Adorno,Ferenczi, and a new “categorical imperative after Auschwitz”

Abstract

Theodor W. Adorno's mature thought can be characterized by the attempt to articulate what he calls a “new categorical imperative after Auschwitz.” By this, Adorno means that theory and praxis must be organized in such a way that the Holocaust does not repeat itself. This article argues that Sándor Ferenczi’s metapsychology is key to understanding Adorno’s attempt to rethink the nature of precisely such a new categorical imperative. One of the key themes of Adorno’s entire corpus is the problem of the “identification with the aggressor” – an idea that originates with Ferenzci rather than, as is commonly thought, Anna Freud. The Ferenczian dimension of Adorno’s thinking becomes particularly clear in Adorno’s thoughts on the question of freedom. In this context, Adorno engages in a psychoanalytically informed critique of the philosophy of freedom and a speculative philosophical critique of psychoanalysis. The fashioning of a “new categorical imperative” after Auschwitz entails a form of education directed towards a new form of Mündigkeit, one oriented towards contradiction, resistance, and a steadfast refusal to “identify with the aggressor.”     

“Coming from Afar” and “Temporarily Becoming the Patient Without Knowing it”: Two Necessary Analytic Conditions According to Ferenczi’s Later Thought

In this paper the author discusses two points regarding Ferenczi’s views of psychoanalysis. The first concerns the fact that analysts, like their patients, “come from afar” (a concept of Borgogno, 2011). The second, closely linked to the first, has to do with Ferenczi’s belief that psychoanalytical knowledge is not intellectual but visceral, seeing that if analysts are to truly understand their patients they must first “take on” their suffering in such a way as to “become the patient.” The author follows Ferenczi’s progression along these two points through his whole oeuvre, from his first psychoanalytical writings to the Clinical Diary (1932a) of the last year of his life.     

Contemporary psychoanalytical identity and its roots in the history of science

Abstract

The problem of psychoanalytical identity is discussed under the aspects of psychoanalysis:

—as the history of a charismatic movement shaping the organizational and career patterns in a specific direction;

—as a science with the difficulties of defining the correlations of interpretative, clinical-empirical and “scientistic” dimensions inherent in its basic assumptions.     

1966 and All That: James Gibson and Bottom-Down Theory

ABSTRACT

The “later” James Gibson is widely misrepresented as an extreme stimulus–response theorist. In fact, Gibson's 1966 book presents a radical alternative to stimulus–response theory. “Perceptual systems” are not passive and receptive but “organs of active attention” (1966/1968, p. 58). Perceivers “reach out” into the world. This commentary examines some of the implications of Gibson's systems-cum-functionalist-cum-ecological approach, including the relations between the senses; the concept of “sensationless” perception; and most fundamentally, the nature of perceptual systems as extending beyond the body. I conclude that an adequate understanding of perception cannot be limited to the already severely limited domain of psychology. If Gibson is right, “ecological psychology” is a contradiction in terms.     

Skiing and its Discontents: Assessing the Turist Experience from a Psychoanalytical,a Neuroscientific and a Sport Philosophical Perspective

Abstract

This article addresses the question whether skiing as a nature sport enables practitioners to develop a rapport with nature, or rather estranges and insulates them from their mountainous ambiance. To address this question, I analyse a recent skiing movie (Turist, 2014) from a psychoanalytical perspective (skiing as a quest for self-knowledge and as therapy) and from a neuro-scientific perspective (ski resorts as laboratory settings for testing physical and psychic responses to a variety of cues). I conclude that Jean-Paul Sartre’s classical but egocentric account of his skiing experiences disavows the technicity involved in contemporary skiing as a sportive practice for the affluent masses, which actually represents an urbanisation of the sublime, symptomatic for the current era (the anthropocene).     

