Alice in Wonderland,or psychology among the information sciences

Summary In this paper, psychology is considered as a biological science within the context of the information sciences. Connectionist arguments about the computational architecture of the brain based on biological and/or computational plausibility are rejected. Following Hebb (1958), it is argued that analyses based on biological and/or computational plausibility may serve to tune a psychological model, but that behavioural accuracy must be the main arbiter of any psychological model.     

The Contribution of Alice Miller to Feminist Therapy and Theory

No abstract available for this article.     

On Alice in Wonderland,Statistics, and Whether CBT Should Take the Prize

This article reports the development of a protocol for the therapeutic application of “attention control” for chronic pain. Attention control is the limitation of the impact of pain by switching or retuning attention. An expert systems approach was used to develop the protocol. In the first stage an extensive literature search retrieved published and unpublished accounts of attention control strategies and a draft treatment manual was prepared. In the second stage 6 experts were recruited and they independently read and reviewed the draft manual. They were interviewed using a semi‐structured protocol to elicit their views on the draft manual. The manual was then revised to accommodate the information and expertise. In addition to providing expert opinion on the manual the experts also raised issues about the process of change in psychological treatment for chronic pain. These issues were organized into a process model of change in chronic pain.     

Alice in Systems Wonderland: A Children's Systems Learning Guidebook Accompanying Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The author proposes the development of systems learning guidebooks to accompany famous children's classic books. Children's classic books can make excellent bases for children's learning guidebooks on systems thinking and global ecology, because they are fun to read and well known worldwide. If such learning guidebooks are properly designed with humor and entertaining aspects, they could stimulate children to learn more about systems thinking. Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is chosen as a pilot case for developing such a children's guidebook. The systems learning guidebook that accompanies Alice's Wonderland shall be entitled Alice in Systems Wonderland and will help its readers look at the Alice's Wonderland story with a systems perspective.     

Household hunger,standard of living and satisfaction with life in Alice,South Africa

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between household hunger, standard of living and satisfaction with life in a rural South African setting. Respondents were 442 randomly selected community dwellers from Alice, in the Eastern Cape (Xhosa speaking = 89.32%, females = 67%; age range 40–49 years). Multiple regression analysis was utilised to predict satisfaction with life from household hunger and standard of living. Low levels of household hunger, and low to moderate living standards predicted satisfaction with life. Resource support interventions with vulnerable communities should focus on poverty alleviation measures aimed at improving subjective satisfaction levels.     

"Princess Alice is watching you": children's belief in an invisible person inhibits cheating

Two child groups (5-6 and 8-9 years of age) participated in a challenging rule-following task while they were (a) told that they were in the presence of a watchful invisible person (“Princess Alice”), (b) observed by a real adult, or (c) unsupervised. Children were covertly videotaped performing the task in the experimenter’s absence. Older children had an easier time at following the rules but engaged in equal levels of purposeful cheating as the younger children. Importantly, children’s expressed belief in the invisible person significantly determined their cheating latency, and this was true even after controlling for individual differences in temperament. When “skeptical” children were omitted from the analysis, the inhibitory effects of being told about Princess Alice were equivalent to having a real adult present. Furthermore, skeptical children cheated only after having first behaviorally disconfirmed the “presence” of Princess Alice. The findings suggest that children’s belief in a watchful invisible person tends to deter cheating.     

Regression and new beginnings: Michael, Alice and Enid Balint and the circulation of ideas

This article offers a new evaluation of Michael Balint's history. It starts with his growing up in Hungary and examines the central concepts of his writing: the analytic pair, regression and the basic fault and creativity, up to and including his renowned work on the eponymous Balint groups (which forged a unique link between psychoanalysis and medicine). While his name is, of course, well known, this article aims to bring his ideas to the attention of a modern analytic audience. Having trained in the 1920s with Ferenczi, Balint brought Ferenczi's literary inheritance to England where he lived until his death in 1970. His connections to Klein, Winnicott and Lacan, all of whom respected his analytic stance, are also examined. Furthermore, this article argues that his ideas were filtered through the theoretical lens of his first wife Alice Balint and later through Enid Balint, both of whom played a key - and rarely recognised - role in the development of his thought. It ends with a brief discussion of his ideas on analytic training and his quest, successful only after his death, to publish the complete Freud-Ferenczi correspondence, together with Ferenczi's diary.