On Visibility and Power: An Arendtian Corrective of Foucault

Freedom, conceived ontologically, is power's condition of possibility. Yet, considering that the subject's interests and identity are constantly shaped, one still has to explain how – theoretically speaking – individuals can resist control. This is precisely the issue I address in the following pages. Following a brief overview of Foucault's contribution to our understanding of power, I turn to discuss the role of visibility vis-à-vis control, and show how the development of disciplinary techniques reversed the visibility of power. While Foucault illustrates that during different historical periods, distinct modes of visibility are produced by power in order to control society, I argue that the very same power that produces visibility is concomitantly dependent upon it. In addition, I maintain that visibility is a necessary component of resistance. But Foucault – perhaps due to his premature death – never adequately explains how individuals can resist the mechanisms of control in a world in which power is ubiquitous. To help clarify this enigma, I turn to Hannah Arendt's insights into power, freedom, plurality, and natality. These concepts, I claim, can serve as a corrective to Foucault because they make room for resistance without assuming that humans can exit power's web.     

Perfectionism Cognitions, Rumination, and Psychological Distress

The current study examined the extent to which dimensions of perfectionism are associated with a ruminative response orientation and the experience of cognitive intrusions in response to stressful events. Our main goal was to test the hypothesis that individuals characterized by frequent automatic thoughts involving perfectionistic themes would also be characterized by a ruminative response orientation when distressed and they would report intrusive thoughts and images following the experience of a stressful event. A sample of 65 students completed several measures, including the Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory, the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Response Styles Questionnaire, the Impact of Events Scale, and indices of depression and anxiety. Correlational analyses confirmed that high scores on the Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory were correlated with a ruminative response orientation and the reported experience of intrusive thoughts and images following the experience of a stressful event. High levels of perfectionism cognitions, socially prescribed perfectionism, and rumination were also correlated with measures of depression and anxiety representingthe tripartite model. The results support the view that there is a salient cognitive aspect to perfectionism and the experience of frequent perfectionistic cognitions and related forms of rumination contribute to levels of psychological distress.     

Children's night-time fears: an overview

Night-time fears are a normal developmental occurrence for most children. However, a small proportion of children may experience severe night-time fears of much greater intensity and duration, and typically meet diagnostic criteria for an anxiety or phobic disorder diagnosis. The content and developmental features of children's night-time fears are explored, highlighting the heterogeneous nature of nocturnal fears. Fears of this nature are probably due to an interaction of biological, environmental and cognitive-mediational factors, together with the involvement of family and operant learning processes. Clinical assessment procedures are briefly outlined, including the behavioural interview, the diagnostic interview, self-report inventories and home-monitoring on the part of parents. Family-based cognitive-behavioural treatment strategies are described. Although research findings are encouraging for the efficacy of these interventions, future studies need to utilize methodologies that allow for the identification of the specific mechanisms responsible for treatment, and improved diagnostic assessment of night fearful children.     

On-line Homework/Quiz/Exam applet: Freely available Java software for evaluating performance on line

The Homework/Quiz/Exam applet is a freely available Java program that can be used to evaluate student performance on line for any content authored by a teacher. It has database connectivity so that student scores are automatically recorded. It allows several different types of questions. Each question can be linked to images and detailed story problems. Three levels of feedback are provided to student responses. It allows teachers to randomize the sequence of questions and to randomize which of several options is the correct answer in multiple-choice questions. The creation and editing of questions involves menu selections, buttonpresses, and the typing of content; no programming knowledge is required. The code is open source in order to encourage modifications that will meet individual pedagogical needs.     

Is how it is said important? The association between quality of therapist interventions and client processing

This study examined the association between the quality of therapist interventions and client in‐session processing using the York Therapist Process Measure (YTPM; Toukmanian and Armstrong, 1998). The instrument's three dimensions — attunement, tentativeness and meaning exploration — were tested separately for their impact on clients' manner of processing and depth of experiencing. For each of the 20 mild‐moderately depressed clients, treated in short‐term experiential therapy, a high and a low client‐process segment was isolated from a session that was judged by an experienced therapist to manifest the greatest amount of “good therapy moments”. Therapist interventions within these segments were then rated on the YTPM. Results revealed significant differences in the quality of therapist interventions between high and low segments. Attunement and tentativeness were associated significantly with greater complexity in manner of processing, and meaning exploration with greater depth in experiencing. The implications of these findings for psychotherapy research and practice are discussed.     

At the Edge of Eternity's Shadows: Scaling the Fractal Continuum from Lower into Higher Space

In this paper, I elaborate the hyperspatial implications of the fractal-scaling scheme that I introduced previously. Four case examples where out-of-body experiencers reported heightened and amplified visual capacities are correlated with this explanatory model. Three of these cases are identified as including an additional hyperspace signifier, the reported capacity to see through solid and opaque physical obstructions. One of these cases included yet another hyperspace signifier, the reported capacity to pass through such obstructions. Additional evidence supportive of this thesis is drawn from the literature on ecstatic experience, including out-of-body, near-death, and other varieties of mystical or visionary experience, and from that on psychedelic experience. Yet other hyperspace signifiers reported by ecstatic voyagers are also considered, including sensations of seeing outward spherically in 360 degrees and of seeing on all sides of three-dimensional solids simultaneously.