In situ characterization of the martensitic transformation temperature of NiTi shape memory alloys via instrumented microindentation

A novel, instrumented microindentation technique was successfully used to measure the temperature associated with the martensitic transformation leading to the recovery of plastic strain in a Nickel–Titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloy. Following a standard indentation cycle, the indenter was partially unloaded such that a good contact was maintained between indenter and specimen surface. The onset and finish temperature of the martensitic transformation, the associated volume contraction, and the amount of the recovered plastic deformation were determined by quantifying the indenter displacement as a function of temperature. These experiments were compared to conventional measurements of the transformation temperature by differential scanning calorimetry and compression testing.     

The Spiral Template: The Revolution in the Evolution From Simple to Complex Systems

Change is an inborn trait of all organisms at every level of existence. This article proposes that the evolution of all life follows a course as if bound by a guiding principle or template. Overcoming disorder and entropy through diversity, this template has the properties of a spiral force, which acts to maintain continuity during change and transitions, and operates at all levels, from the simplest of forms to the most complex. Drawing from Chaos Theory, biology, depth psychology, and Buddhism, the spiral template is presented as a new vision of reality guiding scientific and spiritual perspectives toward evolutionary wholeness.     

The changing UK careers landscape: tidal waves,turbulence and transformation

ABSTRACT

This article explores how the UK careers landscape in each of the four home nations is changing in response to neo-liberal policies. In this context, careers services are increasingly under pressure to demonstrate their added value, impact and returns on investment. As fiscal arrangements tighten and governments state their preferences and priorities for national careers services, differing strategic responses are beginning to emerge. A quasi-market, experimental approach is now the dominant discourse in England, in contrast to differing and complementary arrangements in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The article suggests that insofar as these developments are transforming national careers services, they are also creating significant challenges which require new forms of policy imagery and imagination for high-impact, all-age careers services.     

Transformational education for psychotherapy and counselling: a relational dynamic approach

ABSTRACT

An evolving relational dynamic approach to psychotherapy and counselling education is described. Key themes integrated within the approach are the learning community and transformational relationships. Learning is a reciprocal change process involving students, teachers, supervisors and therapists in overlapping learning communities. Drawing on evidence that effective outcomes in therapy correlate with effective aspects of the therapeutic relationship, the relational dynamic approach emphasises the findings of attachment and intersubjectivity theorists. The intersubjective matrix of infant/caregiver and client/therapist is mirrored and embodied in the relational ethos of training and actively engaged in group supervision. An emphasis on embodied relating is discussed, drawing on infancy studies and recent neuroscientific findings     

On questioning being: Foucault’s Heideggerian turn

Attempts to resolve the question of Foucault’s relationship to Heidegger usually look for points of substantive correlation between them: the coincidence of being and power, the meaning of truth, technology, ethics, and so on. Taking seriously Foucault’s claim in his final interview that he uses Heidegger as an ‘instrument of thought’, this paper looks for a correlation in practice. The argument focuses on a structural isomorphism between Heidegger’s concept of the fourfold event (Ereignis) of being and later Foucault’s critique of ‘problematization’ (problématique). This isomorphism, I argue, indicates a covert philosophical confrontation between Foucault and Heidegger, which was determinative for Foucault in the period of the turn to ethics (1976–84). This is a confrontation over the meaning of the ‘event of thought’. Such an interpretation not only permits a literal reading of Foucault’s comments regarding Heidegger in his final interview, but also casts the developments in Foucault’s later work in a fascinating new light. Foucault’s critique of problematization, on this view, is founded in an historicized version of Heideggerian ‘other’ thinking, and pivots on a ontologically tempered enactment of the Heideggerian turn (Kehre).     

A study of posttraumatic spiritual transformation and forgiveness among victims of significant interpersonal offences

Forgiveness and spiritual transformation, both gain and decline, may follow being victimised. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of forgiveness in posttraumatic spiritual transformation following interpersonal offences. One hundred forty-six participants who had been “significantly wronged” by another person completed measures of event-related distress, forgiveness, and spiritual transformation. Results showed that spiritual growth was positively related to the personal importance of religion. Event-related distress and unforgiveness were positively correlated with spiritual decline. Regression analyses revealed that forgiveness did not uniquely account for a significant amount of the variance in spiritual growth after controlling for demographic variables, religious and spiritual importance, and event-related distress. Rather, religious and spiritual importance accounted for a significant amount of variance in spiritual growth. Unforgiveness uniquely predicted spiritual decline. This study suggests a complex relationship between spiritual transformation and forgiveness. Results are discussed within the context of implications for clinicians and researchers alike.     

用原创精神讲好中医药故事

以往的科学或哲学阐释并没有使中医药摆脱为其合理性辩解的“被动”局面,而建立以故事阐释原创的新视野,有助于培育中医原创思维,促进中医药的“文化转型”及其发展,并由此能够真正转变政府决策的心态,引导整个行业通过发挥原创精神开创中医药事业发展的新局面.     

On psychic elements in a case of autistoid perversion

The paper explores the formation of psychic elements from an epistemological point of view, drawing on the work of Bion to examine a clinical case of autistoid perversion. Distinguishing the qualification of psychic elements from the realization of pre‐conceptions, the paper argues that psychical elements are constituted through a mutually shared experience of presence, and so they should be understood in a paradoxical way – through being‐O and transformations into K. These ideas are explored via a clinical case concerning a patient with an autistoid–perverse organization. The patient had been denied any bodily contact with her parents during her first year of life due to an infection; in later life she exhibited an autistoid coprophilic perversion. During the course of her treatment, as it became possible to break down the autistoid organization, the nameless contents surfaced in a mutually shared experience of presence. The analyst was able to hold on to their meaning, which was unavailable to the patient. The absent analyst, however, turned into the mother who ‘put the child down’ and was experienced by the patient as a suicidal threat. In being‐O, the analyst was able to endure the paradox of being the one who ‘put her down’ in order not to put her down; the paradox of being‐O functioned as a container for the destructive objectal dimension of the state of ‘being put down’.     

Soul pain and the therapeutic use of ritual

Abstract

This paper will explore the relationship between ritual and transformation. It will show how a therapist and a monk work together to create sacred spaces in which individuals can experience transformation of and through their personal histories, linking their past, present and future to address their soul pain through ritual.

It is illustrated with case studies which will demonstrate the phases of ritual work which are collectively important as part of the psycho-dynamic therapeutic process.     

Inviting perspective transformation: Sexual history awareness for professional formation

How do we deal with our own sexuality as teachers and as learners in the classroom? As a seminary professor in a mainline Christian context, I find that discussing sexuality increases student discomfort levels by threatening to raise questions about the connections between morality, behavior, and bodies of those in the room – questions we have been culturally trained to avoid. In order to decrease discomfort, many instructors approach sexuality only as content‐based subject matter. Particularly for ministry students, this approach can be a disservice to their discernment process and preparation for future ministry contexts, especially for those in turmoil regarding sexuality‐related issues. By explicitly engaging how personal experience and cultural contexts shape our sexuality, pedagogical models can promote critical self‐reflection and seek perspective transformation, not values change, as a resource for professional sexual ethics training in ministry.