1,720,994 research outputs found
Fluctuat nec mergitur or what happened to Reikian psychoanalysis?
No full textThe official published version can be obtained from the link below - Copyright @ 2006 American Psychological AssociationAlthough Theodor Reik was a celebrated psychoanalyst during the 1950s and 1960s, his work has not resulted in the development of a specific psychoanalytic tradition, and his name has gradually disappeared from Western cultural memory. Following the mode of argumentation of the reductio ad absurdum, the author critically examines six possible explanations for this remarkable observation, thereby drawing on published materials and archival sources relating to the life and works of Reik. Once these explanations have been discarded, the author argues that the main reason for the absence of a Reikian tradition within psychoanalysis stems from Reik's belief in the analytic virtue of intellectual independence. This belief may have contributed to his own departure from the psychoanalytic training institution that he helped to create, yet it also implies that Reikian psychoanalysis somehow lives on in all those practitioners who do not seek to affiliate with a doctrinal school of thought
Discovering fragmented speech: Towards a Bakhtinian approach to the unconscious
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University, 09/02/2004.Fragmented speech, the discovery of which forms the basis of this dissertation, provides the aim and direction of our thesis. The aim is to clarify precisely what fragmented speech is, and subsequently define its application. In this thesis, we begin by providing the historical background to the initial collision between psychoanalysis and literature. This broad base provides the impetus needed in order to formulate certain conclusions regarding the unconscious and the dialogic. Our methodology involves a combination of Freudo-Lacanian theory and Bakhtinian linguistics. As we approach an understanding of our subject, it becomes increasingly necessary to develop the issues surrounding the significance of fragmented speech.
The significance of our work becomes focused when we provide an analysis of a `psychotic discourse', namely, the Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, by President Schreber – using the methodology described. In the final stages of our thesis fragmented speech becomes a symptom of psychosis. Under pressure from the unconscious, the image of speech may fragment. It is the interaction between the body image and the speech image that provides us with a speech complex. Consequently, this dissertation discovers fragmented speech at the very heart of the psychoanalytic session
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Healing the split: An autoethnographic exploration of psychosis following trauma
Full text linkThis thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThis research project aims to explain how a trauma can lead to a false and distorted understanding of reality and how this can in turn lead to psychosis. Having worked for many years trying to understand her psychosis, the author wanted to research and explain what had happened to her. To fulfil this aim, an auto-ethnographic qualitative method was chosen, whereby the author utilised and analysed her own diary entries over time. This method allowed the researcher to disclose and explore aspects of her life that could have been too intrusive, or even potentially distressing had they been probed as part of a third-person perspective, the researcher becoming a participant in someone else’s project.
Psychosis is a condition characterized by subjective difficulties with reality. Winnicott’s explanations of the formation of the false self in psychosis are used to explore how reality’s understanding fails. Special consideration is given to Winnicott’s final paper “Fear of breakdown”, in which he indicated the existence of a “not lived” trauma in psychosis, because of ego immaturity and the subject’s inability to encompass the experience. The trauma needs to be remembered and lived through to resolve the psychosis. Bion’s theory of thought complements Winnicott’s thinking, with its explanation of the difficulties to process and the need to digest trauma. Ferenczi’s work is also utilized to evince how people may be led to behave in uncharacteristic manners, at times even displaying violent behaviour because of trauma. In this respect, the idea of ‘possession’ by another is put forward to interpret psychosis and its resulting behaviour. In addition, Bollas’s understanding of psychotic symptoms is looked at and especially how they can be brought to some form of resolution by helping the individual to integrate what is being externally projected.
Owing to the trauma experienced by the researcher, she failed to understand what was happening when the behaviour of her attacker forced her to internalize it with a different meaning of its reality. Her auto-ethnographic case is examined and compared, using the qualitative method of Thematic Analysis, to the published clinical cases and memoirs of Renée (Marguerite Sechehaye) and Marie Cardinal. This comparison shows how different traumas at different ages will have a different impact and different consequences on the individual, insofar as a trauma experienced by an adult will have less impact on cognition or thought forming, for instance, if before the trauma there was a healthy psychological development. However, psychosis following trauma remains a common factor, because the true self is forced into hiding and a false self with a false understanding becomes dominant. It is argued that it may not be due to ego immaturity that the traumatic experience is not integrated within the psyche, but – as in the researcher’s own experience – that it may be the behaviour of the abuser (or similar factors) compelling and imposing the failure to ‘live’ the experience.
Finally, the resolution of psychosis is explained by allowing the subjective truth of the victim of trauma to be remembered, processed, understood, and eventually newly integrated as reality. This would allow for the failure in the understanding of reality to be overcome. To look for those areas where reality has not been understood is recommended as the foundation for treatment, while the therapist needs to remain aware of how a dormant psychosis can still be triggered there
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Walt Disney's world: Homunculus, Apparatus, Utopia
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London.This text seeks to provide an account of the subject as a consumer of mass-media. As such, the contemporary consumer must interact with corporate entities as socio-cultural institutions that enable a self-administration of gratification. The case under discussion is that of the Walt Disney Company, which is perhaps the most iconic purveyor of consumable media in the world. It is argued that the Walt Disney Company is structurally perverse, that the gratification of the Disney consumer is achieved at their expense, and that this expense is to the benefit of Disney commercially and structurally as a major socio-cultural institution. This text makes use of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, film and cultural studies, and the industrial-organisational history of the Walt Disney Company to create an account of the subject's interactions within the apparatus of Disney media. The account of consumerism constructed within this text is organised by a synthesis of several theoretical constructs: the animated homunculus, the regressive cinematic apparatus and the Disney consumerist utopia.
The homunculus refers to a point of contact for the subject's gratification. It is a fetishistic device used in animated films to create a focal point for the viewer's desire and identifications. This operates within the subject's relation to the screen as apparatus, which in the case of Disney is demonstrated to be regressive in its narrative structure and stylistic content. The regressive pleasures of Disney media support a system and economy of gratification that crystallizes in Disney as a commercial entity. The ideological and structural core of the Disney entity is demonstrated to be a utopian vision of consumerism and self-administration of gratification. The creation of socio-cultural structures that enable the subject to self-administrate their gratification is shown to be related to the problem of addiction; a dependency on consumables and consumption itself.
Together these concepts create a holistic account of Disney as an object of study, as both commercial entity, visual medium and cultural institution
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