Missing what was true: Problems of seeing and knowing in Henry James's The wings of the dove

The author examines a central theme in this late novel by Henry James in relation to current psychoanalytic ideas that link the Oedipus complex with the child's developing perception of reality (both psychic and external), specifi cally through the experience of seeing and being seen. Britton visualises the oedipal triangle as a psychic structure through which the child may achieve recognition not only of its parents' sexual relationship, from which it is excluded, but also of itself being observed by one parent while the child is with the other. Thus, it both observes and is observed. The differing perspectives achieved‐of subjectivity and objectivity‐ promote the perception of objective reality, as the world of relationships grows and becomes more complex. James captures with great subtlety and penetration the experience of three characters living out a symbolic oedipal relationship in which the truth is evaded or perverted. A young couple in love exploit the situation of a dying heiress whose vulnerability is intensifi ed by her reluctance to acknowledge the truth about their relationship. At the same time, she shrinks from the gaze of others and consigns herself to isolation and ultimate despair. The author presents three signifi cant scenes in which seeing and being seen are central to the development. In each, the dying woman is forced to face, if momentarily, her exclusion from the sexual relationship. Increasingly this connects with her approaching death‐but also with the anguished recognition that the couple have cruelly befriended her only to betray her. It is suggested that James's late style and novelistic technique require the reader to tolerate confusion and uncertainty. As the perspective shifts from one protagonist to another, we ourselves are in danger of ‘missing what is true’ in this characteristic Jamesian scenario, where relationships are gradually perverted by manipulation, evasion and lies. In psychoanalytic theory, this would represent a failure to work through the oedipal situation, where the struggle of the child to face reality is met by a parental relationship that is too weak or too perverse to contain the pain and confl ict.     

《内经》对情志的观察与归纳

《内经》除体现出中华文化某些特有的思维特点,也有大量现代科学常用的基本方法,如直接观察并加以归纳。《内经》对有关情志的认识,归纳出一些基本的理论:人的情绪是人体正常功能的常态;对情志分类,主要按良性情绪和不良情绪来归类;情志致病的规律主要是“喜脏不节则伤脏”和“喜脏伤气”。     

论《周易》之“观”与中国传统设计思维的融通性

在《周易》中,"观"作为圣人经验与把握外物及自身的手段和方式,不仅有特定的对象,同时也有着自身的特性。在对象上,《周易》不仅强调对自然对社会的观察,同时也强调对历史及人自身的观照。就特性而言,《周易》之观既是直观,也是遍观和周观,它不仅包含感性的成分,同时又包含着抽象以及理性的推演。在设计学的视域里,"观"这种经验与体悟"物"的方式与传统设计思维具有高度的融通性。中国传统造物实践即遵照了《周易》中"观"之思维与方法。