On the nature and standing of psychoanalytic psychotherapy

In this paper, I offer some reflections on the standing of psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the National Health Service (NHS), with special reference to contemporary forms of evidence-based thinking. I consider what may follow when a narrow view of science or psychotherapeutic practice becomes conventional wisdom and assumes dominance. I place stress on the potential loss to NHS psychology and psychiatry if psychoanalytic psychotherapy becomes increasingly marginalized on the one hand, or overly standardized on the other.     

Towards a new method for bridging the gap between “smart” infants and “dumb” preschoolers

Based on violation-of-expectation (VoE) paradigms, amazing cognitive competencies have been demonstrated in young infants, which could not be shown in toddlers or even preschoolers. This divergence might as much be caused by different research methods as by discontinuities in development. As looking-time measures are not readily applicable to older children, we suggest a new method that is suitable for children from two years of age onwards. In an empirical examination of this method, 26 children aged 2–7 years learned by trial and error to always find a target picture among a pair of pictures. Each target picture was an impossible version of the non-target picture. After reaching a learning criterion, children had to generalize the learned concept to pictures belonging to a different category. Results showed that even the youngest participants reached the learning criterion and were able to apply what they had learned to another category.     

Clara and William Stern's conception of a developmental science

Clara and William Stern were two pioneers of developmental psychology who are now almost forgotten, although their works have miraculously survived war and exile. The Sterns' theoretical conception of development and their extensive empirical work were inspired by the new discipline of child psychology which had been established in the nineteenth century. In this contribution we present the Sterns' academic work in developmental psychology with the aim of setting a counterbalance to the present mainstream in this discipline. We wish to show that it is certainly worthwhile to take a look back into history, and that “old” does not necessarily mean “obsolete”.     

Happiness,inspiration and the fully functioning person: Separating hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in the workplace

The study investigates the idea that feeling good and functioning well-being are regulated by two different mechanisms: hedonic and eudaimonic. At the state level it is assumed that happiness is a hedonic feeling typically experienced when life is easy or a goal is reached. Inspiration is a eudaimonic feeling typically experienced when facing challenges in the process of goal attainment. At the trait level, we assume that personal growth is connected with eudaimonic rather than hedonic mechanisms. These assumptions were confirmed with data from 465 employees of the Occupational Health Services in Norway using day reconstruction method. Multilevel analyses showed that complex work situations increased inspiration and decreased happiness. Personal growth had a stronger effect on inspiration than on happiness. Our results support the idea that pleasant feelings (hedonia) and optimal functioning (eudaimonia) have different roles to play in the regulation of behavior, and therefore need to be distinguished from one another.     

Ethics: universal or global? The trends in studies of ethics in the context of globalization

The article discusses how theory and practice in global ethics affect each other. First, the author explores how the study of ethics has changed in the era of globalization and ponders what the role of the field of study of global ethics is in this context. Second, she wants to show how the logical fallacies in widening study field of ethics produce false polarizations between facts and value judgements in social ethics made in various cultural contexts. She further elaborates how these false polarizations prevent constructive cross-cultural and transnational discussions on ethical guidelines and principles that are needed to produce joint action (plans) to deal with serious ethical issues globally and nationally. Finally, the paper argues that in order to find a way to solve our shared complex ethical problems in global context, we need to get back to basics by focusing on the method of ethics, that is, self-critical and logical analysis of sound argumentation and justification of our values and moral principles.     

Explanations for cultural differences in thinking: Easterners’ dialectical thinking and Westerners’ linear thinking

ABSTRACT

Since Easterners’ naïve dialectical thinking, which is contrasted with Westerners’ linear thinking, was introduced, many cross-cultural studies on human thinking have been conducted, and explanations for the cultural differences have been proposed. First, after examining the robustness of these cultural differences, two existing explanations are discussed in this paper. The first is based on the discinction between Westerners' analytic cognition and Easterners' holistic cogntion. This is related to the distinction between Westerners’ independent self and Easterners’ interdependent self. The second is based on the philosophical tradition of China’s Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, which is contrasted with that of Ancient Greece. Second, we propose a new explanation based on the distinction between Westerners’ low-context culture and Easterners’ high-context culture (Beyond culture. Garden City, NJ: Anchor Books/Doubleday.). Finally, we show that this distinction can be based on socioecological approaches, and it is expected to explain the cultural differences between the Chinese and Japanese.     

Philosophy of Science and History3 of Science: A Non Troubling Interaction

Cassandra Pinnick and George Gale (Journal for General Phisophy of Science 31, 109–125) examined the post-Lakatos period of historical cum philosophical case studies and concluded that a new methodology is required. Lakatos' proposed ‘history₂’ (the theory- and value-laden reconstruction of history₁, the set of historical events) was criticised. Recently a group of scholars have been pursuing a methodology which could be described as history ₃, a history₁ account of the interaction between the significant scientific papers published during the time period in question and their scientific audience. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

阅读马克思的三种方式

朴素式阅读把阅读仅仅视作一个直观地看和读的过程,似乎面对马克思的文本,无需任何理论和现实的中介,它不曾考虑过阅读本身,包括阅读者的知识储备和理论旨趣,所阅读文本的语言和风格,阅读的场景和节奏,等等。征候式阅读把阅读视作一种生产,关注文本中的空白、沉默和缺漏,认为能够看得见什么,看不见什么,不是由主体的视觉决定的。而是由问题结构决定的。互文式阅读面向未来,在文本与文本、科学与修辞、写实与象征之间自由跳跃,要求多角度的阅读和阐释,不断生发出新的意义。