A review of: “Le Séminaire,livre V. Les formations de l'inconscient 1957-1958”

Jacques Lacan, Le Séminaire, livre V. Les formations de l'inconscient 1957-1958 [The Seminar, Book V. the Formations of the Unconscious, 1957-1958], ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, Paris: Seuil, 220 francs     

Postmodernity's Transcending: Devaluing God – Laurence Paul Hemming

Book reviewed:
Postmodernity's Transcending: Devaluing God , Laurence Paul Hemming, SCM Press 2005 (0-334-02992-9), 269 pp., pb £30.00     

On needing time to think: consciousness,temporality, and self-expression

I examine an argument proposed by Tye and Wright (2011), inspired by Geach (1957), which holds that a correct understanding of how conceptual thought occur     

Utopianism in psychology: the case of Wilhelm Reich

This article examines utopian elements in Wilhelm Reich's writings in his American phase (1939-1957) in order to illustrate utopian sources of dynamic psychology. Although there are scholars who have used the term "psychological utopia" and applied it to individual thinkers (Reich, Marcuse, Fromm) and to specific psychological disciplines (psychoanalysis, behaviorism, cognitive psychology), the term itself has remained elusive and vague. Furthermore, there have been few attempts to systematically examine utopian elements in twentieth-century psychology in general and the basic assumptions of psychological utopianism in particular. While pointing out that Reich's orgonomic theories have no scientific merit, this article argues for the relevancy of his ideas for understanding the nature of utopianism in dynamic psychology.     

The Birth of Christianity: The First Twenty Years – Paul Barnett

Book reviewed:
The Birth of Christianity: The First Twenty Years , Paul Barnett, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2005 (0-8028-2781-0), x + 229 pp., pb $15.00     

The influence of figure size and orientation on the magnitude of the horizontal-vertical illusion

Two experiments were performed to examine the effect of display size and figure orientation on the horizontal-vertical illusion. According to the visual field hypothesis of Künnapas (1957a, 1957b) if the relation of the figure components to the surrounding frame is held invariant neither experimental manipulation should exert an appreciable influence. However, both manipulations produced significant effects indicating that the visual field hypothesis is untenable as the primary determinant of the horizontal-vertical illusion. An alternative explanation was discussed.     

Flechsig and Freud: late 19th-century neurology and the emergence of psychoanalysis

The author analyzes the potential influences of Paul Flechsig's work on early Freudian theory, particularly on Sigmund Freud's 1966b/1895 Project for a Scientific Psychology. Gehirn und Seele, a discourse authored by Flechsig in 1894, is the focus of this analysis. The author believes that the links between the intellectual production of both German-speaking neurologists have been underrated to this day and attempts to establish that the early Freudian approach to many key issues in the history of psychoanalysis--dreams, unconscious processing, and drives, to name a few--was not unique but shared with some distinguished colleagues in neuropathology and psychiatry. Thus, he attempts to shed additional light on the transition from state-of-art neurology in the last decade of the 19th century to the creation of psychoanalysis as a discipline on its own.     

Book Reviews

Book Reviewed in this article:
C ronbach , L ee J., and G leser , G oldine C. Psychological Tests and Personnel Decisions . Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1957. Pp. xii + 165. $3.50.
K ahn , R obert L., and C annell , C harles F. The Dynamics of Interviewing: Theory, Technique, and Cases . New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1957. Pp. x + 368. $7.75.
S uper , D onald E. The Psychology of Careers . New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957. Pp. x + 362. $5.75.
S chell , E rwin H askell . Technique of Executive Control . (Eighth Edition) New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1957. Pp. xii + 357. $5.50.
U niversity of C alifornia . Research Developments in Personnel Management . (Proceedings of First Conference, Univ. of California, Los Angeles) Los Angeles: Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, 1957. Pp. 66. $1.00.
W olf , W illiam B. Wage Incentives as a Managerial Tool . New York: Columbia University Press, 1957. Pp. x + 143. $3.50.
N adler , G erald . Work Simplification . New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1957. Pp. xi + 292. $6.50.
N orthcott , C. H. Personnel Management: Principles and Practice . (Third Edition) New York: Philosophical Library, Inc., 1956. Pp. vii + 428. $10.00.     

Dora's Gift; Or,Lacan's Homage to Dora

Lacan reopened Dora's case in 1957. In his 1951 talk (published in 1952), transference was the key; in the 1957 seminar, he focused on hysteria. Dora loved by proxy and refused to be an object of heterosexual desire. Her object was homosexual because Mrs. K embodied Dora's essential question, femininity—a question that cannot be divorced from that of the lack of the phallus and her father's gift of nothing, which is the gift of love. There is no greater gift than the gift of what one does not have. Drawing from Mauss and Lévi-Strauss, Lacan concluded with an analysis of the cultural meaning of the gift.     

