Perspectives Following Klein and Bion on the Development of the Internal World: Clinical Implications

Ed Tronick’s comprehensive theory of human development encompasses the psychological, neurobiological, and cultural to address how human beings make meaning. In addition to a large body of theoretical work and empirical studies, he has collaborated with Alexandra Harrison to develop a model of therapeutic process and change. In this article, we explore the divergences and convergences between Tronick’s theories about psychological development and psychotherapeutic process and those of Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion. We organize our exploration around three areas of interest to both Tronick and Klein: (1) the development of levels of psychic organization, from primitive to organized; (2) the way in which experience is communicated and received across these different levels, and the kind of therapeutic listening necessary to discern this; and (3) the implications for therapeutic interventions that promote psychic change. We discuss Kate, the young patient Harrison and Tronick use to illustrate their model of psychic change, to explicate some differences and commonalities in the perspectives under consideration.     

The Human Mind in This World and the Next: Scientific and Early Theological Perspectives

The understanding of the mind usually adopted within the current science-theology dialogue is questionable. It fails to take into account something necessary to provide a non-reductionist understanding of religious faith: what in ancient and medieval theology was termed the nous. While this concept may require re-interpretation for our present age in terms of a different philosophical framework, any recognition of its reality will have a major impact on two aspects of current discussion: our response to philosophical idealism and our understanding of the eschatological state.     

Function(s) of Religion in the Contemporary World: Psychoanalytic Perspectives

With respect to our psychoanalytic frame of reference allowing us to study the extent of the hypotheses concerning the religious phenomenon as formulated by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, in the context of a cross approach between the accuracy of the concept of conversion and of psychic mechanisms or phenomena at stake within conversions, and based on the testimonials of subjects acknowledging themselves in the experiment of conversion, we try to understand if and how religion is anchored in our cultural era through subversive effects it may have on the subject.     

Leibniz and the English-Speaking World

The problem of self-deception lies at the heart of Nietzsche's account of the slave revolt in morality in the first essay of On the Genealogy of Morals. The viability of Nietzsche's genealogy of morality is thus crucially dependent on a successful explanation of the self-deception the slaves of the first essay are caught in. But the phenomenon of self-deception is notoriously puzzling. In this paper, after critically examining existing interpretations of the slaves’ self-deception, I provide, by drawing on Alfred Mele's work on self-deception, a deflationary account of the slaves’ self-deception; an account which explains the slaves’ self-deceived predicament but without either the attribution of contradictory mental states or an intention to produce or to facilitate the production of the belief the self-deceived subjects end up holding. In light of my account of self-deception, I interpret Nietzsche's intriguing claim that the slaves’ revaluation of ressentiment amounts to their ‘most mendacious artistic stroke’.     

Meaning and the External World

Realism, defined as a justified belief in the existence of the external world, is jeopardized by ‘meaning rationalism,’ the classic theory of meaning that sees the extension of words as a function of the intensions of individual speakers, with no way to ensure that these intensions actually correspond to anything in the external world. To defend realism, Ruth Millikan (1984, 1989a, b, 1993, 2004, 2005) offers a biological theory of meaning called ‘teleosemantics’ in which words, without requiring any contribution from the speaker’s intensions, are supposedly matched directly with their extensions by external norms. But even if one granted as a theoretical possibility that word meaning might possibly be stabilized through an external process, nonetheless, realists who wish to appeal to teleosemantics for a semantic proof of the external world must be capable of identifying these external norms, something that Millikan describes as highly fallible. Furthermore, because they can be aware of these norms only as these are internally represented, it would also be necessary for realists to verify that these internal representations accurately reflect the norms as they occur in the external world. But given that this is virtually the same stumbling block to realism found in meaning rationalism, it is concluded that teleosemantics is not likely to restore faith in this worldview.

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Africa and the World Economy

Abstract

Africa's partnership in world economy is depicted and possible response of Africa and world community to the African predicament is highlighted.     

艺术作品中的世界与作为世界精神的河流--论海德格尔思想的转折

1936年左右是海德格尔思想发展的关键时期,也即是其思想转折完成的时机,于是弄清楚这一转折(跨越30年代前期)的过程就相当重要了。随着《存在与时间》之后的一系列演讲的出版,其中尤其是海氏对荷尔德林诗歌的解释,可以使我们准确地理解他如何借助艺术与诗歌把存在的真理与美的显像关联来实现这一转折。本文主要通过重新阅读《艺术作品的本源》,并把它置于与荷尔德林的诗歌的关系中来讨论这一转折,从而使海德格尔这一阶段的世界理论更为明确,并为理解后期海德格尔以及第65卷对Ereignis的阐发提供了指引与路标。     

Staff and Boarders Perspectives of the Boarding Environment

This research provides support for a direct comparison between the home and boarding environments, the inference being that boarding staff who fulfil an in loco parentis role have an integral part to play in the developmental outcomes of adolescents (boarders). Research in the area of family functioning has found that adolescents tend to view the family environment more negatively than their parents and that these discrepant perceptions have been linked to both internalising and externalising disorders in adolescents. In an attempt to further clarify the influence of the parenting role of boarding staff and of the boarding environment in general, 121 staff and 415 boarders from schools in Queensland, Australia, were asked to rate the boarding environment on levels of conflict, social support and climate. It was found that boarders, like adolescents in the home environment, perceived significantly higher levels of conflict and lower levels of social support and positive climate than did staff. These findings lend further support to the conceptualisation of the boarding environment as a home away from home. The implications of these findings for boarders’ developmental outcomes are discussed.     

Perspectives on dichotic listening and the corpus callosum

The present review summarizes historic and recent research which has investigated the role of the corpus callosum in dichotic processing within the context of audiology. Examination of performance by certain clinical groups, including split brain patients, multiple sclerosis cases, and other types of neurological lesions is included. Maturational, age related, and genetic factors are also discussed. Finally, some attention is given to recent trends in audiology research to develop improved diagnostic and rehabilitation tools for individuals with dichotic deficits potentially related to callosal dysfunction.