Cross-modality translations improve recognition by reducing false alarms

Conway and Gathercole [(1990). Writing and long-term memory: Evidence for a “translation” hypothesis. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 42, 513–527] proposed a translation account to explain why certain types of encoding produce benefits in memory: Switching modalities from what is presented to what is encoded enhances item distinctiveness. We investigated this hypothesis in a recognition experiment in which the presentation modality of a study list (visual vs. auditory) and the encoding activity (speaking vs. typing vs. passive encoding) were manipulated between-subjects. Manipulating encoding activity between-subjects ruled out any potential influence of the relationally distinct processing that can occur in a within-subject manipulation (in which all previous translation effects have been demonstrated). We found no overall difference in memory for words presented auditorily vs. visually nor for visual vs. auditory encoding, but critically presentation modality and encoding activity did interact. Translating from one modality to another – particularly from auditory presentation to visual encoding (typing) – led to the best memory discrimination. This was largely because of reduced false alarms, not increased hits, consistent with the distinctiveness heuristic.     

BEFORE BABEL: REFLECTIONS ON READING AND TRANSLATING FREUD

The author offers some thoughts on reading and teaching Freud, on translating Freud, on translation in general, and on a possible kinship between translation and the psychoanalytic process. His reading of Freud's works, and the years he spent translating them into Hebrew and editing Hebrew editions of his writings, have made a deep and salient impression on his personal psychoanalytic palimpsest. The author began this labor prior to his psychoanalytic training and has no doubt that, to this day, the experience greatly shapes not only his attitude toward Freud himself, but also the nature of how he listens to patients and the way he thinks and writes about psychoanalysis.     

Validation française du School Burnout Inventory

IntroductionFirst studied in adults, the concept of burnout was recently extended to adolescents in order to evaluate the impact of school requirements on their health.ObjectiveThis study aim at assessing construct validity, reliability and concurrent validity of a French version of the School Burnout Inventory (Salmela-Aro, Kiuru, Leskinen, & Nurmi, 2009) that characterize school burnout by exhaustion linked to school demands, cynicism toward school and feelings of inadequacy as a student.MethodThree hundred and eighty-seven adolescents have filled the translated questionnaire and a confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the data.ResultsThe analysis confirmed the tridimensional structure of the scale and mainly show satisfactory psychometric qualities.ConclusionThis measurement scale should provide clinicians with a rapid and simple assessment of school burnout in adolescents. Researchers could also benefit from it in order to extend theoretical knowledge about this trouble.     

The translational metaphor in psychoanalysis

The translational metaphor in psychoanalysis refers to the traditional method of interpreting or restating the meaning of verbal and behavioral acts of a patient in other, presumably more accurate terms that specify the forces and conflicts underlying symptoms. The analyst translates the clinical phenomenology to explain its true meaning and origin. This model of analytic process has been challenged from different vantage points by authors presenting alternative conceptions of therapeutic action. Although the temptation to find and make interpretations of clinical material is difficult to resist, behaving in this way places the analyst in the position of a teacher or diagnostician, seeking a specific etiology, which has not proven fruitful. Despite its historical appeal, I argue that the translational model is a misleading and anachronistic version of what actually occurs in psychoanalysis. I emphasize instead the capacity of analysis to promote the emergence of new forms of representation, or figuration, from the unconscious, using the work of Lacan, Laplanche, and Modell to exemplify this reformulation, and provide clinical illustrations of how it looks in practice.     

