Kierkegaard and Psychology as the Science of the “Multifarious Life”

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the actuality of some considerations around psychology made by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855). According to him psychology is about the “multifarious” life, which is a term that pinpoints the challenges psychology still have when it comes to including changes and genetic perspectives on its understanding of actual living. Yet Kierkegaard discusses psychology in relationship to metaphysics, which is an almost forgotten perspective. His understanding opens up for narrowing the definition of psychology down to the science of subjectivity, which at the same time elevates psychology to being the only science that focuses on the actual human life. Yet Kierkegaard’s most important contribution to psychology is to maintain a radical distinction between subjectivity and objectivity, and in this respect the psychology of today is challenged.     

Review of “Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy as a Science: An Iconoclastic Perspective,” by Luciano L'Abate

Abstract

adult children of divorce speak out, by claire berman. new york: simon&;schuster, 1991, 285 pages, $18.95

adolescents and their families: paths of ego development, by stuart t. hauser with sally i. powers and gil g. noam, new york: free press, 1991, 318 pages, $29.95

alcohol and the addictive brain: new hope for alcoholics from biogenetic research, by kenneth blum, in collaboration with james e. payne. new york: free press, 1991, 320 pages, $24.95     

Changes in Psychology of Women and Psychology of Gender Textbooks (1975–2010)

In this section, four authors contributed their thoughts on how writing textbooks on the psychology of women and gender has changed over the last 35 years. The introduction summarizes common themes in these reflections: the explosion in research and theory about women and gender; increased inclusion of diversity and intersectionality; increased appreciation of the power of the social context and power itself; the challenge of keeping a feminist perspective; changes in the student population; and changes in the publishing industry. Some comments about the future of the field are included.     

Comments on “Presentism and Diversity in the History of Psychology”

There is a need to understand what motivates claims of priority over insights, concepts or methods of psychology. Such claims are prompted by a sense of pride in saying that “my” ancestors got it before “their” ancestors. The right of any culture, or anybody for that matter, to define the label “psychology”, or to decide what psychology is or should be about is questionable.     

Making “Use” of Aggression in Child Psychotherapy

In this article, informed by Winnicott's seminal 1969 article, “The Use of an Object and Relating Through Identifications,” I aim to illuminate the transformational possibilities that emerge when adults view particular forms of aggression as expressions of hope. I examine the processes associated with taking a child from what Winnicott referred to as object relating to object usage, with particular focus placed on the links between theory and practice. I highlight the importance of one mobilizing the social environment toward the attention of the child through limit setting while concurrently tolerating the child's aggressive acts by not retaliating or retreating. This shared relational journey involves helping a child move from the omnipotent but very lonely, anxiety-filled, encapsulated world of their own projections to a coconstituted reality and involves the child engaging in destructive activity (aggression) and the significant adult surviving. It is hope that underpins this destructive enterprise. When the child finally comes to realize that the other is not under their omnipotent control, that is, when the child has tried to destroy, and the other has survived, the child can then, and only then, forge a mutual partnership with the other. Conceptual points are illuminated through the presentation of case material.     

Levinas and the Parent–Child Relation: A Merleau-Pontyian Critique of Applying Levinas's Thought to Developmental Psychology

Central to Emmanuel Levinas's philosophical account of ethics and intersubjectivity is the parent–child relation. Throughout his major texts, paternity, maternity, and education all function as critical motifs that Levinas utilizes to claim that the subject is primordially oriented by a radical passivity and asymmetrical ethical obligation to the other. Further, several scholars, including Claude Lefort, Brian Vandenberg, Diane Perpich, and Joel Krueger, have highlighted Levinas's insights in relation to child development; however, I argue that they have not adequately accounted for the radicality of Levinas's view of original passivity as the essential ground of subjectivity. After explaining Levinas's account of radical passivity in the parent–child relation, I then turn to recent research in child development to evaluate Levinas's view. In light of the current research, I suggest that Merleau-Ponty's account of the parent–child relation not only complements Levinas's work, but it is also essential for incorporating Levinas's thought in psychological models of the parent–child relation.     

