Emotional reality: A further contribution to dramatology

This paper is a further contribution to dramatology, introduced in this journal in 2009. It focuses on the two basic modes of communication in any dramatic situation: (1) the nonverbal transfer of feelings and emotions, originating in the preverbal period of the love relationship between mother and child, and (2) the interchange of words and thoughts that develops with the acquisition of language. The early nonverbal mode of communication is the basis for proposing to rename Freud's concept of psychic reality “emotional reality.” On this view, emotional reality is seen as the primary fact of psychological life versus thoughts expressed in words as the derivative fact. Developmentally, emotions and ideas become united in complexes combining the emotional coloration of ideas and the ideational content of emotions. From the perspective of methodology, Freud, his followers, and his critics all conflated theories of disorder and theories of treatment. At the beginning of his journey, Freud was dyadic and interpersonal in formulating a unified theory of disorder and a method of treatment. In later years, he formulated monadic and intrapersonal theories of disorder while remaining interpersonal in his method of treatment, contributing to conflicts among the various psychoanalytic schools.     

Some remarks on adolescence with particular reference to Winnicott and Lacan

Utilizing observations on adolescence--notably those of Winnicott, as well as the work of Lacan and a clinical case--the author advances several propositions concerning the unique relationship between adolescents and time. The consequences of this relationship are then framed as a paternal metaphor.     

A contribution to the study of phenomenal causation

In his studies of the perception of causality, Michotte describes a number of “impressions” concomitant with precisely defined experimental conditions, of which “Launching” and “Triggering” are two of the most important. Two major factors influencing the nature of the impressions are the relative speeds of the two rectangles representing objects participating in dynamic inter-relationships, and the length of path of the more passive of the two objects. This investigation was an attempt to discover the quantitative relationships obtaining between these two independent variables and the dependent variable of the subjects' responses to the experimental conditions.     

Sex distribution of EEG phenomena with particular reference to subcortical dysfunctions]

The most constant or continually recurring sexual difference observed from childhood through to old age and determined from the results of a total of 1500 electroencephalograms was a considerable increase in beta activity occurring in female individuals at an earlier time and at a higher rate. The more frequent observation in male individuals of a "pure" alpha electroencephalogram may be interpreted as suggesting a slight decrease of vigilance in them. The percentage of abnormal electroencephalographic results was highest in females, the proportion being 62.5%:51.5% and the functional disorders occurring chiefly in the form of subcortical dysfunctions (30%:20%). Low voltage was found to be predominant in males. More frequent occurrence in the female sex of weakness of the brainstem and a more sensitively reacting formatio reticularis may be considered a possible explanation; also, attempts are made to bring the results obtained into causal or reciprocal relation to psychic conditions. Beta activity is perhaps a parameter of emotionality.     

Expressive movement in abnormals,with particular reference to extraversion and psychoticism

Drawing characteristics, as derived from a learning test (FRT) requiring drawn reproductions, were analysed and crossvalidated for the abnormal criteria of hysteria, dysthymia and psychoticism (mainly schizophrenia). Normals served as controls. Significant differences were found indicating that hysterics and psychotics drew larger and varied more than the remaining groups. The same groups tended to differ on certain other measures of expressive movement. Correlations with intelligence were consistently negative and low; those with error scores, derived from the same test, were consistently positive and low. The relationship to age was negligible. An examination of Eysenck's dimension of extraversion-introversion revealed that this factor was, with certain limitations, related to expressive movement.     

Children's spirituality with particular reference to a Norwegian context: some hermeneutical reflections

Spirituality has become an issue in many domains of the Norwegian society, but this is not reflected in public education. This paper discusses why this is so, and suggests some hermeneutical approaches to understanding spirituality that can include pre‐school children's spirituality, with particular reference to a Norwegian context. Central to this discussion is a case study of children in ‘sacred space’, and an understanding of spirituality as cultural learning. Education in schools as well as in kindergartens is dominated by a secular outlook on life as ‘default’, or a cultural and collective forgetfulness. Children's spirituality challenges adults to explore and rearticulate what is forgotten, in terms of nurturing what it is to be human, of caring for what is really important, and of cultivating hope – in Norway as well as in other countries.     

