"Reflexive Embodied Empathy": A Phenomenology of Participant-Researcher Intersubjectivity

In this article, I advocate a research process that involves engaging, reflexively, with the embodied intersubjective relationship researchers have with participants. I call this practice reflexive embodied empathy. First, I explicate the concept of empathy through exploring ideas from the philosophical phenomenological literature. I then apply this theory to practice and offer examples of reflexive analysis of embodied empathy taken from various hermeneutic phenomenological research projects. Three interpenetrating layers of reflexivity are described, each involving different but coexisting dimensions of embodied intersubjectivity. The 1st layer-connecting-of-demonstrates how people can tune into another's bodily way of being through using their own embodied reactions. The 2nd layer-acting-into-focuses on empathy as imaginative self-transposal and calls attention to the way existences (beings) are intertwined in a dynamic of doubling and mirroring. The 3rd layer-merging-with-involves a "reciprocal insertion and intertwining" of others in oneself and of one in them (Merleau-Ponty, 1964/1968, p. 138), where self-understanding and other-understanding unite in mutual transformation. Through different examples of reflexive analysis from my research, I have tried to show how intersubjective corporeal commonality enables the possibility of empathy and how, in turn, empathy enables understanding of the Other and self-understanding. I discuss how the coexisting layers of empathy and the resultant understandings can be enabled through hermeneutic reflection and collaborative research methods.     

HASIDIC CONTRACTION: A MODEL FOR INTERHEMISPHERIC DIALOGUE

Abstract. Neuroclinical studies have claimed that the right side of the brain is associated with mystic orientation and sensual-affective functioning and that the brain's left side is related to logical-analytic thinking. From observations of conversion processes among repenters and cult recruitees, it is hypothesized that a drastic switchover between mythic and analytic life orientations, via a dialectic replacement of the previous code, may result in a psychopathological disorientation. Based on the Hasidic-Cabalic notion of mutual "contraction," a dialogical model of interhemi-spheric balancing, which a priori trains people to interpret reality through simultaneous rational Talmudism and Cabalic mysticism, is introduced.     

Brain tumor and dying--exposition of W. M. Diggelmann in "Shadows--the diary of a disease"

The phases of a patient's struggle to come to terms with a malignant disease and impending death are illustrated by means of W. M. Diggelmann's book "Schatten--Tagebuch einer Krankheit" (Shadow--Diary of an Illness). Their expression, mutual influences and contents are documented by quotations.     

Understanding Each Other: The Case of the Derrida-Searle Debate

This paper revisits the Derrida-Searle debate, an exchange that, unfortunately, did not lead to much, if any, mutual understanding. I will suggest that this failure can be traced back to key features of their respective theories. In that Searle and Derrida use their own theories of speech as resources in trying to understand each other, their unsuccessful communication can be used to reveal a great deal about the limitations of both their theories. My paper tries to draw out these limitations by analyzing specific moments in the debate. I also suggest concrete proposals for overcoming defects in each of the theories, proposals that, arguably, would make some mutual understanding more possible.     

A factor related to the strength of an "Aha!" experience

Abstract: It is natural to assume that the strength of an "Aha!" becomes stronger when an unexpected solution is correct. In this study, this assumption is examined experimentally through a list of possible correct solutions. In the experiment, subjects listed the possible correct solutions before solving the problems, and evaluated the strength of their "Aha!" experience after they solved the problems. It was shown that the strength of the "Aha!" experience was strongest if the correct answer had not been included in the list of possible correct solutions; if included, the strength of the "Aha!" experience corresponded to the answer's position in the list, that is, the later the correct solution listed, the stronger the feeling became. It is suggested that the strength of an "Aha!" experience can be used as an error function in the learning process.     

Intimacy and Loneliness

The article contends that the fear of loneliness is the basic and universal motivational drive influencing human relationships. For each and every individual, the ultimate goal of overcoming isolation is a sense of belonging or intimacy with another self-conscious being. The paper then focuses on the psychological conditions which make intimacy possible and, indeed, necessary when the conditions actually exist. These conditions include and are completely restricted to the following four presuppositions: (a) shared physical and temporal "closeness" between selves; (b) mutual trust in the Eriksonian sense; (c) mutual affection; and (d) mutual respect in the Kantian sense. When, and if, these four conditions are met, then the sense of loneliness will be replaced by and transformed into a feeling of intimacy.     

