Dialectic and argument in philosophy: A case study of Hegel's phenomenological preface

This article examines two problems: the role of argument in philosophy, vis-àÏs other philosophical activities; and the nature of argument in philosophy, vis-à-vis argument in other fields. The examination proceeds by reference to the notion of dialectic, which is regarded by some as offering an alternative to argument, and by reference to Hegel's Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit, which explicitly discusses these very issues. The latter is reconstructed as the argument that philosophy is dialectical in part because it is pluralistic, conceptual, concrete, self-reflective, spiritual, systematic, negative, and self-referential, and in part because it sublimates the opposition between truth and falsity, method and result, change and permanence, form and content, and subject and predicate.     

The therapeutic value in the autopsy request

Recently the number of autopsies performed in the United States has declined. Although the benefits of the autopsy for physicians are many, we maintain, based on our own experiences, that it helps them accept the reality of loss of a loved one and enables them to begin the process of letting go. Realization of the therapeutic value of the autopsy request should enable those who work with the recently bereaved, such as physicians and clergy, to fulfill more effective roles.     

PARENT EDUCATION PROJECT II. INCREASING STIMULATING INTERACTIONS OF DEVELOP MENTALLY HANDICAPPED MOTHERS

Two studies are reported on the assessment and training of parent-child interactional skills in developmentally handicapped mothers. Study 1 compared the interactions of eight developmentally handicapped versus eight nonhandicapped mothers during play with their young (6–25 months) children. Results showed that the former group generally interacted much less with their children and that they were less likely to praise appropriate child behavior and imitate child vocalizations. Study 2 attempted to remediate these deficits, using a training package consisting of discussion, modeling, feedback, social reinforcement, and self-recording. Results showed, first, that the training did increase the targeted skills to well within the range found for the nonhandicapped mothers. Second, training effects generalized from the group instructional setting to the mothers' own homes. Third, newly acquired skills were generally maintained at or above levels found for the nonhandicapped mothers over a 5- to 10-month follow-up period. Finally, all seven children showed increases in vocalizations concomitant with parent training. The results suggest that developmentally handicapped mothers can be taught to provide more effective and stimulating interactions to their young children.     

Schools as a source of stress to children: An analysis of causal and ameliorative influences

An analysis of factors leading schools to be a significant source of stress to children is presented. Debilitating school stress is seen as linked to forces, including some in prominent movements for school “reform,” that push schools to overemphasize academic acceleration, competition, evaluation, and test-based accountability. The paradoxical effects of these forces are to impede acquisition of academic skills and minimize opportunities for children to develop crucial competencies needed for citizenship, responsible adulthood, parenthood, and management of the complex world of work. Recommendations based on developmental and empirical considerations are presented to reduce the debilitating stress in our schools. The tenacious leadership and coordinated, sustained planning required to enact some of these recommendations is noted and encouraged.     

Incongruous stimulus pairing and conditional discrimination training: effects on relational responding

In Experiment 1, 5 subjects were exposed to a stimulus-pairing procedure in which two nonsense syllables, identified by a letter-number code as A1 and C2, each predicted the onset of a sexual film clip, and the nonsense syllables A2 and C1 each predicted the onset of a nonsexual film clip. Subjects were then exposed to a matching-to-sample test in which the nonsense syllables A1 and A2 were presented as sample stimuli and C1 and C2 were presented as comparison stimuli and vice versa (i.e., C stimuli as samples and A stimuli as comparisons). All subjects matched A1 with C2 and A2 with C1. Subjects were then trained on the conditional discriminations A1-B1, A2-B2, B1-C1, B2-C2, after which the matching-to-sample test was again administered. All subjects continued to match A1 with C2 and A2 with C1 in accordance with the earlier stimulus-pairing contingencies. An additional 5 subjects were exposed first to conditional discrimination training and testing before being exposed to the incongruous stimulus pairing and matching-to-sample testing. Under these conditions, 4 of the 5 subjects always matched A1 with C1 and A2 with C2. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, except that a matching-to-sample test was not administered following the initial training procedure. Under these conditions, matching-to-sample test performances were controlled by the contingencies that had immediately preceded the test. Experiment 3 indicated that initial matching-to-sample test performances were unlikely to change, even after repeated exposure to incongruous training and testing. Experiment 4 demonstrated that pretraining with unrelated stimulus sets increased the sensitivity of matching-to-sample test performances to incongruous contingencies when they were similar in format to those arranged during pretraining. These data may have implications for a behavior-analytic interpretation of attitude formation and change.     

The Behavior of Organisms?

The Psychological Record - The term & #x2018;organism & #x2018; enjoys a revered place within the vocabulary of behavior analysis, most notably perhaps within the title of...     

Mordechai Rotenberg's Dia-logo Therapy: A New Approach to Dialogical Psychotherapy

This article attempts an overview of Mordechai Rotenberg's second and third books, Dialogue with Deviance and Re-Biographing and Deviance, and an in-depth analysis of his fourth book Dia-logo Therapy. It shows how Rotenberg builds on his early studies of Protestantism and American individualism and on his Talmudic, Hasidic, and Jewish hermeneutic background to offer a challenging rereading of the task of the therapist. This includes the bridging of the rational and the irrational, the factual and the mystical, through psychonarration and re-biographing. It also includes a trenchant distinction between the unilateral truth of Aristotle, Hegel, Marx, and Freud and the multilateral truth of Socrates, the Talmud, and Martin Buber. Throughout the article a comparison is made between Rotenberg's thought and that of both Martin Buber and Maurice Friedman.     

Stress in Mothers with Intellectual Disabilities

Both low parental IQ and stress have been shown to be associated with parenting difficulties and adverse child outcomes. We examined stress in parents with low IQ as a potential contributor to their documented parenting problems. Eighty-two mothers with intellectual disabilities (IQ < 80; labelled as having mental retardation) were given the Parenting Stress Index and they were found to be enduring very high levels of overall stress (95th percentile), stress related to child characteristics (95th percentile), and stress related to other life experiences (90th percentile) as compared to the normative test group. We divided the 82 mothers with intellectual disabilities into three groups depending on the age of their children. The mothers with school-age children reported significantly higher stress than parents of infant/toddler and preschool children. A hierarchical regression analysis revealed that child age and living in a crowded environment were significant predictors of parenting stress. The results confirm that mothers with intellectual disabilities experience extreme stress that, together with other factors, may hinder adequate parenting.     

An inexpensive pure-tone pattern generator

A low-cost sound pattern generator that is remotely programmable has been developed to produce pure-tone auditory patterns. The device, which is compatible with relay programming equipment, can generate either of two auditory patterns in the sequence ABA or BAB. The generator features an independently settable range of ON and OFF durations (0.1 to 1.0 sec) for pure-tone bursts and a selectable range (0.2 to 2.0 sec) of intercycle intervals. The inexpensive construction cost coupled with the flexibility of the timing characteristics of the generator should make it of interest to a wide variety of auditory researchers.     

Healing through meeting: A dialogical approach to psychotherapy

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -