The destiny of freedom: in Heidegger

The essay recapitulates the decisive steps in Heidegger’s development of the problem of human freedom. The interpretation is set in the context of a general matrix for how freedom is treated in the tradition, as both a theoretical ontological problem, and as practical appeal. According to some readers, Heidegger’s thinking is a philosophy of freedom throughout; according to others his “turning” implies abandoning the idea of human freedom as a metaphysical remnant. The essay seeks an intermediate path, by following his explicit attempts to develop an ontology based on the concept of freedom in the earlier writings, showing how this is the central theme in his confrontation and also his final break with German idealism, with Kant and with Schelling in particular, and with the prospects for a system of freedom. However, this break does not terminate his preoccupation with the problem of freedom, which is then transformed into the idea of thinking as a practice of freedom, as a way of reaching into “the free”.

Anticipatory anxiety hinders detection of a second target in dual-target search

Professional visual searches (e.g., baggage screenings, military searches, radiological examinations) are often conducted in high-pressure environments and require focus on multiple visual targets. Yet laboratory studies of visual search tend to be conducted in emotionally neutral settings with only one possible target per display. In the experiment reported here, we looked to better emulate high-pressure search conditions by presenting searchers with arrays that contained between zero and two targets while inducing anticipatory anxiety via a threat-of-shock paradigm. Under conditions of anticipatory anxiety, dual-target performance was negatively affected, but single-target performance and time on task were unaffected. These results suggest that multiple-target searches may be a more sensitive instrument to measure the effect of environmental factors on visual cognition than single-target searches are. Further, the effect of anticipatory anxiety was modulated by individual differences in state anxiety levels of participants prior to the experiment. These results have implications for both the laboratory study of visual search and the management and assessment of professional searchers.     

The destiny of modern virtue ethics

The revival of Aristotelian virtue ethics since the 1980s does not signify that it goes back to its original form; rather, it is generally manifested in three different variations: The first is a variation of what is known as communitarianism, the second is universalism, and the third is phronesis. On the social level of morality, the serious attempt of modern virtue ethics towards improving the moral spirit of society is laudable. However, its method and reasoning deviates greatly from the demands of modern society’s integration of its operating rules and regulations, and concept of values; hence all of its attempts can hardly escape the fate of becoming just a fantasy. Yet, on the level of dealing with ethic conflicts and moral paradox, modern virtue ethics—via interpreting the theory of phronesis by Aristotle—proposes the valuable thought of a balanced morality that principlism should concern itself with and nourish itself from.     

Measuring grief: A short version of the perinatal grief scale

Despite a considerable number of studies, there are two major drawbacks in the literature on grief and bereavement. One is a lack of adequate and generally agreed upon measures for assessing grief. The second is a lack of ability to predict from existing measures the likelihood of what has been termed chronic or pathological grief reactions. This paper reports the results of the development of a bereavement measure for the study of perinatal loss which attempts to address these gaps. The measure is specific to a pregnancy-related loss, although it has the potential for adaptation to use for other types of loss. Analysis of responses from 138 women has resulted in the reduction of the original measure from 104 to a more manageable and almost equally comprehensive and reliable 33 items. In addition, a factor analysis has produced three factors, two of which indicate the possibility for longer-term and more severe grief reactions. Because of its sound psychometric qualities and interesting factor structure, the measure shows promise of being useful for both research and clinical purposes.This research was funded by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant R01 H18431-04, with additional assistance from the Center for Social Research at Lehigh University. Dr. Potvin is supported by the Quebec Health Research Fund.     

The syndrome of traumatic grief

Traumatic grief is a common and debilitating syndrome whose clinical presentation is well recognized but whose diagnostic criteria have only recently been delineated. Though it shares features with major depressive disorder, adjustment disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder, none of these subsume the criteria set for traumatic grief, and the diagnostic overlap is limited in community samples. Furthermore, diagnosis of traumatic grief appears to have prognostic value for clinical course and treatment response among bereaved individuals. In the absence of empirically supported treatments of pathological grief, a new, manualized treatment for traumatic grief symptoms has been developed and is currently undergoing testing in a randomized controlled trial. The conceptual basis for Traumatic Grief Treatment (TGT) is presented, the structure of the treatment is outlined, and the primary clinical strategies employed are described.     

