Philosophy,writing, and liberation

In responding to the three creative interpretive discussions in the symposium on my book Philosophy and the Art of Writing, this paper explores the different styles of philosophical discourse and their role in the practice of philosophy as a way of life that extends beyond the discursive and that combines self-cultivation with care for others in the ethical-aesthetic pursuit of living beauty. In advocating this aesthetic model of philosophical life over a purely therapeutic model, I suggest how the former can incorporate the latter's concerns for spiritual health and liberation. In developing my response to the symposiasts while elaborating on the themes of my book, I consider issues of ineffability, creative performance, embodiment, truth, heroism, vulnerability, possession, art, spirituality, love, and liberation.     

刘劭的心理学思想研究

着重讨论了刘劭四个方面的心理学思想,即心理学思想的基本观点,情欲心理思想,智能心理思想,性格心理思想。     

Eternally Separated Lovers: The Argument from Love

A message scribbled irreverently on the mediaeval walls of the Nonberg cloister says this: ‘Neither of us can go to heaven unless the other gets in.’ It suggests an argument against the view that those who love people who suffer in hell can be perfectly happy, or even free from all suffering, in heaven. This paper considers the challenge posed by this thought to the coherence of the traditional Christian doctrine on which there are some people in hell who are suffering and others in heaven who are not suffering. More precisely, it defends the following argument:

1. No one who loves another can be perfectly happy or free from suffering if they know that their beloved is suffering.

2. Anyone in hell suffers (at least as long as they are in hell).

3. Anyone in heaven is perfectly happy or at least free from suffering.

4. There can be no one in heaven who is aware of the fact that his or her beloved is in hell. (1, 2, and 3)

The paper argues that the first premise is eminently plausible and that those who accept the traditional Christian doctrine should endorse the claim that some of those in heaven love people whom they know to be suffering in hell. So, it concludes that there is reason to reject the traditional Christian doctrine.     

当代大学生婚恋观问卷的编制与验证

研究在文献分析、大学生访谈、专家反馈及理论建构的基础上,编制了大学生婚恋观初始问卷。研究者在50名大学生中征求了对于问卷内容的修改建议,对300名大学生实施了试测,进行了项目分析和探索性因素分析,初步确定出问卷的维度和项目。在正式测试中,将1608名大学生随机分成对等两组,分别进行了探索性和验证性因素分析。研究结果表明,大学生婚恋观问卷包含六个维度,分别为择偶条件、婚恋价值、情感需求、性爱道德、婚姻本质及夫妻地位。该问卷的六个维度与构想模型拟合较好,并具有良好的信度和效度指标,可以作为大学生婚恋观的测评工具。     

An entire life in one glance: a psychoanalytic reading of Revolutionary Road

This article, starting from an analysis of the film Revolutionary Road (2009; director, Sam Mendes), addresses the topic of conflictuality in relationships between couples, especially in those characterized by intense violence and a relational configuration of the sadomasochistic type. In particular, the film – in highlighting sequential moments in the couple’s life, from its formation through to its tragic conclusion – seems to strengthen the hypothesis that the specific quality of falling in love is a contributing factor in determining the dramatic unfolding of a couple’s relationship. The relationship is characterized by an experience of intense, erotic sensoriality, and by the nature of the unconscious fantasy underlying the bond between the couple that began with the moment of falling in love, a bond in which deep needs for fusion predominate. The presence of this neediness impedes a more adequate working through of the conflicts and the transition to more satisfying ways of relating.     

Tears in the Forest

We are facing unprecedented environmental destruction these days; our remaining forests are being razed at alarming rates, and the high levels of mass extinctions are unraveling the vital fabric that sustains all life on the planet. How does a sensitive person endure in the face of such devastation to stand strong and do the right thing in a manner that keeps the heart soft, open, and responsive? This essay suggests that a new and special kind of love is available to us during these challenging times—a love that is both astonishingly sweet and extremely necessary.     

