From analytic surface to analytic space.

Utilizing a clinical illustration, the concept of the surface of the patient's mind, which arose early in analytic history, is reexamined in relation to the analytic space, the unique affective and communicative dyadic context of the analytic process. The shift from analytic surface to analytic space reflects in clinical theory the metapsychological shift from early structural views to current appreciation of compromise formation. Also, this approach permits broadening of consideration of active unconscious forces in both the patient and the analyst.     

Jerusalem: The problems and responsibilities of sacred space

Focusing on the central role the city of Jerusalem plays in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, this paper addresses the question of what makes particular cities 'holy' and sacred to people, the meaning and responsibilities that this 'sacredness' entails and whether this 'sacredness' in fact affects the conduct of politicians when determining the fate of a sacred city such as Jerusalem. Answers to these questions are found deep in the human psyche, in what historians of religion have called a 'sacred geography' and in the sense of exile from a holy place that makes it that much more precious to the people attached to it.     

Tattoo and taboo: on the meaning of tattoos in the analytic process

Tattooing projects a visual image in transference to form a backdrop for the most salient unconscious inner conflicts arising during an ongoing analytic process. Like a snapshot, the tattoo is a dialectic record of the mother-father relationship, of desires for closeness and distance, commonality and difference, identification and individuation. As Walter Benjamin famously stated about the nature of visual images in his Arcades Project, the tattoo represents "dialectics at a standstill." What seems paramount to the patient who participates in the act of tattooing is the need for stasis and immutability, as if bringing unconscious conflicts to "standstill" were to deliver a sense of stability. Unconsciously, the need is triggered by a threat to the inner stability resulting from fear of violating a taboo escalating to the point that fears of abandonment and fusion become unbearable. On the one hand, the tattoo is a visual symbolization of a taboo transgression; on the other hand, it activates the same through an act of self-injury that resembles the magical ritual acts of indigenous peoples' use of tattoos. The taboo thus serves as an ersatz for the actual violation of the taboo in real life, so that the tattoo may be ascribed a magical significance or totemic function. And yet the tattoo's success as a vehicle for constructing a transitional object is always contingent on the tangible manipulation of the skin conjoined with the creation of a symbolizing visual image. The image then acts like a "patch" to repair holes blown into Winnicott's "potential space" and to reconstruct it.     

Intersubjectivity and the creation of meaning in the analytic process

By means of a clinical illustration, the author describes how the intersubjective exchanges involved in an analytic process facilitate the representation of affects and memories which have been buried in the unconscious or indeed have never been available to consciousness. As a result of projective identificatory processes in the analytic relationship, in this example the analyst falls into a situation of helplessness which connects with his own traumatic experiences. Then he gets into a formal regression of the ego and responds with a so‐to‐speak hallucinatory reaction—an internal image which enables him to keep the analytic process on track and, later on, to construct an early traumatic experience of the analysand.     

Human cognition, space, and the sedimentation of meaning

The goal of this paper is to explore, from a phenomenologically informed perspective, the phenomenon of the operative spatialization of human thinking, viewed in its relationship with the embodied human organism’s spatial experience. Operative spatialization in this context refers to the cognitive role and functioning of spatial schematizations and differentiations in human thinking. My particular focus is the domain of conceptualization. By drawing on Husserl’s discussion of the (linguistic) process of a sedimentation of meaning, I aim to show that spatialization functions in a structurally ambivalent manner. On the one hand, spatialization predisposes and thus narrows the scope of human conceptual thought. On the other hand, spatialization establishes an implicit cognitive scaffold indispensable for the development and practice of human higher-order thinking. The structure and functioning of this scaffold, I argue, is intrinsically related to the spatial structure and dynamics of human embodiment. Synthesizing insights from phenomenological studies concerning the experiential constitution of space, and classic and recent research findings from fields such as cognitive linguistics and psychology concerning the cognitive dimension of image-schemas and gestural behavior, I argue that the living human body functions centrally as the sense-constitutive ‘site of conversion’ (Husserl) between concrete structures of spatial experience and abstract structures of conceptual thought.     

The unbearable lightness of meaning: Well-being and unstable meaning in life

Psychological theories prioritize developing enduring sources of meaning in life. As such, unstable meaning should be detrimental to well-being. Two daily experience sampling studies were conducted to test this hypothesis. Across the studies, people with greater instability of daily meaning reported lower daily levels of meaning in life, and lower global levels of life satisfaction, positive affect, social connectedness and relationship satisfaction, along with higher global levels of negative affect and depression. In addition, instability of meaning interacted with average daily levels of meaning to account for significant variance in meaning in life scores. Relative to people with more stable meaning, people with unstable meaning tended to score near the middle of the distribution of well-being, whether they reported high or low levels of daily meaning. Results are discussed with an eye toward a better understanding of meaning in life and developing interventions to stabilize and maximize well-being.     

Exploring the space between words and meaning: Understanding the relational sensibility of surf spaces

This paper explores the potential of the written word to evoke emotional engagement with place. Through focussing on the relational sensibilities created through the act of surfing, the paper seeks to explore how these emotions are articulated by surfers in order to share their feelings with others. In doing so it draws attention to the ‘intersubjective space’ (after Thrift, 1996) between writer and reader and its potential to overcome the paradox of representation. In this space the written word has the potential to combine with readers' own experiences, however indirect or tangential, to create a currency of communicated lived experience. In this space, knowledge of surfing is co-created by writer and reader (or by surfer and non-surfer) and becomes freighted with empathic resonance. In order to explore whether the potential of this space can be realised, the paper presents examples of surf writing which seek to communicate the relational sensibility of surfing and asks the reader: can ‘only a surfer know the feeling’?     

The structure of death anxiety: a factor analytic study.

University students in Canada (n = 255) and Northern Ireland (n = 315), graduate nursing students (n = 124), funeral service students (n = 79), and members of the Unitarian Fellowship (n = 83) completed Templer's Death Anxiety Scale (DAS). The responses of each group were subjected to principal components factor analysis using varimax rotational procedures and the factor scores derived from this analysis were then contrasted using multiple discriminant function analysis. Results indicated that there was more commonality than uniqueness in the factor patterns for these groups. Four common death anxiety patterns were classified as follows: (a) cognitive-affective concerns; (b) concern about physical alterations; (c) concern about the passage of time; and (d) concern about stressors and pain. These factors are consistent with and extend the views expressed in previous research (i.e., Pandy, 1974-75; Pandy & Templer, 1972.     

II. Text and meaning

P. D. Juhl, Interpretation. An Essay in the Philosophy of Literary Criticism, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. 1980, 332 pp., no price given. References in parentheses are to this work.