Synchronistic mind‐matter correlations in therapeutic practice: a commentary on Connolly (2015)

This commentary adds some ideas and refinements to the inspiring discussion in a recent paper by Connolly ( 2015 ) that makes use of a dual‐aspect framework developed by us earlier. One key point is that exceptional experiences (of which synchronicities are a special case) cannot in general be identified with experiences of non‐categorial or acategorial mental states. In fact, most exceptional experiences reported in the literature are experiences of categorial states. Conversely, there are non‐categorial and acategorial states whose experience is not exceptional. Moreover, the psychodynamics of a synchronistic experience contain a subtle mesh of interacting processes pertaining to categorial, non‐categorial and acategorial domains. We outline how this mesh may be addressed in particular cases of synchronicity described by Connolly.     

Patients and agents – or why we need a different narrative: a philosophical analysis

Background

The success of medicine in the treatment of patients brings with it new challenges. More people live on to suffer from functional, chronic or multifactorial diseases, and this has led to calls for more complex analyses of the causal determinants of health and illness.

Methods

Philosophical analysis of background assumptions of the current paradigmatic model.

Results

While these factors do not require a radical paradigm shift, they do give us cause to develop a new narrative, to add to existing narratives that frame our thinking about medical care. In this paper we argue that the increased focus on lifestyle and shared decision making requires a new narrative of agency, to supplement the narrative of “the patient”. This narrative is conceptually linked to the developing philosophy of person-centred care.

Conclusions

If patients are seen also as “agents” this will result in a substantial shift in practical decisions: The development and adoption of this narrative will help practitioners work with patients to their mutual benefit, harnessing the patients’ motivation, shifting the focus from treatment to prevention and preventing unnecessary and harmful treatments that can come out of our preoccupation with the patient narrative. It will also help to shift research efforts, conceptual and empirical, from “treating” and “battling” diseases and their purported “mechanisms” to understanding complex contributing factors and their interplay.

     

Extinction of conditioned inhibition through nonreinforced presentation of the inhibitor

In previous studies that have tried to extinguish conditioned inhibition through nonreinforced presentations of the inhibitor, researchers have repeatedly failed to find evidence for such extinction. The present study revealed that extinction can be achieved through nonreinforcement of the inhibitor, depending on properties of the reinforcer. In a human causal learning experiment, we found complete extinction in a scenario in which the reinforcer could take on negative values. Thereby, this scenario reflected the assumed symmetrical continuum on which associative strength can vary, according to the Rescorla-Wagner theory of associative learning. In contrast to this, the inhibitory cue retained its inhibitory potential in another condition, in which the scenario did not allow negative values of the reinforcer. nt]mis|Klaus G. Melchers has previously published under the surname “Lober.” Susann Wolff is now working at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany     

Impairment of single-trial memory formation by oral methylphenidate in the rat

High synaptic concentrations of dopamine and/or norepinephrine can impair the working memory function of the prefrontal cortex and impede attention and learning. Methylphenidate, a dopamine and norepinephrine transporter blocker known to facilitate these cognitive processes at low doses, was hypothesized to interfere with memory storage at doses that may raise concentrations of these neurotransmitters to systemically disruptive levels. In the present experiments, a dose of 10.0mg/kg of this drug was administered to female and male Long-Evans rats using a novel oral administration procedure designed to model the normal mode of delivery to humans. It was found to interfere with single-trial memory acquisition in a delayed object recognition test, a spontaneous learning task that involves no appetitive or aversive motivator. The time that the rats spent in overt exploration of the to-be-remembered objects during the acquisition trial was not affected, suggesting that the drug may have impaired processes of memory formation independently of interference with attention.     

Consensus and normative validity 1

A weak and a strong version of discourse theory can be distinguished. In the strong version the only source of normative validity in the nonspecific sense is rational consensus, where all parties concerned accept a norm for the same reasons, which are rationally convincing in the same way for all. In the weak version both rational and overlapping consensus can be sources of validity in the nonspecific sense. It is argued that the weak version is the more adequate, since it can accommodate cases which the strong version cannot, and which it is unreasonable to view as cases of compromise. Discourse theory needs a weaker general discourse principle and a more flexible notion of normative consensus than is found in Habermas's Between Facts and Norms (1996).     

Signs in their times: introducing a review symposium on Robert Yelle's Semiotics of Religion

This essay introduces a review symposium on Robert Yelle's Semiotics of Religion: Signs of the Sacred in History (2013). It first reviews the book's argument, then offers a selective review of the six contributions to the symposium, along with aspects of Yelle's responses to these.     

Constructionism versus what?

Constructionism is a theoretical perspective with great potential usefulness for the study of religion. However, the theory is often assumed rather than clarified, and it is often reduced to its extreme relativistic versions. As a result, its value has stagnated even as talk of constructs has proliferated. Constructionism has been portrayed as the other of religion's two realisms: theological and phenomenological. It has been cast in the role of a conveniently discounted counter-position. Constructionist work in the study of religion, by failing to clarify its theoretical basis adequately and by too often accepting the role of antagonist to realism, shares responsibility for this misleading and detrimental characterisation. Lack of due attention to theory has obscured the status and claims of constructionism. This theoretical perspective is not necessarily reductionist or radically relativist, and it is not simply the opposite of realist or sui generis approaches to religion. Constructionism can help us understand how historically and culturally contingent religious phenomena arise from the raw materials of our physical and social worlds.

The first two sections of this article present a brief sketch of the development and key characteristics of constructionism, illustrating something of its breadth and variety. In the third section a consideration of constructionism in religious studies demonstrates the need to clarify three key issues. First, constructionist approaches are not necessarily anti-realist and so can be consistent with critical theological or sui generis perspectives. Second, the overwhelming lack of explicitly developed theory has obscured and obstructed the usefulness of constructionism in religious studies. Third, the relationship between constructionism and other theoretical positions needs to be clarified.