Information technology from Homer to DENDRAL

To understand the impact which the newly self‐conscious technology of information is likely to have, and to develop that technology effectively, it is necessary to appreciate two previous revolutions in information technology, those which followed the introductions of writing and of printing. Understanding the role which these technologies have in our intellectual lives may help to avoid the misconceptions which are generated by the temptation to think of the instruments of communication as having a life independent of the use to which humans put those artifacts.     

The theoretical diagnosis of skepticism

Radical skepticism about the external implies that no belief about the external is even prima facie justified. A theoretical reply to skepticism has four stages. First, show which theories of epistemic justification support skeptical doubts (show which theories, given other reasonable assumptions, entail skepticism). Second, show which theories undermine skeptical doubts (show which theories, given other reasonable assumptions, do not support the skeptic’s conclusion). Third, show which of the latter theories (which non-skeptical theory) is correct, and in so doing show that all of the rival theories of justification, skeptical and non-skeptical alike, are mistaken. Fourth, explain why skeptical doubts are sometimes (or sometimes merely seem) intuitive, and thereby accommodate skeptical doubts without capitulation. Michael Williams has pioneered the very idea of a theoretical reply. A theoretical diagnosis consists in just the first two stages. An adequate reply, which is correct at each stage, would rebut the skeptic entirely. Williams’ own reply, I argue, is inadequate. I offer in its place an exhaustive and accurate diagnosis of skepticism. I distinguish four kinds of skepticism and five theories of justification. I then show which theories do, and which theories do not, support which kinds of skepticism.     

A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH TO EVALUATING TRAINING CURRICULUM CONTENT SAMPLING ADEQUACY

A technique was developed which provided a quantitative index of the fit between training curriculum content and job task performance requirements. The procedure also generates a listing of tasks which receive undue emphasis in the training curriculum, those which are not being trained, and those which instructors intend to train, but which course graduates report being unable to perform. The procedure is illustrated for three training programs in the U.S. Coast Guard Class 'A' schools.     

Dimensions of counseling for career development

Counseling practice has not reflected current thinking about career development and career process. Four types of career counseling are described: Type 1, a traditional vocational counseling approach which helps the client with a specific decision; Type 2, which is concerned with teaching decision-making skills; Type 3, which views career development as a process rather than an end-point toward which all decisions lead; and Type 4, which focuses on creating in the individual the ability to utilize his own strengths to achieve self-determined objectives and to influence the nature of future opportunities.     

THE SYMBOLIC BODY AND THE SYMBOLIC SYMPTOM

The differential analysis of the symbolic expression and of the symbolic symptom enlightens the relation between body, language and symbol. The displacement and condensation, which explain the symptom, involve a bodily perception of a symbolic nature. Consequently, Freud tends to interpret the symbol according to the symptom formation, as opposed to J. Lacan, who equates displacement with metonymy, and condensation with metaphor. The author, in analyzing the similarities and differences, interprets the symptom as a desymbolization, which presupposes a presymbolic perception, which phenomenology has thematized. However, it is language which structures this perception as symbolic, and which introduces the symbolic finality; which the psychological dynamisms do not have by their own selves.     

Pour une psychologie du bout de la vie

The psychology of the end of the life is this part of the psychology, which studies operations of the subject during old age, last period of the life. Death is the major element of this phase. It can be regarded as an event, which stops the life, but also as a process of transformation, which defines the life itself. In this space, which remains to live the psychic activity and more particularly anticipation, constitutes a resource. In his practice the psychologist fights against the negative effects of ageing and also works to accompany the old subject by integrating the context in which he lives.     

Imaginary bodies and worlds

In this paper I distil a concept of the imaginary with which to make good the claim that our mode of embodied subjectivity is an imaginary embodiment in an imaginary world. The concept of the imaginary employed is not one in which imaginary worlds are contrasted with the real, but one in which imagination is a condition of there being a real for us. The images and forms in terms of which our imagined bodies and worlds are constituted carry, in an interdependent way, cognition and affects. Imagined configurations have a resilience which makes their displacement more than a matter of appealing to considerations of truth or falsity. It involves encounters with alternative imagined configurations which can be recognized as making both cognitive and affective sense.     