A Review of: “Studies in Meaning 2: Bridging the Personal and Social in Constructivist Psychology”

Abstract

As repertory grids are often used in the making of important decisions about people's lives, it seems reasonable to demand that the technique accurately reflect the mental structure and processes of the person. This need has not gone unnoticed, either by proponents of the grid technique or its critics, but their calls for psychometric rigor are couched in terms of reliability and validity, terms that have specific operational meanings, and have been derived from the theories proposed for standard psychological tests. This article examines the bases and structures of such theories in the context of repertory grid data     

A Critique of Langsam's “The Theory of Appearing Defended”

In this paper we consider, and reject, Harold Langsams defenceof the Theory of Appearing, in this journal (1997), in the faceof three standard arguments against it. These arguments are:the argument from hallucination; the argument from the samecause-same effect principle; and the argument from perceptualtime-gap.     

Response to Commentators of “A Critique of Positive Responsibility”

It has been claimed that (1) computer professionals should be held responsible for an undisclosed list of “undesirable events” associated with their work and (2) most if not all computer disasters can be avoided by truly understanding responsibility. Commentators of “A Critique of Positive Responsibility in Computing” argue that this is not Donald Gotterbarn’s view (Gotterbarn, JSEE 14(2):235–239, 2008) but that a critique of the view nevertheless raises significant moral issues within computing such as the ethical goals of a computing profession, the appropriate ethical stance toward bugs, and the public good with respect to computing (Miller, JSEE 14(2):245–249, 2008). Commentators also argue that “A Critique”’s “profitable misreading” demonstrates the “moral ecology” of organizations “dedicated narrowly to financial success” and that other “moral ecologies” that are customer or quality driven can be shown to be more important or preeminent (Huff, JSEE 14(2):241–244, 2008). It is argued here that (1) the hyper-inflated reading of Gotterbarn’s and Ladd’s views on positive responsibility persists despite Gotterbarn’s explicit rejection of it, and that (2) such a reading of positive responsibility cannot be placed within a single moral ecology, nor can a single moral ecology be shown to be any more important or preeminent than others. Stieb, J. A. (2008). A critique of positive responsibility in computing. Science and Engineering Ethics, 14(2), 219–233.     

“Psytizens”: The Co-construction of the Professional Identity of Psychology Students in the Postmodern World

This work aims to analyze the relations between psychology as social engineering and self-reflective citizenship from a historiogenetic point of view. Such a connection was founded during modernity; hence our proposal is to study its operative continuity in the postmodern world, taking into account the mismatches due to the new global, multicultural, and technological conditions. Based both on the theory of activity and the concept of semiosphere, the interaction and discussions of a group of Spanish students of psychology in a virtual forum were analyzed. They were asked to negotiate and co-construct their double condition of citizens and future psychologists in connection with the controversial exhibition of religious symbols in Spanish schools. Results show that students segregate both conditions. On one hand, they agree and consolidate the neutral image of a professional psychologist being respectful with the multicultural world. On the other hand, they argue about the citizen and religious topics from a personal or ideological point of view, establishing limits to multiculturalism. Neither the interchange of ideas nor the writing-reading features of the virtual artefacts improved the reflexivity on the close dependencies and contradictions of the two identity domains. This great resilience is due to a sociocultural context –the Western World- where psychology has been constituted as a neutral, objective Science World, one of whose socio-historical products - reflective citizenship- has evolved until proclaiming his/her autonomous agency, forgetting any root in the social engineering.     

Sources of History for “A Psychology of Verbal Communication”

There is a standard version of the history of modern mainstream psycholinguistics that emphasizes an extraordinary explosion of research in mid twentieth century under the guidance and leadership of George A. Miller and Noam Chomsky. The narrative is cast as a dramatic shift away from behavioristic principles and toward mentalistic principles based largely on transformational linguistics. A closer view of the literature diminishes the historical importance of behaviorism, shows a prevailing “written language bias” (Linell in The written language bias in linguistics: Its nature, origins and transformations, Routledge, London, 2005, p. 4) in psycholinguistic research, and elevates some theoretical and empirical thinking of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries on language and language use to a far more important role than has heretofore been acknowledged. In keeping with the theoretical and methodological perspective of the present article, it is particularly appropriate that the German philologist Philipp Wegener be “given his due in the annals of linguistic sciences” (Koerner 1991, p. VI*). In his (1885/1991) Untersuchungen über die Grundfragen des Sprachlebens (Investigations regarding the fundamental questions of the life of language; our translation), he began his philological research with the investigation of actual speaking in everyday settings rather than with analyses of purely formal structure. Moreover, he emphasized understanding language and localized this function in the listener. Compatible with Wegener’s own investigations is another aspect of speaking that has been most seriously neglected throughout the history of research on the psychology of verbal communication. For him, as well as for Esper (In C. Murchison [Ed.], A handbook of social psychology, Clark University Press, Worchester, MA, 1935), the basic and primary genre of dialogical discourse was not ongoing conversation, but the occasional use of speech in association with other activities. Both Bühler (Sprachtheorie, Fischer, Stuttgart, 1934/1982) and Wittgenstein (Philosophische Untersuchungen/Philosophical investigations, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1958) have also emphasized the importance of the genre of occasional speaking. The article concludes with a discussion of historical shifts in the relationship between psychology and linguistics.     

