Winnicott's dream: some reflections on D. W. Winnicott and C. G. Jung

The author discusses D. W. Winnicott's 1964 review of C. G. Jung's autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, emphasizing the psychological effect the reviewing process had on Winnicott himself. Writing the review constellated Winnicott's unconscious, and he reported having a healing dream 'for Jung and for some of my patients, as well as for myself'. Winnicott's 'countertransference' to Jung helped him personally, and the review was Winnicott's first written formulation of his theory on 'The use of an object'.     

Set representations of orders and a structural equivalent of saturation

Set representations are useful in the theory of knowledge spaces. A set representation of an order is an isomorphic mapping of its base set into the power set of some set ordered by set inclusion. Such a representation is basic if the union of the representing sets of the predecessors of an element contains strictly less elements than the representing set of this element, and it is parsimonious if the difference is exactly one element. This paper investigates the properties of the minimal number of elements which must be used in a parsimonious representation. This value is studied for several order operations. Moreover, orders which allow essentially only one parsimonious set representation are structurally characterized. These orders are called saturated. Finally, the way to apply these results to knowledge spaces are outlined.     

Love Incessantly Flows: Mae Naak,a New Asian Opera Heroine Born out of a Thai Buddhist Narrative

The folklore of Nak (Naak) or ‘Mae Nak Phrakhanong’ (Mother Nak of Phrakhanong District) permeates Thailand as the most popular story of a ghostly haunting. The story, originating in the nineteenth century, has been made into a plethora of versions including more than 20 film adaptations. My research focuses on the 2003 opera Mae Naak composed by Somtow Sucharitkul. The opera contains idiosyncratic traits different from other versions, which reflect Thais’ multiple feelings of horror, veneration and affection to Nak. Somtow creates a new Asian heroine in opera, who bears powerful emotions of love and desire to live, unlike the stereotype such as Madama Butterfly. The conclusion, however, does not define the emotional aspect of the story as merely the ignorance of impermanence and attachment. Instead, the narrative helps each individual to concretise and personalise the more abstract concepts of Buddhism. The opera depicts true love that continues through rebirths with her beloved in a karmic journey.     

论伊斯兰文化中和谐思想的潜体系构成

在伊斯兰文化中蕴含着丰富的和谐思想,归纳和整理其中的和谐思想,使之形成一个完整的体系,是伊斯兰教"解经"工作进一步深入开展的必然需要,也为伊斯兰教适应社会主义社会提供了更多的理论支持。本文从伊斯兰文化中和谐思想的核心、指导思想、精神实质及其基本的道德主张等方面,归纳出了伊斯兰文化中和谐思想框架体系。     

Roman Catholic Approaches to the Qur'an since Vatican II

Vatican II opposes polemical attitudes to Islam but gives no specific guidance on the Qur'an. Modern Roman Catholic writing on the Qur'an includes a considerable variety of approaches. At the positive end of the spectrum: for Christian members of GRIC (Groupe de Recherche Islamo-Chrétien) the Qur'an is “an authentic Word of God, but one in part essentially different from the one in Jesus Christ”; George Dardess affirms that the Qur'an and the Eucharist are both means through which “God shares with us God's self through the word”; for Giulio Basetti-Sani the Qur'an is divine revelation but it does not contradict Christian doctrine; Jacques Dupuis sees the Qur'an as a real but imperfect revelation. More cautious approaches are found in the writings of Jacques Jomier and Christian Troll, for whom the biblical testimony to Christ is the decisive word of God, and not just one divine revelation alongside another in the Qur'an.     

The Quest for ‘Disenchantment’ and the Modernization of Magic

The initial premise of this article is that the lasting influence of nineteenth-century Protestant liberalism on the modern conceptualization of religion has confined our understanding of a variety of traditions to a narrow evolutionary scope in which purer religious forms in line with scientific rationalism are seen as arising out of earlier impure systems akin to magic. The article presents the instrumentality of the Qur'an as an alternative lens through which to acknowledge what has often been labelled as “magic” in Islam. Recognizing that this modern conceptualization of religion has been appropriated as an ideal by Muslim modernist reformists, the article particularly intends to show that, through the use of this alternative analytical instrument, the modernist project of emancipatory “disenchantment” can be viewed as an instance of the modernization of magic just as easily as it can be seen as religious purification, the intention of this exercise being to further problematize our current distinction between religion and magic.     

L’instrumentalisation managériale des espaces de délibération formels: l’expérience des enseignantes du préscolaire/primaire

This study examines formal deliberation spaces’ structure and how they translate into collegial work structures. Based on a critical experientialist work theory and a materialist feminist perspective it considers formal deliberation spaces and teachers’ lived experiences. The methodology relies on a qualitative research design involving 25 primary school teachers and individual and group interviews. The results show many mandatory formal deliberation spaces within the work organization and highlight the limited possibilities for teachers to deliberate their day-to-day experiences within these spaces. The findings render visible the process by which the structure of formal deliberation spaces can be moulded and instrumentalized to benefit the administration and render invisible teachers’ lived experience, leading to institutional silencing.     

Recoupling in Mid‐Life and Beyond: From Love at Last to Not So Fast

Divorce rates have dropped in the United States, except for couples over 50 where they are rising steeply, along with rates of late‐life recoupling. Both stepcouples and their young adult and adult children in new older stepfamilies are often surprised to find themselves facing many of the same challenges that younger stepfamilies do. Some challenges are even intensified by the decades‐long relationships and additional layers of extended family that come with recoupling after mid‐life. Stepfamilies formed in later life must also negotiate decisions about estate planning and elder care among stakeholders who often have sharply divergent agendas before there is time to establish trusting relationships. This article describes the “normal” challenges facing stepcouples who come together over age 50. It provides evidence‐informed guidance for therapists in meeting these challenges on three levels of clinical work: Psychoeducational, Interpersonal, and Intrapsychic/Intergenerational. As in younger stepfamilies, “family therapy” must usually begin in subsystems—often the adult stepcouple and parent–adult child. The article then describes a particularly fraught subgroup of recouplers: over‐50 fathers and their new partners, where the dad's young adult or adult daughter is very unhappy with his new relationship. In these latter stepfamilies, father–daughter repair must precede stepfamily bonding. Stepfamilies that are preceded by a partner's death and those that begin with affairs are also discussed. Finally, some “easy wrong turns” for therapists are described.