Dysfonctionnement de l'environnement et travail en réseau : approche clinique d'un lien social

Resting against an research-action which related to six districts known as “sensitive” and touched approximately 400 professionals and 500 parents, this text consolidates the report of a dysfunction in the relations between the professionals and the professionals and the parents. It clarifies the idea of a genesis of the passage to the act and conduits at the risk which would be nourished of this dysfunction. A setting in network, which places work on the level of the processes will intra, inter psychic and interpersonal which took part in the emergence of the problems and with the failure of the solutions which were proposed to them, could constitute an alternative to this dysfunction. This text gives a report on the strong moments of the work of development by which the parents and the professionals within the framework of this setting in network pass and whose result could be a protected environment, more stable even indestructible.     

Constructing and deconstructing psychotherapeutic discourse

This paper reviews recent work on the social construction of the self in counselling and psychotherapy, and argues that we need to attend to the ways in which the therapeutic self is fashioned (a) in relation to the ‘psy-complex' as the network of theories and practices concerned with psychological governance and self-reflection in modern Western culture and (b) in the context of ‘therapeutic domains' outside the clinic and academe, domains of discursive regulation and self-expression which then bear upon the activities of professional and lay counsellors. Therapeutic domains contain repertoires, templates and complexes within which counsellors and clients fabricate varieties of truth and story a core of experience into being. I then turn to describe and assess some of the various ways in which this kind of critical reflection on therapeutic discourse and counselling practice now already underpins the work of social constructionist ‘narrative' therapists. Some attention is given to the different pragmatic and deconstructionist approaches which make the discursive constitution of the problem into the problem, either by dissolving or by externalizing the account the client presents. Here I argue that the activities of social constructionist counsellors can be viewed as forms of deconstruction-in-process (a deconstruction of the discursive frames which have been constructed by the client), but that they should not be viewed as stepping outside the discursive conditions of possibility which ground their work. the psy-complex and therapeutic domains still function as relatively enduring structures which limit the degree to which we may construct and deconstruct psychotherapeutic discourse.     

An analysis of the structure of justification of ethical decisions in medical intervention

The most important distinction in value theory is the subjective-objective distinction which determines the epistemological status of value judgments about medical intervention. Ethical decisions in medical intervention presuppose one of three structures of justification — namely, an inductive approach, a deductive approach which can be either consequentialist or non-consequentialist, and a uniquely ethical approach. Inductivism and deductivism have been discussed extensively in the literature and are only briefly described here. The uniquely ethical approach which presupposes value objectivism is analyzed in detail. This method involves a purely ethical inference which moves from facts to values directly with an emphasis on reason which involves a non-logical justification (as opposed to illogical). It involves the use of natural practical arguments which have an imperative conclusion but no imperative premise and exhibit a value-requiredness between two states of affairs.     

Attention et jugement temporel

The role of attention in human’s duration judgment processes is analyzed. Empirical evidences which indicate that a dissociation exists between prospective and retrospective duration judgments are presented. Attention is directly involved in prospective duration judgments processes. Attentional-based models, which can explain prospective duration judgments are presented together with empirical evidences which validate the general attentional model on the levels of both regular cognitive processes and high level executive-control processes. Waiting is presented as a natural situation during which prospective duration judgment processes are evoked. The attentional model is used for explaining why a duration spent waiting seems to pass slowly, in contrast to a situation to which one is interested in a book or a movie and in which time flies fast.     

ON THE EVOLUTION OF MORALITY AND RELIGION: A RESPONSE TO LEE CRONK

Abstract. Issue is taken with Dawkins and Krebs's (1978) conception of communication as being by nature manipulative and with Cronk's proposals concerning the evolution of morality, both of which are grounded in evolutionary biology. An alternative view, which recognizes that which humanity has in common with other species but which emphasizes humanity's distinctiveness, is offered to account for religion and morality.     

