A new book by N. A. Bernstein: "On dexterity and its development"

A book, "On Dexterity and Its Development," written by N. A. Bernstein in the 1940s has recently been published in Moscow. We describe briefly the amazing fate of this miraculously saved book and of its famous author. The book is unique in its reader-friendly handling of the most complicated issues of motor control, motor development, motor skill acquisition, and more general aspects of brain activity. It presents the basis for what is now called motor control and for some of the more fundamental issues of theoretical neuroscience. Bernstein described his views on multilevel control of movements, the role of sensory feedback, preprogramming, feedback and feedforward components in motor control, the role of exercise, and other subjects. Despite the fact that the book was written nearly half a century ago, its deep philosophical content remains beyond any competition.     

ON "THE GIFT" IN TANNER's THEOLOGY: A PATRISTIC PARABLE

Kathryn Tanner's theology of “the gift” is examined and contrasted with that of John Milbank. To clarify the relation between spiritual and material gifts implied in Tanner's thought, as well as the role of “nature”, the author revisits patristic commentaries on the Lord's Prayer regarding “the gift” of daily bread. Differing interpretations by Origen and Gregory of Nyssa resemble differences obtaining between Tanner and Milbank; Maximus the Confessor's harmonizing reading may provide a way beyond the present impasse and illumine the importance of nature for further discussions of “the gift” in Anglo‐American theology.     

“成功恐惧”的研究述评

自20世纪60年代霍纳提出"成功恐惧"概念以来,它一直是学者们争相争论的神秘焦点,本文尝试解开"成功恐惧"之谜,介绍"成功恐惧"的概念,研究现状和原因.研究的测量方式.最后提出展望。     

A critical role for "affective neuroscience" in resolving what is basic about basic emotions.

Ortony and Turner (1990) asked "What's Basic About Basic Emotions," and they concluded "very little." They proceeded to advocate a "componential" or "mosaic" view of how emotional systems should be analyzed. Their thesis was flawed by their failure to consider the available neurobehavioral data. Genetically dictated brain systems that mediate affective-emotional processes do exist, even though there are bound to be semantic ambiguities in how we speak about these systems. This commentary summarizes key lines of evidence for coherently operating emotional systems in the brain and advocates the position that the issue of basic emotions can no longer be credibly discussed without adequate consideration of the relevant brain research in the area. The type of conceptual, logical analysis pursued by Ortony and Turner, in the absence of a thorough analysis of the available neurological data, is not an adequate basis for resolving what is basic about basic emotions.     

Ferenczi's "Teratoma": A Result,not a Process

In Martin Stanton's 1990 monograph Sandor Ferenczi: Reconsidering Active Intervention , one of six exegetical chapters was titled "Teratoma", using Ferenczi's own word for malformations of (psychic) development. Since then, there has been a tendency in the larger Ferenczi literature to use "teratoma" as a metaphor, leading to the creation of many odd readings and contexts for this very specific, medical, anatomic term. When Stanton becomes expansive in viewing the teratoma as a "transitional object" which "negotiates a relationship between the growth of ideal-ego ideas in oneself and the outside 'influence' of inner systems of thought" (p. 176), he is entering the play-space that opened between Ferenczi and Groddeck during the 20s as Ferenczi's relationship with Freud became increasingly constricted. What this misses is that Ferenczi was a physician, as was Groddeck. For all their fanciful explorations of mind and body relatedness, for both Ferenczi and Groddeck there would be a shared background of certain basic terminology. In that medical terminology, "teratoma" refers to variable numbers of primordial germ cells in the embryo, which in the course of development become displaced, sequestered and grotesquely overgrown; they can never become the tissues they were meant to be. Their potential is forever squandered. "Monsters" they may be; "doubles" they may seem; but they are utterly non-viable. In his metaphorical application of the term "teratoma" to the natural history of (psychic) trauma, Ferenczi proposes a biological and psychological isomorphism that is both clinically illuminating and intuitively prophetic of the course of treatment of trauma, which he was discovering. Clinical and literary material are used to explore the gap between the anatomic teratoma and the psychic teratoma.     

Short-term memory and time estimation: beyond the 2-second "critical" value.

