The butterfly dream as ‘creative dream:’ dreaming and subjectivity in Zhuangzi and María Zambrano

The ‘dream of the butterfly,’ which seals the second chapter of the Zhuangzi, is often interpreted as undergirded by the bipolarity of dreaming and awakening or by the elusive interchange of identities between Zhuangzi and the butterfly, dreamer and dreamed. In this paper I argue that the underlying structure of the story may be better interpreted as exhibiting not two, but three stages of development, consistently echoing other tripartite parables in the Zhuangzi. In my reinterpretation I rely on the phenomenology of dreams proposed by the Spanish philosopher María Zambrano, which distinguishes among three states: the primal dream, characterized by atemporality and wholeness; wakefulness, characterized by temporality and analytic thinking; and the creative dream, in which reality discloses itself as a meaningful, holistic unity. I suggest that Zhuangzi’s parable describes a similar self-transformative threefold process culminating in the joyous freedom of a shifting multifaceted subjectivity centered in the timeless pivot of the Dao.     

Descriptive characteristics of extinction bursts: A record review

Procedural extinction is sometimes associated with a temporary increase in responding known as an extinction burst. Extinction bursts present unique challenges in the context of treating behavior targeted for reduction. The present study updates the prevalence of extinction bursts using a clinical sample (N = 108) receiving treatment for targeted behavior. The prevalence of extinction bursts in our sample (24%) was consistent with that in prior literature. The extinction-burst magnitude decreased across sessions after extinction was contacted during treatment, but this sample did not demonstrate decreased persistence or magnitude of extinction bursts across successive transitions from baseline to treatment. We also examined the prevalence and magnitude of extinction bursts based on the function and topography of targeted behavior and treatment components and found no consistent relation among these variables. These findings should lead clinicians to prepare for transient extinction bursts when implementing extinction-based treatment for challenging behavior.     

“Good Savage” vs. “Bad Savage”. Discourse and Counter-Discourse on Primitive Language as a Reflex of English Colonialism

Topoi - In the ideological construction of colonialism and, more widely, of any hierarchy of human communities, a crucial role is played by discourse on language. English nationalism and...     

Relations between 18-month-olds’ gaze pattern and target action performance: A deferred imitation study with eye tracking

Deferred imitation studies are used to assess infants’ declarative memory performance. These studies have found that deferred imitation performance improves with age, which is usually attributed to advancing memory capabilities. Imitation studies, however, are also used to assess infants’ action understanding. In this second research program it has been observed that infants around the age of one year imitate selectively, i.e., they imitate certain kinds of target actions and omit others. In contrast to this, two-year-olds usually imitate the model's exact actions. 18-month-olds imitate more exactly than one-year-olds, but more selectively than two-year-olds, a fact which makes this age group especially interesting, since the processes underlying selective vs. exact imitation are largely debated. The question, for example, if selective attention to certain kinds of target actions accounts for preferential imitation of these actions in young infants is still open. Additionally, relations between memory capabilities and selective imitation processes, as well as their role in shaping 18-month-olds’ neither completely selective, nor completely exact imitation have not been thoroughly investigated yet. The present study, therefore, assessed 18-month-olds’ gaze toward two types of actions (functional vs. arbitrary target actions) and the model's face during target action demonstration, as well as infants’ deferred imitation performance. Although infants’ fixation times to functional target actions were not longer than to arbitrary target actions, they imitated the functional target actions more frequently than the arbitrary ones. This suggests that selective imitation does not rely on selective gaze toward functional target actions during the demonstration phase. In addition, a post hoc analysis of interindividual differences suggested that infants’ attention to the model's social-communicative cues might play an important role in exact imitation, meaning the imitation of both functional and arbitrary target actions.     

