Intellectual disability and the myth of the changeling myth

This article investigates the historical sources for the idea of the "changeling" or substitute child as an explanation for congenital intellectual disability. Pre-modern sources for this idea are elite and theological as much as popular and folkloric, nor do they refer to intellectual disability in any sense recognizable to us. Rather, both the concept of intellectual disability and the notion of a transhistorical changeling myth emerge from the historical core of modern psychology.     

Relapse as a nonlinear dynamic system: application to patients with alcohol use disorders

Understanding the relapse process is one of the most important issues in addictive behaviors research. To date, most studies have taken a linear approach toward predicting relapse based on risk factors. Nonlinear dynamical systems theory can be used to describe processes that are not adequately modeled using a linear approach. In particular, the authors propose that catastrophe theory, a subset of nonlinear dynamical systems theory, can be used to describe the relapse process in addictive behaviors. Two small prospective studies using 6-month follow-ups of patients with alcohol use disorders (inpatient, n = 51; outpatient, n = 43) illustrate how cusp catastrophe theory may be used to predict relapse. Results from these preliminary studies indicate that a cusp catastrophe model has more predictive utility than traditional linear models.     

A Mere Idea

In response to Khin Zaw's pragmatic model of reason, I argue for a normative,Kantian account in which reason actively impels thought andunderstanding towards transcendental ideals. Reason is neither constructedout of what is ready to hand, nor imposes moral laws from a transhistorical content. Reason's role is to provide the formof our ideas of the good in accordance with which we may shape thecontent in any particular culture. I argue that the well-rehearseddebate between nature and culture cannot be advanced without recourseto metaphysics. Since metaphysics in transcendental, not transcendent,what emerges from metaphysics must be revealed, interrogated andcriticised, never assumed.     

Evidence for the Phase Transition from Rule I to Rule II on the Balance Scale Task

A central and recurrent theme in developmental psychology is the question whether development proceeds continuously or discontinuously. This question is difficult to answer because the two types of development may be hard to distinguish. To investigate whether change is discontinuous, one requires a formal model for discontinuous development. Such a model should provide operational, empirical criteria to investigate the nature of development. The cusp model, which is derived from catastrophe theory, is a formal model of discontinuity that provides such criteria. Eight criteria, so-called catastrophe flags, can be derived from the model. Some of these flags are predicted in other models of discontinuity, but others, notably hysteresis, are unique to catastrophe theory. In the present research, it is tested whether the transition from Rule I to Rule II on the balance scale task proceeds discontinuously. The present research centers around five catastrophe flags: bimodality, inaccessible region, sudden jump, divergence, and hysteresis. Two experiments are reported. In Experiment 1, a paper-and-pencil version of the balance scale task was administered to 314 children who were 6 to 10 years old. In Experiment 2, an adapted version of the test was administered to 302 children who were 6 to 10 years old. Bimodality, inaccessible region, hysteresis, and sudden jump were clearly observed. Divergence was not observed. The presence of four of the five flags strongly supports the hypothesis that the transition from Rule I to Rule II is discontinuous.     

Foucault and Familial Power

This paper provides an overview of Michel Foucault's continually changing observations on familial power, as well as the feminist‐Foucauldian literature on the family. It suggests that these accounts offer fragments of a genealogy of the family that undermine any all‐encompassing or transhistorical account of the institution. Approaching the family genealogically, rather than seeking a single model of power that can explain it, shows that far from this institution being a quasi‐natural formation or a bedrock of unassailable values, it is in fact a continually contested fiction that masks its own histories of becoming.     

The Analyst's Anticipatory Fantasies: Aid and Obstacle to the Patient's Self-Integration

In this paper I explore instances of enactment related to the analyst's feelings and fantasies about how analysis will proceed. As I discuss a patient who was developing a new capacity to experience conflict, I explore how the analyst's fantasies about the impact of his interpretations may be utilized in helping him to elaborate and understand the patient's unconscious fantasies and identifications and unintegrated feeling states. In so doing, we sometimes discover how we are unwittingly influencing or avoiding understanding our patient's own version of their psychic catastrophe. As we develop language where there was previously no integrative language for the patient's internalized and interactive version of catastrophe, we always project particular kinds of expectations into the therapeutic situation.     

