Indeterminiertheit,Iterabilität und Intentionalität

In his recent paper Indeterminacy, empiricism, and the first person John R. Searle tries to refute Willard V. O. Quine's famous indeterminacy of translation thesis by arguing that this thesis is in fact areductio ad absurdum of Quine's own linguistic behaviorism. Searle accuses Quine of being (irrationally) antimentalistic and suggests that the absurdity of Quine's thesis might be avoided if a full-fledged intentionality were tolerated in the debate on meaning. — This anti-Quinean approach in some respects reminds of the improbable debate between Searle and Jacques Derrida ten years ago, when Derrida had split and deferred intentionality by showing that the essential iterability of signs inevitably infects every intentional act with an unremovable non-presence.In this paper it is argued that Searle's attacks on Quine and Derrida have both failed — and that there are structural similarities between these two failures which reveal some interesting parallels between Quine's and Derrida's philosophy.     

Identität, Familie, Patienten, Olympier

The author deals with the tradition of mental patterns in psychoanalytic institutes shaping the character of training. He discusses several patterns which in his opinion have become dysfunctional and are already in change: the family model, the patient model, the conception of training analysts as Olympians, the psychoanalytic identity as the endpoint of training and the model of the closed society. He argues for further transformation of these institutionalized patterns in order to avoid stagnation and remain future oriented. For each pattern he proposes concrete measures, which can be helpful for change.     

Abwehr, Verdrängung und Ersatzbildung

The author investigates the relationship of defence, repression and substitutive formation as it presents itself in Freud’s writings. He shows that Freud gives at least four different meanings to the term “repression”: Freud uses it interchangeably with defence, as a consciously intended forgetting, as a specific unconscious mechanism of defence and to describe the consequence of defence mechanisms leading to substitutive formations. The inconsistencies in this relationship are discussed and clarified and Freud’s economic and linguistic attempts to justify repression are subjected to critique as well as the need of a primal repression as a necessary condition for repression proper. In developing Freud’s linguistic justification of repression further, the author presents defence as a semantic displacement. Ideas are excluded from the realm of the concepts which belong to them historically. These presentations become unconscious, i.e. repressed, in that they can no longer be identified as “cases” of these conceptual internal contents. At the same time they are displaced into the extensions of concepts whose internal contents do not belong to them originally. It is by virtue of the internal contents of these concepts that the displaced elements as substitutive formations once again attain consciousness, albeit a false one. It is suggested that repression as a specific defence mechanism of its own should be dismissed, to reverse Freud’s thesis that repression as a rule creates a substitutive formation into its opposite and to understand that the mechanisms used to build substitutes as a rule create repression.     

Wiederkehrende,primäre Kopfschmerzen im Jugendalter

Background

Recurrent pain, especially primary headache, is a serious health problem in adolescents. Music therapy in the treatment of children with migraine has already been evaluated. The aim of this pilot study was to adopt this treatment manual for adolescent patients with recurrent primary headache in preparation for the main randomized controlled trial.

Patients and methods

In this pilot study two different modes of treatment (standard and compact treatment) were tested in an outpatient setting with 19 patients. Frequency and intensity of headache symptoms were evaluated using pain diaries for 8 weeks in a pre-post design.

Results

The pilot study showed good feasibility of both treatment conditions in outpatient practice. Patients reported a reduction of pain frequency and intensity in both groups. The evaluation of the clinical relevance of these effects remains the objective for the main trial.

Conclusions

The music therapeutic treatment plan for children with migraine is even feasible in the treatment of adolescents with recurrent, primary headache. Further evidence questioning the effectiveness of the treatment under controlled conditions is needed.

     

Bemerkungen zur Interpretation,Bestätigung und Progressivität der frühen Matrizenmechanik

Remarks on Interpretation, Confirmation and Progressiveness of Early Matrix Mechanics. Our note discusses a case study in view of questions of theory-choice. We examine the extent to which the first complete, consistent exposition of matrix mechanics in 1925 can be claimed to be reasonably confirmed, well interpreted and fruitful. Various strategies, by means of deductions and otherwise, by Born, Jordan and Heisenberg to establish these claims are critically assessed. It is shown that the outcome of the Bothe-Geiger experiment does not represent a direct confirmation of the theory. Finally we pose the question of progressiveness and argue for a low over-all problem-solving effectiveness.     