The hidden grief of abortion

This article explores the possibility of dealing with grief reaction when counseling a woman who has undergone an abortion. It first defines what is meant by a grief reaction in this context, then proposes a model for understanding various degrees of grief reaction, and finally examines some of the factors which determine the severity of a grief reaction in the case of abortion.     

Anticipatory Ethics for Emerging Technologies

In this essay, a new approach for the ethical study of emerging technology ethics will be presented, called anticipatory technology ethics (ATE). The ethics of emerging technology is the study of ethical issues at the R&;D and introduction stage of technology development through anticipation of possible future devices, applications, and social consequences. I will argue that a major problem for its development is the problem of uncertainty, which can only be overcome through methodologically sound forecasting and futures studies. I will then consider three contemporary approaches to the ethics of emerging technologies that use forecasting: ethical technology assessment, the techno-ethical scenarios approach and the ETICA approach, and I considered their strengths and weaknesses. Based on this critical study, I then present my own approach: ATE. ATE is a conceptually and methodologically rich approach for the ethical analysis of emerging technologies that incorporates a large variety of ethical principles, issues, objects and levels of analysis, and research aims. It is ready to be applied to contemporary and future emerging technologies.     

Impact of current grief on memory for past grief in spousal bereavement

This study examined the impact of changes in level of current grief over time on changes in memory for past grief. Following from previous work on the impact of current affective state on memory for past affectively salient events, bereaved individuals who underwent a greater reduction in grief over time were expected to show a similar pattern of changes in memory for past grief. A sample of conjugally bereaved participants completed measures of current grief and memory for past grief at the time of the loss of their spouse at each of the 2, 6, 13, and 30 month post-loss time periods. As predicted, those who reported greater reduction in grief over the course of the study were more likely to remember their past grief as progressively less severe relative to those who underwent less reduction in grief over time. A nonrecursive causal model analysis verified that changes in memory for past grief were explained by changes in current grief. These results were discussed in terms of contemporary reconstructive memory accounts of the effect of affective state on memory.     

Impact of current grief on memory for past grief in spousal bereavement

This study examined the impact of changes in level of current grief over time on changes in memory for past grief. Following from previous work on the impact of current affective state on memory for past affectively salient events, bereaved individuals who underwent a greater reduction in grief over time were expected to show a similar pattern of changes in memory for past grief. A sample of conjugally bereaved participants completed measures of current grief and memory for past grief at the time of the loss of their spouse at each of the 2, 6, 13, and 30 month post-loss time periods. As predicted, those who reported greater reduction in grief over the course of the study were more likely to remember their past grief as progressively less severe relative to those who underwent less reduction in grief over time. A nonrecursive causal model analysis verified that changes in memory for past grief were explained by changes in current grief. These results were discussed in terms of contemporary reconstructive memory accounts of the effect of affective state on memory.     