Shifts in Women’s Mate Preferences Across the Ovulatory Cycle: A Critique of Harris (2011) and Harris (2012)

Many studies have documented systematic shifts in women’s mate preferences and sexual motivations across the ovulatory cycle. Harris (2012) presents a nonreplication of one particular finding in this literature—namely, that women’s preference for masculinity in men’s faces shifts across the cycle. Harris critiques the empirical and theoretical literature on cycle shifts and concludes that the cycle shift hypothesis should be abandoned. Here, we situate Harris’s findings within the broader empirical literature and respond to several of the points in her critique. We conclude that the evidence for cycle shifts in women‘s mate preferences and sexual motivations is much stronger than Harris portrays and that she mischaracterizes the theoretical basis of this work.     

The “Epidemic” of Cheating Depends on Its Definition: A Critique of Inferring the Moral Quality of “Cheating in Any Form”

The incidence and moral implications of cheating depend on how it is defined and measured. Research that defines and operationalizes cheating as an inventory of acts, that is, “cheating in any form,” has often fueled concern that cheating is reaching “epidemic proportions.” Such inventory measures appear, however, to conflate moral and administrative conceptions of the problem. Inasmuch as the immorality of behavior is a function of moral judgment, academic misconduct is immoral only when it is intentional, and the greatest moral weight should be ascribed to violations that students judge to be the most “serious.”     

The “Feeling of Movement”: Notes on the Rorschach Human Movement Response

Human movement responses (M) on the Rorschach have been traditionally viewed as lying neither completely in the inkblot (external reality) nor within the subject's mind (inner world). The authors contend that M is not reducible to the “body that I have” but to the “body that I am,” which is a higher level organization of bottom-up and top-down brain networks, integrating body implicit awareness, psychological functioning, and social cognition. Two sources of evidence suggest the close relationship among M, psychological functions, and brain mechanisms. One comes from meta-analytical evidence supporting the close association between M and higher level cognitive functioning or empathy. The second comes from some preliminary studies showing that M activates brain circuits included in the mirror neuron system (MNS). Two conclusions can be drawn: (a) M is related to the effective use of the mentalization function; and (b) future neuroscientific investigations could lead to an understanding of the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying Rorschach responses and variables.     

Whither the Psychology of Religion: A Spirituality-Focused Discussion of Paloutzian and Park’s (2005)

Presuming Rayburn’s (2006: Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 28, 86–92) review of (Paloutzian and Park, 2005, Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality. New York: The Guilford Press) and sketching an alternative paradigm, this review focuses on the Handbook’s virtual conflation of religion and spirituality; relates this conflation to the hegemony of Protestant theology in North American psychology of religion; highlights the Handbook’s neglect of spirituality per se, which, if not inseparably linked with theism, is, nevertheless, related to the self-transcending, meaning-making dimension of the human mind, could provide an explanatory breakthrough in the field of the psychology of religion and of the social sciences overall; and sees Handbook’s advocacy for a “multilevel interdisciplinary paradigm” as a regrettable acceptance of the failed, long-term strategy of the field of psychology in general.     

A Review of: “International Handbook of Personal Construct Psychology”

Abstract

Constructivism is a relatively new development in the Brazilian psychological community. The dissemination of constructivist theory is difficult to trace, but can perhaps be best understood by looking at the development of Brazilian psychology and through tracing related theoretical movements like the cognitive-behavioral movement, which appears to have prepared the intellectual climate for constructivist principles. The growth of constructivism in Brazil is illustrated through the formation of constructivist organizations, a consideration of educational opportunities related to the theory, and a review of recent conferences where South American professionals could be exposed to constructivist ideas.