Über Einsamkeit, Narzissmus und Intimität

Zusammenfassung Die komplexe Wechselwirkung zwischen narzisstischer Verwundbarkeit, adoleszenter Entwicklung und der F?higkeit zu intimer Beziehung wird aus der Perspektive der unterschiedlichen, jedoch aufeinander bezogenen Erlebnismodalit?ten von Sein und Tun dargestellt. Die hier entwickelte Sicht auf die Einsamkeit beginnt mit einer kritischen Neubewertung des Konzepts der Selbstbezogenheit in Verbindung mit den Schwierigkeiten, Intimit?t herzustellen. Die Schwierigkeiten entstehen im Misslingen der in der Entwicklung vorgezeichneten Integration der beiden Erlebnismodalit?ten in der Zeit der sp?ten Adoleszenz und des jungen Erwachsenenalters. Die Einsamkeit im Leben der Erwachsenen, ihre besondere Auspr?gung und subjektiv erlebte Natur sind determiniert durch die spezifische Modalit?t ihrer prim?ren Organisation. Zur Illustration der Bedeutung der Einsamkeit in der Anwesenheit des Objekts und der paradoxen Unf?higkeit, mit dem Objekt und ohne es zu sein, wird klinisches Material pr?sentiert.

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On loneliness, narcissism and intimacy

Summary The complex interplay between narcissistic vulnerability, adolescent development, and the capacity for intimate relatedness is viewed here from the perspective of two distinct but interrelated experiential modes of Being and Doing. I offer a view of loneliness that begins with a critical reappraisal of the concept of narcissistic relatedness in association with difficulties in establishing intimacy. These difficulties are due to failures in the developmentally prescribed integration of the experiential modalities of Being and Doing during the course of late adolescence and young adulthood. The type of loneliness encountered in adult life, its particular cast and subjectively experienced nature, are determined by the specific modality around which it has become primarily organized. Clinical material is presented to illustrate the meaning of loneliness in the presence of the object, and the paradoxical inability to be both with the object and without it.

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Vortrag gehalten im Michael-Balint-Institut, Hamburg (Juni 2000). Frühere Versionen wurden vor der Israel Association for Psychotherapy (Februar 1989), der Israel Psycholanalytic Society (Dezember 1989), dem Sigmund Freud Institut, Frankfurt a. M. (M?rz 1990) und der Asian-Australian Psychoanalytic Conference (Januar 1995) gehalten. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Dr. Heinrich Vedder, Hamburg

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"Es ist nicht gut, dass der Mensch allein sei; ich will ihm eine Gehilfin machen" (Genesis 2:18).     

Strukturniveau,Abwehr und Merkmale von Träumen

Attempts were made early on to associate certain human characteristics with dreams. The psychoanalytical notion of structure encompasses a fully differentiated construct, which in particular is characterized by basic mental capabilities. The structural level of a person derived from this reflects their ability for communicative exchange and dealing with themselves as well as with social partners.Within the framework of the project “Affectivity, relationship and mental disorder” operationalized psychodynamic diagnostic (OPD) interviews were carried out, from which the reports of dreams were evaluated for this investigation using the dream generation model of Moser and von Zeppelin. The aim was to investigate associations between features of dreams and the structural level. A total of four different indicators of structure were investigated, e.g. number of personality disorders, OPD-2 structural level, inventory of personality organization (IPO) and the defence maturity quotient, with reference to the association with dream characteristics according to Moser and von Zeppelin.In this investigation only a few associations between dream characteristics and structural level could be identified. The clearest was the association between the degree of maturity of defence and the dream characteristics. Dreams from persons with a more mature defence appeared more complex and livelier. Dreams from persons with a good structural integration according to OPD-2 are also characterized by more “animation” than dreams from less structured persons. The dreams from persons with a moderate structural level do not show any significant differences to those with low structural integration.The results are first and foremost critically discussed with reference to the methods.     

Täuschungsstrategien von Kindern, Jugendlichen und Erwachsenen

Criteria-Based Content Analysis (22) is part of the Statement Validity Assessment (SVA), a method used for assessing the credibility of witness’ statements. CBCA relies on two assumptions, one referring to the cognitive strain of inventing a complex false declaration, the other being related to self presentation as a competent, reliable and truthful person by avoiding potentially “damaging” contents. When evalutating statements, forensic experts take into account that cognitive capacity - and thus potential content quality of a false declaration - increases with age. On the other hand there is no empirical evidence for an improvement of deceptive self-presentation strategies so far. Recent studies on content-related deceptive strategies with children and adults support the assumption that children as well as adults do apply specific deception strategies. Due to methodological differences, however, a direct comparison between these studies to obtain results on possible age effects has not been possible. The aim of this study was to investigate whether children, adolescents and adults differ in the content-related deceptive strategies they apply. Children (n = 48), adolescents (n = 73) and adults (n = 50) were given an age appropriate standardized questionnaire about their content-related deception strategies. Results show age differences in the strategic value assigned to certain content characteristics.     

