Pub Date : 2024-09-18DOI: 10.1177/09593543241279397
Aleksandar Aksentijevic
Instead of bringing intellectual closure, the philosophical debate surrounding the nature of consciousness has found itself at an impasse. Extreme positions, from those denying the existence of consciousness to those who wish to imbue the entire universe with it, testify to the lack of common understanding of what consciousness is and how best it could be described and studied. In this paper, reality has its source in a subjective conscious field called the human information field, which is the only source of experience and whose centre is unknowable. Objective reality equals a consensus between individual fields, which underpins the stability and durability of social organisation. The conceptual importance of matter is due to its easy distinguishability from the self. The concept of the human information field offers answers to the hard and the “hardest” problems of consciousness, that is the explanatory gap between consciousness and its material apparatus and the ability of science to understand its own source, respectively. Its limitations constrain our ability to understand the world but are also the prime movers of exploration, development, and learning.
{"title":"Facing up to the hardest problem: The human information field and the ontological primacy of subjective consciousness","authors":"Aleksandar Aksentijevic","doi":"10.1177/09593543241279397","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543241279397","url":null,"abstract":"Instead of bringing intellectual closure, the philosophical debate surrounding the nature of consciousness has found itself at an impasse. Extreme positions, from those denying the existence of consciousness to those who wish to imbue the entire universe with it, testify to the lack of common understanding of what consciousness is and how best it could be described and studied. In this paper, reality has its source in a subjective conscious field called the human information field, which is the only source of experience and whose centre is unknowable. Objective reality equals a consensus between individual fields, which underpins the stability and durability of social organisation. The conceptual importance of matter is due to its easy distinguishability from the self. The concept of the human information field offers answers to the hard and the “hardest” problems of consciousness, that is the explanatory gap between consciousness and its material apparatus and the ability of science to understand its own source, respectively. Its limitations constrain our ability to understand the world but are also the prime movers of exploration, development, and learning.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142256438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-14DOI: 10.1177/09593543241279131
Ana Tomičić, Marija Adela Gjorgjioska
This article examines biases in digital mental health and their impact on technical, social, and political systems. Rising health expenditures and the politics of public health have increased individuals’ responsibility for managing their own health. Global e-health initiatives promise mental health metrics through digital technologies. However, obstacles such as neo-colonial workings of the global economy, embedded biases in technology, and exclusion of psychological therapeutic approaches hinder the digital shift in mental health. This article analyzes the ecosystem of digital mental health technologies, challenging assumptions about psychological normality and algorithmic bias. It explores issues in individualized digital healthcare, cultural biases in psychological assessments, and disciplinary biases in psychology and psychotherapy integrated into digital health tools. By exposing biases and power dynamics, the article emphasizes the need for ethical considerations and offers insights into the potentials and limitations of mental health technologies.
{"title":"Epistemic inequality in the digital era: Unpacking biases in digital mental health","authors":"Ana Tomičić, Marija Adela Gjorgjioska","doi":"10.1177/09593543241279131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543241279131","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines biases in digital mental health and their impact on technical, social, and political systems. Rising health expenditures and the politics of public health have increased individuals’ responsibility for managing their own health. Global e-health initiatives promise mental health metrics through digital technologies. However, obstacles such as neo-colonial workings of the global economy, embedded biases in technology, and exclusion of psychological therapeutic approaches hinder the digital shift in mental health. This article analyzes the ecosystem of digital mental health technologies, challenging assumptions about psychological normality and algorithmic bias. It explores issues in individualized digital healthcare, cultural biases in psychological assessments, and disciplinary biases in psychology and psychotherapy integrated into digital health tools. By exposing biases and power dynamics, the article emphasizes the need for ethical considerations and offers insights into the potentials and limitations of mental health technologies.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"202 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142256439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-14DOI: 10.1177/09593543241279264
Enno Freiherr von Fircks
In the present paper, I enlarge William Stern’s value theory and link it to his teachings about signs and symbols. People come with dynamic self-value (which is derived from their needs and goal hierarchies), which they radiate into different action spheres, within which they make use of specific signs and tools. Therefore, by altering their psychic systems, the action spheres and tools combine to create a specific service value for each person. In the second part, I criticize Stern’s value theory for not emphasizing social-historical features in his general theoretical framework. This is compared to Vygotsky, for example, who emphasized that action spheres come with a particular cultural-historical situation, so that we get a glimpse not only into a person’s self-value but also into the social conditions under which they act.
