The Interface Between Sartre’s Theory of Emotions and Depersonalization/Derealization

Human beings are emotional beings and emotions are one’s way of relating to the world. Sartre’s Emotions, An Outline of a Theory lies on the borderline between psychology and philosophy. In this paper I will attempt to present the interface of Sartre’s philosophical theory of emotions with the signs and symptoms of depersonalization/derealization syndrome as presented in the psychiatric/psychological literature. I will begin by concisely situating Sartre’s concept of emotions within the Sartrean doctrine of existentialism, and follow with a brief summary of Bernard Frechtman’s translation of Sartre’s “The Emotions, An Outline of a Theory”. I will focus on the Introduction and Chapter Three, where Sartre presents the findings of his phenomenological study that purport to reveal the “essence” of emotions. Next, I will introduce the diagnostic components of the depersonalization/derealization syndrome which is a subcategory of dissociative disorders as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (2013) as well as criteria of International Classification of Diseases—10th edition (1992) and highlight the similarities with Sartre’s characterization of emotional behavior. Finally, I will attempt a brief comparison between Sartre’s theory of emotions and depersonalization/derealization syndrome using literary and philosophical critiques of Sartre’s “Emotions” and theoretical as well as research papers from the psychiatric literature. The focus will be on the similarities and incongruities between Sartre’s characterization of emotions and psychiatric diagnoses of depersonalization/derealization syndrome.     

Peritraumatic dissociation mediates the relationship between acute panic and chronic posttraumatic stress disorder

Although peritraumatic dissociation predicts subsequent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), little is understood about the mechanism of this relationship. This study examines the role of panic during trauma in the relationship between peritraumatic dissociation and subsequent PTSD. Randomized eligible admissions to 4 major trauma hospitals across Australia (n = 244) were assessed during hospital admission and within one month of trauma exposure for panic, peritraumatic dissociation and PTSD symptoms, and subsequently re-assessed for PTSD three months after the initial assessment (n = 208). Twenty (9.6%) patients met criteria for PTSD at 3-months post injury. Structural equation modeling supported the proposition that peritraumatic derealization (a subset of dissociation) mediated the effect of panic reactions during trauma and subsequent PTSD symptoms. The mediation model indicated that panic reactions are linked to severity of subsequent PTSD via derealization, indicating a significant indirect relationship. Whereas peritraumatic derealization is associated with chronic PTSD symptoms, this relationship is influenced by initial acute panic responses.     

Self-reports of trauma and dissociation: An examination of context effects

To examine context effects in moderating the link between self-reported trauma and dissociation in undergraduate samples, we administered these measures either in the same or different experimental contexts. Trauma History Screen/THS (Carlson et al., 2011)-Dissociative Experiences Scale/DES-II (Bernstein & Putnam, 1986) correlations revealed a context effect (greater correlations in same test context), although multiple regression analyses did not confirm this finding. A context effect was supported in DES-Taxon scores using multiple regression for the THS but not the Modified Posttraumatic Stress Scale (MPSS-SR; Falsetti, Resnick, Resick, & Kilpatrick, 1993), an effect confirmed with correlation comparisons. Ethnicity influenced the association between measures of trauma and dissociation. Overall, the relation between measures of trauma and dissociation was small to medium, although high correlations were observed between the DES depersonalization/derealization subscale and the Multiscale Dissociation Inventory (Briere, Weathers, & Runtz, 2005) depersonalization and derealization subscales, supporting the construct validity of these measures.     