Zum Zusammenhang zwischen Vollzugslockerungen, Unterbringung im offenen Vollzug und Legalbewährung bei Sexualstraftätern

Early release, temporary absence, and minimum security confinement have been permitted less often in German prisons in recent years. There are several reasons and indications that sexual offenders are particularly affected by these developments. Prison files and recidivism data of 115 adult sexual offenders who had been in a Lower Saxony prison in the mid-1990s were analyzed for the current study to find out whether this group posed a specific risk when permitted temporary absence or minimum security confinement. It was also considered whether temporary absence and minimum security confinement were related to reduced recidivism after release. The average follow-up interval was 8.5 years. The following findings emerged: First, 50.9% were reconvicted for any offence, 21.3% with an aggressive offence, and only 7.4% were reconvicted with a sexual offence. Every fifth (19.4%) was sentenced to another prison term or had another probation term revoked. Second, rule-breaking and criminal activity by sex offenders during minimum confinement or temporary absence were very rare and of low severity. Third, sexual offenders in minimum security confinement were less likely to recidivate than others on all measures of reoffending. With Cox regression analyses that controlled for important risk factors for recidivism it was found that minimum security confinement contributed to reduced general, but not to reduced sexual or aggressive reoffending. No relationship was found between level of temporary absence status (unaccompanied vs. accompanied) and recidivism. It is concluded that, contrary to public opinion and judicial practice, sexual offenders can be granted minimum security confinement and temporary absence if an adequate selection process is implemented.     

Versuche zur multidimensionalen Skalierung von subjektiven Reizähnlichkeiten auf Grund von Schätzurteilen,Entscheidungszeiten und Verwechslungshäufigkeiten beim Wiedererkennen

Zusammenfassung Es wird über drei Experimente berichtet, in denen auf verschiedene Art und Weise subjektive Ähnlichkeitsbeziehungen zwischen Reizen ermittelt worden sind. Während im Versuch I Distanzen zwischen den Objekten auf Grund direkter Ähnlichkeitsschätzungen gewonnen wurden, sind im Experiment II die Ähnlichkeitsbeziehungen aus Entscheidungszeiten definiert worden, die von der Darbietung der Reizpaare bis zur Urteilsabgabe benötigt worden sind. Im Versuch III ist schließlich die Anzahl der Verwechslungen beim Wiedererkennen als quantitativer Ausdruck für die Ähnlichkeit verwandt worden.Mit Methoden der multidimensionalen Skalierung sind die aus den Ähnlichkeitsmatrizen analysierbaren Ordnungsgesichtspunkte ermittelt worden. Ihre psychologische Deutung ist durch Benennung der Skalen und durch Versuche zur Rekonstruktion der Urteils- bzw. Wiedererkennungsprozesse versucht worden. In den ersten beiden Versuchen konnten je drei interpretierbare Dimensionen ermittelt werden. Experiment III erbrachte einen weiteren vierten Faktor. Beim Vergleich der drei Ähnlichkeitsstrukturen konnten für jeweils zwei Skalen inhaltliche Übereinstimmungen erkannt werden. Dabei zeigten die auf Entscheidungszeiten zurückgehenden Dimensionen den jeweils geringsten Differenzierungsgrad mit nur wenigen Unterscheidungsklassen. Die verbleibenden Faktoren konnten weitgehend auf spezielle Bedingungen des jeweiligen Versuches zurückgeführt werden.

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Experiments in multidimensional scaling of subjective stimulus similarities based on ratings, descion times, and confusions in recognition

Summary This is a paper showing in different ways subjective relations of similarity between stimuli. While in experiment No. I distances between objects have been won due to direct ratings of similarity, the relations of similarity in experiment No. II have been defined from the time of presentation of the pairs of stimuli until the stating of judgement. In experiment No. III, finally, the number of mistakes in recognition were used as a quantitative expression of similarity.The analyzable aspects of classification, which were used by the Ss, have been won by means of procedures of multidimensional scaling. A psychological interpretation has been tried by denominating the scales and by tyring to reconstruct the processes of judgement respectively recognition. In each of the first two experiments three interpretable dimensions were found. Experiment No.III showed a further fourth factor. When comparing the three structures of similarity, agreement in content could be found out for the first two scales as well as for the second ones. The dimensions going back to the decision times showed the least rate of differentiation with only few classes of discrimination. The remaining factors could be attributed mostly to the special conditions of each of the experiments.

     

What has happened to Prägnanz? Coding,stability, or resonance

Three theoretical measures of Prägnanz were compared with four data sets. The theoretical measures were a stimulus-coding one (structural information load, SIL), a measure related to within memory processes (stability), and one based on the interaction of perception and memory (resonance). The four data sets were obtained in two experiments and involved goodness rating, grouping, and immediate and delayed recall. A complete set of seven-element binary serial patterns was used in each experiment. Both SIL and resonance were shown to correlate reliably with the data sets across tasks. The resonance measure, however, performed best. Prägnanz thus appears to be explained better by resonance than by stimulus coding or memory storage. Resonance explained all systematic variance in the recall tasks, but not in the other tasks. Regarding these, partial-correlation analyses showed that the effect of stability could be fully reduced to resonance. SIL could not be similarly reduced. Therefore, additional perceptual constraints, other than resonance, would be needed for a complete account of goodness in the judging or grouping tasks.