Books received

Aron, Elaine N. The Highly Sensitive Person. How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You. David L. Smith. Approaching Psychoanalysis. An Introductory Course. Gabriella Ripa di Meana. Figures of Lightness. Anorexia, Bulimia and Psychoanalysis. Strasser, Freddie. Emotions. Experiences in Existential Psychotherapy and Life. Althusser, Louis. Writings on Psychoanalysis: Freud and Lacan. Corneau, Guy. Lessons in Love. The Transformation of Spirit through Intimacy. Moody, Harry R. & Carroll, David. The Five Stages of the Soul. For Everyone who has ever asked, ‘Is this it?’. Peterson, Jordan. B. Maps of Meaning. The Architecture of Belief.     

Response to Barbara Stephens's 'the Martin Buber-Carl Jung disputations: protecting the sacred in the battle for the boundaries of analytical psychology' (journal of analytical psychology, 2001, 46, 3, 455-91)

John Dourley, Response to Barbara Stephens's 'The Martin Buber–Carl Jung disputations: protecting the sacred in the battle for the boundaries of analytical psychology' ( Journal of Analytical Psychology , 2001, 46, 3, 455–91), p.479
Warren Colman, A response to Barbara Stephens , p.492
David Tresan, Response to Barbara Stephens's paper in JAP, 46, 3 , p.494
Barbara D. Stephens, Patterns at play: my response to respondents , p.498     

Ontology,matter and emergence

“Ontological emergence” of inherent high-level properties with causal powers is witnessed nowhere. A non-substantialist conception of emergence works much better. It allows downward causation, provided our concept of causality is transformed accordingly.

高满意带来高绩效,还是高绩效导致高满意?一项持续4年的领导-下属配对研究

工作满意度和工作绩效的关系是工业与组织心理学中最受尊敬也最有争议的话题之一。本研究以某集团公司总部职能部门的409名员工为研究对象,连续4年测量了工作满意度(自我报告)和工作绩效(上级评定),并对两者关系进行了交叉滞后分析。结构方程模型结果显示,工作满意度和工作绩效是互相影响的关系,且工作满意度对工作绩效的影响要强于工作绩效对工作满意度的影响。另外,工作满意度对工作绩效的影响具有跨时间稳定性,而工作绩效对工作满意度的影响随时间变化有逐渐增加的趋势。     

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF EVITABILITY IN NATURE

Assessing the current situation of the religion–science dialogue, it seems that a consensus of nonconsensus has been reached. This nonconsensus provides a pluralistic context for the religion and science dialogue, and one area where this plurality is clear is the discourse on relational models of God and creation. A number of interesting models have gained attention in contemporary theological dialogue with science, yet there is an overriding theme: an emphasis on God's involvement with the world. In this article, I argue that theology has been preoccupied with this emphasis. It is suggested that the theme of the freedom of nature has been underrepresented. This theme of the freedom of nature I argue carries important theological implications. It is suggested that acts or events gain their significance largely by way of being contextualized by the fact that such acts or events could have been otherwise, a realization that might provide the various relational models of God and the world food for thought.     

Constructing bridges and systemic connections: In brief dynamic therapy

The author outlines how the conceptual framework which underpins cyclical psychodynamics, a branch of relational psychoanalysis, provides an opportunity for a coherent integration of constructivist CBT principles and techniques and family systems theory within a model of brief dynamic therapy. Drawing upon Wachtel’s articulation of a more flexible notion of the internal world and one in which current interpersonal patterns are seen to shape the psyche and internal conflicts, the author goes on to identify ways in which attending to a client’s behaviour and the ways in which affective experience is expressed interpersonally can open the way to an integration of therapeutic features from constructivist CBT and family systems theory. The contribution that coaching a client in the ways in which they behave interpersonally in the context of both family and workplace relationships can make to therapeutic effectiveness is explored. These themes are illustrated with a case study.     

Current issues and new direction in Psychology and Health: Epidemiology and health psychology – please bridge the gap

Epidemiology has and continues to play a vital role in furthering our understanding of risks for disease development. Large scale studies provide the necessary statistical power to identify biological and environmental factors associated with disease onset and severity. However, association does not confirm causality and in theoretical terms, epidemiology is somewhat limited. In this editorial, we argue that bringing together the methodological strengths of epidemiology with the theoretical rigour of psychology enables researchers to go beyond risk-finding and develop causative [or explanatory] models of disease development which pave the way for directed, evidence-based interventions to improve health.     

MILL'S ARGUMENT FOR OTHER MINDS

Montesquieu's Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence (1733/1734) is a methodological exercise in causal explanation on the meso-level applied to the subject of the military rise and fall of Rome. Rome is described as a system with contingent initial conditions that have a strong path-determining effect. Contingent and plastic initial configurations become highly determining in their subsequent operation, thanks to self-reinforcing feedback loops. Montesquieu's method seems influenced by the ruthless commitment to efficient causality and the reductionism of seventeenth-century mechanicist philosophy; but in contrast to these predecessors, he is more interested in dynamic processes than in unchangeable substances, and his use of efficient causality in the context of a system approach implies a form of holism that is lacking in his predecessors. The formal and conceptual analysis in this article is in many ways complementary with Paul Rahe's recent predominantly political analysis of the Considérations. At the same time, this article points to a problem in the works on the Enlightenment by Jonathan Israel: his account stresses a one-dimensional continuum consisting of Radical, Moderate and Counter-Enlightenment. This invites Israel to place the combined religious, political and philosophical views of each thinker on one of these three points. His scheme runs into trouble when a thinker with moderate religious and political views produces radical philosophical concepts. Montesquieu's Considérations is a case in point.     

Front-line services,complexity, research and policy

The evidence-based culture of modern mental health policy and service delivery is being extended through funded efforts to accelerate implementation of research findings in practice settings. In this paper, we argue that this linear model of research and policy-making is profoundly ill adapted to the nature of practice realities and real-world policy-making processes. Both need to be re-conceptualised using the theoretical and practical resources deriving from modern complexity theory. A short case study illustrates the nature of ‘complexity’, the reframing of the notion of ‘evidence’ it implies and the different relationship between research, practice and policy that flows from this more attuned model of mental health and therapeutic processes.     

Visual impressions of forces between objects: Entraining,enforced disintegration,and shattering

When a moving object (A) contacts a stationary one (B) and Object B then moves, visual impressions of force occur along with a visual impression of causality. It is shown that findings about force impressions that occur with launching effect stimuli generalize to other forms of phenomenal causality, namely entraining, enforced disintegration, and shattering stimuli. In particular, evidence is reported for generality of the force asymmetry, in which the amount of perceived force exerted by Object A is greater than the amount of perceived resistance put up by Object B. Effects of manipulations of kinematic variables also resembled those found in previous experiments. Some unpredicted findings occurred. It is argued that these reflect a change in perceptual interpretation when both objects are in motion prior to contact, due to both objects being perceived as in autonomous motion. The results are consistent with a theoretical account in which force impressions occur by a process of matching kinematic information in visual stimuli to stored representations of actions on objects, which supply information about forces.