A review of the unsolvable task in dog communication and cognition: comparing different methodologies

Animal Cognition - Communication between dogs and humans is a topic of growing interest, and the “unsolvable task” is a common method used to measure human-directed communication. In...     

The secluded minds of violent patients

In this paper, I will present two violent patients suffering from severe Personality Disorders, illustrating the changes that can arise during the course of several years' psychoanalytic treatment in high security hospital. Progress was monitored using the Operationalised Psychodynamic Diagnostics (OPD) system. The clinical presentations will indicate how secluded these patients' minds are to themselves and to those involved in their care. The psychoanalytic treatment, as one part of the overall treatment, is described to show how the secluded parts of the patients'' minds can be approached, including references to the regular regressions that arise, provoked by ‘getting better’.     

The rhetorical power of naming: The case of regicide

The traditional reading of ancient Chinese texts focuses on their content rather than their modes of expression: truth is considered a given, of which language is merely the expression. This approach misses out on a predominant way of arguing in Chinese texts, namely to evaluate the situation by (re) naming it. A discussion of four textual fragments (up to the 2nd century BC) concerning the topic of regicide illustrates different degrees of this type of argumentation. Among philosophers discussion occurs in a subtle play of specifying terms such as ‘regicide’ or ‘reign’, rather than in an explicit defence of regicide by appeal to higher principles.     

The societal and psycho-sociological background of football hooliganism

On October 11, 1985, the Belgian Council of Ministers ordered scientific research on violence on the football terraces. This research was conducted in the years 1986 and 1987 by the “Onderzoeksgroep Jeugdcriminologie” (Research group on Juvenile Criminology) of the K.U. Leuven in close relationship with the general police of the home office. (The report was submitted on December 23, 1987 [VAN LIMBERGEN, COLAERS en WALGRAVE, 1987].)     

Maternal Influences on Daughters' Gender Role Attitudes

This study concerns the gender role attitudes ofgirls. These attitudes included their ideas onmotherhood as well as their ideas on female roles ingeneral. We examined whether the relations betweenmothers' employment status and their level of education,and daughters' gender role attitudes were mediated bymothers' own gender role attitudes and child-rearingstyle. In this study, 165 adolescent girls and their mothers participated. Overall, the datademonstrate the importance of mothers in the developmentof daughters' gender role attitudes. A mother'schild-rearing style as well as her own gender role attitudes do influence the gender roleattitudes a daughter develops. Level of education andmothers' employment have indirect effects.     

Instruction Dialogues in the Zhuangzi: An “Anthropological” Reading

There is a tendency in academia to read early Chinese masters as consistent philosophers. This is to some extent caused by the specific form in which these masters have been studied and taught for more than a century. Convinced of the influence that the form of transmission has on the content, this article studies the more fragmented parts of the book Zhuangzi??instruction scenes or dialogues??and more specifically their formal traits rather than the philosophical content conveyed in them. The focus is on one fragment in Chapter 7 which portrays Liezi, a shaman and Master Calabash. The persons and stages of the instructions scenes in the Zhuangzi seem to promote a non-teaching, in which the learner learns while the teacher does not teach. The non-availability of the teacher and his unwillingness to teach are, paradoxically, at the core of the teaching, although not presented as a valuable alternative.     

究竟有无"中国哲学"?

“哲学”在鲁汶大学是很重要的一门课:新生入学,都要求选修一门“哲学概论”。尽管名为“概论”,但这门课事实上将所有非西方文化的内容都排除在外。虽然这门课并没有被称为“西方”哲学概论,但人们很自然地认为哲学就是西方的东西。因为觉得理所当然,所以无须任何进一步的解释。然而毋庸置疑,中国是从完全不同的预设出发的:许多大学的哲学系都有一个分科,主要研究中国哲学,类似于那些讲授西方哲学甚至讲授印度哲学的分科。没有一个中国的大学仅仅讲授中国哲学而不讲授其他哲学,更不必说在“哲学概论”的名称之下了。这种情况让人印象深刻,…     

Views on Quality of Life Differ Between Alcohol Related Brain Damaged Individuals and Their Healthcare Professionals

Measuring quality of life (QoL) in alcohol related brain damaged individuals (ARBDs) is challenging, mostly because patients are characterized by important cognitive impairments and are generally unaware of their defects. However, quality of life assessments are essential to help inform care and rehabilitative settings; thus introducing and including views from healthcare professionals on ARBDs’ quality of life is a reasonable approach. We examine QoL and the perception of cognitive defects among ARBDs and compare them to expert appraisals by acquainted healthcare professionals. We hypothesize that ARBDs self-assessments outscore QoL expert-ratings by professionals and demonstrate an unawareness of their cognitive deficits, with anosognosia being related to the QoL domains of interest. Six domains of QoL and the occurrence of cognitive problems in 14 detoxified alcoholics are investigated by means of self-ratings and expert-ratings from two acquainted healthcare professionals. Anosognosia is assessed by using difference scores between self- and expert-ratings on the manifestation of everyday executive dysfunctions. We find that ARBDs experience anosognosia (ps?<?.001) and outscore systematically expert-ratings on the investigated QoL domains (ps?<?.03). Complex patterns of relationships between self-/expert-rated QoL relate mostly negatively and moderately with anosognosia, confirming some of our assumptions and informing others. ARBDs are characterized by anosognosia and differ largely from expert’s views on patient QoL. Professionals relate compromised patient QoL to the inability of the patient to have insight of his/her dysfunctions; whereas among patients, QoL relates less strongly to anosognosia. Remaining doubts on the validity of QoL self-/expert-ratings in ARBDs are discussed.