Spontaneity: a psychoanalytic inquiry

Abstract

This paper examines the experience of consulting to experiential groups and endeavours to draw some conclusions about this significant element in training.     

Participatory Policy-Making,Participatory Civil Society: A Key for Dissolving Elite Rule in New Democracies in the Era of Globalization

The author argues that in democracies a strong state and strong civil society are not mutually exclusive. Only a democratic, legitimate, and strong state can provide the environment for civil society activities to flourish; in return, only a strong and a participatory civil society can outline the reach of state strength vis-à-vis the society. The author discusses the need for civil society organizations to collaborate with policy-making institutions, in which they can negotiate policy concerns with ministers and officials while retaining an independent distance from the state and the political parties. Further, the author argues that an environment as such would provide for the transformative capacity of human agency to manifest itself in full in a globalizing world. The author discusses how participatory state and civil society structures will enhance the role of the human agency in order to dissolve elite rule, especially in new democracies.     

Memory for Faces, Shoes, and Objects by Deaf and Hearing Signers and Hearing Nonsigners

The visual spatial memory of 15 deaf signers, 15 hearing signers, and 15 hearing nonsigners for shoes, faces, and verbalizable objects was measured using the game Concentration. It was hypothesized that the deaf and hearing signers would require fewer attempts than the hearing nonsigners on the shoes and faces tasks because of their experience of using a visual-spatial language; and, in the case of the Deaf, also possibly, due to a compensatory mechanism. It was also hypothesized that memory for shoes would be more like that for faces than for simple objects. It was also anticipated that there would be no difference between the three group's memories for verbalizable objects. Deaf signers were found to be similar to hearing signers, both of whom were better than hearing nonsigners on the faces and shoes tasks. Generally, performance on the faces and shoes tasks was similar and followed the same pattern for the three groups. The three groups performed at a similar level on the objects task. There were no gender differences.     

The statistical interaction of cerebral specialization and integration in the interpretation of dynamic brain images

Two constructs of brain function, namely cerebral specialization and integration, have been examined in the analysis of blood flow and metabolic function resulting from dynamic imaging procedures. The purpose of the current paper is to illustrate the interaction of these two constructs at the statistical level. Because of the statistical interaction, it is argued that the currently accepted statistical evidence for cerebral specialization is, in fact, partially a function of the degree of regional cerebral integration. Therefore, found asymmetries of flow or rate may be solely a function of cerebral integration. These points are discussed with respect to developing a better understanding of stimulus/brain/behavior relations.     

Duration discrimination is better with food access as the signal than with light as the signal

In Experiment 1 a go/no-go discrimination procedure was used to compare control of five pigeons' keypecking by food-access duration with control by light duration. Pecks to an illuminated key were reinforced with grain following 10-sec presentations of food access or houselight, but not after 5-sec presentations of either stimulus. Each subject discriminated food-access duration faster and to a greater degree than light duration. In four between-subject replications, pigeons discriminated food-access duration better than the duration of a localized light, the feeder light and a keylight, and with either water or food as reinforcement. In Experiment 2 control by durations of food access and light was compared using a conditional right-left choice procedure (two pigeons), and a delayed symbolic matching-to-sample procedure (six pigeons). Under both, choice accuracy again was higher on food-access trials. The results of Experiment 3, in which two pigeons received generalization trials with durations of food access and light that were intermediate to the training values, confirmed that responding was controlled by the duration dimension of both food access and light. The superior control by food access is consistent with previous evidence that food is an effective and memorable stimulus, possibly because of its biological importance. These results also provided empirical support for the commonly made assumption that stimuli differ in effectiveness. As well, the results show that the stimulus to be discriminated can play an important role in the accuracy of duration disciminations, a fact which has implications for the study of temporal discriminations in animals.     

Developmental reversal in classification accuracy due to an increase with age in orientation-free judgments.

A complete developmental reversal in accuracy was obtained in Experiment I in which third graders, sixth graders, and adults judged the class membership of patterns presented in a same-different task. An examination of the task requirements and pattern classes employed led to the hypothesis that the reversal in accuracy resulted from an increase with age in orientation-free judgments. The results of Experiment II, in which adults were told to not rotate the patterns, and Experiment III, which was a replication of Experiment I using symmetric rather than areally skewed pattern classes, provided confirmation for that hypothesis.     

Generalized imitative affection: Relationship to prior kinds of imitation training

Two experiments utilizing first- and second-grade Canadian children showed that generalized imitative physical affection was most facilitated by prior imitative physical contact training (as opposed to verbal contact training) when the object of the affection was either a toy teddy bear, Experiment I, or an adult human, Experiment II.Additional findings from Experiment I showed that generalized imitative physical aggression was equally facilitated by imitative physical contact training and that punishment, as well as extinction operations applied to training imitations, resulted in suppression of all generalized imitations with no differential effect of punishment on affection or aggression being noted.The lack of any persisting imitations in a control group in Experiment II, which received noncontingent reinforcement but instructional prompting for training imitations, suggested that instructional control of imitation responses was initially weak and that the contingency between reinforcement and training imitations was critical for continued occurrence of training imitations and any occurrence of generalized physical affection imitations.     

The social unconscious in clinical work

An analyst who is unaware of the constraints of social facts and forces will be insensitive to their unconscious recreation within therapeutic situations, and unable to provide space for patients to imagine how their identities have been formed at particular social and political junctures. The concepts of the social unconscious and of equivalence are defined and located within the traditions of Group Analysis and British Object Relations Theory. A model of maturity is outlined, the central element of which is the willingness and ability to take the role of citizen. These ideas are illustrated with clinical vignettes from psychoanalysis and group analysis.     

Variants of uncertainty

In contrast to formal theories of judgement and decision, which employ a single notion of probability, psychological analyses of responses to uncertainty reveal a wide variety of processes and experiences, which may follow different rules. Elementary forms of expectation and surprise in perception are reviewed. A phenomenological analysis is described, which distinguishes external attributions of uncertainty (disposition) from internal attributions of uncertainty (ignorance). Assessments of uncertainty can be made in different modes, by focusing on frequencies, propensities, the strength of arguments, or direct experiences of confidence. These variants of uncertainty are associated with different expressions in natural language; they are also suggestive of competing philosophical interpretations of probability.