RETHINKING THE ROLE OF SMALL‐GROUP COLLABORATORS AND ADVERSARIES IN THE LONDON KLEINIAN DEVELOPMENT (1914–1968)

The authors historically situate the London Kleinian development in terms of the small‐group collaborations and adversaries that arose during the course of Melanie Klein's career. Some collaborations later became personally adversarial (e.g., those Klein had with Glover and Schmideberg); other adversarial relationships forever remained that way (with A. Freud); while still other long‐term collaborations became theoretically contentious (such as with Winnicott and Heimann). After the Controversial Discussions in 1944, Klein marginalized one group of supporters (Heimann, Winnicott, and Riviere) in favor of another group (Rosenfeld, Segal, and Bion). After Klein's death in 1960, Bion maintained loyalty to Klein's ideas while quietly distancing his work from the London Klein group, immigrating to the United States in 1968.     

Severity of initiation revisited: Does severity of initiation increase attractiveness in real groups?

In the Netherlands, two longitudinal fieldstudies (N=202 and N=46) were conducted on the relationship between severity of initiation and group attractiveness. Study 1 represents a severe initiation, Study 2 a more mild one. In these two different field ‘conditions’ we aimed to test the dissonance interpretation of the effects of a severe initiation (Aronson & Mills, 1959) and a positive correlation between severity of treatment of the initiated novices and group attractiveness was expected (hypothesis 1). Further, we expected that feelings of frustration and anger would mediate this relationship (hypothesis 2). On the other hand, our affiliation–attraction hypothesis either predicted a positive correlation between companionship (Rook, 1987) and group attractiveness, irrespective of severity (hypothesis 3), or that companionship would mediate the severity–attraction relationship (hypothesis 4). In both studies, LISREL path analyses only supported hypothesis 3. Contrary to hypothesis 1, severity experienced during the early stages of the initiation correlated with feelings of frustration and loneliness (Study 1), or depressive mood (Study 2). These feelings lasted throughout the initiation and lowered the liking for the group. Results are discussed in terms of newcomers' decisions to leave or to join the group, determined by (i) the exchange and fate control relationship between the leadership and the newcomers; (ii) the severe treatment of newcomers as a selection device and (iii) companionate exchanges among the initiated newcomers as a basis for ingroup formation. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semantical Anthropology1

The association between the smell and the bacon is ".natural"., that is to say it is not the result of any human behavhior. But the association between the word ".breakfast". and breakfast is a social matter, which exists only for English speaking people.—B. Russell, ".An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth".     

Anticipated Ongoing Interaction Versus Channel Effects on Relational Communication in Computer-Mediated Interaction

Previous research on the interpersonal tone of computer-mediated communication shows different effects using longitudinal computer-mediated groups than are found in research using one-shot groups, even before the developmental aspects associated with time can accrue. One factor distinguishing these approaches is the anticipation of future interaction experienced by longitudinal groups. This research reports an experiment assessing the relative effects of anticipated future interaction and different communication media (computer-mediated versus face-to-face communication) on the communication of relational intimacy and composure. Asynchronous and synchronous computer conferencing and face-to-face groups were examined. Results show that the assignment of long-term versus short-term partnerships has a larger impact on anticipated future interaction reported by computer-mediated, rather than face-to-face, partners. Evidence also shows that anticipation is a more potent predictor of several relational communication dimensions than is communication condition. Implications for theory and practice are identified.     

Response to Filatov and Stepina on Lutheranism in Russia

I have been reading the book Religiya i obshchestvo: ocherki religioznoi zhizni sovremennoi Rossii recently published by Letny Sad. If my understanding is correct, the publication of this book was financed by Keston Institute and it claims to be an ‘Encyclopedia of religious life in Russia today’. Most of the chapters are by the editor of the book, the Moscow sociologist Sergei Filatov. I was particularly interested in the chapter ‘Katoliki i katolitsizm v Rossii’, having a longstanding concern with Catholic-Protestant relations, and also of course the chapter ‘Rossiiskoye lyuteranstvo’. For the last 25 years I have been closely involved in church life in Latvia and, through the will of Providence, with the regeneration of the Lutheran Church in Russia. Any information about Lutheranism, including scholarly work on the subject, is of course extremely important for me, especially when it deals not just with practical aspects of the revival of a traditional confession in the Russian Federation, but also with individual personalities and their involvement in bringing this revival about. The chapter ‘Rosiiskoye lyuteranstvo’ describes the complex process of the revival of Lutheranism in Russia, but also deals with the identity of Lutheranism in the difficult and troubled conditions in Russia today. It is true that there are three, five, perhaps more types of Lutheranism involved, including the Finno-Scandinavian type (supported by some of the American Lutherans), the very liberal West German type, and the ‘new Russian’ (‘novorossiiskoye’) Lutheranism (as I call it), which is asserting its independence both from narrow nationalism and from western superliberalism, while at the same time working out a new synthesis of the Reformation heritage in the difficult conditions in our country. Here I agree with the sociologists who wrote this chapter: for Russian Lutheranism to achieve theological independence it will need more trained theologians from amongst the Russian Lutherans themselves.