Invention and discovery among the sciences: a P-technique factor analysis

This paper explores how discoveries and inventions in nine scientific disciplines cluster over time in Western culture. The transhistorical sample consisted of 12,761 major scientific contributions tabulated into 44 time-units (full, half, and quarter centuries) extending from 800 B.C. to 1900 A.D. A factor analysis was executed on the correlations among the nine measures after partialing out third-order polynomial time trends. Three orthogonal factors appeared: concrete (chemistry, physics, and biology), abstract (astronomy and mathematics), and applied (technology, geography, and geology) clusters. Medicine loaded moderately on the concrete and abstract clusters. Three types of explanations were discussed-personological, interpersonal, and sociocultural-with suggestions for how they might be tested.     

Stochastic catastrophe analysis of switches in the perception of apparent motion

Dynamical phenomena such as bistability and hysteresis have been found in a number of studies on perception of apparent motion. We show that new developments in stochastic catastrophe theory make it possible to test models of these phenomena empirically. Catastrophe theory explains discontinuous changes in responses caused by continuous changes in experimental parameters. We propose catastrophe models for two experimental paradigms on perception of apparent motion and present experiments that support these models. We test these models by using an algorithm for fitting stochastic catastrophe models. We derive from catastrophe theory the prediction that a dynamical phenomenon called divergence is necessary when hysteresis is found. This new prediction is supported by the data.     

灾难性事件对幸福感的“积极”影响

灾难性事件在造成人员和财产巨大损失的同时, 对个人的幸福感可能还存在一个重新建构的积极影响模型。灾难性事件本身不可能引发幸福感, 但灾难性事件却可能会使个人从认知、需要和情绪三个方面, 重新建构幸福感的结构性成分, 进而改变促发幸福感的条件。灾后, 幸福感可能比灾前更容易产生。除此之外, 未受灾的个人, 也可能在与受灾当事人的比较中, 产生立即性的幸福感体验。     

Stagewise cognitive development: an application of catastrophe theory.

In this article an overview is given of traditional methodological approaches to stagewise cognitive developmental research. These approaches are evaluated and integrated on the basis of catastrophe theory. In particular, catastrophe theory specifies a set of common criteria for testing the discontinuity hypothesis proposed by Piaget. Separate criteria correspond to distinct methods used in cognitive developmental research. Such criteria are, for instance, the detection of spurts in development, bimodality of test scores, and increased variability of responses during transitional periods. When a genuine stage transition is present, these criteria are expected to be satisfied. A revised catastrophe model accommodating these criteria is proposed for the stage transition in cognitive development from the preoperational to the concrete operational stage.     

Strategic and automatic threat processing in chronic musculoskeletal pain: a startle probe investigation

Attentional bias research with chronic pain samples has yielded conflicting results. In the present investigation the startle paradigm was used to test the postulate that fear-based mechanisms play an important role in attentional biases for pain-related threat in chronic pain. Participants, including 31 individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain and 20 healthy controls, completed a startle task designed to measure attention to different types of words (neutral vs sensory pain vs affective pain vs health catastrophe) presented at different levels of cognitive processing (strategic vs automatic). Measures of fear-based individual difference variables, including anxiety sensitivity and fear of pain, were also completed. Startle amplitudes and latencies to acoustic startle probes that followed word presentations were recorded. Data were analyzed with repeated measures ANOVAs and correlational analysis. Significant between-group differences were found indicating that, relative to chronic pain participants, healthy controls had higher startle amplitude index scores for health catastrophe words. There was also a trend among patients with chronic pain for greater startle amplitude index scores for strategic presentations of sensory pain words. In the automatic condition, all participants demonstrated a lower startle latency index for sensory words relative to both affect and health catastrophe words, suggesting participants had more difficulty disengaging from affect and health catastrophe words or were more avoidant of sensory words. Correlational analyses indicated that startle response indices for words related to health catastrophe became more pronounced for chronic pain patients as anxiety sensitivity and fear of pain increased. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Strategic and Automatic Threat Processing in Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Startle Probe Investigation

