Moving Forward: The Existential Motion of the Self in Kierkegaard's Pseudonymous Works

Each of Kierkegaard's pseudonymous authors address the question of the existing individual and what it truly means to be a self. This article discusses the existing individual as depicted by the pseudonymous authors, focusing on motion, activity, and repetition. In particular, this article seeks to pinpoint the motion and activity of the self through Kierkegaard's notion of repetition, contending that repetition is a decisive action brought forward discontinuously through a breach in time's succession. I address the self's movement forward in four sections. In the first I introduce the overarching distinction between the motion of existing individuals and empirical objects, distinguishing the character of my investigation. After clarifying this distinction, the second section focuses on Anti-Climacus’ conception of the self as activity (a positing of the synthesis), revealing that for an existing individual the self is not given but a task to be actualized. The final section first details the positing of the synthesis as repetition and second contends that, through repetition, the inner workings of the self reveal its activity as a discontinuous breach in time that occurs by virtue of the eternal.     

Relationship Enhancement for Single Females: Interpersonal Network Intervention

The present study assesses the effects of relationship enhancement training on the level of communication skills, amount of relationship change, and friendship strength of single female friendship pairs. Pairs of single female friends who indicated an interest in the program were randomly assigned to an experimental group (N = 16) or to a control group (N = 22). The experimental group participated in a four-week, 12-hour relationship enhancement skills training program, while the control group received no training. Results indicated that the experimental group, relative to the control group, significantly increased their level of communication skills and perceived amount of relationship change. No differences were found between the two groups on perceived amount of friendship strength. Discussion centers on: (a) some probable factors contributing to the indicated results, (b) limitations and implications of the study, and (c) suggestions for future research.