The Open-Ended Legacy of Ralph Wendell Burhoe

Through cultivating my thinking, along with that of many others, Ralph Burhoe taught me to understand myself in relational terms. He helped me to appreciate religious traditions on scientific grounds and to see how religion adapts to changing conditions even as it continues to provide meaning and guidance to the wider culture. He restored my belief in an ever-present sovereign God when God is understood in terms of function and system.     

Physiologic and motor conditioning and generalization in children with minimal brain dysfunction

Twenty-six children diagnosed as having minimal brain dysfunctions (MBD) were compared with 26 controls in a conditinoing and generalization procedure. Skin resistance, heart rate, and muscle action potentials were monitored throughout. Success involved learning which of two tones signalled the accessibility of a penny. Whereas 92 per cent of controls reached the criterion of five successive correct responses, only 62 per cent of MBD’s did. Further, a third of the MBD’s were so maladaptive as to force procedural variations, while only a few minor irregularities occurred with the controls. Quality of performance was related to age, intelligence, and ability to discriminate and remember tones. Controls were more physiologically reactive than MBD’s, especially in skin resistance. Physiologic differentiation of the two tones was significant in both groups of children and appeared concurrently with motor differentiation. The only evidence of physiologic generalization was in the SR data of controls. The possibility that defective arousal structures, or defective coupling of arousal structures and other perceptual and motor structures, could account for the decreased physiologic reactivity, short attention spans, and poor concentration ofsome MBD’s is discussed. This research, in conformity with other laboratory studies of the brain, indicates that motivational as well as cognitive defects may be organically based.     

The symptomatic psychosis of Friedrich Nietzsche, made evident by his last attempt at an autobiography

Nietzsche's autobiography gestates neither conflicts, nor life problems, nor matter suppressed from his subconscious, nor are the speech distortions of the schizophrenic patient to be found. In all, analysis allows with certainty the conclusion that is was written by a sick person suffering from a psycho-organic disorder of the kind Bonhoeffer referred to by the general term "symptomatic psychosis".     

Irma--Emma--Martha--Anna. Some additional comments on presentations by K. R. Eissler and H. Thom?

The author re-examines the significance of the Emma-Eckstein-episode and the Irma-dream with their implications for the theory of psychoanalysis. He follows Eissler and contradicts Schur in his argument that the identity of Irma with Emma cannot be proven and is, in any case, improbable. Neither the proof nor the refutation of this identity are of vital significance for psychoanalytic theory, but only for the suppression of dynamic psychiatry in favour of biological psychiatry.     

DAVID BOHM, POSTMODERNISM, AND THE DIVINE

Abstract. This is an exposition and critique of physicist David Bohm's theory of wholeness and the implicate order in light of the wider emerging postmodern consciousness. Postmodernity is defined primarily as advocacy for wholistic thinking over against the alleged fragmentation characteristic of the modern mind since Rene Descartes and Isaac Newton. When Bohm attempts to unite all things in the explicate order with his implicate "multidimensional ground," theological questions are raised and, in this article, addressed. The thesis is advanced that there is no whole which presently exists, meaning that the future is presently open, and that the unity of the cosmos awaits the eschatological act of God.     

THE “GHOSTS” OF IRAS PAST AND THE CHANGING CULTURAL CONTEXT OF RELIGION AND SCIENCE

Beginning with our cosmic ancestors and the 1950s ancestors of Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS, the “Ghosts”), this essay highlights the wider, post‐World War II cultural context, including other science and religion organizations, in which IRAS was formed. It then considers eight challenges from today's context. From the context of science there are (1) the challenge of scale that leads us to question our place in the scheme of things and can lead to a challenge to morale concerning whether we make any difference; (2) the challenge of human variability that leads to the question whether there is a single human moral nature; and (3) the challenge of detailed explanation that leads to the question of what is the task of theology in relation to detailed scientific explanation. From the religion context there are (4) the challenge of objectivity—studying religion without practicing religion; and (5) the challenge of pluralism and the variety of cultural and religious perspectives. From the context of the growing and diverse science‐and‐religion enterprise, considered from the perspective of IRAS developed in the first part of this essay, there are the challenges of (6) apologetics and (7) intellectualization. Finally, from the context of our growing, worldwide consumerist culture that is contributing to the radical alteration of the planetary environment, leading to much suffering, there is (8) the challenge of becoming more motivated to act for the long‐term global good.     

Nonjudgment as a moderator of the relationship between present-centered awareness and borderline features: Synergistic interactions in mindfulness assessment

The symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) have been characterized as deficits in mindfulness. Mindfulness can be defined as nonjudgmental, present-centered awareness. The present study investigates the theory that, consistent with this conceptualization, the extent to which acting with awareness predicts reduced BPD features and related dysfunction depends upon levels of nonjudgment. In a sample of 223 undergraduates, we calculated the interaction between awareness-based and nonjudging-based mindfulness skills using subscales of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire. Regression analyses demonstrated a significant effect of the interaction on several difficulties that are common in BPD: problems with relationships, emotion-related impulsivity, and anger rumination. For acting with awareness to benefit individuals with these difficulties, a less judgmental stance toward internal experiences may be necessary. These findings have significant treatment implications and demonstrate the importance of assessing mindfulness as a multifaceted, synergistic construct.