The duplication of love's reasons

If X loves Y does it follow that X has reasons to love a physiologically exact replacement for Y? Can love's reasons be duplicated? One response to the problem is to suggest that X lacks reasons for loving such a duplicate because the reason-conferring properties of Y cannot be fully duplicated. But a concern, played upon by Derek Parfit, is that this response may result from a failure to take account of the psychological pressures of an actual duplication scenario. In the face of the actual loss of a loved one and the subsequent appearance of a duplicate, how could we resist the inclination to love? Drawing upon duplication scenarios from Parfit and from Stanislaw Lem's Solaris, this paper will argue that there could be reasons for X to come to love a duplicate of Y but that these would not be identical with the reasons that X had (and may still have) to love Y. Nor (in the case of an agent with a normal causal history) could they be reasons for a love that violates the requirement that love is a response to a relationship and therefore takes time to emerge.     

Working with psychosis: Part 3 – ‘Struggling to contain madness – losing and recovering a capacity to think’

This is the penultimate paper in a series about working with a patient suffering from a psychotic disorder. The paper describes the third year of the work in which ‘John’ had four breakdowns in a period of six months. Much of the time I was unable to think. I was sitting on the edge of my chair either worrying that John was breaking down again or trying to help him recover from a breakdown. My small office became a cramped prison cell in which I felt myself a witness to a disturbing dance into and out of madness. A turning point seemed to happen as I developed a way of thinking about John's breakdowns. I seemed then to become a less persecutory figure in John's mind and more someone to whom John could turn for help. We found a way of thinking and talking about an infant in John. John responded by finding a way of being in my office as though he was reclining in a hammock. His breakdowns ceased. He was able to share in common humanity's concerns following September 11. Finally, I discuss thoughts about containment particularly about the paternal role in containment, drawing on Robert Caper's elaboration of Bion's ideas about containing psychotic aspects of experience.     

Sibling rivalry at work; from family to groups

Sibling relationships are ambivalent. They are full of love and hate, and therefore, our most basic wish cannot simply be to get rid of our siblings. Many of the conflicts we find ourselves in, either with friends or within institutions, may need a complex and subtle understanding of sibling dynamics. The famous Controversial Discussions that nearly destroyed the Institute of Psychoanalysis in the early forties could be partly attributed to the unacknowledged and unconscious dynamics of the sibling transferences that swirled around Melanie Klein, Anna Freud and Freud. One of the tasks of therapists is to explore how we all must live within a society, with our contemporaries. This difficulty involves observing that sometimes in therapy we are part of the nursery quarrel itself, rather than superior. And so in adult sibling conflict within an institution, there may be a need for an outside moderator, like a parent, to sort out the quarrel; for when sibling passions are revived at work or in the consulting room, they can knock one sideways with the unmeditated quality of the encounter.     

Determining Risk in Pediatric Research with No Prospect of Direct Benefit: Time for a National Consensus on the Interpretation of Federal Regulations

United States federal regulations for pediatric research with no prospect of direct benefit restrict institutional review board (IRB) approval to procedures presenting: 1) no more than “minimal risk” (§ 45CFR46.404); or 2) no more than a “minor increase over minimal risk” if the research is commensurate with the subjects' previous or expected experiences and intended to gain vitally important information about the child's disorder or condition (§ 45CFR46.406) (DHHS 2001). During the 25 years since their adoption, these regulations have helped IRBs balance subject protections with the pursuit of scientific knowledge to advance children's welfare. At the same time, inconsistency in IRB application of these regulations to pediatric protocols has been widespread, in part because of the ambiguity of the regulatory language. During the past decade, three federally-charged committees have addressed these ambiguities: 1) the National Human Research Protections Advisory Committee (NHRPAC) (Washington, DC), 2) the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on the Ethical Conduct of Clinical Research Involving Children (Washington, DC); and 3) the United States Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's Advisory Committee for Human Research Protections (SACHRP) (Washington, DC). The committees have reached similar conclusions on interpretation of language within regulations § § 45CFR46.404 and 406; these conclusions are remarkably consistent with recent international recommendations and those of the original National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research (1977) National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. 1977. Report and recommendations: Research involving children, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.  [Google Scholar] report from which current regulations are based. Drawing on the committees' public reports, this article identifies the ethical issues posed by ambiguities in regulatory language, summarizes the committees' deliberations, and calls for a national consensus on recommended criteria.