Preaching to the Converted. Why Argue When Everyone Agrees?

This paper discusses the definition of argumentation as a means for persuading an audience on the acceptability of a thesis. It is argued that persuasion is a goal that relates more to the communicative situation, the type of interaction or the type of discourse, rather than to the argumentative nature of it. Departing from the analysis of a short conversational sequence between people who agree on an issue and nevertheless argue, I suggest that a definition of argumentation in terms of persuasion fails to account for what people are actually doing in these situations. I propose instead that several functions may be assigned to argumentation when considering the context in which it is produced: a cognitive function (which helps participants to elaborate a position on the discussed issue), and an identifying function (which enables them to portray themselves through the expression and the justification of their opinion). In the case analyzed here, a third function to which the argumentative activity contributes can also be identified, namely the enhancing of the emotional tonality of the relationship between the participants. While it becomes clear from the discussion of this argumentative sequence that the participants do not seek to persuade each other or some third party, it is not suggested that argumentation never aims at persuading an audience, but rather that persuasion cannot be considered as a defining feature of argumentation.     

Body image satisfaction among Norwegian adolescents and young adults: a longitudinal study of the influence of interpersonal relationships and BMI

This study used a latent growth curve modeling approach to examine body image satisfaction in 1132 Norwegian adolescent and adult males and females measured at six times between ages 13 and 30. An additional model examined the long term influence of parent-child relationship, peer relationship (both relationships assessed at age 13), and BMI (measured at each interval) to the patterns of change. The results showed a linear growth in body image satisfaction through adolescence followed by a stabilizing of the latent curve in adulthood for both genders. There were gender and developmental variations in the relative contributions of parents and peers for the slope and quadratic growth and in the contribution of BMI to body image satisfaction. When controlling for BMI, initial parent-child relationships and peer relationship predicted the variance in slope growth for males. Parent-child relationship predicted quadratic growth for males. Among females, only initial peer relationships predicted linear growth. No effect was found for quadratic growth. BMI had an additional negative effect on body image satisfaction during adulthood.     

REFLECTIONS ON THE FAILURE OF THE LOVERS OF ZION

This article considers the important role of archival photographs in the work of historians, artists and writers of the generation after the Holocaust. Powerful “points of memory” linking past and present, memory and postmemory, individual remembrance and cultural recall, photographs can offer evidence of past crimes and function as haunting specters that enable an affective visceral connection to the past. And yet, photographs may also be limited and flawed historical documents, promising more than they can actually reveal. The article argues that such ambiguous evidence may be a resource for historians seeking to grasp and transmit the past's emotional truth.     

Working with severely traumatized,chronically depressed analysands

Surprisingly often in the psychoanalyses of chronically depressed patients, depression represents an unconscious attempt to psychically cope with unbearable psychic pain following severe traumatisation: dissociative states, a chronified psychic state of shock, a disappearance of emotions, an emptying of the self and the object relationships, as well as a disappearance of the psyche in the body are among the possible consequences. The treatment of these difficult groups of analysands can also frequently bring analysts to the limits of the endurable. Often related to this is the repeated danger of denying the trauma, and a re‐traumatisation of the analysand in the analytic situation. The lecture discusses the fact that in comparison with other therapeutic approaches, psychoanalysis has a highly differentiated conceptualisation of the psychic determinants and the treatment of chronic depression at his disposal. However, in order to retain its creativity and innovation as a scientific discipline and to be thus perceived in the non‐psychoanalytic world, it must constantly further develop its conceptualization by way of systematic and extra‐clinical research – as is witnessed in the insufficient conceptual account of severe traumatisation during the genesis of chronic depression. In this connection, several exemplary examples from extra‐clinical studies in the sphere of psychotherapeutic research, neurobiology, epigenetics and embodied cognitive science will be accounted for. As will be treated in the final part of this paper, of no less importance are the conceptualizations in clinical research on psychoanalysis, which are based on meticulous, careful analyses of trauma reactivation in the transference, and understanding and working through them in the analytic relationship.     

Exploring the Influence of Culture on Career Through the Career‐in‐Culture Interview

This study sought to understand how culture in general affects career development. Using an adapted version of the Career‐in‐Culture Interview (Ponterotto, Rivera, & Sueyoshi, 2000 ), the authors interviewed 14 adults from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Through a qualitative analysis of the interviews, themes were identified based on 4 of the interview questions and were reported based on occupations the participants were aware of while growing up, their cultural and ethnic backgrounds, religious/spiritual backgrounds, and family influence. These themes promote a developmental consideration of career‐related issues in counseling. The findings can help counselors better work with clients by focusing not just on the individual but also on cultural influences on career development.