{"title":"Making sense of signs: Readjusting William Stern’s personological value theory","authors":"Enno Freiherr von Fircks","doi":"10.1177/09593543241279264","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543241279264","url":null,"abstract":"In the present paper, I enlarge William Stern’s value theory and link it to his teachings about signs and symbols. People come with dynamic self-value (which is derived from their needs and goal hierarchies), which they radiate into different action spheres, within which they make use of specific signs and tools. Therefore, by altering their psychic systems, the action spheres and tools combine to create a specific service value for each person. In the second part, I criticize Stern’s value theory for not emphasizing social-historical features in his general theoretical framework. This is compared to Vygotsky, for example, who emphasized that action spheres come with a particular cultural-historical situation, so that we get a glimpse not only into a person’s self-value but also into the social conditions under which they act.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142256440","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-14DOI: 10.1177/09593543241280056
Rob Withagen
In recent decades, several ecologically inclined authors have adopted the Gestalt idea of demand characters. Yet, James Gibson, the founder of the ecological approach, although being inspired by Koffka, was critical of many of his ideas, including the contention that the environment calls for certain actions. This article examines why Gibson was so reluctant to accept this concept of demand characters. To that end, the relationship between Gibson’s ecological approach and Gestalt psychology is scrutinized. After an exploration of the parallels between the frameworks of Gibson and Koffka, Gibson’s critique of Koffka’s masterpiece Principles of Gestalt Psychology is evaluated. It is argued that although Gibson’s claim about the mind–world dualism in which Koffka’s perspective is rooted is arguably valid, neither Gibson nor some of his recent devotees take Koffka’s insights into the qualities of experience sufficiently seriously in their theorizing.
{"title":"The Gibsonian movement and Koffka’s Principles of Gestalt Psychology","authors":"Rob Withagen","doi":"10.1177/09593543241280056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543241280056","url":null,"abstract":"In recent decades, several ecologically inclined authors have adopted the Gestalt idea of demand characters. Yet, James Gibson, the founder of the ecological approach, although being inspired by Koffka, was critical of many of his ideas, including the contention that the environment calls for certain actions. This article examines why Gibson was so reluctant to accept this concept of demand characters. To that end, the relationship between Gibson’s ecological approach and Gestalt psychology is scrutinized. After an exploration of the parallels between the frameworks of Gibson and Koffka, Gibson’s critique of Koffka’s masterpiece Principles of Gestalt Psychology is evaluated. It is argued that although Gibson’s claim about the mind–world dualism in which Koffka’s perspective is rooted is arguably valid, neither Gibson nor some of his recent devotees take Koffka’s insights into the qualities of experience sufficiently seriously in their theorizing.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142269431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-21DOI: 10.1177/09593543241268499
Dario Alparone, Roberto Pozzetti, Amelia Rizzo
This article explores internet addiction, with a focus on digital devices and dating apps. Using the psychoanalytical conceptualization, we present a clinical case study of a young man struggling with both his sexuality and his addiction to online interactions. The addictive nature of internet use, particularly in relation to sexuality and pornography, is explored, highlighting its pervasive characteristics in contemporary society. Drawing on psychoanalytic theories, we explore the concept of “symptom” as the expression of discontents in civilization, from a Freudian approach, and therefore the impact of symbolic and cultural factors on psychopathological phenomena. The study offers insights into the psychodynamics of various forms of addiction, particularly sexual addiction. The treatment of a case of addiction to dating apps will show how this relationship to sexuality is shaped by social practices disseminated through the internet and social networks. Finally, the psychodynamic underpinnings of internet addiction and its impact, particularly on vulnerable young people, underline the importance of recognising the addictive nature of digital devices in contemporary society. In fact, the patient’s addictive style of enjoyment could be considered as typical of a generalised style of enjoyment in contemporary society. Addiction thus becomes a typical symptomatic trait that excludes the existential lack of the subject.
