Beyond faces and modularity: the power of an expertise framework

Studies of perceptual expertise typically ask whether the mechanisms underlying face recognition are domain specific or domain general. This debate has so dominated the literature that it has masked the more general usefulness of the expertise framework for studying the phenomenon of category specialization. Here we argue that the value of an expertise framework is not solely dependent on its relevance to face recognition. Beyond offering an alternative to domain-specific accounts of face specialization in terms of interactions between experience, task demands, and neural biases, expertise studies reveal principles of perceptual learning that apply to many different domains and forms of expertise. As such the expertise framework provides a unique window onto the functional plasticity of the mind and brain.     

Beyond the International Relations framework: an essay in descriptive global ethics

Discussions of global ethics—about the types of ethical claim made on individuals and groups, not only states, by individuals and groups around the world—have had to move beyond the categories inherited in the International Relations discipline. Many important positions are not captured by a framework developed for discussion of inter-state relations. The blindspots seem to reflect an outmoded expectation that (i) giving low normative weight to national boundaries correlates strongly with (ii) giving more normative weight to people beyond one's national boundaries, and vice versa; in other words that these two dimensions in practice reduce to one. The paper develops an enriched categorisation. We need to recognise the separate importance of the two dimensions, and thus distinguish various types of ‘cosmopolitan’ position, including many varieties of libertarian position which give neither national boundaries nor pan-human obligations much (if any) importance.     

Beyond the qualitative paradigm: A framework for introducing diversity within qualitative psychology

The case for qualitative research in psychology is considered. We argue against the idea that qualitative research is merely a matter of technique or method, and question the utility of viewing it as a unitary paradigm. Rather, the links between epistemology, methodology, and method are explored within three theorized strands of qualitative inquiry, making reference to illustrative projects. Each strand is organized around a different approach to the issues of justifying and warranting psychological knowledge: (1) reliability and validity; (2) generativity and grounding; and (3) discourse and reflexivity. These are exemplified in Miles and Huberman's ‘data display’ model, Glaser and Strauss' method of ‘grounded theory’, and in various forms of ‘discourse’ analysis. Reflections upon points of contact between the three strands address two main issues: (1) rendering research publicly accountable; and (2) challenging relativism.     

Beyond subgoaling: A dynamic knowledge generation framework for creative problem solving in cognitive architectures

In this paper we propose a computational framework aimed at extending the problem solving capabilities of cognitive artificial agents through the introduction of a novel, goal-directed, dynamic knowledge generation mechanism obtained via a non monotonic reasoning procedure. In particular, the proposed framework relies on the assumption that certain classes of problems cannot be solved by simply learning or injecting new external knowledge in the declarative memory of a cognitive artificial agent but, on the other hand, require a mechanism for the automatic and creative re-framing, or re-formulation, of the available knowledge. We show how such mechanism can be obtained trough a framework of dynamic knowledge generation that is able to tackle the problem of commonsense concept combination. In addition, we show how such a framework can be employed in the field of cognitive architectures in order to overcome situations like the impasse in SOAR by extending the possible options of its subgoaling procedures.     

Beyond the Mainstreams

My interest in the theory and art of psychoanalysis is traced to some of its sources—my childhood and expulsion from Germany in the late 1930s, my experience as a member of a discriminated-against minority, my nonacceptance as a psychologist by American psychoanalytic societies, my invitation to participate in the development of self psychology, and my fortuitous encounter with personal and professional friends who have contributed to the scope of my psychoanalytic endeavors (e.g., to my abiding interest in research and, in particular, the empirical studies of the early mother–infant dyad). I offer this account as evidence of the varied and creative opportunities that await psychoanalysts not outside but beyond the mainstream of American psychoanalysis.     

Beyond the intellectual

Pastoral Psychology -     

Beyond the image

By imposing itself as the dominant model of modern medicine, the biomedical model leaves little or no place for the psychical/subjective dimension of illnesses. The author presents a clinical case illustrating the essential contribution psychoanalysis can make to understanding the causes of a serious neurological disorder of indeterminate origin, its psychic determinism and its unconscious dimension. This original contribution argues in favour of the idea that understanding the development of neurological disorders associated with an unexplained lesion cannot be reduced exclusively to the organic level, and must not overlook the notion of unconscious. More generally, it emphasizes that body and mind form an integrated inseparable unit, thus breaking with the traditional dualistic conception of the human being.     

Living Beyond the Other

This article attempts to bring philosophy to clinical psychological practice by applying philosophical concepts to autobiographical experience. Through reflective engagement with personal narratives, the author tells three personal stories to illustrate ways in which the concept of Dasein in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas’s development of an ethical responsibility to the Other, in tandem with thanatology, helped the author come to terms with existential dilemmas evoked by the deaths of others.     

Beyond the family system

This paper comes from a workshop we ran at the 1980 A.F.T. Annual Conference at Bangor. It looks at the wider context of family therapy and the systemic view and attempts to open up areas for further investigation.     

Hope Beyond the Void

Abstract

CONTAINING RAGE, TERROR, AND DESPAIR: AN OBJECT RELATIONS APPROACH TO PSYCHOTHERAPY. Seinfeld, Jeffrey. Norihvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson, 1996, 240 pages, $35.