内丹术的文化误读

中国的内丹术并不神秘,它是一种把意识集中在“天心”（即两目之间的位置）,自我观察和自我调节的心理训练方法。荣格认为,中国的内丹术是一种有助于意识与无意识对话,消除冲突的艺术,这仿佛是一个意识或人格重生的过程。一些人把内丹术解释为“气功”,把心理调节的技能解释为物理的疗法,把自我的调节或内隐的行为解释为向外发送的疗法是一种文化性的错误路线。     

Split Self Affairs and Their Treatment

SUMMARY

The Split Self Affair is a long-term serious relationship. The split being played out in the affair reflects an internal split between doing things “right” and the emotional self. Treatment for those involved centers on understanding the origins of the internal split and on reclaiming the neglected emotional self. Long term individual therapy is the treatment of choice, augmented by other modalities.     

Syllable monitoring in internally and externally generated English words

The ability of English speakers to monitor internally and externally generated words for syllables was investigated in this paper. An internal speech monitoring task required participants to silently generate a carrier word on hearing a semantically related prompt word (e.g., reveal—divulge). These productions were monitored for prespecified target strings that were either a syllable match (e.g., /dai/), a syllable mismatch (e.g., /daiv/), or unrelated (e.g., /hju:/) to the initial syllable of the word. In all three experiments the longer target sequence was monitored for faster. However, this tendency reached significance only when the longer string also matched a syllable in the carrier word. External speech versions of each experiment were run that yielded a similar influence of syllabicity but only when the syllable match string also had a closed structure. It was concluded that any influence of syllabicity found using either task reflected the properties of a shared perception-based monitoring system.     

试论陈致虚的道教易学思想

本文主要分析了陈致虚道教易学的内丹学思想的理论特色。陈致虚以《周易》之理来建构其内丹学的思想体系,提出了“易只阴阳两件物事”、“易之道道数也”、“易之道统乎天心”等三条道教内丹学的原则。认为道教内丹修炼是法天地阴阳造化生生之理而进行的,天地造化就是太极或道的展开过程,修道即是要回复到道本身。而天地造化之功不离阴阳两件物事,所以,内丹修炼不离阴阳。“阴阳”为道之纲纪,向道复归的路径为“逆”,“天心”即天地造化生生的节度和有序性,内丹修炼通过调和“阴阳”,以“逆”的方式法“天心”而施功,便能参赞天地之化育,以论还丹。陈致虚通过“援易入道”,在对本体之道的理解、修持的原理、证道的方法等内丹学的重要理论问题上作出了具有特色的阐述,为宋元时期成熟的道教内丹学的理论体系的建立作出了贡献。     

Written on the body: Deliberate self-harm as communication

The inability to manage distress would be problematic at any time; but it is especially problematic when distress is accompanied by (or made up of) feelings of rage, cruelty and self-hatred. I will argue here that people who self-harm are communicating rage and hostility to themselves and others in ways that often leave them frustrated and hopeless; and leave professional carers aghast. I will conclude with some ideas about psychological therapies that may help such people; drawing very much upon the work of colleagues in the forensic psychotherapy field: especially Anne Aiyegbusi (2004 Aiyegbusi, A. 2004. “Forensic mental health nursing: Care with security in mind”. In A matter of security: The application of attachment theory to forensic psychiatry and psychotherapy, Edited by: Pfafflin, F. and Adshead, G. 167–192. London: Jessica Kingsley.  [Google Scholar]), Anna Motz (2008 Motz, A. 2008. The psychology of female violence: Crimes against the body, 2nd edn, Hove: Brunner Routledge.  [Google Scholar], 2009 Motz, A. 2009. Managing self harm: Psychological perspectives, London: Routledge.  [Google Scholar]) and Estela Welldon (1992).     

The infant and the infinite: On psychoanalytic faith – Bion,Meltzer and Kierkegaard

This paper discusses the meaning of psychoanalytic faith as a useful developmental concept, which applies to the therapeutic process in the consulting room as to other intimate educational experiences. Faith is a concept which has been little considered in relation to psychoanalysis, partly owing to semantic confusion with ‘the Faith’ as in religious or psychoanalytic dogma, and partly owing to the difficulty of defining or describing what it is, outside accepted jargon. Yet, faith is traditionally the gateway to experiencing the unknown – a psychoanalytic goal-demanding negative capability. It is suggested that philosophy and poetry, where the concept is more familiar, can provide psychoanalytic parallels for this particular type of learning from experience. The viewpoints of Bion, Meltzer and Kierkegaard are taken as contributing to a picture of how, in the psychoanalytic session, there may be a developmental encounter between the infant (patient) and the infinite (the transference process, rather than the analyst as a person).     

The Failure to Contain: How Persecutory Anxieties Contribute to Noncompliance in Adult Patients with Congenital Chronic Pain Conditions

ABSTRACT

Patients with sickle-cell disease suffer from lifelong pain. Many prefer to receive emergent rather than managed health care, which results in these people being termed “noncompliant.” This paper explores the contributing factors of such noncompliance in the adult patient with painful chronic illness. In the earliest stages of development, internal pain is attributed to external origins, and the effects of this on the psyche are analogous to those of physical abuse. When the infant's pain cannot be contained, projective identification and persecutory anxieties become deeply ingrained. Interventions that focus on healing from trauma and building trust are preferable to those which most value immediate compliance, as the patterns of behavior are so firmly entrenched.     

Internal Forces During Static Prehension: Effects of Age and Grasp Configuration

The authors studied effects of healthy aging on 3 components of the internal force vector during static prehensile tasks. Young and older subjects held an instrumented handle using a 5-digit prismatic grasp under different digit configurations and external torques. Across digit configurations, older subjects showed larger internal normal (grip) and tangential (load-resisting) digit force components and larger internal moment of force. In contrast to earlier reports, safety margin values were not higher in the older subjects. The results show that the increased grip force in older persons is a specific example of a more general age-related problem reflected in the generation of large internal force vectors in prehensile tasks. It is possible that the higher internal forces increase the apparent stiffness of the hand+handle system and, hence, contribute to its stability. This strategy, however, may be maladaptive, energetically wasteful, and inefficient in ensuring safety of hand-held objects.