Ambiguous emotion recognition in temporal lobe epilepsy: The role of expression intensity

The lateralization of emotion processing is currently debated and may be further explored by examining facial expression recognition (FER) impairments in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Furthermore, there is also debate in the literature whether FER deficits in individuals with TLE are more pronounced in the right than in the left hemisphere. Individuals with TLE were tested with an FER task designed to be more sensitive than those classically used to shed light on this issue. A total of 25 right- and 32 left-TLE patients, candidates for surgery, along with controls, underwent an FER task composed of stimuli shown not only at full-blown intensities (100 %), but also morphed to lower-intensity display levels (35 %, 50 %, and 75 %). The results showed that, as compared to controls, right-TLE patients showed deficits in the recognition of all emotional categories. Furthermore, when considering valence, right-TLE patients were impaired only in negative emotion recognition, but no deficits for positive emotions were highlighted in left-TLE patients. Finally, only the right-TLE patients’ impairment was found to be related to the age of epilepsy onset. Our work demonstrates that the FER deficits in TLE span multiple emotional categories and show manifestations dependent on the laterality of the epileptic focus. Taken together, our findings provide the strongest evidence for the right-hemisphere model, but they also partially support the valence model. We suggest that current models are not exhaustive at explaining emotional-processing cerebral control, and further that multistep models should be developed.     

Alcohol Use,Acculturative Stress,and Drinking Motivation Among International Community College Students

Alcohol use, acculturative stress, and drinking motivations of 262 students in English as a second language programs in a U.S. community college were explored. Alcohol consumption was generally low, but differences between two groups with different legal statuses indicate the need to consider subgroups of international students for research purposes. Se exploraron el uso de alcohol, el estrés por aculturación y las motivaciones para beber de 262 alumnos en programas de inglés como lengua extranjera en una universidad comunitaria estadounidense. El consumo de alcohol fue moderadamente bajo, pero las diferencias entre dos grupos con diferente estatus legal indican la necesidad de considerar subgrupos de estudiantes internacionales a la hora de realizar investigaciones.     

Further developments of the concept of fantasy

After the Isaacs' seminal work on the nature and function of unconscious phantasy (1948), several authors (mostly in the British Society) have reflected on the topic and tried to extend the concept of fantasy. In this paper I shall examine the contributions of Winnicott, Gaddini, Joseph and Anne Marie Sandler that aim at broadening this psychoanalytic concept. The authors that I have considered share a focus mostly on the early stages of child development. Both Winnicott and Gaddini belong to a line of thinking that explores the vicissitudes of the primary emotional development of the infantile self (in the mother‐infant relationship) involving the earliest processes of holding and bodily and kinaesthetic fantasy that form the bodily integrity of the person. The Sandlers focused mostly on the concept of the past unconscious understood as a place of primitive vicissitudes with a deficit in figuration where the process of repression is missing. The present unconscious phantasy (that is located in the here and now) has the function of rendering the past unconscious phantasy partly accessible; otherwise it would remain unknowable.     

Psychopathological Symptom Dimensions in Patients with Gastrointestinal Disorders

The current study aims to investigate the factorial validity of a widely used psychopathological rating scale, the Symptom Check List-90-R (SCL-90-R), in a group of patients suffering from gastrointestinal disorders, and to determine the specific psychopathological profiles that characterize the individual patient subgroups. Patients suffering from either irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, non-erosive reflux disease or erosive reflux disease completed the SCL-90-R at a tertiary care gastroenterology department. Seven factors were identified, with one major distress factor and six minor factors. Comparison of the gastrointestinal disorder subgroups indicated that irritable bowel syndrome patients exhibited significantly more psychological distress compared to the other groups, and that gastrointestinal patients as a group, compared to healthy controls, were characterized by high levels of irritable depression and somatization. In planning further studies we encourage the use of factors identified in our study. The treatment of substantial irritable depression can be an important factor in improving quality of life in patients suffering from gastrointestinal disorders.     

Is a naturalistic theory of communication possible?

This article presents a theoretical discussion of the relationship between language and communication. I discuss Chomsky’s position on this topic. Chomsky claims that if it is possible to construct a scientific theory of the language faculty, there is no possibility to construct a scientific theory of communication because in communication human intentionality is involved. This position is contrasted by philosophers of language considering that communication is to be studied as a form of rational action. I maintain that both these positions are not supported by the evidence coming from developmental research. Taking a cognitive point of view I contend that a communicative faculty can be defined that develops since infancy to adulthood, which has features independent of language and action. Different steps in the development of the communicative ability are linked to a parallel development of the theory of mind. I then argue in favor of a distinction between collective action and communication considering that while collective action is common to human and nonhuman primates, communication is typically human.