On the Emotions

Art historians and philosophers often talk about the interpretive significance of titles, but few have bothered with their historical origins. This omission has led to the assumption that an artwork's title is its proper name, since names and titles share the essential function of facilitating reference to their bearers. But a closer look at the development of our titling practices shows a significant point of divergence from standard analyses of proper names: the semantic content of a title is often crucial to the identification, individuation, and interpretation of its associated artwork. This paper represents a first step towards an empirically centred study of our titling practices. I argue that, in order to accept titles as proper names, we must first recognize the social, rather than the referential, function of naming.     

论准生命--寻找剖析生命伦理疑难问题的"奥卡姆剃刀"

提出并讨论准生命的基本概念及其正常演进和异常演进;分析生命和准生命的本质区别;认为准生命理论完整地描述了生命的客现过程,提示认识生命问题要分清生命和准生命的界限、分清生命和生命现象的差异、分清正常演进的准生命和异常演进的准生命的区别;说明准生命理论为解决诸如脑死亡、“植物状态”和重残儿的处置、生育控制、干细胞研究、安乐死的实施和克隆人的伦理问题提供了的新理念。     

论预后

预后中临床认识主体必须面对的重要问题。从医学哲学层面提出并讨论以下问题：预后研究的历史回顾、预后研究的目的;预后的界定标准,自然预后、治疗预后及其相互关联,制约预后的一般因子：医学发展成熟度、有效诊疗时间窗、内在制约因子集;改善预后的前提、条件和关系;21世纪预后的展望。     

On the Arts

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

一部深入探索道德信仰重建之道的学术力作--评《道德信仰论》

信仰的失落 ,无论在当代世界 ,还是在当代中国 ,似乎已成为一个不争的事实 ,已经引起社会各界的广泛关注。西方不少学者试图通过重新唤起人们的宗教情绪来重建信仰 ,一些人更因此而陷入邪教的痴迷。显然 ,这都不是中国特色社会主义社会所需要的信仰 ,更与马克思主义的原则立场背道而驰。重建正确而高尚的信仰 ,是社会主义精神文明建设的重大问题 ,也是伦理学研究者责无旁贷的理论使命。任建东同志新近出版的学术专著《道德信仰论》(宗教文化出版社 2 0 0 4年版 ) ,通过回应现时代道德信仰的各种问题以及深入探索道德信仰的重建之道 ,成为一…     

On the analyst's neutrality

It is by the application of the principle of neutrality, born of his respect for the essential otherness of the patient, that the analyst focuses the dyadic analytic work in the service of the patient's growing self-analytic capacity. Thus, the general principle of neutrality is distinguished from the technical tactic of abstinence, the latter being a specific function utilized to facilitate and foster analytic regression. Neutrality can be defined as it applies to the major subfunctions of the analyst's work ego. Perception of the patient's intrapsychic processes (both empathically and cognitively) requires a neutrality of appearance on the analyst's part in order to minimize the distortion of the unfolding transference neurosis. Integration and understanding of the patient's communications require mastery and neutralization of the analyst's own internal processes in order to minimize countertransferential distortions. Appropriate interpretive intervention requires neutrality of action, i.e., mastery of impulses related to power, neutralizing them into the service of the analytic work; tact is defined as a specific psychoanalytic function in this regard. Collaborative ignorance is examined as a specific instance of false neutrality. In this an analytic guise serves to mask a countertransferential conflict. Neutrality serves as an overriding technical principle, not an imperative for perfectionism . Factors intrinsic to the analytic process also influence the application of this principle.     

On the aesthetic illusion

The aesthetic illusion--the experience of the content of a work of art as reality--occurs through the mobilization and intensification of typical infantile fantasies in the beholder. This necessarily evokes intrapsychic conflict in the mature adult. Two illusion-producing strategies ameliorate this conflict and effect the aesthetic illusion. The first illusion is that the artist's proffered fantasy is the beholder's own personal and private fantasy. This isolates the beholder from the shame- and guilt-evoking social surround. The second illusion is that the protagonist depicted in the work is an actual person. This defends the beholder from the painful emotions attendant upon his instinctually gratifying identification with the protagonist. The first illusion is necessary for the establishment of the second, but it is the second that establishes the aesthetic illusion. The aesthetic illusion exists in a highly unstable dynamic equilibrium with the beholder's usual reality orientation. If either orientation is too powerful, the dynamic equilibrium is disrupted and the aesthetic experience as such is abolished.     

古代风水辨

“风水”是一种传统文化,是人们对居住环境进行理性选择的行为规范,体现着一种哲学意义上的精神追求。作为一门古老的环境文化,它源于先民对自然的敬畏和对美好生活的向望,虽然由于历史条件的限制,其中不乏一些迷信的成分,但就整体而言,古代风水文化更多的是倡导人与自然的和谐相处