Assigning Grammatical Gender During Word Production

The present study was designed to examine the processes by which grammatical gender is assigned during word production. French words varied in strength of sublexical cues, based on whether the word ending was typical for one gender rather than neutral about gender, and lexical cues, derived from the associated definite article being uninformative about gender for words beginning with a vowel, but informative for words beginning with a consonant. In Experiment 1, when native French speakers classified the gender of mentally evoked names of pictures, no effects of these cues were obtained. Experiment 2 used an improved methodology, with participants classifying the gender of words translated from English. English-speaking learners of French were influenced strongly by lexical and sublexical cues, while French speakers showed a weaker influence. However, for both speaker groups, words whose gender was classified slowly during recognition were also classified slowly during production, and error rates were similarly correlated across tasks. The conclusion was that gender is not equally available for all words once the associated “lemma” is accessed. Current models of language production may have to incorporate mechanisms allowing differential speed of access to gender information depending on a word’s formal properties.     

The Translation Issues in the Gender Inclusive Controversy

Abstract

The recently published Today's New International Versionhas received some criticism, especially from The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which argues that the TNIVhas gone beyond translation to interpretation in order to further feminist causes. The present author argues that the differences between the TNIVand NIVare standard translation issues, highlighting three key points with illustrations, establishing a case for the superiority of “gender inclusive” translations such as the TNIV. A bibliography for study on both sides is included.     

A brief introduction to the work of Jean Laplanche

The author proposes an introduction to the work of Jean Laplanche, a well‐known figure of psychoanalysis who recently passed away. He foregrounds what he views as the three main axes of Laplanche's work: firstly, a critical reading method applied to Freud's texts; secondly, a model of psychic functioning based on translation; and, thirdly, a theory of general seduction. Far from being an abstract superstructure, the theory of general seduction is firmly rooted in the analytic situation, as the provocation of transference by the analyst best illustrates. The analytic situation indeed consists in a revival and a reopening of the ‘fundamental anthropological situation’ which, according to Laplanche, is the lot of every human baby born in a world where he or she is necessarily exposed to the enigmatic and ‘compromised’ messages of the adult other. Thanks to the process of analytic de‐translation, the analysand is therefore granted an opportunity to carry out new translations of the other's enigma – translations or symbolizations that might be more inclusive and less rigid than the pre‐existing ones. Incidentally, such a model brings together the purely psychoanalytic and the psychotherapeutic aspects of the treatment.     

When Freud headed for the East: Aspects of a Chinese translation of his works

Working on the basis of a resumé of the Chinese translations to date of individual works by Sigmund Freud and critiques of these as secondary translations from the English, the particular difficulties of translating into a non‐Indo‐European language with an isolating and analytical writing system are presented. By way of introduction, reference is made to English and French‐language contributions to the issues of translation.     

‘Translation’ and ‘transformation’ in the analytic situation: Freud – Bion – Laplanche

Following a short introduction to the core theses of Jean Laplanche’s theory of a ‘general seduction’ the author presents the resultant clinical position of the analyst. In the same way that an adult sends ‘enigmatic messages’ to the child, it is the analyst’s task to reopen this primal situation so that the patient can find new ‘translations’ for these messages. Laplanche distinguishes between the function of the analytic frame – which represents and supports attachment – and the ‘sexual’– which is the repressed and constitutes the unconscious. Only the focus on this unconscious facilitates the deconstruction of ‘incorrect’ translations. Accordingly, the analyst, says Laplanche, should not take part in construction – this is a self‐construction of the patient – but only in reconstruction. The author compares this clinical model with Freud’s notions and the ‘transformation processes’ through the alpha function as described by Bion. She illustrates Laplanche’s model and the interpretation strategy with case material.     

The Oedipus complex as observed in work with couples and their children

In work with couples where there is a child referred to a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, there are opportunities to observe and to work with unresolved Oedipal issues brought by the parents to the task of creating a family. These conflicts can be seen enacted by the child or children, either internally or externally. Examples are given from five cases: the first two from brief family work where the children are under five and the difficulties are to some extent resolved. The next two demonstrate more intractable problems of psychopathology where the parental Oedipal conflicts are handed down to the next generation, and the paper concludes with an example of couple work in relation to individual therapy with a child, where despite the pressure of considerable pathology in the parents' backgrounds there is a will to integration and progress is made.