My Colleague,That Other

The author uses Janine Puget's ideas about the social dimension of the building of subjectivity to reflect about relationships among analysts and among psychoanalytic institutions. Extending Puget's notions of difference, and of representation versus presentation, the author highlights the anxiety and disturbance generated in tolerating the otherness of the other and the impact of the new. Tracing the development of our awareness of the effects of our subjectivity beyond narcissism, the author points out the distress caused by otherness, often resulting in a need to pathologize that which cannot be made coherent. Following this line, the paper attempts to clarify the difficulties analyst face in accepting ideas different from those in which they were trained. The emergence of really new ideas and of analytic creativity can only occur in the tolerance of the space of the Two.     

My Scholarly Life in Cybernetics

This article narrates how I discovered cybernetics, who inspired me to make the contributions of which I am proud, and the ideas that led me to recognize the importance of understanding the social world we live in as a consequence of what we do in language. It took me some time before I recognized that circular causality and digitalization that made cybernetics the driver of the current revolution toward a computationally autonomous information society had serious limitations. When used to explain human involvements, the mathematics of cybernetics trivializes what we do to each other and blinds us to recognize how cybernetics transformed society. Studying conversations and discourses made me aware of how cybernetic vocabularies, guiding concepts, and computational metaphors were enacted. By contrast to (first- or second-order) cybernetics, I learned that a cybernetics that is practiced in conversations and acknowledges the social consequences of what it generates had to be reflexive. Shifting attention from causal circularities to reflexive circularities opens up huge new areas for exploring socially meaningful contributions and criticizing the epistemologies of mindless discursive practices (e,g., of claiming the superiority of artificial intelligence and the power of computers). Such claims merely entrap their believers into inaction.     

My Life as a Psychoanalyst in Spain

This article attempts to explain, in a necessarily brief way, the reasons underlying my choice of the psychiatry specialty: why I chose the psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy, the authors and theories that have influenced me the most, and my current professional situation, making some allusion to my hobbies.     

Tales from the Crypt: On the Role of Death in Life

An existential psychodynamic theory is presented based on Ernest Becker's claim that self-esteem and cultural worldviews function to ameliorate the anxiety associated with the uniquely human awareness of vulnerability and mortality. Psychological equanimity is hypothesized to require (1) a shared set of beliefs about reality that imbues the universe with stability, meaning, and permanence; (2) standards by which individuals can judge themselves to be of value; and (3) promises of safety and the transcendence of death to those who meet the standards of value. An empirical research program in support of this theory is then described, and the personal and interpersonal implications of these ideas are briefly considered.     

Tedium Vitae: Or, My Life as a 'Net Serf'

Boredom, like pain, is a subjective experience, but while the sources of pain can be either internal or external to the subject, the causes of boredom are always external. Understanding boredom as a reaction to external influences requires inquiries into the subjective awareness of boredom and into the social and cultural conditions giving rise to boredom. After briefly investigating these areas, I suggest that in the past boredom was seen as a necessary ingredient to creative inspiration and self-understanding, and as a contributor to autonomy in judgment and taste. I argue for a new form of boredom seen only with recent advances in information technology. Increasingly, individuals spend their work hours involved in electronic mail and on-line information interaction. The attempt to match the speed and capacity of information technology results in restricted modes of behaviour and cognitive saturation. As a consequence, one is aware of one's boredom but no cognitive capacity remains to consider realms outside the immediate moment. I conclude with the suggestion that the boredom that accompanies involvement in information technology produces a self-identity crafted by technological intervention and fashion, yields the false autonomy of a manipulated consumer, and invites superficial social relations.     

Life Satisfaction and Keeping Up with Other Countries

Micro income studies show that relative income of individuals—with respect to their colleagues, friends, etc.—affects their life satisfaction significantly. This paper attempts to extend these studies by using the idea that people may compare their well-being not only to well-being of their home country folks but also to well-being of other country citizens. Using data from national surveys of 55 countries, carried out from 1973 to 2011, we find that average life satisfaction of a country is significantly affected from how much that country is deprived of income compared to richer countries in the world. Furthermore, per capita income of a country only matters as far as it affects its relative position in the global income distribution. This result, gaining statistical significance after 1990s, is a potential explanation for the paradox that even though richer countries tend to be happier compared to poor ones, a country does not necessarily get happier as its income increases.     

Comparison of Job Satisfaction,Life Satisfaction,and Performance of Overeducated and Other Workers

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly necessary for college graduates in the United States to take jobs requiring only a high school diploma. In the present study, the effects of employing such overeducated workers were assessed for a sample of city and county government workers. The sample included both overeducated workers and a cohort matched on job, sex, age, tenure, and supervisor. The hypotheses predicted lower job satisfaction over the six dimensions for the overeducated workers, and also that various worker perceptions would influence the predictions of the job satisfactions. None of the direct correlations between education and the six dimensions of job satisfaction were significant. The relationships between workers' perception variables and aspects of job satisfaction, however, were significant. There were no differences between the overeducated and their cohorts in general life satisfaction. On supervisory ratings, overeducated workers' performance was only slightly different from other workers.     

A Review of Animal Assisted Therapy in Counseling

Book reviewed in this article: Cynthia K. Chandler (2005). Animal Assisted Therapy in Counseling.     

阿司匹林与其他抗血小板及抗凝药物的合用

动脉粥样硬化性血栓形成是引起心脑血管疾病发生、发展的关键因素。简单而有效的防治方法是合理应用阿司匹林与其他抗血小板及抗凝药物,可以大幅度减少病死率或致残率。阿司匹林既是防治心脑血管疾病的基石,同时也是抗栓治疗的基石,阿司匹林与其他抗血小板或抗凝药物合用,成为抗栓治疗的重要组成部分。抗栓治疗是一柄双刃剑,在临床实际工作中必须合理、有效、正确地应用。有效抗栓治疗同时,尽量避免出血并发症。     

The Greek Chorus and Other Techniques of Paradoxical Therapy

This paper has described some of the interventions developed at the Ackerman Brief Therapy Project in treating the families of symptomatic children. The interventions are based upon a differential diagnosis of the family system and upon an evaluation of that system's resistance to change. They are classified as compliance-based or defiance-based, depending upon the family's degree of anxiety, motivation, and resistance. Paradoxical interventions, which are defiance-based, are used as a clinical tool in dealing with resistance and circumventing the power struggle between therapist and family. A consultation group acting as a Greek chorus underlines the therapist's interventions and comments on the consequences of systemic change. This group is also sometimes used to form a therapeutic triangle among the family, therapist and group, with the therapist and group debating over the family's ability to change.     

How My Theory and Practice of Psychotherapy Has Influenced and Changed Other Psychotherapies

In this article I address three main questions: (a) how psychotherapy has changed the modern world of psychology, (b) how it has changed the modern world in general, and (c) how my special form of psychotherapy, rational emotive behavior therapy, and its derivative, cognitive behavior therapy, have changed the recent theory and practice of psychotherapy.