A further study of the pendulum phenomenon

A first series of experiments had demonstrated certain conditions eliciting or inhibiting a “pendulum” phenomenon in the visual perception of apparent movement. The present study consists of five further variations designed to show more clearly conditions of occurrence and non-occurrence of this type of movement. The main findings are:

(i) Altering the axis of display to vertical significantly reduces the frequency of pendular-movement perception;

(2) Altering the position of metronome from behind to the side of the visual display, gives results almost identical with those where the metronome was inaudible, but, when the metronome is illuminated in this position, all forms of movement perception are reduced, and no pendular movement is reported.

The results for all the ten conditions, including the five of the first series are summarized, and the following possible factors are discussed: past experience, physiological nystagmus, and intervening adaptation. All three may be required to account for the perceptual phenomena under investigation and the dichotomizing of explanations into “experiential,” or “physiological,” appears to be arbitrary and inconsistent with the complexity of the observed facts.     

A study of the contribution of hippocampal-accumbens-subpallidal projections to locomotor activity

Locomotor activity recorded in an automated open-field apparatus was increased substantially by unilateral injections of carbachol, a cholinergic agonist, into the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Hyperactivity elicited in this way was reduced significantly when glutamate antagonists were injected into the ipsilateral nucleus accumbens. Injecting gamma-aminobutyric acid into the ipsilateral subpallidal region also reduced the hyperactivity from injections of carbachol into the dentate gyrus. When these compounds were injected into the contralateral accumbens and subpallidal region, respectively, there was little or no reduction in the carbachol-elicited locomotor activity. These observations suggest that neural pathways fom hippocampus to accumbens to subpallidal region may contribute to locomotor activity.     

A further study of melodic channeling

Subjects listened to repetitive presentations of C major scale patterns and simple two-part contrapuntal specimens, both dichotically and in a stereophonic free sound field. All scalar and melodic patterns were presented so that successive tones alternated from ear to ear: when a component of one scale or melody was routed through one speaker or headphone, the concurrent member of the other scale or melodic pattern was routed through the other speaker or headphone, and vice versa. The stimulus parameters of spectral contour and envelope characteristics, duration, melodic pattern, and loudness were varied, and a testing procedure was designed to minimize any bias in responses which might be produced by learning, immediate memory, or vocal Limitations of subjects. Virtually all responses (95.2% to scalar stimuli, 99.1% to melodic stimuli) indicated that the subjects channeled stimuli by pitch range, and not by ear of input. When spectral contours routed through the separate headphones or speakers were noticeably dissimilar, no subject perceived that this timbral inequality switched from ear to ear: all subjects heard an overall change in tone quality which pervaded both scalar or melodic sequences, and which apparently emanated from both headphones or speakers.     

The impact of HIV illness on parents and children, with particular reference to African families

This paper looks at the effects of HIV infection on parenting and family relationships, focusing on the issues this presents for HIV families from sub-Saharan Africa, both here in the UK and in their countries of origin. We describe how we have experienced and dealt with some of the dilemmas facing parents and the context in which our service is offered. Despite the wide range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, many common parenting issues and themes transcend cultural differences.     

A contribution to the study of the metric and Euclidean structures of dissimilarities

This paper is concerned with the geometric properties of dissimilarity coefficients defined on finite sets and especially with their Euclidean nature. We present several particular transformations which preserve Euclideanarity and we complete, through the study of a one-parameter family, the current knowledge of the metric and Euclidean structure of coefficients based on binary data. These results are directly deduced from two theorems which prove the positive semi-definite status of some quadratic forms which play a large role in some definitions of dissimilarity commonly used.The authors wish to thank B. Fichet for his helpful suggestions, the associate Editor and an anonymous reviewer for comments and highly constructive criticisms on earlier drafts of the paper.