Between memory and destiny: Repetition1

This essay focuses mainly on the topic of repetition (agieren)—on its metapsychological, clinical, and technical conceptions. It contains a core problem, that is, the question of the represented, the nonrepresented, and the unrepresentable in the psyche. This problem, in turn, brings to light the dialectical relation between drive and object and its specific articulation with the traumatic. The author attributes special significance to its clinical expression as ‘destiny’. He points out a shift in the theory of the cure from recollection and the unveiling of unconscious desire, to the possibility of understanding ‘pure’ repetition, which would constitute the very essence of the drive. The author highlights three types of repetition, namely, ‘representative’ (oedipal) repetition, the repetition of the ‘nonrepresented’ (narcissistic), which may gain representation, and that of the ‘unrepresentable’ (sensory impressions, ‘lived experiences from primal times,’‘prelinguistic signifiers,’‘ungovernable mnemic traces’). The concept‐the metaphor‐drive embryo brings the author close to the question of the archaic in psychoanalysis, where the repetition in the act would express itself. ‘Another unconscious’ would zealously conceal the entombed (verschüttet) that we are not yet able to describe‐the ‘innermost’ rather than the ‘buried’ (untergegangen) or the ‘annihilated’ (zugrunde gegangen)‐through a mechanism whose way of expression is repetition in the act. With ‘Constructions in analysis’ as its starting point, this paper suggests a different technical implementation from that of the Freudian construction; its main material is what emerges in the present of the transference as the repetition of ‘something’ lacking as history. The memory of the analytic process offers a historical diachrony whereby a temporality freed from repetition and utterly unique might unfold in the analysis. This diachrony would no longer be the historical reconstruction of material truth, but the construction of something new. The author briefly introduces some aspects of his conception of the psyche and of therapeutic work in terms of what he has designated as psychic zones. These zones are associated with various modes of becoming unconscious, and they coexist with different degrees of prevalence according to the psychopathology. Yet each of them will emerge with unique features in different moments of every analysis, determining both the analyst's positions and the very conditions of the analytic field. The zone of the death drive and of repetition is at the center of this essay. ‘Pure’ repetition expresses a time halted by the constant reiteration of an atemporal present. In this case, the ‘royal road’ for the expression of ‘that’ unconscious will be the act. The analyst's presence and his own drive wager will be pivotal to provide a last attempt at binding that will allow the creation of the lost ‘psychic fabric’ and the construction, in a conjectural way, of some sort of ‘history’ that may unravel the entombed (verschüttet) elements that, in these patients' case, come to the surface in the act. The analysand's ‘pure’ repetition touches, resonates with something of the new unconscious of the analyst. All of this leads the author to underline once again the value of the analyst's self‐analysis and reanalysis in searching for connections and especially in differentiating between what belongs to the analyst and what belongs to the analysand. A certain degree of unbinding ensures the preservation of something ungraspable that protects one from the other's appropriation.     

Anticipatory Governance: Bioethical Expertise for Human/Animal Chimeras

The pedigree chart is a cornerstone technology for producing bodies and value in livestock pure breeding. It organizes a cluster of processes, technologies, and discourses gathered under the rubric ‘pedigree practices’. Angus breeders commonly use artificial insemination to import performance ‘genetics’ into their herds, using the ‘expected progeny differences’ predicted by massive pedigree databases that now also contain phenotype data reported by cattle growers. Discourses of biological inheritance, good breeding, and pedigrees arose in the eighteenth century, concomitant with a fascination with races, species, and other biological kinds. A case study from Angus cattle breeding illustrates pedigree practices and the bodies made through them, showing how information and computing technologies, assisted reproductive technologies, and discourses of good breeding, purity, health, and disease leveraged a single bull and the two genetic diseases he carried into the pedigrees of up to 10% of the Angus herd. Technologies now widely used in human reproductive medicine were developed for use in livestock animals, especially cattle, extending a long relationship between cows and humans. While the development of these pedigree practices represents increased control over animal reproduction and bodies, it has also been instrumental in rendering all animal bodies, including human bodies, not only more technically but also more rhetorically available for reproductive interventions. These interventions may amplify anxieties about health, species, breed, and kin while also providing opportunities for contesting the boundaries of these nature–cultural categories.     

The Haunting of Hill House: psyche,soma, and destiny

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis - Fairy tales and horror stories inhabit the realm of terrible truths, affording opportunities to survive and work through them from the safe distance of...     

Stabilized images: The search for pattern elements

In a series of four experiments, the fragmentation of stabilized lines and angles viewed in different orientations was studied. With high inter-O agreement, it was possible to demonstrate reliable differences among patterns, with resistance to fading being a function of both pattern and orientation. The results were discussed in terms of possible supraretinal stages of pattern analysis.