Psychoanalytic reflections on a particular form of language distortion.

A female obsessive patient communicated with her sister via a distortion of the Hebrew language, in which she masculinized the feminine gender second person pronoun and certain nouns. This treatment of words is analyzed in terms ranging from the concrete to the metaphoric uses of language. Lacan's emphasis on the meaning of the word is explored and is seen as an amplification rather than a replacement of the object relations approach to language and metaphor.     

Some linguistic considerations related to the issue of female orgasm.

The purpose of this paper has been to identify a linguistic issue that continues to cloud our thinking about the subject of female orgasm. A specific technical revision has been recommended, i.e., that female orgasms be described as either coital or noncoital. It has been suggested that we help our female patients to become aware of this vocabulary and that we let them know that the clitoral/vaginal dichotomy is incorrect. Systematic adherence to the correct vocabulary is therapeutic. The linguistic implications concerning the issue of female orgasm have been examined as they relate to both theory and practice. It has been argued that linguistic usage pertaining to female sexuality generally is the product of a patriarchal value structure and, as such, reflects patriarchal prejudices about female sexuality. It has been suggested that the apparent inability of many women to achieve coital orgasms is related to centuries-old cultural attitudes and that linguistic usages, particularly dichotomies, tend to perpetuate the prejudices that underlie many cultural attitudes. Freud's view of the role of language in clinical practice has been indicated. Finally, it has been suggested that the linguistic recommendation made in this paper can be viewed as implementing the process by which recent biological findings are used to strengthen psychoanalytic theory and practice.     

Counseling implications of recent research on women

The growing concern for women and women's rights has been reflected in an increasing amount of research on women. As counselors may be unaware of the results of this research and its implications for counseling, the author surveys some of the recent investigations in four areas: counselor bias, demographic changes, sex differences, and sex-role stereotypes. After providing a review of the research in each area, she discusses implications of the findings. The author also makes specific suggestions for counselors who wish to confront some of the issues raised by recent research on women.     

Bridging the reductive and the synthetic: some reflections on the clinical implications of synchronicity

When Jung introduced the concepts of synchronicity and the psychoid unconscious, he expanded analytical psychology into decidedly uncanny territory. Despite the early interest shown by Freud, anomalous phenomena such as telepathy have become a taboo subject in psychoanalysis. Today, however, there is an increasing interest in thought transference and synchronicity, thus opening the way for a fruitful exchange between different psychoanalytical schools on their clinical implications. I propose to examine some of the ambiguities of Jung's thinking, to clarify how we define synchronicity, the relationship between synchronicities and parapsychological events, and their clinical significance. At the present moment, we are still unsure if such events should be considered as normal and a way of facilitating individuation, or as an indication of psychopathology in the patient or in the analyst, just as we are uncertain about the particular characteristics of the intersubjective field that can lead to synchronicities. Making use of the typology of mind‐matter correlations presented by Atmanspacher and Fach, and the distinction they draw between acategorial and non‐categorial states of mind, I will use two clinical vignettes to illustrate the different states of mind in analyst and analysand that can lead to synchronicities. In particular I will focus on the relationship between analytical reverie and synchronicity.     

Epistemological notes on recent studies of social perception

Among three possible avenues toward a good society — revolutionary Marxism, liberal‐democratic reform, and radical citizenship education — this paper examines and advocates the third. Societies are held to be ‘good’ so long as the Most Basic Rights are in fact enjoyed by all (i.e. the right (1) to stay alive, (2) to remain unmolested, and (3) to be free to develop one's potentialities). Some key propositions in ‘contract theory’ as represented by such diverse theorists as Socrates, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Tussman and Meiklejohn are discussed, and an alternative tradition, ‘freedom theory’, is sketched, with contributions from Socrates, Godwin, Thoreau, and Camus. An argument is then developed to the effect that the contract theorists have all contributed to the basis on which the contemporary ‘liberal make‐believe’ rests. This term refers to the myth that our society is democratic, i.e. that working (only) within the system of our constitutional procedures will or can lead toward a just society. Finally, it is argued that the highest priority in citizenship education is to destroy this liberal make‐believe, and that freedom theory provides a better foundation than contract theory in the struggle for human rights, and for mankind's survival.     