从使动句加工的功能性磁共振成像看中文句法加工的独立性

大脑中的句法加工模式是神经认知科学研究的重要课题, 而句法加工是否存在独立性一直是研究者争论较多的问题。有形态标记的英语等印欧语语言的句法可以通过形态变化表现, 而汉语不具备与印欧语有明确对应关系的形态变化, 因此汉语的句法变化几乎不能通过外在形态标记。通过3T场强功能性磁共振成像, 以汉语语义等值使动句为研究材料, 对不依赖形态变化来标记句法变化的汉语句法加工的独立性进行了初步研究。结果显示, 大脑左侧额叶对于汉语句法加工具有重要的作用, 尤其是大脑左侧额叶中回的BA44区和额叶下回的BA47区都对汉语句法加工较为敏感, 这表明即使不通过形态改变来标记句法变化, 汉语句子加工中的句法加工仍然可以被分离, 句法独立性的加工主要由大脑左侧额叶中回及大脑左侧额叶下回等脑区承担, 大脑左侧颞叶并未参与汉语句法的独立性加工。     

A validational note on the revised Socialization Scale of the California Psychological Inventory

The revised (1987) Socialization Scale of the California Psychological Inventory was studied in a sample of 121 delinquent and nondelinquent males to determine if the revised scale, compared to the original version of the scale (1957), could differentiate among a group of nonoffenders and a comprehensive typology of offenders. Results of an ANOVA and product-moment correlations provided significant and considerable support for the discriminability of the revised So Scale. Obtained results indicate that the revised instrument can differentiate offenders from nonoffenders to about the same, or a greater, degree than the original scale.     

Responses to nervous breakdowns in America over a 40-year period. Mental health policy implications

The 1957 and 1976 Americans View Their Mental Health surveys from the Institute of Social Research were partially replicated in the 1996 General Social Survey (GSS) to examine the policy implications of people's responses to feeling an impending nervous breakdown. Questions about problems in modern living were added to the GSS to provide a profile of the public's view of mental health problems. Results were compared for 1957, 1976, and 1996. In 1957, 19% of respondents had experienced an impending nervous breakdown; in 1996, 26% had had this experience. Between 1957 and 1996, participants increased their use of informal social supports, decreased their use of physicians, and increased their use of nonmedical mental health professionals. These findings support policies that strengthen informal support seeking and access to effective psychosocial treatments rather than current mental health reimbursement practices, which emphasize the role of primary care physicians.     

A Commentary on DeCato's "On the Rorschach M Response and Monotheism" (1993)

In a recent article, DeCato (1993) posits a fundamental dichotomy between the Comprehensive System (Exner, 1986) Rorschach interpretation, which is based on group norms, and the Perceptanalytic System (Piotrowski, 1957), which advocates validating Rorschach microfacts against the behavior of the individual. Perspective can be gained on this issue by recognizing that these approaches are actually extremes on a continuum where interpretation gradually narrows from the general to the specific. Acknowledging the funnel-shaped character of Rorschach interpretive approaches tins implications for understanding, scoring, and teaching projective techniques.     

Anti-Realist Interpretations of Plato: Paul Natorp

The paper considers Paul Natorp's Kantian reading of Plato's theory of ideas, as developed in his monumental work, Platos Ideenlehre, eine Einführung in den Idealismus (1903, 1921). Central to Natrop's reading are, I argue, the following two claims: (1) Plato's ideas are laws, not things; and (2) Plato's theory of ideas in the first instance a theory about the possibility and nature of thought - in particular cognitive and indeed scientific or explanatory thought - and only as a consequence is it a theory about the nature of reality. Natrop thus argues that Plato's theory of ideas is at its heart a transcendental theory, and that Plato's metaphysics is built on this basis. The paper considers these claims - and their textual basis in Plato - in some detail, and attempts an initial evaluation of their plausibility as a reading of Plato. I am on the whole sympathetic to Natorp's reading, though a proper assessment goes beyond the present paper. The wider interest of this idealist or anti-realist reading of Plato ought to be obvious, especially in view of the commonly accepted assumption these days that both Plato and Aristotle, and indeed the Greeks in general, took realism entirely for granted (see e.g. M. Burnyeat). Natorp argues that this is true of Aristotle, but quite untrue of Plato. But he is quite clear that the idealism he ascribes to Plato is not Berkeleyan or metaphysical idealism, but a certain kind of transcendental or epistemological idealism. Natorp, however, is no uncritical follower of Kant, and the version of trascendental idealism that he ascribes to Plato is, I argue, very different from Kant's.     

Understanding the Windsor Report. Two Leaders in the American Church Speak Across the Divide – Ian T. Douglas and Paul F.M. Zahl

Book reviewed:
Understanding the Windsor Report. Two Leaders in the American Church Speak Across the Divide , Ian T. Douglas and Paul F.M. Zahl, Church Publishing 2005 (0-89869-487-6), viii + 184 pp., pb $20.00     

Parents' representations of their children: an exploratory study using the Osgood Semantic Differential Scales

The results of an exploratory national study carried out in Italy using Osgood's Semantic Differential Scales (Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957) with parents of 100 normal 6- to 11-yr.-old children in mainstream classrooms are reported. The aim was to devise a simple tool to be used to explore parents' perceptions of their children in this age group. Parents were asked to rate "my child" using some of Osgood's Semantic Differential Scales especially adapted for this study. Participants were 97 fathers and 100 mothers. Fathers were 32 to 57 years of age (M = 43.2, SD = 5.4), mothers were 29 to 49 years of age (M = 39.7, SD =4.4). In factor analysis four factors were identified: Activity, Evaluation, Emotions evoked by the child, Personality/Physical contact. Average factor scores were significantly different. There were no significant differences between fathers and mothers on the four factor scores. Children were more positively evaluated the younger they were.     

Factors Associated with the Participation of Women Doctorates in the Labor Force

Participation in the labor force by 1,547 women doctorates of 1957 and 1958 and the factors associated with their career development and commitment were examined. 91 per cent of the women doctorates of 1957 and 1958 are in the labor force at present, and of those, 81 per cent work full time. When a woman doctorate's family responsibilities are greatest, i.e., during the rearing of her pre-school children, she is not as likely to participate fully in the labor force. However, if the married woman doctorate has demonstrated an early career commitment, she persists likewise later on.     

The Influence of Bloomfield's Linguistics on Skinner

Bloomfield''s “Linguistics as a Science” (1930/1970), Language (1933/1961), and “Language or Ideas?” (1936a/1970), and Skinner''s Verbal Behavior (1957) and Science and Human Behavior (1953) were analyzed in regard to their respective perspectives on science and scientific method, the verbal episode, meaning, and subject matter. Similarities between the two authors were found. In particular both asserted that (a) the study of language must be carried out through the methods of science; (b) the main function of language is to produce practical effects on the world through the mediation of a listener; and (c) a physicalist conception of meaning. Their differences concern the subject matter of their disciplines and their use of different models for the analysis of behavior. Bloomfield''s linguistics and Skinner''s functional analysis of verbal behavior are complementary approaches to language.     

Job satisfaction research of 1966-67

This review of job satisfaction research is the 24th in a series. It covers earlier studies not previously reviewed in this series as well as 103 reports published in 1966-67 relating job satisfaction to some 53 variables. The format—overview, variables investigated, current emphases—has become standard in this series. Earlier summaries will be found in Job Satisfaction by Robert Hoppock (Harper & Bros., 1935), in Occupations (April 1938, October 1940, February 1943, April 1945, April 1948, December 1948, December 1949, October 1950, May 1951, May 1952), and in the Personnel and Guidance Journal (September 1953, September 1954, May 1955, May 1956, September 1957, September 1958, May 1959, September 1960, December 1961, November 1962, October 1963, December 1964, December 1966). Readers are invited to notify the authors of research appropriate for review in future surveys.     

A Critical Examination of Several Methods of Determining Levels of Social Status

Summary

A 42-item forced choice questionnaire, administered in 1957–58 to undergraduate students at the American University of Beirut, was readministered to a matched sample in 1970–71 to determine the hierarchy of group affiliations.

With the exception of a significantly higher ranking given to citizenship by males in 1970 compared to 1957, no other significant differences were found between 1957 and 1971 in the relative importance given to family, national (ethnic) origin, and citizenship by subjects in both samples, irrespective of sex, religion, and political orientation. Family still ranked first, followed by national (ethnic) affiliation, and third by citizenship. Also, the only significant within sample difference found in 1957 was also found in 1971: namely, politically oriented subjects gave significantly higher rankings to political party affiliation than nonpolitically oriented subjects.

However, significant changes were found to occur between 1957 and 1971 with respect to political party and religion: namely, political party affiliation became significantly more important and religious affiliation became significantly less important. These changes were discussed within the context of changing social and political conditions in the Arab Middle East.

Finally, within sample comparisons in the 1970–71 sample showed that politically oriented Palestinians were the only subgrouping who ranked national (ethnic) origin rather than family first, and they also ranked political party affiliation significantly higher than even the politically oriented other Arabs. These differences were discussed in the light of recent significant developments which had characterized the Palestinian community, particularly since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It is, however, clearly understood that our findings cannot be generalized to populations other than our subjects.