Extra ecclesiam nulla revelatio?: God’s self-disclosure to non-Christian religions in contemporary Catholic theology

The author explores the conciliar and post-conciliar documents of the Catholic Church in order to draw out the tensions and ambiguities of its position regarding the nature and role of revelation in the origin of non-Christian religions. Within the framework of this position, moderate Catholic theologians have argued that, as other religions have their origins in God’s specific self-disclosure, they differ only in degree from Christianity. Their arguments combined with an in-depth analysis of Church documents yields the conclusion that the position of the Catholic Church is logically amenable to an affirmation of religious pluralism de iure. If the Catholic Church desires to officially reject this conclusion, it must explicitly address the apparent inconsistencies that its own theologians find in this rejection.     

Interference Control in Children with and without ADHD: A Systematic Review of Flanker and Simon Task Performance

The present review systematically summarizes the existing research that has examined two reaction-time-based interference control paradigms, known as the Eriksen Flanker task and the Simon task, in children with and without ADHD. Twelve studies are included, yielding a combined sample size of 272 children with ADHD (M age 9.28 yrs) and 280 typically developing children (M age 9.38 yrs). As predicted, specific disadvantages were found in the ADHD group in terms of reaction time, percentage of errors, and efficiency of performance on incongruent relative to congruent trials, providing evidence for weaker interference control in this group.     

An epistemological use of nonstandard analysis to answer Zeno's objections against motion

Three of Zeno's objections to motion are answered by utilizing a version of nonstandard analysis, internal set theory, interpreted within an empirical context. Two of the objections are without force because they rely upon infinite sets, which always contain nonstandard real numbers. These numbers are devoid of numerical meaning, and thus one cannot render the judgment that an object is, in fact, located at a point in spacetime for which they would serve as coordinates. The third objection, an arrow never appears to be moving, is answered by showing that it only applies to a finite number of instants of time. A theory of motion is also advanced; it consists of a finite series of contiguous infinitesimal steps. The theory is immune to Zeno's first two objections because the number of steps is finite and each lies outside the domain of observation. Present motion is hypothesized to be an unobservable process taking place within each step. The fact of motion is apparent through a summing (Riemann integration) of the steps.     

Clinical and theoretical aspects of enactment

Enactment as a concept can serve analytic discourse through its established meaning of an act intended strongly to influence, persuade, or force another to react. We might agree to use the term in two complementary ways: Broadly, enactment can designate all behaviors of both parties in the analytic relationship, even verbal, in consequence of the intensification of the action intent of our words created by the constraints and regressive push induced by the analytic rules and frame. Patient and analyst are vulnerable to falling back on behaviors that actualize their intentions, doing so in ways motivated by and reflecting transference hopes, fears, and compromises shaped in their developmental past. Specifically, enactment can then be defined as those regressive (defensive) interactions between the pair experienced by either as a consequence of the behavior of the other. While nominally an interpersonal perspective, this concept of enactment facilitates more balanced attention to the involvement of both parties and to the intrapsychic dynamics in both that specifically shape their interactions. A clinical vignette illustrates the analyst's contributions to enactment, especially those reflecting his reactivated conflicts and their relation to his theoretical and technical preferences.     

On antithetic and metathetic words in the analytic situation

Freud's view of primal words emphasized their origins in the vocal acquisition of language and their similarity to primary process behavior in young children. Our English vernacular is rich in word play of reversals and antitheses, some words being truly ancient, others originating in the subversions of slang and in the child's penchant for mirror imaging and other primary process play. In the regression of analytic work the uttered word can combine with dream imagery and behavioral enactment to convey the antitheses abounding in the oral, anal, and early phallic concerns of the individuating child acquiring language.