The Voices of Wittgenstein: The Vienna Circle

Book Information The Voices of Wittgenstein: The Vienna Circle. The Voices of Wittgenstein: The Vienna Circle Ludwig Wittgenstein and Friedrich Waismann, ed. Gordon Baker, London : Routledge, 2003, 528, US$100 (cloth) Edited by Gordon Baker. By Ludwig Wittgenstein. and Friedrich Waismann. Routledge. London. Pp. 528. US$100 (cloth:),     

The Voices of Wittgenstein: The Vienna Circle

Book reviewed:
The Voices of Wittgenstein: The Vienna Circle – Ludwig Wittgenstein and Friedrich Waismann (Transcribed, Edited and with an Introduction by Gordon Baker; Translated by Gordon Baker, Michael Mackett, John Connolly and Vasilis Politis); Routledge; London and New York, 2003 (Pp xlviii + 558. German and English Texts on Facing Pages.)     

The Poverty of Privilege:

Despite the seeming freedom from many of the economic and other pressures encumbering women in more palpably disadvantaged subgroups, women of the upper classes are faced with considerable numbers of psychological problems. Prevalent among the presenting problems include depression and other disorders related to powerlessness, relationship problems, alcohol and substance abuse, and eating disorders. While increasing numbers of women in lower socioeconomic groups work outside the home, the upper class wife represents the last vestige of the classic patriarchal family: her raison d'etre is to assist her husband and children in perpetuating the power and privilege of her family and class, often leaving her with nothing that is truly her own. She is most likely to present in therapy when widowed or confronted with "losing it all," finding herself with few marketable skills or even basic life competencies. Therapy issues include how to help her develop greater self-acceptance and begin to identify and pursue some of her own dreams; countertranferential issues, such as envy or impatience, may also need to be addressed. The conclusion is reached that ultimately gender transcends class as the major determinant of the quality of upper class women's lives, and that it is crucial that any therapy geared toward helping them become happier and more effective be informed by a strong feminist awareness.     

The Prize:

The Prize: Disability, Parenthood, and Adoption details the concerns and experiences of the author and her husband, an inter-racial couple with disabilities, during the process that culminated in the adoption of their daughter. The author discusses the reactions of others-relatives, social workers, doctors, lawyers, friends, and her husband-to her desire to have a child, and reveals her own considerations and fears. She also documents the couple's experiences, good and bad, with fertility doctors, support groups, adoption agencies, and private adoption lawyers. The article should be of special interest to those involved or interested in the adoption process, particularly as it applies to disabled and/or interracial couples.     

The neglected bulimic: The nonpurger

For nearly 10 years bulimia has been recognized officially as a distinct eating disorder, and yet in that time only minimal attention has focused on the nonpurging subtype. The present investigation compared 21 DSM-III-R diagnosed nonpurging bulimics with 22 non-eating-disordered controls on three standardized questionnaires and during a unique assessment task. In this procedure subjects imagined that they were the character in a series of slides and audiotaped flooding scenes. The content of the stimuli ranged from food and weight cues to issues hypothesized to play a role in the development or maintenance of bulimia (e.g., rejection or loss of control fears). A MANOVA conducted on the three questionnaires was highly significant, with the Beck Depression Inventory and the Restraint Scale being responsible for the elevated bulimic scores. A repeated-measures ANOVA performed on the self-report ratings during the exposure task also achieved significance, as the bulimics reported higher anxiety reactions than controls to each experimental stimulus. Significant skin conductance reactions were detected when a group of only the most psychophysiologically responsive bulimics and controls were compared. The importance of continued comprehensive evaluations with DSM-III-R nonpurging bulimics was emphasized.This research was supported by grants both from the University of New Mexico's Research Allocation Committee and the Biomedical Research Support Grant committee. Portions of this paper were presented at the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy annual conference, Boston, November 1987.     

The new Russia: The challenge of psychological change

Abstract

The outcome of the rapid transformation of Russia to a democratic and market‐oriented society will involve not only political and economic changes but a crucial psychological factor as well. Vital to this transformation will be the development of a ‘psychology of democracy,’ a psychology that elaborates the possibilities and implications of freedom and responsibility and personal self‐actualization.     

The Ranschburg effect: The role of guessing strategies

The Ranschburg effect refers to the finding of impaired serial recall of items repeated on a list. One account attributes this effect to the use of a strategy where subjects avoid using as guesses stimuli that they had recalled elsewhere on the list. Support for this interpretation is reported here. The Ranschburg effect is eliminated when subjects are instructed to avoid guessing. Also, the Ranschburg effect is found in partial report only when subjects are told that the crucial item occurred elsewhere on the list.     

The Mainline Sidelined: The Sociology of Religion Unbound

This paper examines an expanding focus in the content of what members of SSSR study and show how this change is reflected in the publications in the journal. I offer four factors that might effect what we study: changes in the world, changes in who we are, changes in funding sources, and changes in the theoretical frames. I discuss the “cultural turn” as new theoretical frame, which has had important implications for the study of religion. 1 then return to the question of changes in the world. I end with my expectation that we will see greater yet inclusiveness in the future.     

The Charcot Effect: The Invention of Mental Illnesses

This article proposes the Charcot effect, in which clinicians describe what they themselves prescribe. It is argued that the Charcot effect can be a critical instrument for exposing how mental illnesses are invented in the process of developing diagnostic systems and conducting psychopharmacological research. We argue that the Charcot effect helps explain the expansion of depression to epidemic proportions, the promotion of social phobia as a pharmaceutical marketing strategy, the profile of panic disorder according to the available medication, and the worse prognosis of schizophrenia in developed countries than in developing countries. Having undertaken this review, we situate the Charcot effect in relation to constructivist psychology.     

The Neuropsychology of Consciousness: The Mind-Body Problem Re-addressed

In this introductory contribution by the convenor of the 1996 Invited Presidential Symposium at the XXVI International Congress of Psychology, the recent renaissance of psychological, especially neuropsychological research into components and processes of consciousness is briefly reviewed. Conceptual dimensions of “consciousness” are distinguished, with an emphasis on consciousness in the sense of awareness, wakefulness, and control of overt behaviour, which are also central concepts in the subsequent symposium contributions.     

The Missing Triad: The Case of Two-Child Families

Families, as they grow, become more complex in their psychosocial development. They also become more complex in their dyadic/triadic structure through the simple addition of another child. This article traces some of the structural changes that families undergo with the entry of each new child. It also raises several questions about how these very structures may, in turn, influence development of the children. By comparing two- and three-children families with different dyadic/triadic structures, these questions offer some basis for possible future research, as well as some speculation for the clinician.