Spiritual advisors and old age psychiatry in the United Kingdom

This survey investigates the role and views of NHS spiritual advisors across the United Kingdom on the provision of pastoral care for elderly people with mental health needs. The College of Health Care Chaplains provided a database, and questionnaires were sent to 405 registered NHS chaplains/spiritual advisors. The response rate was 59%. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were carried out. Spiritual advisors describe their working patterns and understanding of their roles within the modern NHS, and their observations of the level of NHS staff awareness of the importance of spiritual issues in the mental health care of older adults. They provide insights into possible negative and positive perceptions of their roles at a service level, and contribute suggestions of topics relevant to shared education between pastoral care and clinical services. This survey further highlights ethical and operational dimensions at the point of integration of the work of spiritual advisors and multidisciplinary teams.     

Advantages of Rhythmic Movements at Resonance: Minimal Active Degrees of Freedom,Minimal Noise,and Maximal Predictability

Using time delay embedding, the authors applied phase space reconstruction to the time series of rhythmic movements of a hand-held pendulum. Subjects (N = 6) produced the manual oscillations about the wrist at the pendulum's resonant frequency and at a higher and a lower frequency. The number of active degrees of freedom required to capture the dynamics of the rhythmic behavior was 3 for the resonant frequency and 4 for each of the nonresonant frequencies. The residual high-dimensional noise was similarly lowest for the resonant frequency. Whereas 33% and 20%, respectively, of the vectors in the phase spaces of the dynamics higher and lower than resonance were unpredictable, only 12% were unpredictable at resonance. Finally, the predictability of the evolving dynamics extended farther into the future for oscillations at the resonant frequency. At resonance, the prediction horizon was 5 times farther than the prediction horizon for the higher than resonance behavior and 2.5 times farther than that for the lower than resonance behavior. The results suggest that, in pendular oscillations of a limb or limb segment, attunement of the central nervous system to the resonant frequency minimizes the variables to be controlled and maximizes the predictability of the rhythmic movement's chaotic dynamics.     

Speech act conditions as tools for reconstructing argumentative discourse

According to the pragma-dialectical approach to argumentation, for analysing argumentative discourse, a normative reconstruction is required which encompasses four kinds of transformations. It is explained in this paper how speech act conditions can play a part in carrying out such a reconstruction. It is argued that integrating Searlean insights concerning speech acts with Gricean insights concerning conversational maxims can provide us with the necessary tools. For this, the standard theory of speech acts has to be amended in several respects and the conversational maxims have to be translated into speech act conditions. Making use of the rules for communication thus arrived at, and starting from the distribution of speech acts in a critical discussion as specified in the pragma-dialectical model, it is then demonstrated how indirect speech acts are to be transformed when reconstructing argumentative discourse.     

Theorienreduktion in den Sozialwissenschaften. Eine Fallstudie am Beispiel der Balancetheorien

Theory Reduction in the Social Sciences. The example of balance theories. A central topic both in philosophy of science as well as in the empirical sciences is the reconstruction of the relations between theories. In the past comparisons of theories by means of traditional linguistic methods have proved to be extremely difficult and complicated. In this article the reconstruction of intertheoretical relations based on model-theoretical terms is propagated, as formulated within the structuralist view of theories. The efficiency of a model theoretical based comparison of theories is demonstrated by two theory elements from the social science research program of balance theories: The basic element by Heider and the transitivity theory by Holland and Leinhardt. First of all both theory elements are introduced informally and reconstructed in the structuralist format. On the basis of these reconstructions can be shown, that the Heider theory can be formally reduced to the Holland-Leinhardt theory and that the theory younger in history means an improvement. However, an integration of all balance theoretical elements into a theory net is not possible. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Clinical experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic

Most of the clinical experiences discussed in this article arose from monthly Zoom meetings at Rome’s Italian Centre of Analytical Psychology (CIPA). We set up a discussion group in April 2020, one month after lockdown began in Italy, and these monthly online meetings continue to this day. All senior analysts and analysts-in-training at Rome’s CIPA, whose backgrounds range from child and adolescent psychotherapy to adult psychotherapy and analysis, to sandplay therapy and medicine and psychiatry, have been participating in these meetings. The group discussions focus on the present time and its impact on us, as well as on our relationships with patients. By further developing these reflections during the lockdown in Italy (9 March - 3 May 2020), it is fair to ask whether a sense of unreality, depersonalization, or derealization has occurred, either in the therapist or patient, and if so, whether it is possible that therapists miss the human contact more than clients. We will mainly refer to clinical and personal experiences as our most precious guidelines.     

Repression, transference and reconstruction

Whereas Peter Fonagy almost dismisses the importance of repression and the recovery of repressed and suppressed memory, the author believes that the analysis of repression retains importance in clinical psychoanalysis. Transference is a return of the repressed, with repressed memories embedded within a fundamental unconscious fantasy constellation. Moreover, transference is an essential, but not the only, route to the understanding and analysis of the patient. Nor should transference be confused with the real or new analytic relationship. The author does not regard the dynamic unconscious as definitely registered and retrieved in procedural memory, awaiting further research. A focus on the present 'self with other' model of therapeutic action neglects pathogenesis and the importance of childhood and its psychoanalytic reconstruction.     

Response to Peter Fonagy

Peter Fonagy highlights the therapeutic efficacy of new experience, 'a way of being with the other', while the author gives priority to interpretation, insight into and the working through of unconscious conflict. The recovery of the repressed memories and fantasies of childhood is now an intermediate goal of psychoanalysis, largely superseded by transference interpretation and genetic reconstruction. Transference, like symptoms, is a return of the repressed. The author believes Fonagy's theoretical and technical focus on the non-conscious, rather than the dynamic unconscious, devalues the persisting influence and pathogenic significance of the infantile unconscious.     

Family Reconstruction

Family reconstruction, as described by Virginia Satir, is important for its transformative possibilities. This therapeutic tool can integrate a person into the historical and psychological matrix of his or her family of origin. This article describes how a reconstruction can be accomplished in three hours by using certain steps and principles. A case study is provided illustrating these steps and principles, including the personal reflections of the participant group.     

Visual Hebb repetition effects survive changes to both output order and concurrent articulation*

Building upon the work of Guerrette, Guérard, and Saint-Aubin [(2017). The role of overt language production in the Hebb repetition effect. Memory and Cognition, 45(5), 792–803. doi:10.3758/s13421-017-0693-4], we examine the effect of output order on the visual Hebb repetition effect. We limit opportunities for forward recall at test by using a novel positional recall procedure, employing non-verbal visual stimuli, and requiring participants to undertake concurrent articulation (CA). During encoding, participants received sequences of six unfamiliar-faces. Every third sequence, participants received the same faces in the same serial order (the Hebb sequence). At test, participants were required to either select the faces in their order of original presentation (SR) or recall the serial position of each individually re-presented face tested in a randomised order (PR). For both recall conditions, and following CA, the Hebb repetition effect persisted, demonstrating that the Hebb repetition effect is not dependent upon forward recall.     

The Next American Revolution？ Reflections on Gar Alperovitz,What Then Must We Do？

Marx is concerned with theory that not only interprets but also changes the world. A central issue is thus the transition from capitalism to communism, a topic rarely considered by critics of capitalism today. An important exception is Gar Alperovitz, who, although eschewing the word ＂communism,＂ argues that we need ＂a new system＂ and sketches a transition strategy for moving ＂beyond capitalism.＂ This paper elaborates and evaluates this strategy.