The significance of William James' ideas for modern psychotherapy

The functional psychology first developed by William James in 1890 exerts a strong but unrecognized influence on the thinking of most modern psychotherapists. Indeed, in many ways, clinical functionalism is the hidden philosophy which holds together the mainstream of eclectic psychotherapy. This article considers the general impact of James' point of view on modern psychotherapy and the specific relevance of James' ideas about emotions and consciousness.     

论威廉·詹姆斯对胡塞尔现象学的影响

詹姆斯在描述宗教经验时所采用的现象学方法;对心理主义的的拒斥;在诸如意识流、意向性、实在、自我等具体内容上在现象学领域所做的虽是无意但却是开创性的探索都表明詹姆斯的哲学思想对胡塞尔现象学有启发和影响的意义。     

William James and Buddhism: American Pragmatism and the Orient

William James pursued far-ranging enquiries in America across the fields of psychology, philosophy and religious studies between 1890 and 1910. Historical and comparative overlaps emerge between James and Buddhism from these pursuits. This article first sets out James' own nineteenth-century American context. There follows James' own more explicit references to Buddhism, which particularly focused on the meaning of the term ‘religion’ and on specific elements of Buddhist teachings. In turn comes a substantive comparative look at certain themes in both James and Buddhism, namely, ‘consciousness’, ‘integration’ and ‘criteria of truth claims’. The common functionalist tendencies in James and Buddhism are highlighted. Finally, the article attempts a wider look at the interaction between American thought and Buddhism during the twentieth century. This interaction is exemplified by John Dewey, Charles Hartshorne, Daisetz Suzuki, Kitaro Nishida and David Kalupahana, and also across the fields of psychology, pragmatism and process philosophy. In all of these areas James emerges as a significant figure for studying American thought and Buddhism.     

INQUIRY, CONVERSATION AND THEISTIC BELIEF: WILLIAM JAMES AND RICHARD RORTY GET RELIGION

This essay examines William James' view that pragmatic philosophy allows for theistic belief and compares it to Richard Rorty's argument that theistic belief is fundamentally incompatible with pragmatic philosophy. Theism is permissible for James because it is commensurate with his view of philosophy as inquiry . Theism is impermissible for Rorty because it incommensurate with his view of philosophy as conversation . James' arguments are shown to be too generic in their conception of the God in whom theistic belief may be placed, and Rorty's arguments against the desirability of theistic belief are shown to run afoul of his own philosophical program.     

Methodological concerns in the psychology of religion: Continuities, losses and transforming perspectives

This article seeks solutions to what has recently been called the ‘crisis’ in the psychology of religion by returning to the programs of its founding fathers. It explores some of the methodological debates that followed the translation of William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience into German. More was at stake than the commonly drawn distinction between empirical and hermeneutical approaches to religion, or between quantitative and qualitative methods. What was at stake was the need for another kind of psychology in general. This article pays special attention to Wilhelm Wundt's fundamental criticism of James and of others in the psychology of religion. Despite the problems inherent in both James' and Wundt's aborted general psychology programs, each nonetheless contains approaches that may yet serve as an impetus to contemporary research on religion. Contemporary developments in cultural psychology in particular complement current research in the psychology of religion.     

WILLIAM JAMES ON SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

Beginning with an analysis of a famous quotation from James' Principles, this essay details some of the highlights of James' treatment of sensation and perception. The primary source is a chapter on discrimination and comparison, in which emphasis is placed on the way people react to difference and sameness, reactions that may be fundamental to the psychophysical methods developed by Fechner and to later techniques, such as stimulus scaling and signal detection procedures, as well as to recent methods (preferential looking and habituation-dishabituation) for investigating perception in human infants. One can see considerable continuity between many of the issues raised in the Principles and those that have been addressed by perception-its over the ensuing century, but James seems not to have had the direct impact in this domain that he has had. for example, on current conceptions of emotional processes. His associationist and functionalist positions may find contemporary expression in the seemingly disparate approaches known as connectionism and ecological psychology.     

Natural Realism or Transactionalism: On the Relationships between Putnam and Two Pragmatists,James and Dewey

The relationships between Hilary Putnam and the pragmatists (especially William James and John Dewey) are obvious but subtle.To shed some light on this issue,the author will explore a key issue that not only stands as Putnam's main inheritance from the pragmatists,but that also illuminates the relationships between them more clearly than any other issues.This key issue is the understanding of perception and the philosophical position that arises from this understanding.The author argues that in adopting Dewey's transactionalism (or interactionalism),Putnam advances from James' insight to Dewey's,a shift that is particularly manifest in Putnam's attempt to add another layer of meaning to what he refers to as the second na(i)veté that he detects and appreciates in James' natural realism.     

