The kotel: Toward an ethnographic portrait

An ethnographic portrait of the ‘Western Wall’ (kotel) in Jerusalem, is presented. The kotel is viewed as a pilgrimage site, a ‘place of memory’, and a location linked to a story. Most discussions of the kotel stress its history and archaeology, while this study utilizes ethnography to understand the meanings of the site to a range of social categories. The challenge faced by ethnography is that the social context of the kotel is constituted by Jewish groups all over the world and by cultural distillates stemming from millennia of history. By providing both an overview of kotel activities, and a more detailed examination of several kotel occasions, the paper points to the potential contribution of ethnography to understanding national‐religious shrines.     

How to Win a Career Achievement Award in Five Easy Lessons

This professional autobiography is based on a talk given as the recipient of the 2009 Bruno Klopfer Distinguished Contribution Award. It includes a discussion of 5 of my habits that might be useful as a guide for future awardees including 1. send everything that you write to everyone you know (and ask for their help); 2. don't be afraid to pick up what's been dropped by others; 3. don't be afraid to go away and then to stay away a long time; and 4. remember good ideas—they can be useful in the future. For the fifth and most important lesson, one must read the article.     

How Do We Use Theory Now? Commentary on Paper by Melanie Suchet

Melanie Suchet's frank and engaging paper exemplifies a narrative-based discourse that is gaining prominence in the analytic literature. Eschewing any definition of terms, this discourse appropriates a wide array of analytic concepts to support a narration of co-creation of meaning and self-restoration in the clinical encounter. I examine a portion of the clinical case material to highlight some perceived pitfalls that arise from an uncritical and unsystematic use of theory. A particular pitfall is revealed in the way the author, while jettisoning the constraints of orthodox clinical theories, ends up overvaluing a singular explanatory model, thus unwittingly imposing a top-heavy, over-saturated interpretation on the clinical material. This unexamined theoretical bias leaves it unclear what should constitute the data of analytic observation: While ascribing crucial explanatory significance to socio-political narratives, which lead the analyst to feel that historical guilt over intercommunal conflicts must actually be redressed in the patient–analyst relationship, the author nevertheless pays little attention in the report to guilt dynamics arising from actual conflict in the here-and-now of the therapeutic encounter. Conceptual disarray is particularly noticeable in the confusion between identity and identification—that is, between a relatively fixed and consciously symbolized identity narrative, and something unconsciously taken on as a transient identification.     

“Successful”; dissociation,pseudovitality, and inauthentic use of the Senses

Dissociation is posited as a form of psychical organization in which psychical conflicts and threats to self‐preservation are regulated on the terrain of mind/body relations. Economic, social, and cultural processes are implicated in the establishment of stable forms of dissociation, and at the same time render these dissociative regimes opaque. This essay attempts to show 1) how the dissociative organization and process relies on a mechanism that may be described as a type of de‐repression; 2) that dissociative communication is not symbolic in nature but employs a signaling function, giving rise to pseudointegration of the personality rather than true integration; 3) how a phenomenon of false encoding may be observed in these cases; and 4) how a stable regime of pathological dissociation subtly creates a sensory cocoon or invisible wall, the effect of which is to erect a narcissistic field of omnipotent constructions (a “pathological container") in the place of actual contact between people. Lastly, it is in the structure of pathological dissociation that it is possible to locate a specific psychological definition of inauthenticity.     

“Relational” vs. “Specific Stimulus” Learning in Discrimination

The problems of 514 male and female adolescents of 14 and 15 years of age were investigated using an open-ended questionnaire. While there was a high correlation between problem areas for boys and girls, boys reported more problems concerned with educational adjustment and girls more problems concerned with family adjustments. The mean number of reported problems by girls was significantly higher than those reported by boys. It was concluded that the problems of the Sydney adolescent are basically similar to those of adolescents in other Western cultures.     

Socio‐economic status and handedness in two large cohorts of French adults

Left‐and right‐handers have coexisted since the Palaeolithic age. Hand preference is heritable. Moreover, there is extensive evidence of an association between left‐handedness and several fitness costs. In this context, the persistence of the polymorphism is interesting. Here, we explore the associations between socio‐economic status and handedness, analysing data from two large cohorts of adult men and women. Such associations are relevant to an evolutionary approach, as the socio‐economic and the reproductive value are related. Our results partly support the hypothesis that left‐handers have a socio‐economic status advantage, countervailing the health issues. Although the models explain a small proportion of the variance observed, the frequency of left‐handedness is significantly higher: (1) among women of higher educational level; (2) among categories of higher income; and (3) among individuals who have a higher position in the company. The importance of these findings for the evolution of the polymorphism of handedness is discussed.