“Hall of Broken Mirrors”—Enactment in an Analytic Group of “Difficult Patients”

This article focuses on the transformation of dissociated self-states as a curative factor in an analytic group of “difficult patients.” Foulkes (1964) referred to the analytic group as a “curative hall of mirrors.” I would like to integrate group analytic theory with relational psychoanalytic concepts. I propose that when dissociated self-states are expressed in a group, this creates a “broken mirrors” experience that is sometimes expressed through enactment. I develop this idea, and argue that the group mirrors to the patient his image—distorted and defective—and forces him to cope with his “not me” states. I demonstrate, through three clinical vignettes, how dissociated states hinder the reflective space and create a “hall of broken mirrors” experience. I would argue that in a safe space, the patients’ “not me” states can be transformed, and the hall of broken mirrors can turn into a curative hall of mirrors.     

The Teenage Problem Is the Adult

Counselor education programs and professional associations of behavioral and social sciences have failed to assist counselors, teachers, and parents in understanding and relating to youth in this technological era. Rebelliousness, alienation, and even rioting engaged in by youth represent cries for help to which adults respond, sometimes with indifference but more often with confusion, resentment, or active antagonism. Empathic and informed counselors may be able to reduce the basic feeling of guilt that leads to such negative reactions by helping school staff and parents recognize that rapid and dramatic changes in modern society have irrevocably influenced attitudes, values, and behaviors of youth. Youth have much right on their side. However, they need wisdom of perceptive adults to guide them in working in acceptable ways for legitimate goals which the older generation has preached but often disregarded in practice. “There is, of course, a teenage problem, but that problem is not the teenager but the adult.”—Ashley Montagu.     

Defending Truth: Legal and Psychological Aspects of Holocaust Denial

Today that form of historical revisionism popularly called “Holocaust denial” abounds worldwide in all its full foul flourish—disseminated not only on Arab streets but in American university newspapers, not only in books, articles, and speeches but in mosques and over the Internet. Can we reject spurious revisionism, or punish purposeful expressions of hatred, and still pay homage to the liberty of thought ennobled by the First Amendment? Are some conflicts between freedom of expression and civility as insoluble as they are inevitable? Can history ever be proven as Truth? This article attempts to answer those questions. Part I describes the background and nature of Holocaust denial, tracing the Nazis’ adoption of a plan for the “Final Solution of the Jewish Problem” through the post-War Nuremberg Trials to the present day. Part II examines the tension between free speech and historical revisionism, presenting various arguments in deference to principles of liberty and opposed to group defamation. Part III addresses the quest for truth in a free society, including psychological and geopolitical analyses of denial and anti-Semitism.     

大学生心理需求及其满足与网络成瘾的关系

以武汉地区1183名大学生为被试,通过问卷调查探讨大学生心理需求程度及其在现实和网络中的满足程度与网络成瘾的关系。结果表明：与非网络成瘾大学生相比,网络成瘾大学生的心理需求的网络满足更多而现实满足更低,但两组大学生的心理需求程度并无明显差异;网络成瘾大学生的心理需求与网络满足的相关高于与现实满足的相关,但非成瘾大学生不存在这种差异;心理需求现实满足高但网络满足低的大学生网络成瘾的比率最低,而心理需求现实满足低网络满足高的大学生网络成瘾的比率最高。     

网络相关文字刺激和压力对网络成瘾者线索诱发渴求的影响

渴求感特别是线索诱发渴求是成瘾行为维持和戒断失败的主要原因。本研究通过两个实验分别探讨了网络相关文字刺激和压力对网络成瘾者线索诱发渴求的影响。研究一以25名网络成瘾大学生为被试,以网络相关和中性词语为实验材料,采用线索暴露范式（Cue-reactivity Paradigm）的研究发现,只有网络相关文字刺激能显著诱发网络成瘾者的渴求感。在此基础上,研究二以40名网络成瘾大学生为被试,以公开演讲范式为压力诱发情境,以网络相关词语和中性词语为实验材料,采用线索暴露范式（Cue-reactivity Paradigm）的研究发现,在压力条件下,网络相关文字能诱发网络成瘾者更为强烈的渴求感。本研究深化了对网络成瘾形成维持心理机制的研究,也为网络成瘾的干预矫正提供了思路。     

Reality-Humanity (Self-Liberated from the Stave in the Wheels)

Adi Da argues that no solutions currently proposed are sufficient to righten the present unsustainable trajectory of life on Earth, because there is no integrated approach to the ordering of society and use of the planet. The presumption of separateness—manifesting collectively as separate “tribes” vying for control—characterizes human affairs, rather than the prior (“a priori”) unity of existence. The struggle for dominance is the “stave in the wheels” of the Earth-system's inherent capacity to self-correct. A new institution, “the Global Cooperative Forum,” is proposed—invoked by “everybody-all-at-once” (a global populace awakened as a single force, capable of cooperatively effecting global change).     