We showed previously that when time intervals around two seconds (s) are reproduced concurrently with a memory task, intervals are positively related to duration of memory processing. However, some data in research on timing as well as in memory research suggest that 2 s might be a critical duration beyond which different mechanisms or structures would support performance. This implies that the interference observed between memory processing and 2-s productions could be specific to these durations, and would not be obtained with longer durations. In this experiment, intervals ranging from 1.85 to 6.45 s were reproduced by participants, who were searching simultaneously for a memory probe. At all durations, reproductions were positively related to memory set size. These findings have implications with regards to previous research indicating a discontinuity around 2-3 s in time perception. They suggest in particular that the role of memory is similar in reproduction of durations around 2 s and of longer durations.     

Review of "The Parental Alienation Syndrome," by Richard A. Gardner

This article describes a self-help model for adolescents with ADHD that draws on the 12-Steps. The model uses a modified form of the 12-Steps that incorporates parents into the process with the goal of inculcating some of the executive functioning that is absent in their adolescent by consistently using some of the 12-Steps as part of their daily routine. The model proposes that parents assume a coaching role with their adolescent to teach increased self-awareness, organization, accountability, and behavioral inhibition that, hopefully, will have a reparative effect on their child's immature neurological functioning.     

A Comparative Clinical Investigation of the "How" and "Charlie" MMPI Subtypes

We studied the thought and affective disturbance of Megargee and Bohn's (1979) most psychopathological Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) subtypes, the "How" and "Charlie" profiles. 75 subjects, consisting of three groups of How and Charlie subtypes in inpatient and outpatient forensic settings and two control groups, are tested using the Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking (WIST) and Profile of Mood States (POMS). Results indicate both Flow and Charlie subtypes have mild formal thought disorder, with the former showing greater variance of thought disorder. Charlie subtypes, however, are more angry, less depressed, more vigorous, and more constricted and defensive than the How subtypes. We conclude that the Flow subtype needs further actuarial refinement to be diagnostically useful.     

"A coherent datum of perception": Gordon Allport, Floyd Allport, and the politics of "personality"

This paper examines Floyd and Gordon Allport's early work on "personality" psychology. In the early 1920s, personality was an unorthodox topic, and for the Allports it initially served as an intellectual and personal bond. Floyd proposed the subject to his brother as a dissertation topic, and the two worked closely on developing personality tests. By 1924, however, "personality" had become the site of a dispute between the two brothers over the intellectual and methodological character of American psychology. The present study examines the origins of this dispute, while gauging the personal and professional ramifications of the dispute. On a larger level, this essay explores the role and meaning of "personality" in the academic culture of 1920s America.     

"Us" and "Them":

Abstract: In the Aristotelian tradition, politics is a matter of public deliberation over questions of justice and injustice. The Bush administration's response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has been uniformly hostile to this notion, and it has instead promoted a jingoistic politics of self‐assertion by an America largely identified with the executive branch of its government. This is doubly disturbing, as the executive branch has sought to free itself from international law, multinational commitments, and domestic judicial regulation, even as it has sought to validate itself by demonizing its enemies. This essay draws out the disturbing echoes here of Carl Schmitt's work of the 1920s, in particular of Schmitt's conception of the sovereign as the ungrounded ground of the law and the political as the site of mortal conflict between friend and enemy. The essay argues that Schmitt's position in the twenties, for all of its evident problems, is superior to that of Bush, Wolfowitz, and Ashcroft in at least two senses: Schmitt condemns the idea of waging war for profit and recognizes that such wars will often be disguised as moral crusades waged against the “inhuman”; and he acknowledges that claiming to fight a war for humanity denies one's enemies their humanity, leaving them open to torture and even extermination.     

Versemaking and lovemaking--W. B. Yeats' "strange second puberty": Norman Haire and the Steinach rejuvenation operation

This article examines the Steinach rejuvenation operation (a vasectomy) which Norman Haire performed on W. B. Yeats in 1934: while this method is now discredited, many others are still used in similar attempts to "cure" old age and restore youthful vitality. The article deals substantially with ideas which were popular among well-read people and intellectuals in the 1920s and 1930s and discusses whether the poet's late-in-life burst of creativity was caused by a medical breakthrough, Haire's more general medical advice, the placebo effect, or by a combination of factors: questions which still have relevance to theories about age, sexuality, and mind-body relationships.     

