On Theoretical Edges and Exclusionary Borders: Towards a Genealogy of “Analyzability” in Jungian Psychoanalysis1

An oft-repeated and largely unexamined assumption in Jungian psychoanalysis is the notion of “analyzability”, that is, of an individual's ability or present capacity to think symbolically. It is often taught that if someone is unable to think symbolically, a depth analysis is not possible. Such an individual may be more aptly suited for supportive psychotherapy, the argument goes, an experience that may very well lead to the development of the ego's capacity for symbolic thought but is not, in and of itself, a Jungian analysis. While this sort of categorical thinking has, at times, crossed over into ontological claims about individuals and groups, the notion of analyzability encountered in psychoanalytic theory and praxis is often cloaked in facially neutral language. The impact, however, has been anything but neutral in effect. In this paper, I propose a softening of our theoretical edges through a genealogy of the category of analyzability within the broader history of psychoanalysis. Through this excavation, I explore the contingent nature of the category of analyzability, how it has constricted knowledge, perpetuated inequality, and, more broadly, obscured ways of knowing. In so doing, I recover the radically democratic potential that lies at the heart of Jungian psychoanalysis.     

Tracking the Lacanian unconscious in language

This paper makes two contributions to the emerging field of Lacanian discourse analysis (LDA); one, by way of theoretical exposition and a second, oriented toward the challenges of empirical analysis. In the first section of the paper, I illustrate and develop upon the elusive Lacanian notion of the unconscious structured as a language. This discussion yields a series of important ideas: the assertion that a matrix of latent significations shadows any utterance; the distinction between statement/enunciation; and the concept of repression-in-language. These concepts provide a platform for the second section of the paper which draws on textual material collected by the Apartheid Archive Project in order to demonstrate a particular procedure of LDA. This procedure entails an attention to discontinuous narrative components and the role of symbolic juxtapositions. It points, furthermore, to the value of making novel combinations of given textual elements as a way of querying what may be repressed in the text. Two important conclusions are drawn from this discussion, each of which indicates a priority for Lacanian practice. Firstly, the idea that the ongoing work of symbolic juxtaposition may be more profitable than ‘depth’ interpretations in conducting analysis. Secondly, that facilitation of lateral significations and associated significations should take priority over the aim of extracting a single over-arching message.     

父亲养育压力的稳定性及对儿童学步期问题行为的预测

本研究采用追踪研究及多重报告法,考察了儿童从6个月至14个月间父亲养育压力的稳定性特点,以及6个月与14个月时的父亲养育压力对儿童24个月时的问题行为的影响。结果发现:(1)儿童6个月与14个月时的父亲养育压力具有中等程度的相关;从6个月到14个月,父亲的总体养育压力和育儿愁苦维度的平均压力水平没有显著变化,亲子互动失调维度显著降低,儿童困难特质维度的平均压力水平显著上升;(2)儿童6个月时,父亲的育儿愁苦显著预测儿童24个月时的内隐问题行为;14个月时,父亲的育儿愁苦显著预测儿童24个月时的外显问题行为;6个月和14个月时,儿童困难特质维度的压力都可显著预测儿童24个月时的外显问题行为。     

Childhood bullying and becoming a young father in a national cohort of Finnish boys

Lehti, V., Brunstein Klomek, A., Tamminen, T., Moilanen, I., Kumpulainen, K., Piha, J., Almqvist. F. & Sourander, A. (2012). Childhood bullying and becoming a young father in a national cohort of Finnish boys. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 461–466. Childhood bullying is known to be associated with various adverse psychosocial outcomes in later life. No studies exist on its association with becoming a young father. The study is based on a national cohort, which included 2,946 Finnish boys at baseline in 1989. Information on bullying was collected from children, their parents and their teachers. Follow‐up data on becoming a father under the age of 22 were collected from a nationwide register. The follow‐up sample included 2,721 boys. Bullying other children frequently was significantly associated with becoming a young father independently of being victimized, childhood psychiatric symptoms and parental educational level. Being a victim of bullying was not associated with becoming a young father when adjusted for possible confounders. When the co‐occurrence of bullying and victimization was studied, it was found that being a bully‐victim, but not a pure bully or a pure victim, is significantly associated with becoming a young father. This study adds to other studies, which have shown that the risk profile and relational patterns of bully‐victims differ from those of other children, and it emphasizes the importance of including peer relationships when studying young fathers.     

Taxonomy of Spiritual Experiences

Spiritual experiences are often associated with health crises, with little information about the structure of the experience. A taxonomic analysis was conducted on data from a group of healers, unveiling a structural model of spiritual experience comprised of three domains: circumstances, manifestation and interpretation. Circumstances included the aspects of setting, situation, and timing. Manifestation incorporated the modes of awareness and the phenomena of the experience. Components of interpretation included personal meaning and congruence with social norms. The examples reflected the orientation of the study population. Further research could examine the applicability of the taxonomy to other religious or spiritual orientations and may assist in clinical assessment of spiritual experiences.Diane Wind Wardell, Ph.D., R.N.C., H.N.C., C.H.T.P./I., and Joan C. Engebretson, Dr.P.H., R.N., H.N.C., are Associate Professors in the School of Nursing at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Correspondence to Diane Wind Wardell, Diane.Wardell@uth.tmc.edu.     

