Commentary on “Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy” by Tracey Moffatt and Discussion of “States of Exile and Marginalization” by Gillian Straker

This is an excerpt of the work that I presented in Sydney last May at the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Conference “From the Margins to the Centre: Contemporary Relational Perspectives” in my capacity as discussant of Gill Straker’s work, which included the viewing of the film Night Cries by Tracey Moffatt. I focused on the relationships that are characterized by abuse of power, by inequalities that define interpersonal relationships, and by the type of trauma that ensues from them and on the ways and possibilities to find a way out, a method to reconcile with the victims.     

Correlates of Rorschach Reality Adherence in the Assessment of Murderers who Plead Insanity

Reality adherence measured by Mayman's system of Rorschach form level scoring was applied to the protocols of 43 individuals all of whom were pleading insanity to a charge of murder. Reality adherence level correlated significantly with judgment of legal sanity, contributed importantly to a factor analysis dimension of reality functioning, and was extensively related to measures of primary process thought and impulse. Reality adherence further was related to intellectual functioning and areas of past history. These results suggest that Mayman's reality adherence measure has substantial validity and is importantly related to other personality variables.     

Corporate Sponsorships of Philanthropic Activities: When Do They Impact Perception of Sponsor Brand?

We examined the benefits to a corporate sponsor of two types of philanthropic activities — cause promotions and advocacy advertising. Results from 4 laboratory studies indicate that perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are affected by consumers’ elaboration levels. Consumer perceptions of CSR are more favorable for cause promotions, which do not receive much elaboration, than they are for advocacy advertising, which prompts more elaboration. In addition, perceived congruence between the sponsor and the social issue is shown to moderate these effects: Higher congruence between the sponsor and social issue increases favorable ratings of CSR for cause promotions but only if elaboration on the sponsorship activity is facilitated. On the other hand, lower congruence increases favorable ratings of CSR for advocacy advertising as long as elaboration on the sponsorship is not constrained. We also found that higher congruence enhances CSR ratings if participants are primed to focus their attention on the sponsor brand, whereas lower congruence enhances CSR if participants are primed to focus their attention on the social issue.     

The Tragedy of the Commons as an Essentially Aggregative Harm

This article identifies ‘the tragedy of the commons’ as an essentially aggregative harm and considers what agents in such a scenario owe to one another. It proposes that the duty to take reasonable precautions requires that agents make efforts to establish collective solutions to any essentially aggregative harm to which they would otherwise contribute. Baylor Johnson has argued that the general obligation to promote the common good requires that agents make efforts to establish a collective agreement to avert a potential tragedy of the commons. This article agrees with Johnson's analysis but argues that there are also negative duties, which give commons users additional moral reason to take collective action to prevent the destruction of the utility of the commons. These duties link commons users to resolving this particular problem and provide grounds to demand that they make greater efforts to prevent the destruction of the commons compared to bystanders. The article suggests that fulfilling negative duties can require establishing collective institutions with the power to regulate human action and interaction. This analysis could be applied to a range of social problems which result from the aggregation of actions and practices.