Emotions outside the box��the new phenomenology of feeling and corporeality

The following text is the first ever translation into English of a writing by German phenomenologist Hermann Schmitz (*1928). In it, Schmitz outlines and defends a non-mentalistic view of emotions as phenomena in interpersonal space in conjunction with a theory of the felt body’s constitutive involvement in human experience. In the first part of the text, Schmitz gives an overview covering some central pieces of his theory as developed, for the most part, in his massive System of Philosophy, published in German in a series of volumes between 1964 and 1980. Schmitz’s System is centred on the claim that the contemporary view of the human subject is the result of a consequential historical process: A reductionist and ‘introjectionist’ objectification of lived experience culminating in the ‘invention’ of the mind (or ‘soul’) as a private, inner realm of subjective experience and in a corresponding ‘grinding down’ of the world of lived experienced to a meagre, value-neutral ‘objective reality’. To counter this intellectualist trend, Schmitz puts to use his approach to phenomenology with the aim of regaining a sensibility for the nuanced realities of lived experience—hoping to make up for what was lost during the development of Western intellectual culture. Since both this text and the overall style of Schmitz’s philosophising are in several ways unusual for a contemporary readership, a brief introduction is provided by philosophers Jan Slaby and Rudolf Owen Müllan, the latter of whom translated Schmitz’s text into English. The introduction emphasises aspects of Schmitz’s philosophy that are likely to be of relevance to contemporary scholars of phenomenological philosophy and to its potential applications in science and society.     

Personal characteristics,resources, and environment as predictors of business survival

Although new venture success is frequently investigated in entrepreneurship, economics, and psychology, the studies published to date vary widely in their theoretical basis, study design, and research methodology. Based on organizational life‐cycle theory and interactional personality theory, this longitudinal study analyses predictors of venture survival. Of 354 small business owners observed over 8 years, 283 (79.9%) still had active businesses at the end of the observation period. A survey instrument was developed to measure the relevant characteristics of the entrepreneurs, their resources, and the environment. Logistic regression models predicting medium‐ and long‐term business survival included these characteristics and the interactions between them entered stepwise as blocks. Startup decisions (line of business, type, and size of planned business) were used as control variables. Much of the variance is explained by our research model (Nagelkerkes R²=.36 for survival at 4 years, and .33 for survival at 8 years). Although long‐term business survival is predicted by the individual variables of startup size and social capital (networks), a larger part of the variance is explained by environment/resource interactions.     

Saccades compress space, time and number

It has been suggested that space, time and number are represented on a common subjective scale. Saccadic eye movements provide a fascinating test. Saccades compress the perceived magnitude of spatial separations and temporal intervals to approximately half of their true value. The question arises as to whether saccades also compress number. They do, and compression follows a very similar time course for all three attributes: it is maximal at saccadic onset and decreases to veridicality within a window of approximately 50ms. These results reinforce the suggestion of a common perceptual metric, which is probably mediated by the intraparietal cortex; they further suggest that before each saccade the common metric for all three is reset, possibly to pave the way for a fresh analysis of the post-saccadic situation.     

Patientensuizid im psychiatrischen Fachkrankenhaus

Suicide prevention especially with psychiatric inpatients is traditionally a very important aspect of psychiatric treatment. During the 1970s and 1980s there was a noticeable increase in so-called hospital suicides in Germany, especially suicides of schizophrenic inpatients. The number of psychiatric inpatient suicides has currently decreased again and a shift to more depressive suicides has also been observed. Furthermore questions which are asked in court are presented and discussed.     

Zur Beendigung von Lehranalysen

An attempt is made to give an open account about the goals, problems and results concerning the ending of eight training analyses. The connection of trauma, individual defence structure and mental disturbances as well as the need for their therapeutic change is emphasized. Three problems are offered for further discussion: 1. to transform acting outs of training analysts standing under the pressure of the projections by training analysands onto the institute, into interpretation; 2. the difficulty to understand the varieties of the depressive position within the mental patterns of foreign civilisations; 3. the hypothetical effect of the analysis of character neuroses on the abstinence of training analysts and on the decision for lower frequency by former training analysands.     

