Reply to My Critics: (Re-)Defining Racism: A Philosophical Analysis

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice - In (Re-)Defining Racism, I offer the first comprehensive examination of the philosophical literature on racism and argue for a new methodological approach that I...     

Something More Than Words: A Review of (Re-)Defining Racism: A Philosophical Analysis,Alberto G. Urquidez

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice - Drawing on the later work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Alberto G. Urquidez works to free the fly (i.e. race/racism) from the metaphorical bottle by shifting the terms...     

Alberto G. Urquidez, (Re-)Defining Racism: A Philosophical Analysis,Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, Viii +421 Pp. the Concept of Racism and the Adjective Racist

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice -     

Receptivity,or Going on (Not) Being: Commentary on Paper by Robert Grossmark

“The treatment hinged on my being able to live with him in this ongoing non-existence and know it and tolerate it, and expect no more,” writes Dr. Robert Grossmark about himself and his patient, Kyle (pp. 637–638). This is a key sentence, outlining the core of the enlightening analytic work done. I comment on the linkage between living the ongoing nonexistence and going-on-(not)-being, then reflect about the distinction between what I call the “outward” technique, which is everything Grossmark describes about treating Kyle, and the “inward” technique, which is all that occurred within him, in an inner, hidden, powerful, unconscious dialogue with the patient, and which is only hinted at. In this context, with patients like Kyle, who bring to the analyst physical sensations and actions for dreaming, the analyst's corporeality, by which I mean his experience of his body and his capacity to connect it to emotion, thereby lending it meaning, has a critical importance. I bring, in a nutshell, references to several psychoanalytic writers about the subject of corporeality in analytic treatment and use a vignette from an analysis to demonstrate the point.     

Racism as a Disease: Etiology and Treatment Implications

The authors discuss racism from a disease perspective. An underlying schema of irrelevance is posited as a cognitive structure that is acquired in childhood to cope with the inconsistent data of racial oppression in an ideologically egalitarian society. As this schema comes into conflict with the increasing diversity of American life, the individual frequently manifests disease symptoms that are treatable with a variety of techniques. The utility of group treatment designed for Caucasians in the early stages of treatment is specifically addressed. Los autores discuten el racismo desde la perspectiva de la enfermedad. Proponen una esquema fundamental de irrelevancia como una estructura cognitiva que se adquire en la niñez para enfrentarse con los datos inconsistentes de opresión racial en una sociedad ideologicamente igualitaria. Según este esquema se va poniendo en conflicto con la diversidad creciente de la vida americana, el individuo frecuentamente manifiesta síntomas de enfermedad que se pueden tratar con diversas técnicas. Se discute la utilidad del tratamiento de grupos diseñado para caucásicos en las primeras etapas del tratamiento.     

Let's Not Talk About It: Commentary on Michael Shoshani (Rosenbaum's) Dare to be Human

As an outsider, I found myself engaged and at times mystified as I wondered about the unasked and the unspoken in Michael Shoshani (Rosenbaum's) portrayal of an analysis in his book Dare to Be Human. While conceding that every therapy and every representation of therapy must touch on some issues and omit others, and that at times intimate experience can be deadened by conversation, I was curious about the ways Shoshani (Rosenbaum) appeared at times to retreat from talking with his patient about certain areas of relatedness, particularly about varieties of possible erotic transferences. While Dr. Shoshani (Rosenbaum) makes a case for the therapeutic value of the unsaid, I wonder whether in this relationship talking about this complex area might have been a means to further joint attention and an opportunity for co-inquiry and collaboration around significant subject/object and subject/subject forms of relatedness. I ask whether talking about experience may enliven and deepen mutual experience rather than deaden it, by limning mutuality and difference, and nurturing curiosity about process and relationship.     

In Praise of a Model but Not Its Conclusions: Commentary on Cooper,Catmur, and Heyes (2012)

Cooper et al. (this issue) develop an interactive activation model of spatial and imitative compatibilities that simulates the key results from Catmur and Heyes (2011) and thus conclude that both compatibilities are mediated by the same processes since their single model can predict all the results. Although the model is impressive, the conclusions are premature because they are based on an incomplete review of the relevant literature and because the model includes some questionable assumptions. Moreover, a competing model (Scheutz & Bertenthal, 2012) is introduced that suggests the two compatibilities are not mediated by the same processes. We propose that more research is necessary before concluding that spatial and imitative compatibilities are mediated by the same processes.     

