More on Putnam’s models: a reply to Belloti

In an earlier paper, I claimed that one version of Putnam's model-theoretic argument against realism turned on a subtle, but philosophically significant, mathematical mistake. Recently, Luca Bellotti has criticized my argument for this claim. This paper responds to Bellotti's criticisms.     

Democracy,Equality and Toleration

In this paper I comment on a recent “letter” by Burleigh Wilkins addressed to nascent egalitarian democracies which offers advice on the achievement of religious toleration. I argue that while Wilkins’ advice is sound as far as it goes, it is nevertheless underdeveloped insofar as his letter fails to distinguish two competing conceptions of toleration – liberal-pluralist and republican-secularist – both of which are consistent with the advice he offers, but each of which yields very different policy recommendations (as can be seen by consideration of The United States v. Lee in America and, I’affaire du foulard in France). I argue that a democratic society of equals must be committed to liberal-pluralist rather than republican-secularist toleration. Some material in this paper is drawn from Catriona McKinnon, Toleration: A Critical Introduction (London: Routledge, 2006). This paper was written during a Fellowship on the Philosophy Program, School of Advanced Study, University of London. I am grateful to the University of York for a sabbatical term, and the Leverhulme Trust for a Study Abroad Fellowship, during which this paper was written. I would like to thank John Horton and Cécile Laborde for very useful written comments, and two anonymous referees for The Journal of Ethics for their reports.     

Rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen und Behandlungspraxis bei persönlichkeitsgestörten Straftätern in den Niederlanden

Zusammenfassung   Die Behandlung pers?nlichkeitsgest?rter Straft?ter, die in den Niederlanden haupts?chlich dem Ma?regelvollzug obliegt, steht durch die Forderung von Politik und ?ffentlichkeit nach maximaler Sicherheit der Allgemeinheit momentan unter st?ndigem Druck. Gleichzeitig finden im Ma?regelvollzug Entwicklungen statt, die gew?hrleisten sollen, dass der Sektor seine prim?re Aufgabe, die Gesellschaft vor rückfallgef?hrdeten Straft?tern zu schützen, besser erfüllen kann. Dabei wird ebenfalls versucht, den unterschiedlichen Sicherungs- und Behandlungsbedürfnissen der verschiedenen Patientengruppen durch ein differenziertes, wissenschaftlich fundiertes Behandlungsangebot gerecht zu werden. In diesem Beitrag werden die Errungenschaften in der Behandlung psychisch gest?rter Straft?ter beschrieben und es wird erl?utert, inwieweit die Panikmache von Politik und Medien die gemachten Fortschritte zu untergraben droht.      

Jungian theory of dreaming and contemporary dream research – findings from the research project ‘Structural Dream Analysis’

The research method ‘Structural Dream Analysis’ (SDA) is described which allows for systematic and objective analysis of the meaning of dreams produced by patients in Jungian psychotherapies. The method focuses especially on the relationship between the dream ego and other figures in the dream and the extent of activity of the dream ego. Five major dream patterns were identified which accounted for the majority of the dreams. The clients’ dream series were dominated by one or two repetitive patterns which were closely connected to the psychological problems of the dreamers. Additionally, typical changes in the dream series’ patterns could be identified which corresponded with therapeutic change. These findings support Jung's theory of dreams as providing a holistic image of the dreamer’s psyche, including unconscious aspects. The implications for different psychoanalytic theories of dreaming and dream interpretation are discussed as well as implications for the continuity hypothesis.     

Expulsion prevention: Framework for the role of infant and early childhood mental health consultation in addressing implicit biases

Young children of color—especially boys—are at disproportionate risk for suspension and expulsion from early care and education settings. Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) is an approach associated with lower than expected expulsion rates, but the mechanisms through which it may influence preschool expulsion are unknown. This paper reflects on the parallels between IECMHC and interventions created to reduce implicit bias. Based on interviews with leaders in IECMHC practice, implementation, and evaluation, a theoretical framework was created to articulate how IECMHC is hypothesized to affect expulsion by first reducing the influence of implicit bias on disciplinary decisions. Implications for practice and research are provided.     

Behind the (Virtual) Mirror: Online Live Supervision in Couple and Family Therapy

Online therapy and supervision, a rapidly rising practice in couple and family therapy, has been the subject of a growing body of literature. From its early days, family therapy training has included live supervision, which has typically been conducted by a supervisor and a team of trainees situated on the other side of a one-way mirror. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic, we—the staff of supervisors at the Barcai Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel—were compelled to find solutions to continue meeting with clients and to provide supervision for family therapy trainees. To this end, we have shifted our live supervision courses (“practicums”) to the virtual arena, adapting the popular application “Zoom” into what we call “PractiZoom.” Based on over 100 PractiZoom sessions conducted between March and May 2020, involving 14 supervisors and 28 therapists-in-training and their clients, the article reflects on this pioneering online practicum for the online live supervision of therapists with geographically distributed participants. In this article, we outline our operational methods and adaptations for conducting live behind-the-mirror supervision online. Following a short theoretical background, we outline the process of online live supervision, discuss our reflections and those of our trainees on the challenges and possibilities it poses, and offer a number of preliminary conclusions and recommendations.     

