Dreams and COVID-19

This work originates from reflections on the observation of recurring themes in dreams of patients in psychoanalytic treatment during the most restrictive lockdown period in Italy (March - May 2020). The authors focus on the peculiar dialogic state between consciousness and the unconscious that arose following a collective event such as that of the pandemic, which determined the activation of complex personal nuclei, compensatory effects of the unconscious psyche and new perspective functions. These latter aspects are interpreted with reference to the contributions of Erich Neumann, bringing a new psychological vision of the relationship between Man and Nature in relation to catastrophic events.     

Editorial

This paper is a response to William Meredith-Owen’s paper presented at the inaugural joint conference on ‘Alchemy, a bridge to Jung’s objective psyche’, for The Society of Analytical Psychology and the West Midlands Institute of Psychotherapy in autumn 2020. The paper presents a way of understanding the collective unconscious through the functioning of the core self, and thus offers a bridge which addresses the indivisibility of the personal and collective psyche/unconscious, referencing Mary Williams’ (1963) classic paper. Specifically, this is applied to Winnicott’s dream of destruction that he had after reviewing Memories, Dreams, Reflections, as well as to parts of the psyche that were dissociated due to significant early deprivation – the primary narcissistic wounds. Alchemical metaphors are shown to relate to the analytic process, which allows the primitive core self (with its identificatory, participatory, connecting nature), when integrated through relationship, to sink back into the unconscious and function as the Self.     

Affective responses to body stimuli: comparing male and female bodies with cropped heads and masked faces

Three studies were conducted to determine whether headless bodies evoke affective responses that might confound neuroimaging and electrophysiological findings. In Experiment 1, 224 participants rated pictures, including bodies with cropped heads and masked faces, for disgust, fear, naturalness, valence and arousal. In Experiment 2, 38 participants viewed the same images during a free word association task, whilst in Experiment 3 galvanic skin responses were measured as 57 participants completed a similar rating task to that in Experiment 1. No differences were found between responses elicited by bodies without heads versus bodies with masked faces, although female bodies were thought of more positively than male bodies. This suggests that headless bodies are not abhorrent and are appropriate stimuli for investigating body-selective perceptual processes as they do not evoke face-processing mechanisms. Our findings also suggest that differences between male and female body viewing should be considered when investigating visual body perception.     

Probing Representations of Gymnastics Movements: A Visual Priming Study

In this study, we designed a visual short‐term priming paradigm to investigate the mechanisms underlying the priming of movements and to probe movement representations in motor experts and matched controls. We employed static visual stimuli that implied or not human whole‐body movements, that is, gymnastics movements and static positions. Twelve elite female gymnasts and twelve matched controls performed a speeded two‐choice response time task. The participants were presented with congruent and incongruent prime‐target pairs and had to decide whether the target stimulus represented a gymnastics movement or a static position. First, a visual priming effect was observed in the two groups. Second, a stimulus–response rote association could not easily account for our results. Novel primes never presented as targets could also prime the targets. Third, by manipulating three levels of prime‐target relations in moving congruent pairs, we demonstrated that the more similar prime‐target pairs, the greater the facilitation in target. Lastly, gymnastics motor expertise impacted on priming effects.     

Book Reviews

Luc Boltanski, Distant Suffering: Morality, Media and Politics
Stephen Frosh, The Politics of Psychoanalysis: An Introduction to Freudian and Post-Freudian Theory
Dennis Chong, Rational Lives: Norms and Values in Politics and Society
Zsolt Enyedi and Ferenc Erös, Authoritarianism and Prejudice: Central European Perspectives
Stephanie Riger, Transforming Psychology: Gender in Theory and Practice
V. M. Bekhterev, Suggestion and Its Role in Social Life
Ian Glynn, An Anatomy of Thought: The Origins and Machinery of the Mind
David O. Sears, Jim Sidanius, and Lawrence Bobo (eds.), Racialized Politics: The Debate About Racism in America
Philip A. Klinkner with Rogers M. Smith, The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America     

中学力学问题表征体系的动态特征

基于McDenott和Larkin的基本假设,该文提出了力学问题的表征体系,并用口语报告分析法实证研究了力学问题表征体系的动态特征。结果表明：问题解决者在解决力学问题过程中一般将建立4个不同层次的表征,并且在物理和数学表征层次所占时间显著多于在文字和朴素表征层次的时间。     

初中生有无插图课文的眼动过程研究

本研究使用美国应用科学实验室(ASL)生产的4200R型眼动仪,采用2×2的二因素混合设计,对30名初中二年级学生阅读有无插图且难易不同的课文的阅读理解指标和眼动指标进行考察,结果表明(1)初中生阅读有无插图课文的成绩、时间和速度等阅读理解指标,插图课文显著优于无图课文,插图对课文的阅读理解整合具有明显地促进作用;而且注视次数和回视次数等眼动指标插图课文亦显著优于无图课文.(2)初中生阅读易课文的成绩、时间和速度等阅读理解指标不仅显著优于难课文,而且注视次数、眼跳距离和回视次数等眼动指标易课文亦显著优于难课文.