THE QUESTION OF BLACK PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy Born of Struggle is an ambitious undertaking. It is explicitly conceived, the editor explains, as "a guide to the ideas of modern Afro-American philosophers," and "a historical resource directory for their works."¹ An anthology of texts with bibliographical apparatus, the volume has an implicit hortatory purpose as well. In representing Afro-American philosophy as a "unidimensional text of divergent components"—concerned with the meaning of democracy and the human costs of "capitalism, colonial domination, and ontological designation by race"—the editor dignifies Afro-American philosophy conceptually, as a subject in its own right, calling in effect for its sustained historical treatment as such.²     

Operationism in psychology: what the debate is about, what the debate should be about

I offer an analysis of operationism in psychology, which is rooted in an historical study of the investigative practices of two of its early proponents (S. S. Stevens and E. C. Tolman). According to this analysis, early psychological operationists emphasized the importance of experimental operations and called for scientists to specify what kinds of operations were to count as empirical indicators for the referents of their concepts. While such specifications were referred to as "definitions," I show that such definitions were not taken to constitute a priori knowledge or be analytically true. Rather, they served the pragmatic function of enabling scientists to do research on a purported phenomenon. I argue that historical and philosophical discussions of problems with operationism have conflated it, both conceptually and historically, with positivism, and I raise the question of what are the "real" issues behind the debate about operationism.     

民主社会主义:既不是魔鬼,也不是天使——从《民主社会主义理论概念》一书谈起

<正>一"民主社会主义"这个词对我国公众来说并不陌生,但倘若问到这一主义的思想、纲领、政策、历史演变及其当代状况,恐怕许多人都不甚了了。虽然改革开放以来,从一批在这个领域里长期潜心耕耘的学者开始,学术界在这些问题的研究上取得了重要进展,但他们的成果一般只限于在发行量有限的专业出版物上流传,很少有机会进入专业之外的读者的视野; 正因此,人们对民主社会主义的了     

The Emergence and Evolution of the Expression “Conflict of Interests” in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Science</Emphasis>: A Historical Overview, 1880–2006

The tendency is strong to take the notion of "conflict of interests" for granted as if it had an invariant meaning and an ethical content independent of the historical context. It is doubtful however, from an historical and sociological point of view, that many of the cases now considered as instances of "conflicts of interests" would also have been conceived and perceived as such in, say, the 1930s. The idea of a "conflict of interests" presupposes that there are indeed interests in conflict. Conversely, as long as there is a consensus among the different groups involved, they will not conceive and even less denounce a given practice as being an instance of a "conflict of interests". In this article we will show that the content of the discussions over conflicts of interests has changed over time in close relation with the transformations of the research system. In other words: there are social conditions for the emergence of "conflicts of interests". The changing meaning of the notion is assessed by analyzing the presence of the expression "conflicts of interests" in the magazine Science over the past century. Three different meanings emerge and their content has evolved in close link with the changing structure of the relations between the scientific community first with the State and then with industry. It moved from a situation external to the scientific community to a debate going on inside the scientific community generated by the growing relations between university and industries.     

"形而上"与"形而下"的近代分离--《易》与经学时代中国学者的学术兴趣

近代科学在欧洲的产生,乃得益于"文艺复兴"以来欧洲学术上"形而上"与"形而下"的大规模分离.而汉以来"独尊儒术"的实现,<易>作为儒家主要经籍以其"仰观天文,俯察地理,中知人事"的宏大叙事与终极关怀,影响了经学时代中国学者的学术兴趣,导致他们将绝大多数精力投入到了以史学为主的"人事"中而非自然事物的研究对象与形而下的研究路径.两个相对独立的历史进程与历史体系或无何可比性:近代科学在欧洲产生只有在产生近代科学的欧洲自我历史进程与历史体系中才能得到解释,中国没有产生近代科学亦复如此.至于将中国科学落后的原由单一性地归结于<易>或儒家经学,这未必符合历史的因果真相与思维的有效推理.     

Environmental influence on the writing of gifted high school girls

While the environment is recognized as having an influence on career choices of gifted adolescent girls, no attempt has been made to examine their writing from a historical perspective. Files in the Guidance Institute for the Talented (GIFTS), University of Wisconsin, Madison, contain essays on "Dominant forces that have directed my life" and "The future as I see it and my place in that future" written by most students who went through GIFTS. A comparison of essays by 21 gifted adolescent girls born in 1944 with 20 born in 1957 reflected changes in attitudes that occurred in the United States over that period. The danger of the environment influencing the thinking of gifted young women who have not established their own inner resources is stressed.     