Male Athletes and the Cult(ure) of Thinness in Sport

This article troubles the “down low” (DL) discourse by focusing on an Internet forum—Craigslist.org—where people on the “down low” post. The advertisements, gathered from seven cities in two U.S. regions, reinforce some of the “down low” discussion in the previous literature, as they show a pattern of seeking “masculine” men. These ads also depart from general perceptions such as the DL being a term used predominantly by black men. The authors discuss methodological implications in research with posts, and suggest advancing analyses on the relationship between race, sexuality and power, and gender and sexuality in DL research.     

Author's response

The year 1996 was regarded by a considerable part of contemporary literature on global political economy as a definite turning point in modern history. The majority of experts tended to see the starting point of take‐off that year, but others—not a negligible minority—saw omens of disastrous recession and lasting depression. It appears the time has not yet come. The question is now that of the incalculable resultant of runaway (deregulated) forces of the international financial “whirlpool”, of a random process of global, regional and local accumulation of capital. The year 1997 will set in with a foreseeable and calculable agrarian and related cycle and it may find an outlet for accumulated tensions of capital accumulation at the high tide of unemployment (demographic or migratory) wave with unforeseeable and incalculable effects and side‐effects. This will be just the beginning of the end and a Black Weekday still lies ahead of us. There can be no doubt that we live in a transition period but we do not know where this transition leads to. Loose talk about “post‐industrial society”, “post‐modern age” and “postsomething anything” has limited interpretative power. Very few students of social sciences venture to see and verify secular trends in world history.     

Response to Ranganathan

This essay responds to Bharat Ranganathan's “Comment” on my essay, “The Concept of Dignity in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (2011). Addressing key criticisms in this “Comment,” I make the following points. First, neither the idea of inherent dignity being “imparted” to humans, nor the Universal Declaration's implication—through its use of terms such as “inherent” and “inalienable”—that humans participate in transcendent reality, necessarily presuppose a Christian metaphysics. Second, a concept such as “inherent dignity” must be affirmed to be intrinsically heuristic unless we are to assume that its meaning can be completely known within the conditions of existence; but this affirmation does not render such concepts “indeterminate of sense.” Finally, Ranganathan's distinction between“weak” and “strong” senses of transcendence is untenable. If human truths beyond all contingencies are knowable (“weak” transcendence), then there must be a real dimension of meaning that transcends all contingencies (“strong” transcendence).     

Increasing Youths’ Participation in Team-Based Treatment Planning: The <Emphasis Type="Italic">Achieve My Plan</Emphasis> Enhancement for Wraparound

Wraparound is a frequently implemented approach for providing individualized, community-based care for children and adolescents with serious mental health conditions and, typically, involvement in multiple child—and family-serving systems. Both Wraparound’s principles and its theory of change stress the importance of youths’ active participation throughout. However, research focusing on the experiences of youth in Wraparound indicates that they are often not particularly engaged in the process or participating actively with their teams, and the findings point to a lack of alliance between the young people and their teams. This article describes a randomized study testing the Achieve My Plan (AMP) enhancement for Wraparound, which is intended to increase young people’s satisfaction, active engagement and self-determined participation in Wraparound, as well as their alliance with the team. Study findings showed that, relative to youth who received “as usual” Wraparound, young people who received Wraparound with the AMP enhancement participated more—and in a more active and self-determined manner—with their teams. They also rated their alliance with their Wraparound teams significantly higher. Furthermore, adult team members in the intervention condition rated team meetings as being more productive, and they were more likely to say that the AMP meetings were “much better than usual” team meetings. Findings support the idea that it is possible—using a low-cost, low-“dose” intervention—to enhance young people’s self-determination and their engagement in Wraparound without detracting from team functioning or the satisfaction of other team members.     

Convergent methodologies in cyber-psychology: A case study

“On-line communities” (and especially MUDs—“multiuser domains”) are a popular, growing Internet phenomenon. This paper provides an overview of a project designed to provide a careful characterization of what “life” is like in LambdaMOO—a classic social MUD—for most, or at least many, members. A “convergent-methodologies” approach embracing qualitative and quantitative, subjective and objective methods was used to generate a large and rich database on this on-line community in terms of four general categories: (1) users and use, (2) sociality, (3) identity, and (4) spatiality. The evidence thus far appears to debunk some of the more provocative claims of widespread MUD addiction and rampant identity fragmentation on line. While supporting the primary importance of sociality in the MUD, the results also demonstrate the strong prevalence of personal, one-on-one social interactions over larger social gatherings. Finally, some close correspondences between patterns of spatial behavior and spatial cognition “in real life” and in LambdaMOO were found.     

