A fact-finder's journey to Europe

The author undertook a trip to sixteen cities in eight European countries to study Continental models of integrating spiritual development and mental health and to look at training programs in pastoral counseling. He found a growing secularization of clergy who want to offer human services and cannot do so within established church hierarchies. In Roman Catholic areas he found pastoral counseling services directed to the religious professional rather than to the laity or the public. Training programs have yet to be fully developed. Only the Swedish model, in its history and multidisciplinary character, resembles the situation in the United States.     

Response to My Critics

My critics make serious and sensible points, all of which are undoubtedly true but not all of which I feel that I can accept.     

Reply to My Critics

Philosophical Studies -     

葛洪扶南之行补证

葛洪早年的扶南之行,仅见于<道藏·太清金液神丹经>(卷下),是否属实,学术界尚有争议.本文通过详细考辨有关此卷作时的各种文献,推断其作时必在三国后期至东晋初;在此基础上,结合当时丹经的传授方式、葛洪的生平事迹、<抱朴子外篇>的用韵等,断定<神丹经>(卷下)确系葛洪手笔,可作其扶南之行的内证.并且认为葛洪的扶南之行与其早年的访道求仙活动及交州情结有关,时间当在公元306年至310年之间.     

Frank in mind: a journey to self

Abstract

This paper describes two years’ intensive psychotherapy with an 11 year old boy I shall call Lou, who as a result of traumatic experiences in his early life, struggled to integrate a robust sense of self and in particular to find accord with a sense of himself as male. The impact of maternal depression, paternal gender dysphoria and domestic violence are discussed in relation to this young boy’s capacity to resolve the ordinary Oedipal challenge and find narcissistic value in a male body image to consolidate his gender identity. Concomitant difficulties with separation from his mother and aggression towards himself and others significantly impacted his ability to manage in a mainstream school environment and he was excluded at the time the therapy began. A clinical narrative is presented which illustrates Lou’s journey in psychotherapy, where he began to engage and allow links to be made. He sought to understand his position in a world that did not make sense to him, to face a hitherto ‘unthinkable’ past and to integrate disparate aspects of himself including a male gender identity. Notably Lou’s creation of ‘Frank’ constructed from dead, lost and reanimated objects is described and the actual and symbolic functions of this therapy object are discussed in relation to his internal development and the progress of the work. Parallels are drawn with Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, where the creature strives for psychological birth and understanding. Lou and I struggled in the paradox of the themes of his narrative; a male/female father; potency and castration; corruption and repair and how to be a boy, held and helped in part through the paternal function of a female therapist.     

道教与民俗浅议——以斋醮、礼俗为例

本文对道教与民俗的关系，以斋醮、礼俗为例，提出了几点看法1、研究道教与民俗，不仅应对民俗建立起概念，而且必须对道教本身有正确的基本认识；2、还必须考虑道教在信仰民俗上的复杂性；3、道教作为文化现象，乃是其渗入民俗的背景.     

A Letter to My Sisters

No abstract available for this article.     

A Reply to My Critics

Abstract

In this paper, I respond to three commentators on my book Understanding Moral Obligation: Kant, Hegel Kierkegaard. Anne Margaret Baxley focuses on my treatment of Kant, Dean Moyar on my treatment of Hegel, and William Bristow on my treatment of Kierkegaard. In this reply, I try to show how the critical points that they raise can be addressed.     

A Reply to My Critics

My text is written to answer the questions asked at the APA Meeting's presentation of the book Moral Textures: Feminist Narratives in the Public Sphere by professors María Lugones and Eduardo Mendieta. The answer seeks to clarify that Lugones's infrapolitics position is not so distant from mine. I also address Mendieta's question directed more to the aesthetic domain. There, I seek to show how my position could be taken as a creative effort to extend some of Habermas's early work on the public sphere, and to develop the thesis of the important relations between the aesthetic and the moral realms.