In search of the good life: a cultural odyssey in the East and West

In the first part of this article, the authors argue that any conception of well-being is culturally embedded and depends on how the notions of "well" and "being" are defined and practiced in different cultural communities. To support this argument, they conduct a comprehensive review of the empirical literature, which shows that members of individualistic and collectivistic cultures differ in their emotional experience of well-being. This difference has been traced to the indigenous psychology of selfhood in those cultures. In the second part of the article, the authors debunk the myth of infinite cultural variability, while retaining the basic insight concerning the cultural constitution of well-being. They develop a theoretical model of well-being, in which agency and communion are universal dimensions of well-being, and people in different cultures require different combinations of agency and communion to experience well-being. Following this theoretical development, the authors examine cultural impediments to the good life in individualistic and collectivistic cultures. The mutual incompatibility of agency and communion is ruled out as a possible cause of why it is so difficult to live the good life. Instead, the authors propose a dialectical synthesis of agency and communion as a way of dealing with this challenge of living the good life.     

易、道相关"舆"象索隐

物象、象喻在<易经>和道家文献中的大量运用,不仅表现为一种修辞手段,而更表现为一种思维方式.破解其中的象喻是探得这些经典文献的理蕴以及相互之间的内在联系所必须的.道家文献与 <易经>在相关于"舆"象的象征意义上有很多相互关联之处.本文在道家思想受<易经>影响的认识基础上,对<易经>中的<坤>、<姤>、<剥>、<大壮>、<乾>等卦与道家文献的相关车舆之象的象征意义进行相互阐发,并据以对<易经>与道家文献中涉及到车舆之象的文句进行诠释,以此探讨道家文献与<易经>在内在思想上的异同关联.     

Freud's "Project" and its relationship to psychoanalytic theory

Sigmund Freud wrote the "Project for a Scientific Psychology" in 1895. Although the "Project" is essential a neurological model of mind, it will be shown that major concepts in psychoanalytic theory can be traced to this work. These include libido, primary process and the pleasure principle, secondary process and the reality principle, wish fulfillment, the ego, consciousness, and repression. The "Project" signifies a transition in Freud's thinking from a neurological to a psychological realm of discourse.     

"神道设教"说考释

“神道设教”学说滥觞于远古时代,殷周之际人们开始对宗教祭祀的教化功能进行思考,至春秋时代逐渐酝酿成熟,战国时期方提出了“神道设教”这一命题,从而消解了敬天尊祖的传统宗教与自然哲学的紧张。它具有陶冶百姓,凝聚人心,纯洁风俗,稳定秩序,传承文明的重要作用,影响深远。     

Validation of graphoanalysis by "global" or "holistic" method.

Graphoanalysis is the most systematically developed and best researched of all methods of handwriting analysis (genetically called graphology). This is a projective expressive movement that is neither better nor more poorly validated than most projective techniques as a means of personality assessment, which is inadequate because their subjectivity makes statistical study difficult. With all projective techniques "sign" or trait validation has been minimal, and the best validation has come from "global" or "holistic" methods. The present study presents a paradigm for the latter type of approach to handwriting analysis, using a matching technique with probabilities of 1/5, wherein five subjects were matched by people who knew them to one of five blind Graphoanalyses of the subjects' writing. This design is herein replicated five times, with total data significantly different from chance expectation (p less than .001), supporting the hypothesis that it is possible to evaluate personality through analysis of handwriting.     

An "opting in" paradigm for kidney transplantation

Almost 60,000 people in the United States with end stage renal disease are waiting for a kidney transplant. Because of the scarcity of organs from deceased donors live kidney donors have become a critical source of organs; in 2001, for the first time in recent decades, the number of live kidney donors exceeded the number of deceased donors. The paradigm used to justify putting live kidney donors at risk includes the low risk to the donor, the favorable risk-benefit ratio, the psychological benefits to the donor, altruism, and autonomy coupled with informed consent; because each of these arguments is flawed we need to lessen our dependence on live kidney donors and increase the number of organs retrieved from deceased donors. An "opting in" paradigm would reward people who agree to donate their kidneys after they die with allocation preference should they need a kidney while they are alive. An "opting in" program should increase the number of kidneys available for transplantation and eliminate the morally troubling problem of"organ takers"who would accept a kidney if they needed one but have made no provision to be an organ donor themselves. People who "opt in" would preferentially get an organ should they need one at the minimal cost of donating their kidneys when they have no use for them; it is a form of organ insurance a rational person should find extremely attractive. An "opting in" paradigm would simulate the reciprocal altruism observed in nature that sociobiologists believe enhances group survival. Although the allocation of organs based on factors other than need might be morally troubling, an "opting in" paradigm compares favorably with other methods of obtaining more organs and accepting the status quo of extreme organ scarcity. Although an "opting in" policy would be based on enlightened self-interest, by demonstrating the utilitarian value of mutual assistance, it would promote the attitude that self-interest sometimes requires the perception that we are all part of a common humanity.     