Attentional bias research with chronic pain samples has yielded conflicting results. In the present investigation the startle paradigm was used to test the postulate that fear‐based mechanisms play an important role in attentional biases for pain‐related threat in chronic pain. Participants, including 31 individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain and 20 healthy controls, completed a startle task designed to measure attention to different types of words (neutral vs sensory pain vs affective pain vs health catastrophe) presented at different levels of cognitive processing (strategic vs automatic). Measures of fear‐based individual difference variables, including anxiety sensitivity and fear of pain, were also completed. Startle amplitudes and latencies to acoustic startle probes that followed word presentations were recorded. Data were analyzed with repeated measures ANOVAs and correlational analysis. Significant between‐group differences were found indicating that, relative to chronic pain participants, healthy controls had higher startle amplitude index scores for health catastrophe words. There was also a trend among patients with chronic pain for greater startle amplitude index scores for strategic presentations of sensory pain words. In the automatic condition, all participants demonstrated a lower startle latency index for sensory words relative to both affect and health catastrophe words, suggesting participants had more difficulty disengaging from affect and health catastrophe words or were more avoidant of sensory words. Correlational analyses indicated that startle response indices for words related to health catastrophe became more pronounced for chronic pain patients as anxiety sensitivity and fear of pain increased. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Impact of Terrorism, Insurgency, and Other Human-caused Catastrophes on Pivotal National Leaders’ Vision Statements

Vision statements articulated by seven pivotal national leaders before and after a catastrophe were examined for changes in moral reasoning stage, moral reasoning orientation, explanatory style, and rumination. Established two-stage structured content analysis methods were used and a perspective of shared leadership. Five leaders showed no significant change in moral reasoning stage but two showed a statistically significant reduction following overt attack on their homeland. After a catastrophe, six showed significant change in moral reasoning orientation, four showed less positive or negative explanatory style, and all seven showed high rumination. From an organizational systems perspective, an impact of human-caused catastrophe was adjustment of these four variables in pivotal national leaders’ vision statements as if they are systems levers.     

A realist social ontology of religion

Jonathan Z. Smith famously pointed out that the concept of ‘religion’ is not universal but emerged only in the modern West. Several scholars have drawn from Smith the non-realist implication that the existence of religion apart from that concept is an illusion. The word ‘religion,’ they say, does not refer to something out there in the world. In this article, the author argues that Smith’s point is open to a realist interpretation according to which religion exists in the world, as a transhistorical and transcultural reality, even apart from the concept. To make this case, the author outlines and responds to non-realist positions that draw on genealogical, deconstructive, and linguistic arguments, as well as to the alternative proposal that ‘religion’ is simply a heuristic device. In short, the goal of this article is to argue that a realist social ontology provides the better understanding of the central theoretical term in our field.     

The challenges of leadership in the modern world: introduction to the special issue

This article surveys contemporary trends in leadership theory as well as its current status and the social context that has shaped the contours of leadership studies. Emphasis is placed on the urgent need for collaboration among social-neuro-cognitive scientists in order to achieve an integrated theory, and the author points to promising leads for accomplishing this. He also asserts that the 4 major threats to world stability are a nuclear/biological catastrophe, a world-wide pandemic, tribalism, and the leadership of human institutions. Without exemplary leadership, solving the problems stemming from the first 3 threats will be impossible.     