Medical ethics' appropriation of moral philosophy: the case of the sympathetic and the unsympathetic physician

Philosophy textbooks typically treat bioethics as a form of "applied ethics"-i.e., an attempt to apply a moral theory, like utilitarianism, to controversial ethical issues in biology and medicine. Historians, however, can find virtually no cases in which applied philosophical moral theory influenced ethical practice in biology or medicine. In light of the absence of historical evidence, the authors of this paper advance an alternative model of the historical relationship between philosophical ethics and medical ethics, the appropriation model. They offer two historical case studies to illustrate the ways in which physicians have "appropriated" concepts and theory fragments from philosophers, and demonstrate how appropriated moral philosophy profoundly influenced the way medical morality was conceived and practiced.     

How to Read Wittgenstein

"How to Read Wittgenstein" is a discussion of some misinterpretations that arise when Ludwig Wittgenstein's later works are read, not in their historical context, but as though they were written for a generation of philosophers influenced by G.E. Moore and ordinary language philosophy. The criticisms are directed primarily at Oswald Hanfling's "Critical Notice" in Philosophical Investigations 19:2 (April, 1996).     

Use your words!

"Use your words!" is a phrase admonishing preschoolers to divert their action-proneness to thought and language. Freud's injunction against acting out had a similar aim, placing control over drives in the domain of "inner language." The twenty-first-century psychoanalyst continues to employ models that depend on mentalization viewed from two angles-neural inhibition and social discourse. Psychoanalysts bolster their position by borrowing from the basic scientific work in each area. The recent focus on enactments, intersubjectivity, and social constructivism is reconsidered from an historical vantage point, as is the work that seeks to reconcile recent findings in neuroimaging and cognitive neuroscience. Freud's vision included a holistic hope that a comprehensive science of human beings might be achieved by understanding derived from biological inquiry and the artifacts of social and cultural narratives. The author's experience in both domains is recounted, and a new reconciliation of disparate approaches is offered in linguistic complementarity.     

Crossan on the Couch, Along with the Rest of Us: Part Two: Six Proposals Toward a New Paradigm for a Psychologically Realistic Approach to the Search for the Historical Jesus as Suggested by the Work of Hal Childs

Building on the theoretical basis spelled out in my first article on Hal Childs' The Myth of the Historical Jesus and the Evolution of Consciousness, the present article engages in dialogue with Crossan's 2000 autobiography, A Long Way From Tipperary. The dialogue focuses on six proposals emerging from Childs' work that advocate the inclusion of psychological realism in rethinking the task, practice, and outcome of historical Jesus research. The six proposals are as follows: first, that psychological realism is an essential part of historical realism; second, that unconscious factors are to be considered at work in the viewer as well as in the viewed in historical Jesus research; third, that every reconstruction of the historical Jesus is mythic; fourth, that the preunderstanding that the Jesus scholar brings to historical Jesus research is generated within a hermeneutical circle constituted by a vast web of relationships, purposes, and meanings that include every aspect of the scholar's life; fifth, that the final goal of historical Jesus research is not the facts about the historic Jesus, but the meaning of these facts as archetypal images for self-understanding, world-understanding, and the evolution of consciousness; and sixth, that the purpose of the Gospel is to evoke new archetypal projections in the reader that can lead to new incarnations of the archetypal Self awakened and informed by the story of Jesus, often as recovered by the Jesus historian.     

The proselytizing of jews: Its history and consequences

Psychologists, sociologists, and others have, for the past century, sought to explain the motivations for religious conversion beyond the simple theological explanation of Divine intervention. Specifically, they have raised the possibility that suggestion, hypnosis, and/or schizoid tendencies, for example, have played decisive roles in the process. Conflict has resulted from the publication of disparate viewpoints, especially between those who accept converts' narratives about their pre-conversion motives at face value and those who question the validity of such recollections.Less often considered, except perhaps in cases of great historical import, are the psychological consequences of conversion. The ripple effects of conversion, as well as the impact on the individual, are examined here. Consideration of psychological antecedents and consequences, in historical and contemporary settings, underlie tentative conclusions regarding today's sudden conversion experiences.Lita Linzer Schwartz and Natalie Isser are co-authors ofProselytization, Conversion, and Commitment, and of several articles and papers focused on historical and contemporary examples of religious conversion.     

