The Trauma Related Shame Inventory: Measuring Trauma-Related Shame Among Patients with PTSD

This article proposes a new measurement instrument of trauma-related shame. The purpose of this study is to investigate the psychometric properties of the scores derived from the Trauma Related Shame Inventory (TRSI) by means of generalizability theory (G-theory). The psychometric analyses are based on a sample of 50 patients in treatment for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The results provided supporting construct validity evidence for the interpretation of TRSI as a homogeneous construct. The 24-item version of internal and external referenced shame yielded generalizability and dependability coefficients of .874 and .868, respectively. The distinction between shame and guilt was supported by a high generalizability coefficient of .812 for the difference scores between TRSI and guilt cognition scale. Further validity evidence was provided by a positive relationship between TRSI and a) self-judgment subscale in Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff Self and Identity 2:(3), 223–250, 2003) and b) Beck Depression Inventory (Beck Steer and Brown 1996a) when controlled for guilt. The results of the present study provided promising support for using the 24-item version of TRSI in both clinical research and practice.     

Agamben,Badiou, and Russell

Giorgio Agamben and Alain Badiou have both recently made central use of set-theoretic results in their political and ontological projects. As I argue in the paper, one of the most important of these to both thinkers is the paradox of set membership discovered by Russell in 1901. Russell’s paradox demonstrates the fundamentally paradoxical status of the totality of language itself, in its concrete occurrence or taking-place in the world. The paradoxical status of language is essential to Agamben’s discussions of the “coming community,” “whatever being,” sovereignty, law and its force, and the possibility of a reconfiguration of political life, as well as to Badiou’s notions of representation, political intervention, the nature of the subject, and the event. I document these implications of Russell’s paradox in the texts of Agamben and Badiou and suggest that they point the way toward a reconfigured political life, grounded in a radical reflective experience of language.     

Educational Leadership Reconsidered: Arendt,Agamben, and Bauman

In this paper we claim educational leadership as an autonomous discipline whose goals and strategies should not mirror those typical of business and political leadership. In order to define the aims proper to educational leadership we question three common assumptions of what it is supposed to carry out. First, we turn to Hannah Arendt and her contemporary critics to maintain that education aims at opening up exceptions within the normal course of events rather than simply preserving it. This way, education is not reduced to an instrument at the service of the reinforcement of a given social and economic system. This leads us to ask what should exactly educational leadership oppose by means of these exceptions. According to Tyson E. Lewis’s wise application to education of Giorgio Agamben’s ontology of impotentiality, the apparently reasonable idea that education must help the subject to develop his potentials is precisely an instrumentalization of education which brings about a desubjectification of the learner. Education should actually make the pupil aware of his right not to carry his potentiality to its actualization and dwell instead in a state of impotentiality. Third and last, we complicate this picture by alluding to Zygmunt Bauman’s critique of the rejection of Western individuals to realize certain possibilities, which they deem too costly. By analysing in conjunction Agamben’s encouragement to suspend one’s potential and Bauman’s insistence on the need of not suspending it, we conclude by defining what, in our opinion, defines the raison d’être of educational leadership.     

The Letter and the Witness: Agamben,Heidegger, and Derrida

In Remnants of Auschwitz, Agamben introduces a particular conception of bearing witness to overcome the problems contained in an account of language that depends on the voice or the letter. From his earlier work, it is clear that his critique of the voice and the letter is not only directed to ancient and medieval metaphysics, but also concerns Heidegger's account of the voice and Derrida's account of the letter and writing. Yet, if Agamben is correct in claiming that bearing witness offers an alternative to Heidegger's voice and Derrida's letter, it is remarkable – a fact unnoticed in the available literature – that Agamben does not discuss how these conceptions of the voice and the letter are intrinsically connected to the problem of testimony for Heidegger as well as Derrida. To show how this lack of attention to bearing witness in Heidegger and Derrida affects Agamben's critique, this article proceeds as follows. First, we interpret Agamben's critique of Heidegger's conception of the voice and Derrida's conception of writing in terms of the presuppositional constitution of metaphysics. Second, we describe Agamben's concept of the witness and indicate how it offers an alternative to this presuppositional constitution of metaphysics. Finally, we show which role bearing witness plays in Heidegger's voice and Derrida's letter, and how our analysis presents a more precise version of Agamben's critique.     

