The Disarticulation of Time: the Zeitbewußtsein in Phenomenology of Perception

In an effort to reassess the status of Phenomenology of Perception and its relation to The Visible and the Invisible, this essay argues that Merleau-Ponty's engagement with Husserl's text and his discussion of the “field of presence” in La temporalité are intended to think through the field in which time makes its appearance as one of passage. Time does not show itself as presence or in the present but manifests itself as Ablauf, as lapse or flow, an écoulement that is simultaneously an explosion, an éclatement. Merleau-Ponty's account of temporality in these pages is thus legible as recovering the primordial experience of time as a self-differentiating déhiscence in its dual power of articulation and erosion. Time is thus simultaneously the vehicle of the world's appearance and of its “disarticulation”, the passage of a rhythm of affirmation and disintegration.     

Intelligenzgeminderte Rechtsbrecher im Maßregelvollzug

Forensic patients with intellectual disabilities have so far received little attention which is reflected in the comparatively briefly written chapters in the standard textbooks and also the low scientific interest in this patient group. There are only few therapeutic concepts and even less information on their effectiveness. This article presents the Christophorus Clinic in Münster which was the first forensic institution in Germany to specialize in these patients. The institution incorporates 54 treatment places and started operating on 3 June 2011. In addition to the known fact that a therapy concept must (further) develop over the years, during the first year of operation some aspects have arisen which have cristallized as problem areas specific for this patient group, which are discussed.     

Psychisches Risiko „Großstadtleben“

The material determining factors of mental stress and diseases are comparatively rarely reflected on and analysed in depth in psychotherapy research and by psychotherapists. This article should be seen as a plea to look at these factors in more detail. When this involves the question of the influence of risk factors of city lifestyle conditions on the mental health of its inhabitants, the urban environment“city” is the melting pot for a multitude of individual factors and factor constellations the influence of which must be theoretically conceptualized and empirically collated.     

Innen, Außen, Zwischen

The so-called “intersubjective turn” (or “relational turn”) in psychoanalysis is closely associated with the work of Winnicott. It was him who added a new dimension to the psychoanalytic theories of a separate inner world, a dimension focussing on the mediating processes between the separate spheres of psychic and external reality: a space between subject and object, drive and civilisation, Ego and reality — the “potential space” that unconsciously connects our self to the Other as well as to a shared physical and social world we live in. Winnicotts paradoxical notions of the self are traced in this paper and unwrapped from their often enigmatic, developmentally and epistemologically confusing veils: the infant who does not exist without a holding mother; who is not aware of his/her being held because of its evidence, and only has an experience when falling; who him-/herself creates that reality which is already there; who must destroy the object in order to use it; who can only be alone when another person is present. The author, starting from apparently narcissistic phenomena of the media society, rehabilitates the term of “in-between” in contemporary psychoanalytic discussion which for a long time was considered as suspect, as being part of a “non-psychoanalytic” superficial social psychology (as the intersubjective, the interpersonal or the interactive). Under the strong influence of Winnicott, and overarching the different schools, contemporary psychoanalysis is focussing on intersubjectivity and relationality. The paper is an appeal for reformulating classical intrapsychic concepts — including the theory of the unconscious—in intersubjective terms, thus unfolding a relational approach inherent in Freud’s metapsychology.     

Psychoanalytisch orientierte Psychotherapie im Maßregelvollzug

The author argues that a psychodynamic approach is needed in forensic psychiatry and describes how it will improve treatment outcome. However, institutional shortcomings and inconsequent application of concepts, such as the lack of object constancy in the therapy, often prevent favorable outcomes. He outlines attitudes and stances that are important for the therapist. In addition, the core conflicts and developmental deficits of the patients are discussed. He finally emphasizes that it is of utmost importance to intensively work through the relationship patterns to early attachment figures.     

Sich verlieben und die große Liebe

Although romantic love plays an important role for many people, empirical studies on romantic love have only been carried out recently. This article describes the results of a questionnaire on romantic love completed by 606 volunteers. The results show that nearly everyone has had the personal experience of falling in love at least once. According to the reports in the questionnaire, men and women do not differ with respect to the frequency and to the velocity with which they fall in love. Women, however, more often believe that their respective partner has fallen in love at a relatively early stage, whilst men believe that their respective partner has fallen in love only later. Both men and women exhibit distinct physical and emotional phenomena when they have fallen in love – women more pronouncedly than men. The quality of the relationship between men and women appears to be better if the partners have initially fallen in love with each other. From the point of view of couple therapy, the quality and quantity of being in love appear to be less important than the methods of coping with it, i.e. accepting that the initial romantic love period may not stay forever but must be replaced by another type of love, or accepting that a couple can also have a highly satisfactory relationship, although there was no initial period of romantic love.     

Räumliches Schließen als Sprachverstehen

dThe other side of mental models: theories of language comprehension” reads the title of a paper of Garnham (1996). At the opposite side is inference (see subtitle of Johnson-Laird, 1983). Inference as well as language comprehension have been extensively examined within the framework of the mental model theory. But investigations in these two areas seem to be pursued largely independently of each other, looking at the coin from only one of both sides. Taking spatial inference as an example, we argue that inferring a conclusion from premises describing a definite spatial layout is reducible to language comprehension, namely the construction of a single mental model; no model variation is performed to evaluate a tentative conclusion. The constitutive process in spatial reasoning is therefore the integration of the information of several premises into one mental model. This process is enlightened by figural effects that refer to principles of model construction that might conflict with one another. We suggest it to be helpful to consider anaphora resolution as part of the integration process.     