A closed-loop theory of motor learning

Following a discussion of the meaning of the term "skills" and a review of historical influences on their learning, a closed-loop theory for learning simple movements is presented. Empirical generalizations from the literature are stated, and the theory is used to explain them. The generalizations are of 2 classes: learning through the application of knowledge of results, and the effects of withdrawing knowledge of results.     

Concluding comments on androgyny: Some intimations of its mature development

Major problems and ideas raised by the articles in this special issue are discussed, with an emphasis upon their implications for the productive development of androgyny research. First, the various methods of scoring a given sex-role inventory differ in their definitions of androgyny and in their underlying models of the relationships among masculinity, femininity, and other variables. Accordingly, recommendations for the judicious use of scoring methods are made. Second, adjustment differences between androgynous and sex-typed individuals are discussed, and researchers are urged to determine the specific aspects of sex roles which may be dysfunctional in particular settings. Third, attention is drawn to new methodologies and new content areas for androgyny research. Finally, the implications of the historical and cultural location of this research area for its status as a scientific enterprise are discussed.     

马克思主义理论整体性的创生大纲——论《巴黎手稿》和异化劳动理论的性质与地位

我国学术界新近出现的试图从不同角度说明《巴黎手稿》和异化劳动理论本身是不成熟的或混乱的,从而否定它们的重要历史地位的倾向,是对"手稿"和异化劳动理论的曲解。"手稿"和异化劳动理论是马克思主义的真正诞生地和秘密,是系统构建马克思主义理论体系的逻辑大纲,是马克思主义全部丰富内容的理论起点和立论基础。这可以从"手稿"本身所完成的理论任务或在欧洲思想史上实现的创造性变革、"手稿"的内容及其逻辑结构与马克思主义理论体系的对应关系以及异化劳动理论的解密中得到充分的证明。     

Bocheński and Balance: System and History in Analytic Philosophy

Using the work of Józef Bocheski as apositive example, this paper sets out the casefor a balanced use of historical knowledge indoing analytic philosophy. Between the twoextremes of relativizing historicism, whichdenies absolute truth, and arrogant scientism,which denies any constructive role for thehistory of ideas in philosophy, lies a viamedia in which historical reflection onconcepts and their history is placed at theservice of the system of cognitive philosophy.Knowledge of the history of philosophy, whilenot a sine qua non, can empower analyticphilosophy to push forward to new and moresatisfactory solutions to old and new problems.Examples are adduced from Bocheski's oeuvreand from the author's own experience.     

How Are We to Interpret Heidegger's Oeuvre? A Methodological Manifesto

One may have different objectives in interpreting texts. If a judge interprets a statute in order to obtain a satisfactory solution to a case, his aim may be called "applicative". But if a historian of science wants to reconstruct the meaning of obscure passages of Ptolemy's "Hypotheses planetarum", his objectives are purely historical and theoretical.
The paper argues that these different aims, applicative and historical ones, require different methodologies of interpretation, and imply different criteria of success. In particular, the "principle of charity" according to which an interpretation is better to the extent that we agree more with what the text as interpreted says, is fitting for applicative interpretations, but not without further qualifications for historical ones.
The paper argues further that we should apply the methodology of historical interpretation to the entire body of German texts now available, if we want to interpret Martin Heidegger's philosophical oeuvre, assess its philosophical value, and investigate its links to Nazism. These were the aims of Herman Philipse's book "Heidegger's Philosophy of Being. A Critical Interpretation" (Princeton University Press, 1998, 555 pp.). Criticisms of this book by Taylor Carman and others are often off target because they presuppose applicative interpretations that aim at making Heidegger say things the interpreter believes himself, instead of striving for historical adequacy, and that are based upon a small selection of translations instead of upon the entire corpus of extant German texts.     

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.