THE MISSING FATHER FUNCTION IN PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY AND TECHNIQUE: THE ANALYST'S INTERNAL COUPLE AND MATURING INTIMACY

This paper argues that recovering the “missing” paternal function in analytic space is essential for the patient's achievement of mature object relations. Emerging from the helpless infant's contact with primary caregivers, mature intimacy rests on establishing healthy triadic functioning based on an infant‐with‐mother‐and‐father. Despite a maternocentric bias in contemporary clinical theory, the emergence of triangularity and the inclusion of the paternal third as a separating element is vital in the analytic dyad. Effective technique requires the analyst's balanced interplay between the paternal, investigative and the maternal, maximally receptive modes of functioning—the good enough analytic couple within the analyst—to serve as the separating element that procreatively fertilizes the capacity for intimacy with a differentiated other. A clinical example illustrates how treatment is limited when the paternal function is minimized within more collusive, unconsciously symbiotic dyads.     

Becoming a bilingual teacher in a Chinese university: a case study

Higher education in China has developed significantly over the past decades. Many universities have established cooperative partnerships with western universities, and overseas courses are being progressively introduced to China. At many Chinese universities, a cohort of teachers endeavor to open up bilingual subjects as a bridge to their students’ future learning; accordingly, there are higher expectations of the teachers involved in bilingual education and challenges for their professional development. In this case study, the researcher invites a Chinese professor to reflect on his experiences of bilingual instruction at a university situated in central China. After describing how the bilingual course in the case study was set up and the difficulties confronted, this study uses theories of hybrid identity and third space to contextualize how bilingual teachers experience hybrid identity construction and transformation in their adaptation to the new challenges. This in-depth study will shed light on the professional development of bilingual teachers in China’s higher education industry.     

超越两种文化：第三种文化与变革中的当代心理学

心理学内部长期存在着科学文化与人文文化的对立与决裂,这一矛盾加剧了心理学的分裂趋势。第三种文化兴起后,既不赞同非此即彼的单一文化观,也不认可两种文化间存在着不可逾越的鸿沟,而是提出了“数据、理论、阐释”三位一体的“综合科学”概念和以“磁力”主题为中心的研究模式,积极倡导人文与科学文化的宽容、批判性反驳与合作精神,从而超越了传统意义上两种文化的观念束缚,有望为当代心理学的发展提供一种新的进路。     

Individual,organizational, and societal empowerment: A study of the processes in a Nicaraguan agricultural cooperative

Defined and examined the personal (material and psychological), organizational, and societal goals of empowerment. This exploration of empowerment was primarily based on 7 months of participant observation in an agricultural cooperative in Nicaragua in 1989. The research focused on the perspectives of the participants, internal program functioning, and relations to local organizations and the national context. This study shows that some factors in the cooperative setting enhanced empowerment at each level, while others impeded its development. The cooperative met immediate needs, and provided social status and a degree of autonomy in society. Its structure allowed for broad participating in decision making and control. “Sense-making” and informal consciousness-raising processes facilitated psychological empowerment. These processes were hidden in apparent disorganization and thus not recognized by local service providers. Fears of speaking in meetings and the reluctance to face crises were intense and influential. Opinions and behavior of outsiders and the environmental context, although seemingly helpful, also had detrimental effects. Parallels are drawn to empowerment theory and findings from other populations. This article is based on the author's unpublished dissertation in Social Psychology at the Claremont Graduate School. The name of the cooperative was not disclosed to protect the members. The author thanks Douglas Perkins for his helpful support and valuable comments on earlier drafts.     

Delving into psychoanalytic texts: the notion of the reading third

In this article I introduce the notion of the reading third, which evolves during the reading process. The idea came to my mind while studying Wolfgang Iser’s theory of the reading process, and already knowing about Thomas Ogden’s concept of the analytic third: What is experienced, shaped and understood while reading a text? The notion of the reading third is based on psychoanalytic theory and method like just Ogden’s concept, and on the aesthetic response theory of Iser. Elaborating the reading third, I combine two modes of reading: one understanding and interpreting, and one floating and experiencing mode. To these modes I add two different understandings of truth. The first mode is connected to a traditional, objective and visible truth. The latter mode relies on Wilfred Bion’s concept of O, a special kind of evasive, ephemeral truth. The reading third takes and loses form as one reads, accentuating reading as a highly creative activity, where each reading elicits different understandings, experiences and truths. I give examples of such a way of reading psychoanalytic texts like those of Bion and a work of fiction, Henry James’ short novel The Turn of the Screw.     

构建职场排斥三方互动的理论模型——社会平衡理论的视角

职场排斥是一个多方互动的过程, 不仅牵涉到被排斥员工, 其他参与方对于职场排斥的产生和发展也能起到关键的作用。然而, 以往的研究大多采用被排斥者的视角, 研究职场排斥对其造成的影响, 未能全面揭示职场排斥的互动过程。从社会平衡理论的视角出发, 职场排斥可被视为被排斥者、排斥者及第三方互动的结果, 排斥者特点、第三方道德判断、排斥者与第三方交互作用都将影响职场排斥的发生及发展。由此, 职场排斥的理论视角能够得到有效拓展, 管理实践也能从中获得抑制职场排斥行为的启示。     

Pour une approche contextuelle et clinique de la demande de recrutement : la transformation d’une demande initiale dans une entreprise familiale

Studies of psychology in the work place usually analyse job offers from an explicit and functional point of view, forgetting the more implicit and strategic dimensions associated with them. This activity of recruitment takes into account the understanding of the specific context of the job offer and of the structure of the organisation which is looking to recruit. The clinical case study described here takes into consideration these contextual elements of very small company and proposes recruitment methods which include a third party, emphasising the particular role of psychologists or consultancies as recruitment advisers.