Doing Sociology in The Age of Globalization

The emergence of processes of globalization has gone hand in hand with a theoretical “crisis” in sociology. According to an increasing number of scholars, “global society” has transformed the “social” to such an extent that classical sociological theory and that of the nineteenth century no longer seem adequate for conceptualizing not only the “new society,” but (human) society as such. The very distinction between human and non-human society has gone lost. In this context, is it still possible to formulate a “theory of society” and what form should such a theory take?     

“Out of the Broom Closet”: The Social Ecology of American Wicca

The fastest growing form of religious identification, spirituality, or “new” religious movement in American society over the last decade is Wicca and related forms of “Neo-Paganism.” However, with no national organization and minimal local organization, little is known about its distribution across a privatized religious landscape nor about the features of state social and cultural environments that are receptive or contrary to its spread. This study uses Internet data to create estimates of the comparative strength of Wiccan-Pagan identification across the 50 states and conducts multivariate analyses of the ability of variables suggested in prior research to explain its distribution. Not only are the findings consistent with expectations, but differences in correlates of Wicca using the Internet data in contrast to existing measures of “New Age” spirituality highlight the empirical importance of maintaining distinctions between the two.     

EDUCATION,SOCIAL CREATIVITY,AND THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIETY

The evolution of society, the transcendence of existing social structures, and how society creates itself rests in a function of education. In this article the author examines education's work as that of social creativity. The need for pedagogies of “educate hope” and “imaginative possibilities” is explored. Social epistemology and social imaginary are discussed as dimensions of social creativity within the postmodern society. The aesthetic imperative in education is argued as important to developing the capacities and capabilities in youth to imagine alternative future possibilities of democratic society. The author concludes by examining the role of education in the evolution of society.     

差序公正与差序关怀：论中国人道德取向中的集体偏见

在中国传统的道德取向中,既有皮亚杰、科尔伯格的“道德公正”,也有吉利根、诺丁斯的“道德关怀”,但是,这两种道德取向在中国社会是以“差序格局”的样态运作的,即以“差序公正”和“差序关怀”的形式存在于中国人的道德判断中。“差序公正”和“差序关怀”的概念准确地表征了中国人道德取向的集体偏见。随着改革的不断深入,各项制度的不断建立和完善,人们的现代化层次不断提高,这种集体偏见正在逐渐得到克服和纠正。     

LIVING WITH THE WICKED PROBLEM OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Outlining the characteristics of “wicked” and “super‐wicked” problems, climate change is considered as a global super‐wicked problem that is primarily about the future. Being global‐ and future‐oriented makes climate change something we have to learn to live with but cannot expect to solve. Because the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS) is a multidisciplinary society that yokes the natural and social sciences with values, it is in a position to explore strategies for living with climate change—exemplified by the articles in this section. Finally, asking “who/what is in charge,” it is suggested that in a dynamically interrelated and evolving world no one is. It is important to distinguish between good that is already created and the creative interactions that give rise to new good. In order to live with climate change, our primary orientation should be to live with the creativity that has created and continues to create our life on Planet Earth—since we are not able to know what the future holds.     

Turning 60 in paris,city of old men

Abstract

As he turns 60 and, in spite of all assurances from family members and other well wishers convinces himself that this indeed is the beginning of old age, it occurs to a man that he should spend his birthday in the City of Light, Ernest Hemingway's “moveable feast” the city for the young—Paris. He is given that opportunity, and as he wanders the city he finds reflected in its life—even the tourist-dominated life of Paris in the summer—the losses that he believes he now must recognize, the occasional grimness of that recognition, and some consolation for suffering the sense of loss—not only lost youth but lost middle age, with all that it implies.     

Akiva Yosef Schlesinger—a forerunner of Zionism or a forerunner of ultra-orthodoxy

Rabbi Akiva Yosef Schlesinger (Pressburg 1838—Jerusalem 1922) is considered by some scholars to be a forerunner of ultra-Orthodoxy, but by others as a forerunner of Zionism. This article unravels this enigmatic personality, demonstrating that he was indeed a forerunner of ultra-Orthodoxy who was motivated by a complete rejection of modernity and promoted religious positions that were more radical than those of the Hatam Sofer. Those who associate Schlesinger with Zionism are misled by the fact that he encountered fierce opposition from his Hungarian colleagues and from the “Yishuv hayashan” in Jerusalem, advocated the use of the Hebrew language and promoted a “settlement” programme in Palestine. The article suggests that Schlesinger's programme was in reality designed to create a sacred utopian society, and was motivated by his desire to isolate the traditional Jewish community from modernity, rather than by a nationalist ideology. Furthermore, the opposition of the Jerusalem rabbis to Schlesinger's ideas was based largely on his unusual religious positions and his suggestion that the youth should be engaged in work. In analysing Schlesinger's legacy, the article also clarifies the distinctions between ultra-Orthodoxy and Zionism, as well as some common elements that they share.