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Mental Life (mental + life)
Selected AbstractsENACTMENTS: MOVING FROM DEADLY WAYS OF RELATING TO THE BEGINNINGS OF MENTAL LIFEBRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY, Issue 2 2008David Morgan abstract The author discusses the vicissitudes of working analytically with patients who present with monolithic forms of thinking. He describes an approach that emphasizes the importance of the analyst as a real object that has at first to be explored to discover whether or not what is projected corresponds to the analyst's mind. This exploration of the other often confronts the analyst with their own issues surrounding sanity and madness, life and death; it is through this exploration of these real anxieties in the mind of the object that can lead to the beginnings of thinking in severely ill patients. [source] Black Metropolis and Mental Life: Beyond the "Burden of ,Acting White' " Toward a Third Wave of Critical Racial StudiesANTHROPOLOGY & EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2008A. A. Akom In this article, I reflect on Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu's classic research on the "burden of ,acting White' " to develop a long overdue dialogue between Africana studies and critical white studies. It highlights the dialectical nature of Fordham and Ogbu's philosophy of race and critical race theory by locating the origins of the "burden of ,acting White' " in the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, who provides some of the intellectual foundations for this work. Following the work of F. W. Twine and C. Gallagher (2008), I then survey the field of critical whiteness studies and outline an emerging third wave in this interdisciplinary field. This new wave of research utilizes the following five elements that form its basic core: (1) the centrality of race and racism and their intersectionality with other forms of oppression; (2) challenging white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity, and other dominant ideologies; (3) a critical reflexivity that addresses how various formulations of whiteness are situated in relation to contemporary formulations of Black/people of color identity formation, politics, and knowledge construction; (4) innovative research methodologies including asset-based research approaches; and, finally, (5) a racial elasticity that identifies the ways in which white racial power and pigmentocracy are continually reconstituting themselves in the color-blind era and beyond (see A. A. Akom 2008c).[oppositional identity, Black student achievement, youth development, acting white, Du Bois, critical whiteness studies, critical race theory, race, Black metropolis, double consciousness, twoness, hip-hop] [source] Perspectives on the Past: A Study of the Spatial Perspectival Characteristics of Recollective MemoriesMIND & LANGUAGE, Issue 2 2007DOROTHEA DEBUS I begin by considering the ,Past-Dependency-Claim', which states that every recollective memory (or ,R-memory') has its spatial perspectival characteristics in virtue of the subject's present awareness of the spatial perspectival characteristics of a relevant past perceptual experience. Although the Past-Dependency-Claim might for various reasons seem particularly attractive, I show that it is false. I then proceed to develop and defend the ,Present-Dependency-Claim', namely the claim that the spatial perspectival characteristics of an R-memory depend on the spatial perspectival characteristics of perceptual experiences that the subject has at the time at which the R-memory occurs. Lastly, I discuss the phenomenon of so-called ,observer-memories', which presents a special challenge for any attempt to account for the spatial perspectival characteristics of R-memories. I argue that we have no good reason to deny that the relevant experiences should count as memories, and I show that we can account for the spatial perspectival characteristics of observer-memories with the help of the ,Present-Dependency-Claim'. More generally, the paper shows that certain events that occur in a subject's mental life (namely, a subject's R-memories) are necessarily dependent on other events that occur in the relevant subject's mental life (namely, on certain perceptual experiences). This more general conclusion in turn should be relevant for any attempt to develop an appropriate account of a subject's mental life as a whole. [source] Surprise Endings: Cephalus and the Indispensable Teacher of Republic X1PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS, Issue 1 2008Patrick McKee Plato imputes an important form of understanding to Cephalus in Book I of the Republic and revisits it at the end of Book X. Plato's astute observations of mental life in old age tie Cephalus' conversation to the concept of "life review" in contemporary geriatric psychology. This provides the basis for an argument that Cephalus exemplifies the indispensable teacher described in Book X, and this raises interesting new epistemological and ethical issues. Finally, I ask why commentaries on the Republic have overlooked this theme, and argue that an ageist bias against Cephalus has distorted commentators' reading of the text. [source] Dreaming as a ,curtain of illusion': Revisiting the ,royal road' with Bion as our guideTHE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 4 2009James S. Grotstein One of Bion's most unique contributions to psychoanalysis is his conception of dreaming in which he elaborates, modifies, and extends Freud,'s ideas. While Freud dealt extensively with dream-work, he showed more interest in dreams themselves and their latent meaning and theorized that dreams ultimately constituted wish-fulfillments originating from the activity of the pleasure principle. Bion, on the other hand, focuses more on the process of dreaming itself and believes that dreaming occurs throughout the day as well as the night and serves the reality principle as well as the pleasure principle. In order for wakeful consciousness to occur, dreaming must absorb (contain) the day residue, and transfer it to System Ucs. from System Cs. for it to be processed (transformed) and then returned to System Cs. through the selectively-permeable contact-barrier. Dreaming, consequently, allows the subject to remain awake by day and asleep by night by its processing of the day's residue. Bion seems to conceive of dreaming as an ever-present invisible filter that overlays much of our mental life, including perception, as well as attention itself. He further believes that dreaming is a form of thinking that normally involves the collaborative yet oppositional (not conflictual) activity of the reality and pleasure principles as well as the primary and secondary processes. He also conflates Freud,'s primary and secondary processes into a single ,binary,oppositional' structure (Lévi-Strauss, 1958, 1970) that he terms ,alpha-function', which constitutes a virtual model that corresponds to the in-vivo activity of dreaming. He further believes that the analyst dreams as he or she listens and interprets and that the analysand likewise dreams while he or she freely associates. [source] Trauma and traumatic neurosis: Freud's concepts revisited,THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 2 2008Siegfried Zepf The authors examine Freud,'s concepts of ,trauma', ,protective shield against stimuli,' and ,traumatic neurosis' in the light of recent findings. ,Protective shield against stimuli' is regarded as a biological concept which appears in mental life as the striving to avoid unpleasant affects. ,Trauma' is a twofold concept in that it relates to mental experience and links an external event with the specific after-effects on an individual,'s psychic reality. A distinction needs to be made between mentally destructive trauma and affective trauma. A destructive trauma does not break through the protective shield but does breach the pleasure,unpleasure principle, so that in the course of its subsequent mastery it leads to a traumatic neurosis. An affective trauma can be warded off under the rule of the pleasure,unpleasure principle and leads to a psychoneurosis. [source] | |||||||||||||