Wolfhart Pannenberg's Engagement with the Natural Sciences

Wolfhart Pannenberg's engagement with the natural sciences is surveyed. A critique is given of his treatment of these themes: the concept of a field; contingency; the role of the future.     

Strategies of semantic categorization in the cerebral hemispheres

Strategies of semantic categorization in intact cerebral hemispheres were studied in two experiments by presenting names of typical and atypical category instances to the left visual field (LVF) (right hemisphere) or to the right visual field (RVF) (left hemisphere). The results revealed that the typicality of instances had a large effect on categorization times in the LVF in both experiments, suggesting that the right hemisphere relies strongly on a holistic, similarity-based comparison strategy. In Experiment 1, the typicality effect was weaker in the RVF than in the LVF. In Experiment 2, a typicality effect in the RVF was observed for the "four-footed animal" category but not for the "bird" category. The hypothesis that the left hemisphere employs a strategy based on defining or necessary features is not supported by the observed typicality effect in the "four-footed animal" category. Instead, it is suggested that the left hemisphere may be able to categorize on the basis of prestored instance-category knowledge. When such knowledge is not available (e.g., as for four-footed animals), a similarity-based comparison strategy is employed by the left hemisphere.     

Critical Notice

Book reviewed in this article:
Alister, Ian and Hauke, Christopher (eds.), Contemporary Jungian Analysis. Post-Jungian Perspectives from the Society of Analytical Psychology     

Generosity: a psychological and interpersonal motivational factor of therapeutic relevance

This paper examines the role of generosity in analysis. Generosity represents a complex constellation of cognitions and affects that is antithetical to those states of super-ego harshness that characterize many forms of human psychopathology. In development, generosity is evoked by idealization, and a dynamic axis of idealization-generosity promotes relational proximity between the child and its caretakers, and eventually fosters separation and individuation. Generosity is highly sensitive to adverse conditions, and requires environmental conditions that are conducive to psychosomatic well-being. The imaginal basis of generosity is rooted in the myth of the 'hero and the return', which is the mythic foundation of the analyst's role as psychopomp. It is argued that the generosity of the analyst is a cardinal therapeutic factor in treatment.     

The lateral effects of Dohsa-method relaxation on visual and auditory responses

The effects of relaxation training, using the Dohsa method, on visual and auditory responses were examined. Twelve college students underwent relaxation training either to the left shoulder, left side of the waist, and the left foot, or to the right side. The measures used in this study were weight-bearing, body perception and external perception, visual field, and visual and hearing acuity. Weight-bearing significantly increased for the foot undergoing relaxation training, compared with the untreated foot, indicating that the subjects stood more firmly on the ground on the relaxed foot. Subjects could also perceive positive changes in their "sense of standing firmly on the ground,""sense of activity in the body,""sense of muscular relaxation," and "sense of fullness in the abdomen" on the side of the body receiving relaxation training. There were positive changes in external perception such as "vividness of the external world,""breadth of the visual field," and "active impression of the external world" for subjects' vision on the side receiving relaxation training. Furthermore, visual and hearing acuity on the side on which relaxation training was administered improved significantly.     

Books received

Analytical Psychology
Guggenbühl, Allan., The Incredible Fascination of Violence: Dealing with Aggression and Brutality Among Children.
Bradway, Kay & McCoard, Barbara., Sandplay – Silent Workshop of the Psyche.
Psychoanalysis
Segal, Hanna., Psychoanalysis, Literature and War.
Psychotherapy
White, Andy., Going Mad to Stay Sane – The Psychology of Self-Destructive Behaviour.
Reeve, Gillian & Nesbitt, Jo., The Desperate Woman's Guide to Therapy.
Miscellaneous
Schmidt Neven, Ruth., Emotional Milestones – From Birth to Adulthood: A Psychodynamic Approach.     

管理人员对影响新产品开发决策宏观动力场因素的认知

在先前一系列研究的基础上,利用问卷考察了管理人员对宏观动力场因素不确定性质的认知,它涉及全国三个地区１２１名管理人员和１５家工厂企业。研究证实了从管理人员角度看,宏观因素变化性的主要维度是波动性、趋势性和时距性,经营信息不确定度、外部管理与招工不确定度、供应与公关不确定度,构成了总的动力场不确定性。最后,研究管理人员的认知结构对新产品开发决策具有的理论意义和实践意义。     

The Unreal Child1

Unrepresented mental states lead to an impaired ability to feel emotions and trust in oneself, one’s history and in the world. The article explores the question of how representations of oneself and the relevant other, the mother, become possible in the course of therapy when dissociative processes previously made this impossible, and what role unconscious communication plays in the analytic realm. This question will be explored by examining the theories of André Green, Philip Bromberg, and Howard Levine.     

Identity and Difference: A Hundred Years of Analytic Philosophy

At its origins, analytic philosophy is an interest in language, science, logic, analysis, and a systematic rather than a historical approach to philosophical problems. Early analytic philosophers were famous for making clear conceptual distinctions and for couching them in comprehensible and lucid sentences. It is argued that this situation is changing, that analytic philosophy is turning into its mirror image and is thereby becoming more like the kind of philosophy that it used to oppose.