Consciousness and Science: an Advaita-Vedantic Perspective on the Theology – Science Dialogue

In modern science, the synthesis of “nature/mind” in observation, experiment, and explanation, especially in physics and biology increasingly reveal a “non-linear” totality in which subject, object, and situation have become inseparable. This raises the interesting ontological question of the true nature of reality. Western science as seen in its evolution from Socratic Greece has tried to understand the world by “objectifying” it, resulting in dualistic dilemmas. Indian “Science,” as seen in its evolution from the Vedic times (1500—500 BCE) has tried to understand the world by “subjectifying” our consciousness of reality. Within the Hindu tradition, the Advaita-Vedanta school of philosophy offers possibilities for resolving not only the Cartesian dilemma but also a solution to the nature of difference in a non-dualistic totality. We also present the Advaita-Vedanta principle of superimposition as a useful approach to modern physical and social science, which have been increasingly forced to reject the absolute reductionism and dualism of classical differences between subject and object.     

Self-concept as a risky driver: Mediating the relationship between racing video games and on-road driving violations in a community-based sample

PurposeThe mediating relationship of self-conceptions as a risky driver on self-reported driving violations was examined for players of “drive’em up” and “circuit” racing video games using an Internet survey of automobile and racing club members. Structural equation modelling (SEM) tested Fischer et al. (2012) extended socio-cognitive model on the effects of risk-glorifying media on cognitions and actions.MethodAn Internet questionnaire was developed and relied upon validated instruments or questions derived from previous surveys. Driver club members were asked about: (1) their frequency of video game playing, (2) self-perceptions as a risky driver and (3) self-reported driving violations. SEM was performed to examine mediating effects of racing video game playing on self-reported driving violations.ResultsPlaying “drive‘em up” video games positively predicted risky self-concept (β = .15, t = 2.26), which in turn, positively predicted driving violations (β = .73, t = 8.63), while playing “circuit racing” games did not predict risky self-concept, although risky self-concept did predict driving violations (β = .72, t = 8.67).ConclusionsSelf-concept as a risky driver mediated the relationship between racing video game playing and self-reported driving violations for “drive’em up”, but not for “circuit racing” video games. These findings are congruent with Fischer and colleagues’ experimental model that self-concept as a reckless driver mediated the relationship between racing video game playing for “drive’em up”, but not for “circuit racing” games and risk-taking behavior in a video of road traffic scenarios.     

Trying harder may disrupt cue utilisation

Abstract

Cue depreciation refers to an inhibitory effect in fragment cueing induced by revealing a fragment gradually rather than all at once. Thus far, the effect has been observed only with test words that have been primed in some way. In Experiments 1 and 2 of the present study, even with equal priming for all words, inhibition arises with low-frequency words defined as “challenging” but not with high-frequency words defined as “easy”, and with “remember” instructions (explicit memory task) but not with “complete with any word” instructions (implicit memory task). In Experiments 3 and 4, inhibition arises with unprimed words when subjects believe discovery of such words to be correlated with intelligence or to afford more points. Cue depreciation thus appears to be influenced, rather than by priming per se, by the importance attached to the completion of fragments and “trying harder”.     

Listening for Safe Places: Networks of Playing and Chalcedon in Disaster Pastoral Care

Disaster pastoral care operates in diverse contexts, which may challenge clergy responders in ecclesiological meaning‐making of their practices of care. This article argues that pastoral care may be imagined as part of a larger “network” of caring acts understood as a collective, multiple care practice. Such practice reflects deep‐rooted movements described in psychoanalytical theory as playing, and the christological idea of communication of properties. Therein, spiritual “safe places” can be seen to emerge, even in the midst of traumatic events.     