Learning to Teach Islam as a Non‐Muslim in the Twin Cities

Abstract. In this essay I reflect on my experience thus far of teaching Islam as a non‐Muslim at Metropolitan State University and at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. I begin by narrating a conversation about conversion that I had with one of my Muslim students. Then I introduce the theme of multiplicity as a way of being, teaching, and learning. The third section illustrates the theme of multiplicity pedagogically with reference to institutional identity, choice of textbooks, topical organization of the course, the “mosque visit” assignment, and class composition and student roles in the classroom. I conclude in the fourth section with personal reflections on multiplicity in relation to credibility and identity, politics and transformation. The essay was inspired by my realization that I embody multiple religious identities, and that one of my purposes is to build community inside and outside the classroom in an effort not only to transcend the tendency of our culture to adopt an essentialist view of Islam as suspect and alien, but also to recover Islam as a universal religion and to consider its agenda for world transformation alongside those of other religions.     

A structured interview for the assessment of the Five-Factor Model of personality: facet-level relations to the axis II personality disorders

The Structured Interview for the Five-Factor Model (SIFFM; Trull & Widiger, 1997) is an 120-item semistructured interview that assesses both adaptive and maladaptive features of the personality traits included in the five-factor model of personality, or "Big Five." In this article, we evaluate the ability of SIFFM scores to predict personality disorder symptomatology in a sample of 232 adults (46 outpatients and 186 nonclinical college students). Personality disorder symptoms were assessed using the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-Revised (PDQ-R; Hyler & Rider, 1987). Results indicated that many of the predicted associations between lower-order personality traits and personality disorders were supported. Further, many of these associations held even after controlling for comorbid personality disorder symptoms. These findings may help inform conceptualizations of the personality disorders, as well as etiological theories and treatment.     

Temporal lobe epilepsy and the selective reminding test: the conventional 30-minute delay suffices

Conventional memory assessment may fail to identify memory dysfunction characterized by intact recall for a relatively brief period but rapid forgetting thereafter. This study assessed learning and retention after 30-min and 24-hr delays on auditory and visual selective reminding tests (SRTs) in right (n=20) and left (n=22) temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients and controls (n=49). The left TLE group performed significantly worse than controls on all 3 trials of both tests. The right TLE group differed from the controls on all 3 visual SRT trials and on learning for the auditory SRT. There were no between-groups differences in rate of information lost at the 30-min versus the 24-hr delay. At the individual level, there was no difference in the percentage of patients versus controls who demonstrated isolated memory impairment at the 24-hr delay. Accelerated forgetting over 24 hr is uncommon in TLE patients.     

CB1 cannabinoid receptors modulate kinase and phosphatase activity during extinction of conditioned fear in mice

Cannabinoid receptors type 1 (CB1) play a central role in both short-term and long-term extinction of auditory-cued fear memory. The molecular mechanisms underlying this function remain to be clarified. Several studies indicated extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs), the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase with its downstream effector AKT, and the phosphatase calcineurin as potential molecular substrates of extinction behavior. To test the involvement of these kinase and phosphatase activities in CB1-dependent extinction of conditioned fear behavior, conditioned CB1-deficient mice (CB1(-/-)) and wild-type littermates (CB1(+/+)) were sacrificed 30 min after recall of fear memory, and activation of ERKs, AKT, and calcineurin was examined by Western blot analysis in different brain regions. As compared with CB1(+/+), the nonreinforced tone presentation 24 h after auditory-cued fear conditioning led to lower levels of phosphorylated ERKs and/or calcineurin in the basolateral amygdala complex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsal hippocampus, and ventral hippocampus of CB1(-/-). In contrast, higher levels of phosphorylated p44 ERK and calcineurin were observed in the central nucleus of the amygdala of CB1(-/-). Phosphorylation of AKT was more pronounced in the basolateral amygdala complex and the dorsal hippocampus of CB1(-/-). We propose that the endogenous cannabinoid system modulates extinction of aversive memories, at least in part via regulation of the activity of kinases and phosphatases in a brain structure-dependent manner.