Individual differences in phenomenological experience: states of consciousness as a function of absorption

State manifestations of the trait of absorption--a trait associated with differential responsivity to hypnosis, meditation, marijuana intoxification, and electromyograph (EMG) biofeedback--were assessed to determine (a) if absorption correlates with various (sub)dimensions of phenomenological experience, and (b) if individuals of differing absorption ability experience different states of consciousness. In two experiments 249 and 304 participants completed Tellegen's absorption scale and experienced several stimulus conditions. Each condition's phenomenological state was assessed by means of a retrospective self-report questionnaire and quantified in terms of intensity and pattern parameters. The results indicated that absorption correlated with increased and more vivid imagery, inward and absorbed attention, and positive affect; decreased self-awareness; and increased alterations in state of consciousness and various aspects of subjective experience. In addition, individuals of high absorption ability, relative to lows, experienced a different state of consciousness during ordinary, waking consciousness that became an altered state with eye closure and an hypnoticlike induction. The usefulness of the results for understanding altered-state induced procedures such as hypnosis is discussed.     

Freud's Views and the Contemporary Application of Hypnosis: Enhancing Therapy Within a Psychoanalytic Framework

Freud's theoretical writings on hypnosis are reviewed and reasons for his abandoning of this clinical tool are suggested. Clinical hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness which has its own felt reality and does not bypass the ego. In fact, many of the essential characteristics of hypnosis are ego functions. Functions such as focused or free-floating attention, deep absorption, enhanced memory, imagery, ego-receptivity, ego-activity, defenses, and the capacity for self-observation all remain intact in hypnosis. This view is contrasted with Freud's early uses of hypnosis which were not informed by his later psychoanalytic discoveries. Clinical material is presented which illustrates how the conversion from a psychoanalytic psychotherapy to a hypnoanalysis resolved a therapeutic impasse and allowed for a productive treatment. Fromm's view of hypnosis, as a special form of adaptive regression in the service of the ego is clinically illustrated. It is postulated that the altered state of hypnosis facilitates an increased ego mobility. It is the psychic mobility of hypnosis which facilitates the vacillation between primary and secondary process thinking; the experiencing ego and the observing ego, and conscious and unconscious experience. It is largely the ego-mobility and available memory in hypnosis that account for its advantages as compared to non-hypnotic treatment. Relational and self-psychological components of hypnosis are also proposed.     

Quantitative and qualitative research in hypnosis: a commentary on Woodard

In recent articles Woodard extended the Snygg and Combs theory of "Perceptually Oriented Hypnosis" to effect a rapprochement with a Phenomenology of Hypnosis. Both use the "Phenomenal Field" of consciousness, but they provide different interpretations and approaches to the essence of hypnosis. Snygg and Combs were heavily reliant on Gestalt psychology with a Cartesian dualism while Phenomenology maintains the unity of quality and quantity within consciousness. This commentary presents the philosophical basis for the two methods used to arrive at the essence of hypnosis in clinical practice.     

Suggested visual hallucinations in and out of hypnosis

We administered suggestions to see a gray-scale pattern as colored and a colored pattern in shades of gray to 30 high suggestible and eight low suggestible students. The suggestions were administered twice, once following the induction of hypnosis and once without an induction. Besides rating the degree of color they saw in the stimuli differently, participants also rated their states of consciousness as normal, relaxed, hypnotized, or deeply hypnotized. Reports of being hypnotized were limited to highly suggestible participants and only after the hypnotic induction had been administered. Reports of altered color perception were also limited to high suggestibles, but were roughly comparable regardless of whether hypnosis had been induced. These data indicate that suggestible individuals do not slip into a hypnotic state when given imaginative suggestions without the induction of hypnosis, but nevertheless report experiencing difficult suggestions for profound perceptual alterations that are pheonomenologically similar to what they report in hypnosis.     

