Strategic and cognitive differentiation–integration effort in a study of 76 countries

The phenomena of strategic and cognitive differentiation and integration (SD–IE and CD–IE) amongst life history indicators and cognitive abilities as a function of level of latent life history speed have been robustly demonstrated in individual differences samples. Here we examine a cross-national sample (N = 76 nations) with respect to ten aggregate life history indicators (birth rate, infant mortality, skin reflectance, prevalence of STDs, overall life satisfaction, life expectancy, national IQ, cranial capacity, savings rate and crime rate), all of which share substantive common variance stemming from a K-Super factor which accounts for 66.6% of the variance amongst these indicators. All indicators became significantly less strongly correlated with the super factor as the level of K increased indicating the presence of robust SD–IE effects. A ‘cognitive’ factor comprised of the national IQ and cranial capacity variables also exhibited differentiation as a function of increasing levels of K, suggesting the presence of CD–IE also. Consistently with the findings of individual differences studies investigating SD–IE, the degree to which the indicators loaded on the K super-factor positively mediated their sensitivity to the effect.     

Evidence that stakes don’t matter for evidence

Some philosophers have recently defended anti-intellectualism with respect to knowledge and evidence. In this paper, I assess anti-intellectualism about evidence, which claims a relation between one's evidence and the practical benefits or costs of being right or wrong about the propositions supported by that evidence. Proponents of anti-intellectualism generally regard their view as not at all obvious, but nonetheless strongly supported by appeal to our intuitive judgments about whether particular epistemic properties are instantiated in hypothetical cases. Anti-Intellectualism is thus taken by its proponents to be a surprising truth. I show that, though peoples’ explicit judgments about the general issue of whether or not non-epistemic factors make an epistemic difference are often in line with anti-intellectualism, their judgments about whether particular epistemic properties are instantiated in hypothetical cases do not display a pattern that would clearly support anti-intellectualism about evidence. Thus, anti-intellectualism about evidence is not entirely surprising, and intuitive assessments of hypothetical cases do not clearly support its truth.     

On Murray Jackson's 1961 ‘Chair,couch and countertransference’

One of the problems facing psychoanalysts of all schools is that theory has evolved at a much faster pace than practice. Whereas there has been an explosion of theory, practice has remained, at least officially, static and unchanging. It is in this sense that Murray Jackson's 1961 paper is still relevant today. Despite the rise of the new relational and intersubjective paradigms, most psychoanalysts, and not a few Jungian analysts, still seem to feel that the couch is an essential component of the analytical setting and process. If the use of the couch is usually justified by the argument that it favours regression, facilitates analytical reverie and protects the patient from the influence of the analyst, over time many important psychoanalysts have come to challenge this position. Increasingly these analysts suggest that the use of the couch may actually be incompatible with the newer theoretical models. This contention is strengthened by some of the findings coming from the neurosciences and infant research. This underlines the necessity of empirical research to verify the clinical effectiveness of these different positions, couch or face‐to‐face, but it is exactly this type of research that is lacking.     

Sandplay therapy with couples within the framework of analytical psychology

Sandplay therapy with couples is discussed within an analytical framework. Guidelines are proposed as a means of developing this relatively new area within sandplay therapy, and as a platform to open a wider discussion to bring together sandplay therapy and couple therapy. Examples of sand trays created during couple therapy are also presented to illustrate the transformations during the therapeutic process.     

急性心理性应激对自我参照记忆的影响

已有研究表明急性心理性应激会导致个体的自传体记忆受损,然而急性心理性应激如何影响个体加工当前的自我相关信息,还没有研究结论,本研究旨在丰富和拓展这一领域的研究,从而更加全面深入的了解急性心理性应激对自我相关信息的影响。本研究将自我参照记忆的R/K(记得/知道)范式与特里尔社会应激测试(Trier Social Stress Test:TSST)相结合,考察59名处在不同急性心理性应激状态下的被试自我参照记忆的成绩。结果发现高应激反应组自我参照的R回忆率值显著低于低应激反应组,研究结果发现,被试在特里尔社会应激测试过程中的急性心理性应激反应越强,自我参照的R回忆率越低。结果表明急性心理性应激会抑制个体对当前自我相关信息的加工,削弱了自我参照记忆。     