Lernziel: Kontextbezogene psychotherapeutische Kompetenz

Several authors (e.g. Thomä 2004) of critical reviews about psychoanalytical training stated repeatedly, that the learning objective of psychoanalytical training is not to be defined. In the case of psychoanalytical training, being at the same time a pedagogical undertaking, the search for a learning objective is seen as indispensable. Wampold (2001) presented a metaanalysis of psychotherapeutic outcome studies. He examined and evaluated the results of psychotherapeutic research on the basis of hypotheses derived from the “medical model” and the “contextual model”. He concludes that psychotherapeutic treatments based on theoretical models and implementations derived from the “contextual model” are those which are effective. Starting from Wampold’s empirically evaluated theses a definition of contextual psychotherapeutic competence is developed. This definition is proposed to serve as the central learning objective of psychoanalytic education. With regard to this learning objective aspects of a contextual pedagogical conception of the psychoanalytical education are discussed. Which pedagogical theory and concepts of learning and teaching, are to be subsumed under the “contextual model” and are, therefore, suited for psychoanalytical training? What is the difference between psychotherapeutical and pedagogical relationship in psychoanalytic training? What is a contextual pedagogical competence of the analytic teacher? Are learning opportunities in psychoanalytic training apt to challenge psychoanalysts-in-training to develop spontaneously contextual psychotherapeutic competence? With regard to these questions the practice of psychoanalytic training, i.e. self-experience, supervision, imparting of theory and family observation are discussed.     

Hegel,modal logic,and the social nature of mind

ABSTRACT

Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit provides a fascinating picture of individual minds caught up in “recognitive” relations so as to constitute a realm—“spirit”—which, while necessarily embedded in nature, is not reducible to it. In this essay I suggest a contemporary path for developing Hegel's suggestive ideas in a way that broadly conforms to the demands of his own system, such that one moves from logic to a philosophy of mind. Hence I draw on Hegel's “subjective logic”, understood in the light of modern modal logic, in an attempt to model the way minds might be thought as connected by way of shared intentional contents. Here, we should not be surprised at some of the parallels that emerge between the approaches of Hegel and the modal logician Arthur Prior, as Prior had testified to the influence of his teacher, John N. Findlay, who himself had strong Hegelian leanings. In the final section, Robert Stalnaker's version of possible-world semantics is suggested as a framework within which Hegel's recognitive account of the mind might be understood.     

Family Reconstruction

SUMMARY

The author claims that a process developed by Virginia Satir and called “Family Reconstruction” by her, is the epitome of her contribution to the field of therapy. This article describes the process, its goals and theory, the conditions necessary for an effective therapeutic breakthrough. How this therapeutic process can be powerfully effective in healing couple's relationships is shown. In a final note, Nerin suggests that Satir's model not be dubbed “communication theory,” but called “eco-psychological.”     

FREE TO MOVE,FREE TO BE

The Hungarian Pikler-Lóczy Institute for Infants’ Well-being and Healthy Development could not have been created without the fundamental contribution of the Budapest School’s approach to Object Relations. For historical reasons, very little is known in psychoanalytical circles about this extraordinary experience and work. Pikler created an original model with a space for partnership, reciprocity, and the baby’s “true” autonomy, which focuses on the baby’s self-initiated motor development: “freedom to move”. The atmosphere of this world around babies can be related to the “rêveries” of Ferenczi about the necessity for an early, caring environment provided through adult tenderness as it appears in his Clinical Diary.     

Epistemology of AI Revisited in the Light of the Philosophy of Information

Artificial intelligence has often been seen as an attempt to reduce the natural mind to informational processes and, consequently, to naturalize philosophy. The many criticisms that were addressed to the so-called “old-fashioned AI” do not concern this attempt itself, but the methods it used, especially the reduction of the mind to a symbolic level of abstraction, which has often appeared to be inadequate to capture the richness of our mental activity. As a consequence, there were many efforts to evacuate the semantical models in favor of elementary physiological mechanisms simulated by information processes. However, these views, and the subsequent criticisms against artificial intelligence that they contain, miss the very nature of artificial intelligence, which is not reducible to a “science of the nature”, but which directly impacts our culture. More precisely, they lead to evacuate the role of the semantic information. In other words, they tend to throw the baby out with the bath-water. This paper tries to revisit the epistemology of artificial intelligence in the light of the opposition between the “sciences of nature” and the “sciences of culture”, which has been introduced by German neo-Kantian philosophers. It then shows how this epistemological view opens on the many contemporary applications of artificial intelligence that have already transformed—and will continue to transform—all our cultural activities and our world. Lastly, it places those perspectives in the context of the philosophy of information and more particularly it emphasizes the role played by the notions of context and level of abstraction in artificial intelligence.     