詹姆斯心理学的现象学阐释

必须从詹姆斯的人格和他的思想作为整体及其统一性的背景出发,才能有效地理解詹姆斯心理学的真髓。詹姆斯思想的内核是彻底经验主义。他以彻底经验主义为基础的心理学思考,与胡塞尔的现象学思考作为思想态度是同质的,因而表现出明确的现象学特征。文章指出了对詹姆斯心理学进行现象学阐释的根据,并结合心理学史探讨了詹姆斯的思想方法对心理学作为整体而言的理论意义。     

Subliminal processes,dissociation and the 'I'

The study of unconscious processes leads to the hypothesis of the limit of consciousness, which involves two main kinds of psychic activity. The first represents psychic contents which are subliminal for their low energy, the second subliminal contents which are inaccessible to consciousness because they are dissociated in the subliminal region. Dissociation is a concept introduced by Pierre Janet for splitting consciousness due to traumatic events or during hypnosis. It takes a more general form in Hilgard's neo-dissociation theory of hypnotic phenomena and also in Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. Further generalization links it to the modern findings of explicit and implicit perception, leading to a shift in dissociation from hypothesis to clinical, experimental and theoretical reality. Studies in hypnosis also point to the existence of an integrative psychic entity, that comprises the conscious 'I'. Hilgard called this the hidden observer, and his findings represent empirical confirmation of Jung's term for the Self as mirror 'I', which leads to many important consequences for self-discovery and the meaning of life.     

Myths and misconceptions about hypnosis and suggestion: Separating fact and fiction

We present 21 prominent myths and misconceptions about hypnosis in order to promulgate accurate information and to highlight questions for future research. We argue that these myths and misconceptions have (a) fostered a skewed and stereotyped view of hypnosis among the lay public, (b) discouraged participant involvement in potentially helpful hypnotic interventions, and (c) impeded the exploration and application of hypnosis in scientific and practitioner communities. Myths reviewed span the view that hypnosis produces a trance or special state of consciousness and allied myths on topics related to hypnotic interventions; hypnotic responsiveness and the modification of hypnotic suggestibility; inducing hypnosis; and hypnosis and memory, awareness, and the experience of nonvolition. By demarcating myth from mystery and fact from fiction, and by highlighting what is known as well as what remains to be discovered, the science and practice of hypnosis can be advanced and grounded on a firmer empirical footing.     

Hypnosis and pseudomemories: the effects of prehypnotic expectancies

Contrary to predictions, the pseudomemory rate of subjects who received prehypnotic information that hypnosis increased recall was indistinguishable from the pseudomemory rates of subjects who received information that hypnosis did not increase recall and of subjects who received no specific prehypnotic information. Indeed, by the last recall trial, none of the 47 subjects exhibited pseudomemory. Subjects exhibited faulty memory of events that actually occurred (i.e., pencils spilling), and were as uncertain of events that actually occurred, as they were of suggested events that did not occur during the session (telephone ringing). Subjects were generally consistent in their certainty, or lack of it, across events. Finally, subjects led to believe that hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness were less aware of external events, and had the lowest rate of recall of target suggestions compared with subjects in the comparison groups.     

催眠和变更意识状态的探索与思考

如今一般大众,甚至许多心理学专业人员都把催眠状态下的意识和各种变更的意识状态统称为潜意识状态,这种提法存在着很大弊端。本文举实例论述了单就催眠状态来说也有不相同的表现利性质;同时阐述了研究具体的各种变更意识状态的表现、性质、特点及分类的重要性。     

脑功能成像在催眠状态中的研究进展

催眠是一种特殊的意识状态。本文从意识状态、疼痛及精神病理现象三个方面对脑功能成像在催眠状态中的研究进展进行了回顾,并对脑功能成像技术进行了比较。提出国内可以借鉴相应的方法来研究中国气功。     

The relationship of Clark L. Hull's hypnosis research to his later learning theory: The continuity of his life's work

What has been missing in previous historical accounts of Clark L. Hull is a view of his life's work as an integrated whole. This paper contributes to that end by relating his hypnosis research and theory during the years 1921 to 1933 to the developing behavioral orientation of his learning theory. In addition, this paper relates his work historically and conceptually to the theory of idemotor action endorsed by William James and a number of other nineteenth-century psychologists, and transmitted by Hull into the stimulus-response terminology of the 1930s.     

催眠定义探新：以恍惚为特色的深度沟通

综述催眠发展史上主要催眠观点,归纳其激活、意境、灵活、具身及整合等基本特征,继而提出催眠是一种以恍惚为特色的深度沟通的新定义,认为催眠本质上是一种沟通,恍惚是其特色,深度与恍惚相结合有助于界定催眠。未来应加强与认知神经科学、精神分析以及中国传统文化等的融合研究。     

WILLIAM JAMES AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF EMOTION

The theory of emotion was a centerpiece of William James' Principles of Psychology. It introduced the notion that complex phenomena, such as the experience of emotion, could be derived (constructed) from a combination of more basic processes or behaviors. Despite their shortcomings, James' views on emotion shaped research on emotion for the succeeding century, and laid the groundwork for constructivist approaches in psychological theory.