No evidence of risk-taking or impulsive behaviour in a person with episodic amnesia: Implications for the role of the hippocampus in future-regarding decision-making

Does advantageous decision-making require one to explicitly remember the outcome of a series of past decisions or to imagine future personal consequences of one's choices? Findings that amnesic people with hippocampal damage cannot form a clear preference for advantageous decks over many learning trials on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) have been taken to suggest that complex decision-making on the IGT depends on declarative (episodic) memory and hippocampal integrity. Alternatively, impaired IGT performance in amnesic individuals could be secondary to risk-taking and/or impulsive behaviour resulting from impaired episodic future thinking (i.e. prospection) known to accompany amnesia. We tested this possibility in the amnesic individual K.C. using the IGT and the Toronto Gambling Task (TGT), a novel task that dissociates impulsivity from risk-taking without placing demands on declarative memory. K.C. did not develop a preference for advantageous over disadvantageous decks on the IGT and, instead, showed a slight preference for short-term gains and an inability to acquire a more adaptive appreciation of longer-term losses. He also did not display impulsive or risk-taking behaviour on the TGT, despite a profound inability to imagine personal future experiences. These findings suggest that impaired decision-making on the IGT in amnesia is unlikely to reflect a predilection to act in the moment or failure to take future consequences into account. Instead, some forms of future-regarding decision-making may be dissociable, with performance on tasks relying on declarative learning or on episodic-constructive processes more likely to be impaired.     

Sitting through the emptiness

This article explores clinical encounters with experiences of the ‘empty ego’ which arise from early relational trauma. The ego’s emptiness is held in repetitious complexes and arises out of affectively charged experiences between self and other which remain split-off from awareness. This kind of consciousness is viewed as dualistic, separating non-dual subjectivity from its dualistic objects of consciousness. In contrast, what I am calling healing void states of non-dualistic consciousness, when admitted to awareness, allow the individual to dis-identify from the traumatizing representations of self and other through an experience of non-duality. In contrast to an objectified, dualistic emptiness of the ego, healing void states come about in moments of non-dual, unified consciousness. These states occur in the ego-Self relationship by linking the ego’s dualistic awareness in chronic subject/object splits to ones of non-dual pure consciousness. The healing void state is always incipiently present and potentially able to bridge the ego-Self connection in bogged-down treatment. The paper explores potential integrations with non-dual models of consciousness such as Vedantic and Kashmir Shaivism, among other mystical traditions. A combined Vedantic-Jungian understanding can provide a transcendent bridge that integrates Eastern concepts of non-duality in treating emptiness.     

编码意识对注意促进效应的影响——基于R/K范式的研究

注意促进效应指学习阶段采用目标探测性质的二级任务,不仅不会降低同时呈现的背景信息的编码加工,反而会促进其记忆。为进一步探究对背景信息的编码意识是否会影响该效应,本研究设置了有意与无意两种编码条件,并引入“记得/知道”判断进一步将再认区分为回想和熟悉性。结果表明,无意编码下也会产生ABE,但不同的编码条件下,目标探测所促进的背景信息的编码加工存在差异。有意编码条件下,目标探测促进的更多是对背景信息的精细加工,而无意编码条件下,目标探测促进的更多是对背景信息的知觉加工。     

Imaginal action: towards a Jungian conception of enactment,and an extraverted counterpart to active imagination

This theoretical paper considers the fashion in which Jung's psychology radically challenges modern assumptions concerning the nature of subjectivity. With an eye for the clinical implications of Jung's late work, the author introduces the idea of imaginal action. In order to explain what is meant by this, the paper begins by exploring how Jung's thinking demonstrates an underlying bias towards introversion. It is argued that while Jung's interest in synchronicity ultimately resulted in his developing a worldview that might address the introverted biases of his psychology, the clinical implications of this shift have not been sufficiently clarified. With reference to some short examples from experience, the author outlines a conception of relational synchronicity wherein the intrapsychic emerges non‐projectively within the interpersonal field itself. Comparing and contrasting these occurrences to the more introverted practice of active imagination, it is claimed that such a notion is implicit in Jung's work and is needed as a corrective to his emphasis on interiority. The author suggests that imaginal action might be conceived as a distinctly Jungian approach to the psychoanalytic notion of enactment. It is also shown how the idea outlined might find further support from recent developments in the field of transpersonal psychology.