggests these concepts may be understood as synonymous. Implications for training, practice, and research are discussed.     

Revenge of the Philosophical Mole: Another Response to David Miller on Nationality

ABSTRACT David Miller has written extensively on the ethical value of the nation. A satisfactory response to Miller's ideas on nationalism requires an assessment of the whole range of his writings on the subject. After stating the outlines of Miller's conception of 'nationality', I evaluate the most important arguments for and against any attribution of ethical importance to the nation. Finally, I assess Miller's commitment to conational ethical priority in the context of duties of justributive justice. My main conclusions are as follows. (i) Miller's conservative strategy of justification is unacceptable, and a critical strategy suggests several plausible arguments for valuing national attachments. These arguments are not conclusive, however, (ii) In so far as Miller's position depends on real historical connections between persons, it is susceptible to the objection from historical myth. (iii) Miller offers an unexpected and ultimately unsuccessful response to the claim that national sentiments are partial and hence biased, (iv) Miller provides no good reason to believe that the duties of distributive justice are owed in the first instance to conationals.     

关于经验基础问题及其他质疑的回应

批判的语境经验主义在经验内容上关注构成证据相关性的基础,它通过共同体的批评性互动来建构一种动态而可靠的语境及其规范。朗基诺指出理性和社会二分是对知识概念的误解导致的,而批判的语境经验主义规范来自科学自身的形象。与认知科学中的生成主义进路比较看,批判的语境经验主义主要思考科学探究的过程,它关乎作为公共知识的科学。批判的语境经验主义和实践实在论都拒绝上帝之眼的可能,但在形而上学和规范性问题上两者依然存在差别。     

A Journey into Grief

The experience of the death of her Grandmother immerses the author in an intimate experience of grief. She reflects on her journey into grief and presents insights into grief's impact on her personal story as well as her professional life, i.e., her clinical work as a young psychoanalyst-in-training. Other metaphors and dream images, such as life, death, home, homelessness, silence, speech, story, voicelessness, aloneness and loneliness echo throughout the reflection as the author attempts to articulate an understanding of the profound Self-change birthed by death, grief and loss.     

The Absurd Sensibility of Existential Psychotherapy: Clinical Application of Survivors' Experience of Treblinka and Other Death Camps

A pragmatic existential therapy was developed to help patients stuck in intractable life situations make the psychic turn of death camp survivors who learned to adapt to savage conditions in extremity. Using a model of absurd heroism inimical to therapies seeking to modify intrapsychic dynamics, this hardminded intervention thematizes (a) the clinical activation of biological intelligence; (b) reconciliation with the existential situation; (c) problem-solving; (d) therapeutic shaping of realistic, life-affirming attitudes; and (e) absurd happiness. Phenomenological evidence of the survivors' existential posture is drawn from death camp literature, while a comparative case application features a patient afflicted with neurofibromatosis.     

The Relationships Among Grief Experience,Problem-Solving Appraisal,and Depression: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Research has consistently shown a relationship between problem-solving appraisal and depressive symptoms. This study expands that research by including grief symptomatology as a variable. A college student sample completed the Problem-Solving inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Revised Grief Experience Inventory. Consistent with hypotheses, those individuals who had experienced the death of a close loved one within the previous 5 years reported significantly higher levels of grief and depression than those who had not experienced such a loss. However, the group that had experienced the death of a close loved one did not report significantly worse problem-solving scores than the group that did not. This study also examined the relationships among problem-solving appraisal, depressive symptoms, and grief symptoms within the subsample that had experienced the loss of a close loved one within the previous 5 years. Consistent with predictions, grief symptoms were associated with depressive symptoms and self-appraised ineffective problem solving. The results of this study extend the research on grief and mourning. Also, the results expand our understanding of the grief process by providing preliminary evidence for the role of problem solving in this process     

Elegiac Poetry: A Pastoral Resource with Complicated Grief

This essay argues that elegiac poetry, the poetry of mourning, may be a resource for pastoral care with complicated grief. It builds on Freuds distinction between mourning (normal grief) and melancholia (complicated grief), particularly as appropriated by French literary critic and psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva. It makes the case for elegy as a locus for externalizing a lost object which, in complicated grief, has been internalized as part of the bereaved persons self and which is not only grieved but also treated ambivalently if it is not hated. Drawing on the suffering God motif in Christian theologies of the cross, theological reflections supplement psychological arguments.     

Grief and Bereavement Revisited: Introduction to Special Issue

This article addresses the question, “How has media growth and influence impacted the way we grieve in the United States?” The media has grown dramatically in recent years in variety, speed and intensity of information. Thus, the media’s coverage of both real and fictional death and trauma has increased the incidence of vicarious grieving and vicarious traumatization by the viewing public. Accessing the human innate capacity to empathize, the media invites us to share in the sorrow of others and to bind together in times of collective tragedy. At the same time, the intensity and scope of the public’s exposure to unnatural death might be creating a generation that is actually less sensitive to the needs of others.