Belonging and Social Identity Among Young People in Western Sydney,Australia

This article explores young people’s everyday life in multiethnic Australian communities. The focus is on interethnic social identity and belonging to the Australian society. The research gives an insight into social relationships, social networks and attitudes to the Australian culture among young people living in multiethnic neighbourhoods. Conceptually, the research is framed around Bourdieu’s habitus discourse and the influence of social and cultural capital on young people’s perceptions and attitudes. A survey of 339 young people residing in Western and South Western Sydney, Australia, was undertaken in 2007. Ninety-five percent of the young people were from minority migrant backgrounds, and two thirds were born in Australia. The majority of them feel good about living in Australia, while only a small percentage rarely or never share this feeling. The findings demonstrate a more positive atmosphere and contradict evidence highlighted by pessimistic predictions of anti-immigrant and anti-multiculturalism critics. For many people of minority ethnic backgrounds, the Australian multicultural society works in a cohesive and inclusive way most of the time. The findings, even when sometimes contradictory, emphasise that the Australian multicultural society was working well in 2007. The young people in the research acknowledged to be influenced by the Cronulla riots, but it had a minor influence on their perception of social identity, social networks or feeling connected to Australia.     

Perceived Support,Belonging, and Possible Selves Strategies Among Incarcerated Juvenile Offenders1

Possible selves theory ( Markus & Nurius, 1986 ) suggests that future‐oriented expectations, fears, and strategies are constrained by feedback in one's sociocultural context. The current paper represents a preliminary look into the relationship between support in one's immediate context and the development of strategies for the achievement of desired future selves. Youthful offenders (N = 543) were surveyed in secured treatment facilities in Alaska, Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon. Program belonging was a consistent predictor of strategy generation among both males and females, and attributional support from a staff person was significant among males. The findings support further examination of interpersonal interactions as they relate to future‐oriented planning and point to a need for further investigation into the development of concrete strategies.     

Gender Differences in Value Priorities, Guilt, and Shame Among Finnish and Peruvian Adolescents

Cultural and gender differences in guilt and shame (Tangney’s TOSCA) and value priorities (the Schwartz Value Survey) were studied in samples of Finnish (N?=?156) and Peruvian (N?=?159) adolescents. As expected, the Peruvians were more collectivistic and traditional than the Finns. In line with hypotheses derived from previous research, gender differences were larger and more stereotypical among the Finns than among the Peruvians. Finnish girls were more prone to guilt and shame than boys were, whereas among the Peruvians there was no gender difference in guilt, and boys were more shame-prone than girls. Gender differences in values were smaller for the Peruvians than for the Finns. The results support the view that psychological gender differences are largest in modern, individualistic societies.     

In Pursuit of the MD: The Impact of Role Models, Identity Compatibility, and Belonging Among Undergraduate Women

Women continue to face gender-related challenges in the medical field in places around the world where it has traditionally been male-dominated, including in the U.S. In an online experimental study with women attending a mid-sized public university in the Northeastern U.S. (N?=?55) who were interested in pursuing a pre-medical track (being pre-med) as undergraduates, we explored the mechanisms involved in undergraduate women’s pursuit of a career as a physician, focusing on three factors: exposure to successful female physician role models, perceived identity compatibility between being a woman and being pre-med, and sense of belonging in pre-med. Participants were randomly assigned to an experimental condition in which they were exposed to information about successful female physicians, or to a control condition in which no information about female physicians was provided. First, as hypothesized, participants exposed to successful female physicians reported higher perceived identity compatibility, sense of belonging, and interest in a medical career compared to those in the control condition. Second, also as hypothesized, perceived identity compatibility mediated the effect of role models on sense of belonging, and sense of belonging mediated the relationship between perceived identity compatibility and interest in a medical career. This study highlights three key factors in women’s pursuit of a career as a physician and the process through which these factors may operate. Findings support the use of role models to set a positive psychosocial process in motion that can support women’s persistence in medicine.     

