The primal scene and symbol formation

This article discusses the meaning of the primal scene for symbol formation by exploring its way of processing in a child's play. The author questions the notion that a sadomasochistic way of processing is the only possible one. A model of an alternative mode of processing is being presented. It is suggested that both ways of processing intertwine in the “fabric of life” (D. Laub). Two clinical vignettes, one from an analytic child psychotherapy and the other from the analysis of a 30 year‐old female patient, illustrate how the primal scene is being played out in the form of a terzet. The author explores whether the sadomasochistic way of processing actually precedes the “primal scene as a terzet”. She discusses if it could even be regarded as a precondition for the formation of the latter or, alternatively, if the “combined parent‐figure” gives rise to ways of processing. The question is being left open. Finally, it is shown how both modes of experiencing the primal scene underlie the discoursive and presentative symbol formation, respectively.     

Logos of Dao: The primal logic of translatability

In these reflections I attempt to re-situate the philosophical concerns and challenges of interpretation and translation between worlds in the more expansive context of the global philosophy of worldviews, which probes more deeply into the universal common ground of diverse worlds as they have evolved through the ages. This global space in which widely diverse worldviews (cultures, religions, ideologies, cosmologies, disciplinary narratives, interpretations, translations ) meet and interact opens new horizons and frontiers in exploring the hermeneutical, logical and ontological conditions for the possibility of interpretation and translation across worldviews and traditions. How is translation possible across widely variant worlds?     

话说灶王

有关灶王的描述,读者一定很熟悉。《红楼梦》第五十三回《宁国府除夕祭宗祠,荣国府元宵开夜宴》中,谈到荣国府除夕供灶王的景像时说:“那晚,各处佛堂灶王前焚香上供。王夫人正房院内设着天地纸马香供。大观园正门上挑着角灯,两旁高照,各处皆有路灯。上下人等,打扮的花团锦簇。一夜人声杂沓,语笑喧阗,爆竹起火,络绎不绝。”灶王何许人也?且听我细细道来。一、灶王是谁灶王又称“灶神”、“灶君”、“灶君老爷”、“老灶爷”等,是我国古代神话中主管饮食之神。旧时民间灶王信仰颇为广泛,多将灶君像供奉于灶头。古代文献中,对灶王是谁有多种说…     

The primal scene in cross-species and cross-cultural perspectives

A review of cross-species and cross-cultural research suggests that, throughout most of human behavioral evolution, children may have been enlightened as to the facts of life by observing parental intercourse and then imitating it in sexual rehearsal play in the context of a continuously rising curve of sexual desire and sexual knowledge throughout childhood. Concealment of the primal scene and prohibition of cross-generational, bisexual, and 'polymorphously perverse' childhood sex play may be of relatively recent origin in human cultural evolution, buttressed by the instillation of culturally acquired sexual disgust in sexually conservative cultures. Looking at the primal scene in cross-species and cross-cultural perspectives utilizing the adaptationist framework of contemporary evolutionary biology can challenge normative assumptions that may still be embedded in psychoanalytic theories of species-wide psychosexual development.     

Evil and the god of indifference

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion - The evidential problem of evil involves a rarely discussed challenge, namely the challenge of defending theism against the hypothesis of a morally...