An ecological stance on risk and safe behaviors in children: The role of affordances and emergent behaviors

Unintentional injuries are a major cause of disability and death among children. Initial strategies to address child safety issues have primarily either focused on the environment, trying to identify “risk environments”, or on the individual, trying to identify “at risk children”. More recently, the interaction between child and environment is starting to be addressed in order to enhance the understanding of childhood injuries. The present review suggests a framing of these studies in ecological theory, which implies that children with certain characteristics perceive certain affordances in the environment. In this context, risk may be considered a relational concept. The literature on risk prevention is reviewed and the role of caregivers in managing affordances is emphasized.     

Die Behandlung von Borderline-Persönlichkeitsstörungen

Zusammenfassung Bereits 1681 beklagte sich ein englischer Arzt in einem Brief über Patienten, die ohne jedes Ma? jene lieben, die sie alsbald ohne jeden Grund hassen würden. Weiterhin seien pl?tzliche Ausbrüche von Wut, Schmerz, Angst oder ?hnlichen Emotionen zu beobachten. Mit dieser frühen Beschreibung typischer Borderline-Symptome wird die Darstellung der Entwicklung der Theorie der Borderline-St?rung von den Anf?ngen bis heute eingeleitet. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden der Stand der Diagnostik und die derzeit wichtigen Behandlungskonzepte umrissen, und zwar die psychodynamischen, verhaltenstherapeutischen und klientenzentrierten Ans?tze. Es wird dargelegt, welche Antworten es auf die Frage gibt, was das angemessene therapeutische Setting ist, insbesondere mit Blick auf station?re Behandlungskonzepte. Die vorliegenden empirischen Studien best?tigen die Wirksamkeit von Psychotherapie bei Borderline-St?rungen. Die geringe Zahl der Studien belegt aber auch die Schwierigkeit der empirischen Forschung in diesem Bereich. Der abschlie?ende Ausblick in die Zukunft der Psychotherapie der Borderline-Pers?nlichkeitsst?rungen prognostiziert eine weitere Zunahme von Pers?nlichkeitsst?rungen im Spektrum psychiatrischer Erkrankungen und eine zunehmende Differenzierung des Behandlungsangebots bzw. Spezialisierung der Behandler.      

Protophysik und Spezielle Relativitätstheorie

Protophysics and Special Theory of Relativity. First, a proposal for a constructive foundation of the Special Theory of Relativity by M. Buth is criticized and confronted with an alternative proposal by the author. The main idea is to solve the problem of transforming coordinates between inertial systems in terms of the General Theory of Measurement. Regarding transformations of co-ordinates as transformations of thecorresponding “functions of measurement” these functions have to meet two demands. 1. To identify measured values which are related to different inertial systems and measuring procedures as the same magnitude, the ratio scale of length and duration has to be defined with respect to the whole class of inertial systems. 2. Using the concept of a certain physical magnitude, propositions about measuring devices are made which are invariant with respect to measuring procedures. As aconsequence every transformation between functions of measurement has to be an equivalence relation. The first demand leads to linearity, the second one reduces the set of permissible transformations between inertial systems to the alternative of Galilei- and Lorentz-transformation. The (im)possibility of putting an absolute simultaneity into practice decides between these transformations. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Intentional behaviour in dog-human communication: an experimental analysis of “showing” behaviour in the dog

Despite earlier scepticism there is now evidence for simple forms of intentional and functionally referential communication in many animal species. Here we investigate whether dogs engage in functional referential communication with their owners. “Showing” is defined as a communicative action consisting of both a directional component related to an external target and an attention-getting component that directs the attention of the perceiver to the informer or sender. In our experimental situation dogs witness the hiding of a piece of food (or a favourite toy) which they cannot get access to. We asked whether dogs would engage in “showing” in the presence of their owner. To control for the motivational effects of both the owner and the food on the dogs’ behaviour, control observations were also staged where only the food (or the toy) or the owner was present. Dogs’ gazing frequency at both the food (toy) and the owner was greater when only one of these was present. In other words, dogs looked more frequently at their owner when the food (toy) was present, and they looked more at the location of the food (toy) when the owner was present. When both the food (toy) and the owner were present a new behaviour, “gaze alternation”, emerged which was defined as changing the direction of the gaze from the location of the food (toy) to looking at the owner (or vice versa) within 2 s. Vocalisations that occurred in this phase were always associated with gazing at the owner or the location of the food. This behaviour, which was specific to this situation, has also been described in chimpanzees, a gorilla and humans, and has often been interpreted as a form of functionally referential communication. Based on our observations we argue that dogs might be able to engage in functionally referential communication with their owner, and their behaviour could be described as a form of “showing”. The contribution of domestication and individual learning to the well-developed communicative skills in dogs is discussed and will be the subject of further studies. Received: 3 April 2000 / Accepted after revision: 2 September 2000