Studying with the Internet: Giorgio Agamben,Education, and New Digital Technologies

This paper provides an analysis of the educational use of the Internet and of digital technologies that is neither pessimistic nor optimistic, that is neither critical nor post-critical. Turning to Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s comments on studying and its relationship to the technology of the blank writing tablet, the authors argue that digital devises are a radical transformation in our relationship to the technologies of reading and writing. Traditionally, the scholar was able to experience his or her potentiality to communicate through writing via the blankness of the writing tablet. Yet, according to Agamben, such blankness has become inaccessible in the digital age, where the screen is always full of content. Here the authors argue that Agamben is correct in his diagnosis, yet his own theory of communicability (as the experience of our ability to and not to communicate this or that specific message) offers up a way to redeem the educational use of digital devices. It is precisely the overflowing saturation of communications on the Internet which produces a new kind of blankness. It is this blankness which should thus become the focus of a studious form of media literacy—one that is not critical or post-critical so much as pre-critical (in that it contemplates the very potentiality for communication as such).     

Rethinking the Learning Society: Giorgio Agamben on Studying,Stupidity, and Impotence

In this article, the author rethinks critiques of the learning society using Giorgio Agamben’s theory of potentiality. Summarizing several major contributions to our understanding of the limitations of the discourse of learning, the author proposes that critics thus far have failed to fully pinpoint the exact danger of learning. Importantly, learning is not only a rejection of the democratic or political dimension of education but it is first and foremost predicated on a false ontology of potentiality. What is put at risk in learning is a sacrifice of our (im)potential, our capacity to be or not to be this or that within the order of things. Through a reconstruction of Agamben’s theory of studying, the author argues for a different conceptualization of freedom in education, of teaching, and of the time of education.     

Jealousy,Shame, and the Rival

This essay is a critique of the two chapters on jealousy in Jerome Neu's book A Tear is an Intellectual Thing. The rival — as anobject of both fear and hatred — is of central importance in romantic jealousy, but it is here argued that the role of the rival cannot be fully understood in Neu's account of jealousy and that shame (not noted by Neu) must be seen as central to the concept of jealousy if the role of the rival is to be fully understood.     

Differentiation of Self,Personal Adjustment,Problem Solving,and Ethnic Group Belonging Among Persons of Color

This study focused on examining the cross‐cultural validity of Bowen family systems theory (M. Bowen, 1978), namely differentiation of self for individuals of color. Ethnic minority men and women completed measures of differentiation of self, ethnic group belonging, and 3 indices of personal adjustment. Initial support for the cross‐cultural utility of Bowen family systems theory was observed. Higher levels of differentiation of self predicted better psychological adjustment, social problem‐solving skills, and greater ethnic group belonging among persons of color. Limitations regarding the cross‐cultural utility of differentiation of self, directions for further research, and implications for counseling are discussed.     

Desacralizing Political Theology: Dionysius the Areopagite and Giorgio Agamben

Giorgio Agamben argues that Christian thought provides the paradigm of modern governmental power, which reinforces mundane government by investing it with glory. Agamben claims that Dionysius the Areopagite exemplifies this structure; in his view, Dionysian negative theology serves to sacralize ecclesiastical power. In response, I argue that Dionysius desacralizes every authority, affirming that some things are sacred even as he subjects that affirmation to thoroughgoing critique. Against both dogmatic adherence and pure profanation, Dionysius models a politics that draws on the power of the sacred while holding it open to unpredictable development.     

Shame,shame

The word shame, as discussed in the literature, is too general and vague. It should thus be restricted to problems caused by (1) faulty toilet training; (2) the consistent use of humiliation as a form of discipline; and (3) public humiliation. Therapists need to be both active in identifying shame, and in intervening therapeutically since patients tend to hide it. Group therapy along with individual therapy is especially helpful in reversing effects of public humiliation.     

The impurity of praxis: Arendt and Agamben

Continental Philosophy Review - If politics is understood as a foundational and open-ended activity, a general problem that arises from such a framing concerns the question of how to sustain the...     

羞耻研究:概念、结构及其评定

近年来国内外心理学界有关羞耻的实证研究有了很大的进展,这在很大程度上归因于对羞耻概念本身的深入理解以及相应评定方法的发展。文章梳理了羞耻的概念、结构及其评定的已有研究成果,总结了国内外心理学界在以上三个领域的理论偏向、研究取向和评定范式,指出了已有研究中存在的困惑,最后提出了羞耻概念、结构及评定的未来研究要实现两个转向,一是从研究视角来看,由结构和类型视角转向关系和情境视角,二是从评定范式来看,由西方实证研究范式转向本土研究范式。