A critique of Mark D. Allen's "the preservation of verb subcategory knowledge in a spoken language comprehension deficit"

Allen [Allen, M. (2005). The preservation of verb subcategory knowledge in a spoken language comprehension deficit. Brain and Language, 95, 255-264.] reports a single patient, WBN, who, during spoken language comprehension, is still able to access some of the syntactic properties of verbs despite being unable to access some of their semantic properties. Allen claims that these findings challenge linguistic theories which assume that much of the syntactic behavior of verbs can be predicted from their meanings. I argue, however, that this conclusion is not supported by the data for two reasons: first, Allen focuses on aspects of verb syntax that are not claimed to be influenced by verb semantics; and second, he ignores aspects of verb syntax that are claimed to be influenced by verb semantics.     

A psychoanalytic view of the Rorschach Comprehensive System "special scores"

We analyzed the contemporary empirical and theoretical literature concerning the two predominant approaches for scoring formal thought disorder on the Rorschach, the Comprehensive System special scores, and the methodology of Rapaport, Gill, and Schafer (1946/1968). The psychoanalytic research related to selected special scores is reviewed, and some linkages to psychoanalytic developmental theory and psychopathology are made. Recommendations are presented to bridge the gap between these two important avenues of Rorschach research, with an emphasis on empirical rigor and intrapsychic contextual meaning.     

"The defects of his race": E.G. Boring and antisemitism in American psychology, 1923-1953

From the 1920s to the 1950s, Edwin G. Boring wrote letters of reference for Jewish students and colleagues in which he followed the common practice of identifying them as Jews and assessing whether they showed "objectionable traits" thought to characterize Jews. These practices are discussed in relation to the increasing antisemitism of the interwar period, with specific reference to Abraham A. Roback and Kurt Lewin. In Roback's case, the "defect" of Jewishness was thought to explain his undesirable personality: with Lewin, personal charm mitigated the "defect" of Jewishness. Boring's unsuccessful attempts to place Jewish students, his subsequent pessimism, and his postwar discussions of Jewish identity are examined in relation to the general issue of antisemitism in the history of academic psychology.     

董仲舒"元"概念新解

关于董仲舒哲学体系中“元”的概念,先贤及时贤有不同的理解.元有本原之义,但不能理解为宇宙本原或者元气,也不能简单地理解为时间概念的开始.元具有开始、开端的意思,但如果仅仅停留在开始、开端这一点上,就丧失了董仲舒元哲学的本来含义,而这一点恰恰被学者所忽略.元是存在于天地之前的一种本原性的秩序,它强调“始”、“微”、“正”,强调君主在天人体系中的地位和作用,重视道德动机.元囊括了整个天人体系,天人体系的本原是元,元同时又涵盖了一切秩序.     

"Reflexive Embodied Empathy": A Phenomenology of Participant-Researcher Intersubjectivity

In this article, I advocate a research process that involves engaging, reflexively, with the embodied intersubjective relationship researchers have with participants. I call this practice reflexive embodied empathy. First, I explicate the concept of empathy through exploring ideas from the philosophical phenomenological literature. I then apply this theory to practice and offer examples of reflexive analysis of embodied empathy taken from various hermeneutic phenomenological research projects. Three interpenetrating layers of reflexivity are described, each involving different but coexisting dimensions of embodied intersubjectivity. The 1st layer-connecting-of-demonstrates how people can tune into another's bodily way of being through using their own embodied reactions. The 2nd layer-acting-into-focuses on empathy as imaginative self-transposal and calls attention to the way existences (beings) are intertwined in a dynamic of doubling and mirroring. The 3rd layer-merging-with-involves a "reciprocal insertion and intertwining" of others in oneself and of one in them (Merleau-Ponty, 1964/1968, p. 138), where self-understanding and other-understanding unite in mutual transformation. Through different examples of reflexive analysis from my research, I have tried to show how intersubjective corporeal commonality enables the possibility of empathy and how, in turn, empathy enables understanding of the Other and self-understanding. I discuss how the coexisting layers of empathy and the resultant understandings can be enabled through hermeneutic reflection and collaborative research methods.