Jugendmaßregelvollzugspatienten – eine übersehene Hochrisikogruppe

The organizational structures for treatment and care of youth and adolescents in forensic commitment in Germany still differ immensely from state to state. The working group for adolescent forensic commitment “Arbeitskreis Jugendmaßregelvollzug” has been trying to introduce uniform treatment standards since 2003. In connection with this data have been collected since 2004 which describe the population in core variables (e.g. demographic variables, delinquency, diagnoses and discharge). Advanced data on biographic development psychopathology, delinquency development, course of treatment and criminal prognoses have been collected from 2008 to 2011 on a group of patients in forensic commitment in Berlin and Rostock. It was shown that these patients were a high risk group. They proved to have a burdened history and were well known to the social aid system before the offence for which they were committed. To avoid a permanent growth of delinquency and a chronification of mental illness it is necessary to have specific forms of treatment which are separate from adult forensic commitment, which recognize and take into account the special conditions and the development potential of youth and adolescents and which form the basis of upbringing concepts.     

Narzißtische Persönlichkeitsstörungen

Zusammenfassung Der Begriff des Narzi?mus wird aus historischen, soziologischen, anthropologischen, mythologischen und etymologischen Quellen hergeleitet und dann in die verschiedenen psychoanalytischen Theorien eingeordnet. Die theoretischen Grundpositionen zum Narzi?mus und zur Auffassung narzi?tischer Pers?nlichkeitsst?rungen werden ausführlich erl?utert. Die Annahme eines prim?ren Narzi?mus wird anhand der theoretischen Vorstellungen von Freud, Grunberger, Mahler und Kohut erkl?rt, die Annahme einer prim?ren Objektbeziehung durch die Theorien von Ferenczi, Balint, Klein und Winnicott illustriert. Anschlie?end werden die Konzeptionen des Narzi?mus im Rahmen der Triebtheorie bzw. als eigenst?ndige Entwicklungslinie (Kohut) erl?utert. Grunberger nimmt dabei eine Mittelstellung ein. Kohut und Kernberg stehen sich gegenüber, wenn es um die Einordnung des Narzi?mus als pathologisches Ph?nomen (Kernberg) oder als Entwicklungsarretierung (Kohut) geht. Es schlie?t sich ein Abschnitt über die klassifikatorisch-deskriptive Erfassung des Narzi?mus an, in dem die Auffassungen der narzi?tischen Pers?nlichkeitsst?rung im Rahmen der g?ngigen Klassifikationssysteme (DSM-IV, ICD-10, OPD) beschrieben werden. Ebenso finden die Testdiagnostik sowie interpersonelle Ans?tze Berücksichtigung. Danach werden die Befunde der modernen S?uglingsforschung und deren Auswirkungen auf ein ver?ndertes Verst?ndnis der narzi?tischen Pers?nlichkeitsst?rung dargestellt. Die übersicht schlie?t mit einer differenzierten Betrachtung der unterschiedlichen therapeutischen Vorgehensweisen.      

Großgruppenidentität und psychosoziale Abwehr

The following considerations have their source in more than 25 years experience with intercultural contacts in teaching and research in China and with psychoanalytic therapies with patients from foreign cultures. They may broaden the inner space of the psychoanalyst by a new dimension, which is not systematically reflected due to the integration of each in the own large group identity but influences the unconscious aspects in the work with people from foreign cultures. The concepts of psychosocial defence (S. Mentzos), of large group identity (V. Volkan) and of the ethnic unconscious (G. Devereux) are helpful instruments for understanding restrictive countertransference reactions, which handicap not only the work in the psychoanalytic setting, but also all intercultural relations.     

Der Einfluß eines kaleidoskopischen Figurwandels auf das Erkundungsverhalten

Ohne ZusammenfassungMit den vorliegenden Untersuchungen zum Erkundungsverhalten waren vielfältige technische Probleme aufgegeben. Ich danke dem Werkstattleiter des Psychologischen Instituts der Universität Münster, Herrn Menke und seinen Lehrlingen U. Spielbusch und M. Gerdes für ihre tatkräftige Hilfe bei der Herstellung der Versuchsapparatur. Herrn Franck danke ich für die Anfertigung von Befundbögen und Fotografien sowie Herrn Höner vom Verkaufsbüro Essen der Firma Kalle & Co. A.G., Wiesbaden-Bieberich, für die Beschaffung von Kunststoffolien, ohne die die kaleidoskopischen Bildvorlagen nicht hätten hergestellt werden können.Die Stiftung Volkswagenwerk unterstützte mich mit einem Jahresstipendium.Mein besonderer Dank gilt meinen verehrten Lehrern, Herrn Prof. Dr. H. Heckhausen, der mich in das Rahmenthema der Wahrnehmungsneugier einführte und die vielfältigen Probleme laufend mit mir diskutierte, und nicht zuletzt Herrn Prof. Dr. Dr. W. Metzger, der mir wertvolle Hinweise für die Anlage der Versuchsanordnung und die Entwicklung und Auswahl der kaleidoskopischen Bildvorlagen gab.Von der philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Münster angenommene Dissertationsarbeit.     

Überwachung mittels „elektronischer Fußfessel“

For forensic expert witnesses the introduction of electronic surveillance to the German penal code system raised new questions, such as the effects on relapse prevention. This paper presents international experiences about the effects of electronic tagging, especially on relapse prevention, and lists the advantages and disadvantages of this procedure. Also the recommendations for electronic tagging concerning a sexual offender who was repeatedly convicted and released after 10 years of imprisonment are described.