"Cognitive doping": meaning and stakes

This article examines the scope and issues specific to using the term "doping" to describe the growing consumption of cognitive enhancers. It traces the history of the taking of substances for the purpose of improving brain functions and discusses the reasons for its negative connotation. In order to evaluate this moral rejection, it sifts through the possible objections that we could emit against the nootropics, at the individual and societal levels. It proposes to restore the concept of "doping" in our cultural heritage, characterized by the conflicting ideals of authenticity and self-improvement, to finally acknowledge the specificity of our time that has to do with personal achievement through performance. Without incensing doping practices, this article suggests that evincing radically intellectual and/or emotional "doping" is sterile, in contradiction with our actions and preventing us from thinking serenely the use of enhancing drugs.     

On the possibility of "smart" perceptual mechanisms

Abstract.— A basic feature of some modem theories of perception is the notion of complex or higher order variables which are considered basic for perception. A distinction between "rote" and "smart" mechanisms is introduced and it is suggested that perception consists of smart mechanisms which directly register complex variables. A model of a perceiver, based on the smart polar planimeter, is constructed and used to illustrate the possible consequences of smart perceptual mechanisms for research in areas such as psychophysics, cognition, attention, and perceptual development and learning.     

Maps between some different kinds of contraction function: The finite case

In some recent papers, the authors and Peter Gärdenfors have defined and studied two different kinds of formal operation, conceived as possible representations of the intuitive process of contracting a theory to eliminate a proposition. These are partial meet contraction (including as limiting cases full meet contraction and maxichoice contraction) and safe contraction. It is known, via the representation theorem for the former, that every safe contraction operation over a theory is a partial meet contraction over that theory. The purpose of the present paper is to study the relationship more finely, by seeking an explicit map between the component orderings involved in each of the two kinds of contraction. It is shown that at least in the finite case a suitable map exists, with the consequence that the relational, transitively relational, and antisymmetrically relational partial meet contraction functions form identifiable subclasses of the safe contraction functions, over any theory finite modulo logical equivalence. In the process of constructing the map, as the composition of four simple transformations, mediating notions of bottom and top contraction are introduced. The study of the infinite case remains open.     

Rules of Existential Quantification into "Intensional Contexts"

Propositional and notional attitudes are construed as relations (-in-intension) between individuals and constructions (rather than propositrions etc,). The apparatus of transparent intensional logic (Tichy) is applied to derive two rules that make it possible to export existential quantifiers without conceiving attitudes as relations to expressions (sententialism).     

Effects of speed and accuracy of exertion of force on the relationship between force output and fractionated reaction time

The present study was designed to investigate the effect of speed and accuracy of force exertion on the relationship between force output and fractionated reaction time. Subjects exerted their force (10% or 40% of maximum isometric contraction) on "accurate" and "fast" tasks as rapidly as possible at the light signal. On the "fast" task, premotor time for the 40% target was lengthened in comparison with that for the 10% target, and motor time was shortened with an increase of force output. On the "accurate" task, on the other hand, premotor time was independent of magnitude of force, and no relation between motor time and force output was found. These findings show that the relationship between force output and fractionated reaction time may be affected by the effort to exert force accurately.     

A significant "dream within a dream"

This brief clinical note is an attempt to clarify Freud's remarks regarding the significance of real occurrences of the "dream within a dream". There is affirmation of the reality of an actual event in the manifest dream (the "tickling" in adolescence). Certain representations regarding real events are alluded to in the manifest dream and are confirmed by the latent dream thoughts (the underlying homosexual theme involving the patient's mother and herself). Within the ongoing transference neurosis, a new understanding led this patient to experience intense sexual affects which were recalled for the first time during the course of an analytic session. The analyst's attention to this "dream within a dream" led to a facilitating active interpretation of the repressed sexual feelings. At the same time it was possible to observe a developmental arrest which had interfered with the consolidation of the patient's adolescent maturation begin to be undone by interpretation. The process of disengaging the patient from her unconscious bond with her mother (the undoing of the negative oedipal involvement) had been set in motion. The "dream within a dream" seems to represent a special defensive effort of the dream work to encapsulate the memory of one or more related actual events and the intense affects associated with them--affects whose pressure for discharge threaten to arouse the sleeper. The form the dream assumes is related to its hidden sexual origins and engages the active participation of both patient and analyst.     

Replacement—A Sheffer Stroke for Belief Change

By replacement is meant an operation that replaces one sentence by another in a belief set. Replacement can be used as a kind of Sheffer stroke for belief change, since contraction, revision, and expansion can all be defined in terms of it. Replacement can also be defined either in terms of contraction or in terms of revision. Close connections are shown to hold between axioms for replacement and axioms for contraction and revision. Partial meet replacement is axiomatically characterized. It is shown that this operation can have outcomes that are not obtainable through either partial meet contraction or partial meet revision.