Psychological Tasks Associated with Divorce: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Eat,Pray, Love</Emphasis> (2010), <Emphasis Type="Italic">An Unmarried Woman</Emphasis> (1978), and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Kramer vs. Kramer</Emphasis> (1979)

The dependency paradox (Feeney) states that independence actually can result from being in a nurturing relationship. Those who divorce often have the opposite notion that independence will occur without a relationship. The movies Eat, Pray, Love, An Unmarried Woman, and Kramer vs. Kramer examine divorce from different angles. The protagonists in all three movies grow through the process of divorce, each achieving a level of autonomy that seemed unattainable within their marriage. This paper aims to explore the concept of divorce in light of the dependency paradox by examining the self-differentiation achieved and the consequences of such independence for both the individual and, in Kramer vs. Kramer, for the child involved.     

Understanding Mind/Body Medicine from Muslim Religious Practices of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Salat</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Dhikr</Emphasis>

There has been an increasing medical interest in Muslim religious practices in promoting well-being. Central to Muslim religious practices are salat (prayer) and dhikr (chanting). These two religious forms may be argued as comprising elements of mind/body medicine due to their positive effect on the psychoneuroimmunological response. The aim of this article was to further understand the mind/body aspects of Muslim salat and dhikr.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Ziran</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Wuwei</Emphasis> in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Daodejing</Emphasis>: An Ethical Assessment

In Daoist philosophy, the self is understood as an individual interdependent with others, and situated within a broader environment. Within this framework, the concept ziran is frequently understood in terms of naturalness or nature while wuwei is explained in terms of non-oppressive government. In many existing accounts, little is done to connect these two key Daoist concepts. Here, I suggest that wuwei and ziran are correlated, ethical, concepts. Together, they provide a unifying ethical framework for understanding the philosophy of the Daodejing. I explore the meaning of ziran as self-so-ness or, in human terms, as pertaining to an individual’s spontaneity. The appropriate response to the spontaneity of individuals is to avoid, insofar as possible, imposing or using restrictive norms and methods, that is, wuwei. According to this view, ziran and wuwei offer an account of ethics that attends to core notions of interdependent selfhood, including mutuality, relationality, interdependence, symbiosis, and responsiveness.     

Death,Rejuvenation and Immortality in Film: <Emphasis Type="Italic">On Golden Pond</Emphasis> (1981), <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cat on a Hot Tin Roof</Emphasis> (1958) and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cocoon</Emphasis> (1985)

This paper seeks to highlight the developmental tasks of late adulthood with the help of three Hollywood movies. These tasks include: (i) struggling to maintain physical integrity, (ii) handling the "wound of mortality", (iii) maintaining activity and sexuality, and (iv) becoming wise. Among other challenges faced by an individual during this phase of life are loss of love objects, illness and possible compromise of mental functions, de-cathexis of material possessions and coming to terms with one's approaching death. All sorts of healthy and unhealthy psychosocial maneuvers come to the surface as a result of these stresses. This paper illustrates these dilemmas and their potential solutions via a discussion of three movies.     

Marx and Paci on the Question of Appearances (Or,Reading <Emphasis Type="Italic">Capital</Emphasis> as a Phenomenology)

The following essay argues that Marx’s method of critique, conception of science, and mode of presentation in Capital are all phenomenological in the sense first articulated by Enzo Paci in The Function of the Sciences and the Meaning of Man. In Capital, Marx places the phenomenological problem of appearances at the centre of his criticism of political economy. His analysis begins with the way in which things typically present themselves in a capitalist society, but this is merely the starting point for a systematic critique which tries to reveal the innerconnections and exploitative social relations hidden beneath those estranged outward appearances. Marx presumed that this phenomenological approach was the most appropriate method for demystifying the ‘naturalized’ semblance of the capitalist economy. According to Paci’s reading of Capital, the task of Marxian critique is to show these superficial appearances for what they really are: i.e., reflections of the reified reality of modern life.     

Film Review: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Gran Torino</Emphasis> (2008)

In this film review of Gran Torino, I examine the psychological, racial and gender emphases used by Clint Eastwood for this movie.     

Constitutionalism Out of a Positivist Mind Cast: The <Emphasis Type="Italic">Garantismo</Emphasis> Way

Among contemporary forms of constitutionalism, Luigi Ferrajoli’s Garantismo may be considered as the rather unfashionable attempt to build up a comprehensive and multi-layered theory, which still takes seriously the positivist heritage. This paper offers, in brief outline, a synthetic view of the social setting, the philosophical background, and the basic features of this conception of constitutionalism, when compared with legal positivism and other mainstream forms of (neo)constitutionalism.     

Carnap,Kuhn, and revisionism: on the publication of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Structure</Emphasis> in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Encyclopedia</Emphasis>

In recent years, a revisionist process focused on logical positivism can be observed, particularly regarding Carnap’s work. In this paper, I argue against the interpretation that Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions having been published in the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, co-edited by Carnap, is evidence of the revisionist idea that Carnap “would have found Structure philosophically congenial”. I claim that Kuhn’s book, from Carnap’s point of view, is not in philosophy of science but rather in history of science (in the context of a sharp discovery–justification distinction). It could also explain the fact that, despite his sympathetic letters to Kuhn as editor, Carnap never refers to Kuhn’s book in his work in philosophy of science.     

Robust representations of individual faces in chimpanzees (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pan troglodytes</Emphasis>) but not monkeys (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Macaca mulatta</Emphasis>)

Being able to recognize the faces of our friends and family members no matter where we see them represents a substantial challenge for the visual system because the retinal image of a face can be degraded by both changes in the person (age, expression, pose, hairstyle, etc.) and changes in the viewing conditions (direction and degree of illumination). Yet most of us are able to recognize familiar people effortlessly. A popular theory for how face recognition is achieved has argued that the brain stabilizes facial appearance by building average representations that enhance diagnostic features that reliably vary between people while diluting features that vary between instances of the same person. This explains why people find it easier to recognize average images of people, created by averaging multiple images of the same person together, than single instances (i.e. photographs). Although this theory is gathering momentum in the psychological and computer sciences, there is no evidence of whether this mechanism represents a unique specialization for individual recognition in humans. Here we tested two species, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), to determine whether average images of different familiar individuals were easier to discriminate than photographs of familiar individuals. Using a two-alternative forced-choice, match-to-sample procedure, we report a behaviour response profile that suggests chimpanzees encode the faces of conspecifics differently than rhesus monkeys and in a manner similar to humans.