IRIS MURDOCH AND THE BORDERS OF ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY

Iris Murdoch's philosophical texts depart significantly from familiar analytic discursive norms. (Such as the norms concerning argument structure and the minimization of rhetoric.) This may lead us to adopt one of two strategies. On the one hand an assimilation strategy that involves translation of Murdoch's claims into the more familiar terms of property‐realism (the terminology of ethical naturalism and non‐naturalism). On the other hand, there is the option of adopting a crossover strategy and reading Murdoch as (in some sense) a philosopher who belongs more properly to the continental tradition. The following article argues that if familiar Quinean claims about ontological commitment and Murdoch's account of metaphor are both broadly correct then the assimilation strategy must fail to produce a faithful translation. Nonetheless, Murdoch's connection to the analytic tradition is more than genealogical, it is more than a matter of her writing (initially) in response to analytic contemporaries before branching off in a more continental direction. While she departs from familiar analytic discursive norms, she continues to accept most of the epistemic values (such as clarity and simplicity) that the norms embody.     

Context-dependent brightness priming occurs without visual awareness

Our visual systems account for stimulus context in brightness perception, but whether such adjustments occur for stimuli that we are unaware of has not been established. We therefore assessed whether stimulus context influences brightness processing by measuring unconscious priming with metacontrast masking. When a middle-gray disk was presented on a darker (or brighter) background, such that it could be consciously perceived as brighter (or darker) via simultaneous brightness contrast (SBC), reaction times were significantly faster to a bright (or dark) annulus than to a dark (or bright) annulus. We further show that context-dependent brightness priming does not correlate with visibility using an objective measure of awareness (Experiment 1) and that context-dependent, but not context-independent brightness priming, occurs equally strongly for stimuli below or above the subjective threshold for awareness (Experiment 2). These results suggest that SBC occurs at early levels of visual input and is not influenced by conscious perception.     

Competence to make treatment decisions in anorexia nervosa: thinking processes and values

This paper explores the ethical and conceptual implications of the findings from an empirical study of decision-making capacity in anorexia nervosa. In the study, ten female patients aged 13 to 21 years with a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, and eight sets of parents, took part in semi-structured interviews. The purpose of the interviews was to identify aspects of thinking that might be relevant to the issue of competence to refuse treatment. All the patient participants were also tested using the MacCAT-T test of competence. This is a formalised, structured interviewer-administered test of competence, which is a widely accepted clinical tool for determining capacity. The young women also completed five brief self-administered questionnaires to assess their levels of psychopathology.The issues identified from the interviews are described under two headings: difficulties with thought processing, and changes in values. The results suggest that competence to refuse treatment may be compromised in people with anorexia nervosa in ways that are not captured by traditional legal approaches or current standardised tests of competence.     

Perceived Stress in Young Carers: Development of a Measure

We report the development of a 5-factor, 31-item, Young Carers Perceived Stress Scale (YCPSS) from an initial 50-item pool. The scale was developed and tested on 108 young carers aged between 12–18 years, and acceptable Cronbach Alpha values were obtained for the individual factors and the overall scale. In addition, both the overall scale and individual factors produced a pattern of correlations with social support, burden of care, psychological distress, and coping, supporting the initial validity and utility of the scale.     

The Towers of Silence: creative and destructive issues for therapeutic teams dealing with sexual abuse

Intra-familial sexual abuse of children is a peculiarly potent area for subsequent inter-agency responses and interventions to become inappropriate, irrational, and damaging. A major component of the damaging responses by the inter-agency system is the mirroring processes which occur between that system and the family.
A case example is presented in some detail to illustrate the ways in which such mirroring processes also effect therapeutic teams dealing with such families. Some therapeutic techniques from an experiential base are described. It is argued that productive therapeutic work can only occur if the mirroring processes within the inter-agency system, and the therapeutic team system, are considered systemically.     

An experiment in social engineering in serving the families of predelinquents

One hundred and two predelinquent adolescents were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: an experimental condition in which behavioral contracting services were offered both at home and in school or a control condition in which clients were told that they could not be accommodated by project therapists and were informed about the possibility of their receiving treatment in other programs in the community. Most of those who were assigned to the control condition did not avail themselves of services in these other programs. Results indicate that, relative to the controls, the behaviorally treated youth scored small but statistically significant improvement relative to the controls on five measures: ratings of school behavior by the person who originally referred them for service, by their teachers, by their mothers, and by their fathers, and ratings of their parent—child interactions as measured by their mothers. Gains were also reported in mothers' ratings of their children's behavior at home. The failure of significant gains to be made in two measures of school performance grades and attendance is explained by the failure o f the treatment techniques to over-come an age-related deterioration in these areas found among most children in the participating schools. The failure of fathers to find significant improvement in their relationships with the referred adolescents is viewed as a consequence of unanticipated changes in the intrafamilial balance of power resulting from contracting services. Finally, a subsidiary analysis showed that the contracting service appeared to offer the greatest gain to the demographically defined sub-groups of youths who are among the population-at-risk in many juvenile courts.This study was supported by Grant R01-MH21452 from the Center for Studies of Crime and Delinquency, National Institute of Mental Health. The authors wish to thank L. Nilles, who served as general administrator of this project, and C. Faller, S. Iman, P. Ippel, L. Lott, J. Marsh, C. Stephenson, J. Tanter, D. Virtue, and R. Welter, who served as therapists.     

A family‐therapy approach to child abuse: countering resistance

Abusing and high-risk families have been seen over three years at a new treatment resource with a family therapy orientation. The families present with established resistance to any treatment intervention and many have defeated a succession of previous helping agencies. Initial typology and treatment strategies are described with the aim of more systematic selection of therapeutic techniques.     

The use of co-working (co-therapy) as a training method

This paper formed the basis of a Workshop at the A.F.T. Conference 1981, although the bulk of the theoretical material was not presented in the Workshop. The primary aim of the Workshop itself was to enable participants to think about how they themselves would use the co-working method as a way of training and to test these thoughts out to some extent in role-play.
The experimental part of the Workshop fell into two sections. In the first the aim was for participants to consider in pairs what they might wish to teach by this method and how; and in the second it was intended that they test out in pairs an attempt to teach a specific aspect of family therapy.
In practice members found in the first part some of the difficulties that this method presents, as shown in my research, and thus for the second part they felt it essential to focus on the issue of developing a contract between the two potential co-workers in order to clarify and confirm the nature of the training relationship. This was no doubt as it should be, since there is evidence that to press ahead with trying to teach a method in this close working relationship when there are substantial problems in, or uncertainty about the relationship can be disruptive. Hence the workshop as a whole was much concerned with the nature of the training experience rather than the actual transmission of family therapy skills.