Neuroscience,quantum indeterminism and the Cartesian soul

Quantum indeterminism is frequently invoked as a solution to the problem of how a disembodied soul might interact with the brain (as Descartes proposed), and is sometimes invoked in theories of libertarian free will even when they do not involve dualistic assumptions. Taking as example the Eccles–Beck model of interaction between self (or soul) and brain at the level of synaptic exocytosis, I here evaluate the plausibility of these approaches. I conclude that Heisenbergian uncertainty is too small to affect synaptic function, and that amplification by chaos or by other means does not provide a solution to this problem. Furthermore, even if Heisenbergian effects did modify brain functioning, the changes would be swamped by those due to thermal noise. Cells and neural circuits have powerful noise-resistance mechanisms, that are adequate protection against thermal noise and must therefore be more than sufficient to buffer against Heisenbergian effects. Other forms of quantum indeterminism must be considered, because these can be much greater than Heisenbergian uncertainty, but these have not so far been shown to play a role in the brain.     

Barth and Darwin: What is Humanity?

Abstract

Karl Barth proposed that secular texts including scientific theories could be understood as parables of aspects of the revealed truth not as such available to natural science. I explore that suggestion, seeking to understand what human biology in succession to the work of Charles Darwin has to contribute alongside Barth's doctrine of the human person.     

Believers and Their Disbelief

Several recent Roman Catholics who were known for their devotion have left accounts of their troubled faith. I consider three of these: St. Therese of Lisieux, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Then I tell of the troubled atheism of Jean‐Paul Sartre. Finally, I use texts of Sartre and Teilhard to understand the unsettled nature of belief.     

The Metallic Womb

This study of malevolent narcissism examines the relationship between the Washington Snipers, Muhammad and Malvo, from the perspectives of attachment theory and Kleinian theory. Muhammad embodied a perverted understanding of manliness. Malvo was desperate for the love of a father, and fused with the omnipotent destructiveness of John Muhammad. Together they embarked on a failed Quest, recreating the original infant/caregiver scenario, which in their experience was about destruction and death, rather than gratitude and life. Malvo and Muhammad were perfect together, merged into one unit devoted to murder. Their victims were random and multiple, like their early caregivers.     

Self,Sin, and the Sacred: Some Elements of a Select Psychology for the Care of Souls

Many pastors feel that their work in the secular sphere can best be described as an exploration of the meaning of life: as spiritual care. However, the idea that it is possible and easy to find such a thing as “the meaning of life,” as well as the concurrent idea that this meaning will help to make life more agreeable, should not be taken for granted but, rather, should be considered to be open for further exploration. To get a better understanding of the difference between spiritual care and the care of souls, I will discuss three central themes in any pastoral practice: sin, sense, and sorrow, together with three related constructs: soul, self, and the sacred. My exposition will result in a plea for revaluing two traditional but ever relevant modes of religious leadership: the modes of shepherd and teacher, of tutor and theologian, which are performed either in the context of the church or the secular institutional environment.     

从《游叙弗伦》看苏格拉底的敬神

由苏格拉底之死而引发的苏格拉底敬神之探讨,迄今为止仍为许多研究者孜孜以求。文章试图以柏拉图这篇专门探讨敬神主题的对话《游叙弗伦》为切入点,来考察苏格拉底的敬神。前三节逐一分析该篇对话所探讨的关于敬神的三种定义:1.敬神即做神所做;2.凡神所喜即敬神;3.敬神即在于侍奉神。一则考察习俗敬神观的根据,以及游叙弗伦对这种敬神观的立场,二则从苏格拉底对游叙弗伦的回应来看苏格拉底对这种习俗敬神观的态度。最后一节试图考察苏格拉底自身的敬神态度,以及这种态度与其作为哲人的智慧之间的内在关联。     

Soul pain and the therapeutic use of ritual

Abstract

This paper will explore the relationship between ritual and transformation. It will show how a therapist and a monk work together to create sacred spaces in which individuals can experience transformation of and through their personal histories, linking their past, present and future to address their soul pain through ritual.

It is illustrated with case studies which will demonstrate the phases of ritual work which are collectively important as part of the psycho-dynamic therapeutic process.     

The Garden of the Heart and Soul: the image,the way,and the meaning

This paper begins with an explanation of the four Chinese characters that represent the project of the Garden of the Heart and Soul. This project was founded to help the psychological development of orphans, as well as to provide psychological relief for the victims of ecological disasters such as earthquakes through the use of Jungian psychology, sandplay therapy, and the psychology of the Heart. Eleven years after its founding, there are 83 work‐stations on mainland China. The authors discuss how the Chinese characters influenced the way they set up their project and the values that guide them. In addition to helping the individuation of the people they work with, their work provides a container for the collective psyche and a connection with the cultural archetypal roots.     

A very obscure definition: Descartes’s account of love in the Passions of the Soul and its scholastic background

The definition of love given by Descartes in the Passions of the Soul (art. 79–84) has never stopped puzzling commentators. If the first Cartesian textbooks discreetly evoke or even fail to discuss Descartes’s account of love, Spinoza harshly criticizes it, pointing out that it is ‘on all hands admitted to be very obscure’. More recently several scholars have noticed the puzzling (or even paradoxical) character of the articles of the Passions of the Soul on love and hate. In this paper, I would like to propose a reassessment of the definition of love provided by the Passions of the Soul and the Letters to Elisabeth and Chanut. By tracing back Descartes’s scholastic sources (namely Aquinas’s treatises on the passions and charity in the Summa Theologiae), I will demonstrate how Descartes builds up his definition of love by displacing or subverting the meaning of several major elements of the thomistic vulgata on love. Hence, a significant part of the obscurity of the definition given by the Passions of the Soul possibly finds its ultimate rationale in this attempt to recover some traditional questions of the scholastic debate on love, while advancing new answers to them.     

Book reviews

Books reviewed:
Mara Sidoli, When the Body Speaks: The Archetypes in the Body
Andrew Samuels, Politics on the Couch: Citizenship and the Internal Life
Karen Kaplan-Solms, & Mark Solms, Clinical Studies in Neuro-Psychoanalysis. Introduction to a Depth Neuropsychology
Christopher Clulow, (ed.) Adult Attachment and Couple Psychotherapy – The 'secure base' in practice and research.