Introversion-extraversion: the Bell-Magendie law revisited

Evidence from several sources, including psychophysical, electrodermal and evoked potential measures, indicates that introverts display an enhanced response to sensory stimulation. There is also evidence, primarily from psychophysical studies, which suggests that extraverts may be disposed to emit short, strong bursts of motor activity which facilitate performance on tasks that involve gross motor activity but which impede performance on tasks which require refined motor control. The present paper develops an argument in which the differences between introverts and extraverts in the response to sensory stimulation and in the expression of motor activity may be referred to differences at the level of the sensory and motor nerve.     

A non‐utilitarian approach to punishment

Although the view that punishment is to be justified on utilitarian grounds has obvious appeal, an examination of utilitarianism reveals that, consistently and accurately interpreted, it dictates unjust punishments which are unacceptable to the common moral consciousness. In this rule‐utilitarianism is no more satisfactory than is act‐utilitarianism. Although the production of the greatest good, or the greatest happiness, of the greatest number is obviously a relevant consideration when determining which punishments may properly be inflicted, the question as to which punishment is just is a distinct and more basic question and one which must be answered before we can determine which punishments are morally permissible. That a retributivist theory, which is a particular application of a general principle of justice, can account more satisfactorily for our notion of justice in punishment is a positive reason in its support.     

On the pathology of blaming

This paper focuses on blaming, which is the commonest of the three major forms of pathogenic relating the writer has observed in family interviews (the other two being silencing and a style of relating in which certain values strictly dominate over others). Case examples of blaming and the harmful consequences that may follow are presented. Not all blaming is pathogenic, but all blaming reflects a polarization of values in which tensions are increased and the threshold of aggression is lowered. Commonplace examples are given in which blaming has led to lethal assault, and in which it is believed to have led to emotional and/or behavioral disturbance in individuals.     

Octave generalization of specific interference effects in memory for tonal pitch

An experiment is described which demonstrates that certain highly specific disruptive effects in immediate memory for tonal pitch generalize across octaves. Pitch recognition was required after a retention interval during which six other tones were played. The effects of including in the interpolated sequence tones which were removed by exactly an octave from those which had already been demonstrated to produce disruption were investigated. Generalization of these interference effects was found to result both from tones which were displaced an octave higher and (to a lesser extent) from tones which were displaced an octave lower. It is concluded that the memory store that retains information concerning the pitch of ifidividual tones is bidimensional in nature, both “tone height” and “tone chroma” being represented.     

The Relative Contribution of Economic Valence to Contingency Management Efficacy: A Pilot Study

We investigated the extent to which a contingency management (CM) procedure that deducted money from a grand total available at the end of the study compared to a procedure in which money accumulated with continued abstinence from cigarette smoking. Results suggested that the procedure in which money increased contingent on abstinence resulted in a significantly greater likelihood of obtaining a clinically relevant (i.e., 48-hr) period of abstinence. In terms of attendance, participants in the condition in which monetary reinforcement accrued with consecutive instances of abstinence were significantly less likely to miss consecutive appointments than those in which money was deducted for failure to abstain.     

Bohm,Spin, and the Bell Inequalities

In this paper I discuss how Bohm's interpretation models spin measurements and how the two ways in which spin is a contextual property pertains to the Kochen-Specker theorem. I then present locality principles from which a Bell Inequality can be derived, and I identify which of the locality principles Bohm's interpretation violates at which times. I also present reasons why the spin vector should not be attributed to the Bohmian particles.     

Why Social Workers Enter Private Practice:

This article describes the results of a nationwide survey which investigated private practice among clinical social workers and the factors which motivated them. The survey also explores opinions about the qualifications which social workers should meet before entering private practice.     

PSYCHOANALYTICALLY-INFORMED WORK WITH INTERPRETERS

This paper explores the ways in which psychoanalytically-informed work undertaken in a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Department was affected by the necessity of working with interpreter colleagues, and the way in which this work could be refined when it was thought about more clearly. Examples are provided of the sorts of difficulties which arose in the clinical encounter, and of the ways in which input from interpreters could enhance the work done. Dialogue which needs the presence of another worker who has a specific interpreting function is considered, and links are made to other therapeutic modalities such as group and marital therapy. The viability of psychoanalytically-informed work with interpreters is considered.