THE SUPERNATURAL AS LANGUAGE GAME

Abstract. For many in the Anglo‐American tradition of language analysis, Ludwig Wittgenstein, the great progenitor of twentieth‐century philosophy of language, showed conclusively that theological terms lack any referent in reality and therefore represent a discourse that can do no more than manifest the existential attitudes that speakers take toward reality as a whole. To think that such terms represent more is to be bewitched by the use of language. Is it possible, however, that theological language references a fundamental human drive? In this article I reexamine the dyad of nature and supernature from the perspective of Wittgenstein's philosophy. Perhaps surprisingly, Wittgenstein's thought on the subject offers much more than his famous, terse aphorism at the conclusion of his first masterwork, the Tractatus Logico‐Philosophicus ([1921] 1961, 74, §7): “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.” Furthermore, the basic Tractarian drive to determine the relationship between language and reality, which is redirected but not extinguished in Wittgenstein's second, divergent, opus, the Philosophical Investigations ([1953] 1967), may be the place for a renewed examination of what the supernatural means in human discourse. Does talk of God give expression to the fundamental transcendence of human knowledge? Is it a language game we can eschew?     

Short-term memory for responses: the "choose-small" effect

Pigeons' short-term memory for fixed-ratio requirements was assessed using a delayed symbolic matching-to-sample procedure. Different choices were reinforced after fixed-ratio 10 and fixed-ratio 40 requirements, and delays of 0, 5, or 20 s were sometimes placed between sample ratios and choice. All birds made disproportionate numbers of responses to the small-ratio choice alternative when delays were interposed between ratios and choice, and this bias increased as a function of delay. Preference for the small fixed-ratio alternative was also observed on "no-sample" trials, during which the choice alternatives were presented without a prior sample ratio. This "choose-small" bias is analogous to results obtained by Spetch and Wilkie (1983) with event duration as the discriminative stimulus. The choose-small bias was attenuated when the houselight was turned on during delays, but overall accuracy was not influenced systematically by the houselight manipulation.     

Memory for recent behavior in the pigeon

Variations of the symbolic delayed-matching-to-sample procedure were used to study a pigeon's memory for a small number of pecks. In the first experiment a choice of a left or right sidekey after a delay or retention interval was reinforced if a bird had not pecked at all or had pecked exactly once, before the delay, respectively. In the second experiment a choice of a red or green sidekey, regardless of its position, was reinforced if a bird had not pecked at all or had pecked exactly twice, respectively. In the first experiment a bird could orient toward the correct choice during the delay, whereas it could not in the second experiment. In a third experiment a feature-probing method was used to study a pigeon's memory for a number of pecks in the context of certain other pecks. The results showed that a pigeon can remember a small number of pecks for one-half to one minute or more and that the percent correct is a decreasing function of the log retention interval. When a second number of pecks is different from the first number, memory for the first number lasts only a few seconds. When a second number is the same, memory lasts considerably longer. The more recent number of pecks is remembered better. The results are interpreted in terms of a theory which holds that a reinforcer, in general, may act on a subjects' memory for recent behavior to generate patterns of behavior.     

Sample-specific ratio effects in matching to sample

In a symbolic matching-to-sample task, pigeons were trained using sample-specific, fixed-ratio “observing responses.” Subsequently, in a mixed condition, each sample was presented equally often with each ratio requirement, i.e., the ratios were no longer correlated with the samples. In a second experiment, pigeons were trained initially in the mixed condition and subsequently shifted to the sample-specific condition in which the required ratios were correlated with the samples. Results of both experiments suggested joint control of choices by ratio value and by the exteroceptive stimuli. The discriminative properties of the ratios appeared to outweigh absolute ratio-size effects.     

Unemployment and self-conception: A symbolic interactionist analysis

A symbolic interactionist analysis of the relationship between unemployment and self-conception was tested using a cross-sectional questionnaire design (n = 88). Job loss had significant negative associations with reflected appraisals (perceived evaluations) from friends, family, employers, unemployed people and people in general. Significant relationships between reflected appraisals and the evaluative, consistency and involvement dimensions of self-concept were also observed. Consistent with symbolic interactionist theory, path analysis showed that reflected appraisals mediated the relationship between employment status and self-conception. Unemployment duration and gender both moderated the effects of reflected appraisal upon self-conception such that reflected appraisals were associated with different self-concept dimensions for unemployed men versus unemployed women and ‘shorter’ versus ‘longer-term’ unemployed people. Results are discussed in the context of recent developments in the social psychology of the self-concept. Suggestions for future research are outlined.