Catastrophe theory applications in clinical psychology: A review

Catastrophe theory is a new mathematical science that permits some insight into the way in which sudden changes or discontinuities of behavior may occur even though the underlying causative forces are essentially continuous. This article aims to present a nonmathematician’s view of catastrophe applications in clinical psychology. Areas covered include anorexia nervosa, binge eating and drinking, affective disorders, schizophrenia, aggressiveness, and prison disturbances. Where appropriate, therapeutic implications and possible physiological correlates are offered. Examples are given of catastrophe theory’s ability to explain previously inexplicable findings. Attention is drawn to its refutability and predictive value, and hence its scientific respectability.     

R. ARELEH ROTH'S PRISTINE FAITH

Areleh Roth responded to the Holocaust by labouring to have Jews actualize pristine faith. As the slaughter in Europe mended the sinful universe prior to the advent of the Messiah, the living were enjoined to bring to bear the faith which was experienced by Abraham and which the people of Israel inherited over the ages. This meant struggling against the forces of Amalek who clouded the perception of God's presence amid the tragedy. Under divine aegis, Amalek brought suffering to induce repentance, he tested the people in order to activate free will, and clouded the perception of God's presence amid catastrophe. The struggle centred on annulling one's personality entirely, enabling God to enter the heart so completely as to totally replace the ego. This was the experience of pristine faith, and with it one related to God, through Abraham, and gained the strength to endure the tragedy. Even more, one's soul could join the ascent of those sparks which were dispersed upon the cosmic catastrophe (described by Isaac Luria) and thereby contribute to, and participate in, the rise of Israel to the spiritual redemption of the Sabbath before Adam's sin. Roth's response to the catastrophe was not of theological exposition (for example, why the pious suffered) but of practical means to survive and thrive on the level of spirit.     

Zones of consensus and zones of conflict: questioning the "common morality" presumption in bioethics

Many bioethicists assume that morality is in a state of wide reflective equilibrium. According to this model of moral deliberation, public policymaking can build upon a core common morality that is pretheoretical and provides a basis for practical reasoning. Proponents of the common morality approach to moral deliberation make three assumptions that deserve to be viewed with skepticism. First, they commonly assume that there is a universal, transhistorical common morality that can serve as a normative baseline for judging various actions and practices. Second, advocates of the common morality approach assume that the common morality is in a state of relatively stable, ordered, wide reflective equilibrium. Third, casuists, principlists, and other proponents of common morality approaches assume that the common morality can serve as a basis for the specification of particular policies and practical recommendations. These three claims fail to recognize the plural moral traditions that are found in multicultural, multiethnic, multifaith societies such as the United States and Canada. A more realistic recognition of multiple moral traditions in pluralist societies would be considerable more skeptical about the contributions that common morality approaches in bioethics can make to resolving contentious moral issues.     

From Freud to the present day: difference,not knowing and its relation to psychoanalysis

In order to know and to understand we are often tempted to use defined models and theories. But catastrophe happens when you project models onto phenomena where they don’t belong. Difference exists and not all phenomena can be forced to reside within existing models. We can project our already known theories and ideas onto what we think we see through certain frames that we create but the cost may be dear. There is no one way to understand the unconscious and the psyche. Psychoanalysis is always open for revision and development. Old models can be broken and new thought created. The unconscious is an impossible yet generative resource. We need to stay open to not knowing – constantly look at the frame and stay alert to its constructed nature. We need our frame to work with the unconscious but not to the detriment of the spirit of that unconscious.     

Selective processing of threat cues in panic disorder

A computerized Stroop color-naming paradigm was used to investigate attentional biases for selectively processing threat information in panic-disordered patients. Subjects named the colors of neutral words (e.g. TYPICAL), fear words (e.g. PANIC), bodily sensation words (e.g. HEARTBEAT), and catastrophe words (e.g. HEART ATTACK). To control for familiarity with threat concepts, we used clinicians who treat panic disorder as normal control subjects. In contrast to normal controls, panic patients exhibited greater Stroop interference for all threat words, especially those associated with catastrophe. Stroop interference waned during the course of the experiment, thereby indicating habituation to the semantic content of the cues. These findings suggest that panic disorder, like other anxiety disorders, is associated with an attentional bias for processing threatening information.