Gender constructions from a project on sex offenders

Abstract

The four-year group therapy of 16 sex offenders in prison was videotaped, and 21 sessions were carefully transcribed and analysed by means of conversation analysis and analysis of metaphor and narration. These qualitative methods are apt for verbal data and can be combined with psychoanalytic thinking in a productive way. New forms of process analysis can be developed. The results presented here are selected to relate to the topic of how the imprisoned group therapy participants constructed “gender” by ways of speaking about themselves, women, and their victims, young girls. The results show that it would be a mistake to think of these ways of speaking as if they could be ignored in favour of “deeper” motives, lying “behind” the words. Our results show how unconscious constructions of gender are not beyond language, but in language. “Doing gender” is a conversational practice.     

Ein „now moment“ unter der Lupe

This paper is based on the publications of Daniel Stern’s Process of Change Study Group, which contain new hypotheses concerning the analytical process and how it works. The various stages in the system proposed by this group (“moving along”—”now moment”—”moment of meeting”) are illustrated by a case history with regard to relevant aspects of the transference and with special emphasis on the observed countertransference. The hypothesis used to explain the detailed “now moment” and “moment of meeting” is based on psychoanalytical considerations. This process is analyzed with reference to the concepts of “reparative regression” or “regression for the sake of recognition”, progression and regression, fulguration, and creativity, autonomy, and intimacy.     

Psychiatry in the labyrinth: Deconstructing deviancy

Abstract

Deviancy is a key concept in psychiatry and other therapeutic disciplines, because it dramatizes the way in which they depend on the establishment of norms, in order to justify their theory and practice. The writings of Derrida as well as Goethe provide a different view: that “deviation” from a “norm” can be fundamentally important to the well‐being of the norm. Thus deviancy can be viewed not as something to be “corrected” but rather as a creative possibility to be encouraged and shaped in productive ways. As a case of “deviancy” we have selected the writings of John Perceval, whose Narrative provides a critique of the mental‐health establishment of his day, particularly the asylum, and offers an alternative to 19th‐century views of “lunacy.” We see his “schizophrenic” commentary on his “psychosis” and its treatment as analogous to the deconstructive, “schizophrenic” discourse of postmodernity which is similarly critical of the reigning, modernist psychiatric order.     

Googling in Fear: Measuring Moral Panic Using Internet Searches Before and After Obama’s 2008 Election

ABSTRACT

The rhetoric, rumor, and hostility that surrounded the election of Barack Obama in 2008 appeared to correspond with the notion of a “moral panic.” However, systematically measuring phenomena like moral panics, which are volatile and dispersed in nature, can be difficult. This paper utilizes Google search data combined with other sources to examine the reaction to the candidacy and initial election of Obama. Given the nature of this particular panic, we hypothesize that panic-induced searches will be greater in states with a larger presence of Evangelical Protestants and consumption of conservative media outlets. Results from a series of generalized least squares time-series and two-stage regression models demonstrate that searches related to “socialism” and the “Antichrist” grew significantly around Obama’s election, indicating Obama’s “folk devil” status and a growing moral panic. Additionally, the intensity of the panic appears to be moderated by religious cultures and media consumption. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.     

Depressive symptoms and use of perspective taking within a communicative context

Objective: The ability to take the perspective of one's conversational partner is essential for successful communication. We assessed whether individuals who report high levels of depressive symptoms have more difficulty with navigating this interpersonal task. Method: Undergraduate students participated in a computerised communication task that, on some trials, required perspective taking (N=125). Results: When participants were grouped according to their self-reported depressive symptoms, the “dysphoric group” (BDI ≥ 16, n=37) showed more errors than a “non-dysphoric group” (BDI ≤ 10, n=56) on trials requiring participants to use the perspective of the speaker, but not on control trials where perspective taking was not required. The dysphoric group demonstrated slower response times overall. Conclusions: Individuals with moderate to high levels of depressive symptoms are more challenged by using a speaker's perspective to interpret statements.