Some recent studies on the extraretinal contribution to distance perception

Some recent studies on the extraretinal contribution to distance perception are reviewed. These experiments demonstrate that vergence can provide reliable information for judgments on the distance of proximal targets in the absence of all other cues. We argue that, although vergence is an unreliable cue at large fixation distances and is subject to a strong contraction bias when studied in isolation, these facts do not imply a minor role for vergence in near-space perception. When additional depth and distance cues are added, the contribution of vergence information becomes more complicated. We present results which indicate that the different cues to depth and distance are combined in a manner that can result in unexpected distortions of visual space. A simple heuristic model which can produce the observed distortions is outlined.     

First-person thoughts and embodied self-awareness: Some reflections on the relation between recent analytical philosophy and phenomenology

The article examines some of the main theses about self-awareness developed in recent analytic philosophy of mind (especially the work of Bermúdez), and points to a number of striking overlaps between these accounts and the ones to be found in phenomenology. Given the real risk of unintended repetitions, it is argued that it would be counterproductive for philosophy of mind to ignore already existing resources, and that both analytical philosophy and phenomenology would profit from a more open exchange.     

Testing some implications of the sensory physiological model of the time sense

Summary In this paper some implications of the pulse generator model of time perception have been tested. In the case of serial (re)production of an interval a lengthening effect occurs. Generally, this phenomenon is explained by assuming that the time-keeper is driven by the state of general physiological activation which decreases in the course of the task. An experiment was carried out in which EEG activity was recorded during the time estimation process. It appeared that a lengthening effect occurred, but there was no correlation between the reproduction times and the means of the EEG spectra, however. In a second experiment two series of time estimations were compared as a function of administering a placebo and methamphetamine. In the latter case the model predicts that no lengthening will occur since arousal (at least for a short period of time) is kept at a high and constant level. In fact, no differences between the regressions of the time estimation curves before and after drug administration have been found, so that the predictions of the model as regards the origin of lengthening could not be supported. It is suggested that the nature of the effect should be studied within the framework of the cognitive theory of time experience which offers various starting points in this respect.     

A critical analysis of recent work on empowerment: implications for gender

A flurry of publications on empowerment by institutions such as the World Bank that emerged from about 2000–2005 was followed by critiques and then a seeming lull in the popularity of and work on empowerment. However, the concept has reappeared recently in what I take to be an important new development that highlights the relational feature of empowerment. In this paper, I begin with the capabilities approach as delineated by Amartya Sen and, specifically, his application of it to gender. This shapes the background against which I highlight how recent work on empowerment by Jay Drydyk, the World Development Report 2012, Gender Equality and Development, and Patti Petesch utilizes but also departs from Sen. I then argue that insights from this recent research can be developed further through a feminist relational framework. With its focus on relationships, relational theory can better capture possibilities for empowering women in and through an analysis of the relationships they are in.     

Psychoanalytic observations on the effect of lithium on manic attacks

This paper describes a predictable relation between our manic-depressive patients' blood lithium levels and particular changes in their conscious and unconscious mental processes (i.e., their thoughts, wishes, fantasies, inclinations, and feelings). These changes were, in turn, predictively related to specific changes in these patients' overt manic symptomatology. Because each of our patients' manic episodes was heralded by a marked increase in unconscious or conscious phallic sexual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and because this increase preceded any observed deterioration in ego or superego functioning, we hypothesize that a primary increase in our patients' phallic instinctual drives secondarily overwhelmed the capacity of their egos to defend against these drives, and that this, in turn, resulted in the development of our patients' overt manic symptoms. Psychoanalysis (or psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy) made our patients consciously aware both of their previously unconscious phallic sexual thoughts and impulses, and of their defenses against them. This new awareness enabled our patients to recognize when their, now conscious, phallic sexual impulses and thoughts became inappropriately intensified; and this, in turn, permitted them to avoid overt manic episodes by counteracting these inappropriate inclinations with increased doses of lithium.