Commentary a few can catch a liar,sometimes: Comments on Ekman and O'Sullivan (1991), as well as Ekman,O'Sullivan,and Frank (1999)

In two influential articles, Paul Ekman and associates have determined ‘who can catch a liar’ and reported that ‘a few can catch a liar’. The current article seeks to clarify these contributions. It provides information that was not mentioned in Ekman's journal articles. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Racism as a transference state: episodes of racial hostility in the psychoanalytic context

Episodes of racial prejudice emerging in the context of a psychoanalytic therapy suggest that racism can be thought of as a regressed state of transference, characterized by polarized representations of self and other, categorical thinking, and the predominance of splitting and projection as defenses. The author suggests that activation of racial hostility in the clinical situation occurs as a result of events and processes not atypical in an analytic process. Though such states occurring outside of the analytic context are more likely made conscious in certain situations and in certain persons, the author suggests that racism can be more generally described as an ever-potential state of mind for most people living in racialized contexts.     

The Making of Sausage and Law Is Not a Pretty Sight: Commentary on Paper by Dianne Elise

Dianne Elise avers that a man's personality is prone to be organized in terms of “the citadel complex.” My response to her paper focuses mainly on two issues. The first is a lack of consistency and rigor in the use of a few specific words, like penetration and enjoyment, which are used in ways that some readers might find insufficiently grounded in context. Such free-wheeling expression results in questionable assumptions about the theoretical equivalence of various experiences and about how an experience and some expression of it are aligned.

The second issue is Elise's unconventional appropriation of Lacanian theory. The development of gender identity is a function of the establishment of an unconscious representation of “the father,” which Lacan called “the names of the father.” A child constitutes this signifier by realizing at some point that his mother's behavior toward him is modified by another object. Understanding that a person of such vast importance exists—and that one is subject to the contingencies of that person's wishes—arises from inferences about the mother's interest in this new object and the object's interest in the mother far more readily than it does from observations of the conduct of actual people.     

Commentary on Steinley and Brusco (2011): recommendations and cautions

I discuss the recommendations and cautions in Steinley and Brusco's (2011) article on the use of finite models to cluster a data set. In their article, much use is made of comparison with the K-means procedure. As noted by researchers for over 30 years, the K-means procedure can be viewed as a special case of finite mixture modeling in which the components are in equal (fixed) proportions and are taken to be normal with a common spherical covariance matrix. In this commentary, I pay particular attention to this link and to the use of normal mixture models with arbitrary component-covariance matrices.     

The Psychology of Simonton's Science: Commentary on Simonton (2009)

ABSTRACT— One key assumption of the psychology of science is that psychological factors make certain interests, talents, and abilities more likely and others less likely ( Feist, 2006 ). The line of argument that Simonton (2009 , this issue) puts forth—integrating and uniting the metaliteratures on dispositional and developmental influences on scientific and artistic creativity—is not only consistent with this assumption from the psychology of science, but it is also a breeding ground for a host of testable hypotheses and calls for future empirical investigations. Given Simonton's own extraordinary levels of scientific creativity, indeed it would be interesting to turn his ideas back on him to see how his science is a product of his own developmental and dispositional experiences. We'll leave that, however, for future biographers and psychologists of science.     

Sociodemographic Variations in Self-Reported Racism in a Community Sample of Blacks and Latino(a)s

This study investigated dimensions of socioeconomic status (SES) and self-reported racism among a convenience sample of 418 U.S.-born, Black and Latino(a) urban-dwelling adults. Predictors included indexes of individual and neighborhood SES. Self-reported racism was assessed with the Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire–Community Version. Individuals at all levels of SES report racism, but the type of exposure varies by SES. Lower levels of SES predict higher levels of lifetime exposure to race-related stigmatization and threat/harassment, and more past-week discrimination. In contrast, higher levels of SES predict greater workplace discrimination. The findings highlight the importance of considering the complex ways in which SES and racism, 2 contributors to racial disparities in health, overlap and diverge.