{"title":"Sexuality in the digital world: Treatment of a case of dating app addiction","authors":"Dario Alparone, Roberto Pozzetti, Amelia Rizzo","doi":"10.1177/09593543241268499","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543241268499","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores internet addiction, with a focus on digital devices and dating apps. Using the psychoanalytical conceptualization, we present a clinical case study of a young man struggling with both his sexuality and his addiction to online interactions. The addictive nature of internet use, particularly in relation to sexuality and pornography, is explored, highlighting its pervasive characteristics in contemporary society. Drawing on psychoanalytic theories, we explore the concept of “symptom” as the expression of discontents in civilization, from a Freudian approach, and therefore the impact of symbolic and cultural factors on psychopathological phenomena. The study offers insights into the psychodynamics of various forms of addiction, particularly sexual addiction. The treatment of a case of addiction to dating apps will show how this relationship to sexuality is shaped by social practices disseminated through the internet and social networks. Finally, the psychodynamic underpinnings of internet addiction and its impact, particularly on vulnerable young people, underline the importance of recognising the addictive nature of digital devices in contemporary society. In fact, the patient’s addictive style of enjoyment could be considered as typical of a generalised style of enjoyment in contemporary society. Addiction thus becomes a typical symptomatic trait that excludes the existential lack of the subject.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-21DOI: 10.1177/09593543241269745
Jack J. Bauer
{"title":"Wise thoughts on phronesis","authors":"Jack J. Bauer","doi":"10.1177/09593543241269745","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543241269745","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-16DOI: 10.1177/09593543241271023
Ruth Bateson-Ardo, Ann Rogerson, Stephanie Denne, Leigh Coombes
Over the last half-century, an industry of sense-making and psy-management has emerged to narrate an increasingly “special” population of third culture kids (TCKs): children with highly mobile formative contexts, living between countries and cultures. Producing categories of identification and models of development through dominant monocultural assumptions, TCK literature performs colonising epistemological disciplines of coding difference as risk and capital. In this article, we trouble the prevailing assumptions and frameworks that narrate TCK identity through a paradox of unrecognisability, integrating autobiographical responses to theorise questions about accounting for one another and ourselves as subjects of otherness. Decoding movements of posthuman commitments to disrupting universalising god tricks offer memories of encountering paradigms of ab-normality in TCK accounts as ruptures that open up new possibilities. Beyond restrains of normalising frameworks, unusual life stories flow in affirmative, relational, and creative accounts of responsive citizenship in between and among multiple countries and cultures.
{"title":"Ab-normalising projects of third culture kid identity: Troubling the god trick","authors":"Ruth Bateson-Ardo, Ann Rogerson, Stephanie Denne, Leigh Coombes","doi":"10.1177/09593543241271023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543241271023","url":null,"abstract":"Over the last half-century, an industry of sense-making and psy-management has emerged to narrate an increasingly “special” population of third culture kids (TCKs): children with highly mobile formative contexts, living between countries and cultures. Producing categories of identification and models of development through dominant monocultural assumptions, TCK literature performs colonising epistemological disciplines of coding difference as risk and capital. In this article, we trouble the prevailing assumptions and frameworks that narrate TCK identity through a paradox of unrecognisability, integrating autobiographical responses to theorise questions about accounting for one another and ourselves as subjects of otherness. Decoding movements of posthuman commitments to disrupting universalising god tricks offer memories of encountering paradigms of ab-normality in TCK accounts as ruptures that open up new possibilities. Beyond restrains of normalising frameworks, unusual life stories flow in affirmative, relational, and creative accounts of responsive citizenship in between and among multiple countries and cultures.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-16DOI: 10.1177/09593543241270932
Emma Richardson, Simon Boag
The present paper introduces a theoretical model that addresses the interplay between insecure attachment, internal narratives, and defensive behaviour. Drawing from attachment theory research, we conceptualize the “internalized defensive narrative” (IDN) as a mental representation associated with attachment-insecurity. The model illustrates how the unique IDN associated with attachment-anxiety and attachment-avoidance respectively invoke hyperactivating and deactivating defenses. In clinical contexts, the model’s application may possibly contribute to the development of more effective therapeutic strategies that target the root causes of a client’s defensive behaviour. By recognizing the IDN as a key factor in the maintenance of the insecure cycle, therapists can potentially help clients gain insights into the psychological mechanisms driving their behaviour and provide them with tools for change, leading to improved therapeutic outcomes for individuals struggling with these issues. Further research is needed to validate and elaborate on the proposed model and its implications for clinical practice.
{"title":"When foundations falter: The emergence of defensive narratives from insecure attachment dynamics","authors":"Emma Richardson, Simon Boag","doi":"10.1177/09593543241270932","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543241270932","url":null,"abstract":"The present paper introduces a theoretical model that addresses the interplay between insecure attachment, internal narratives, and defensive behaviour. Drawing from attachment theory research, we conceptualize the “internalized defensive narrative” (IDN) as a mental representation associated with attachment-insecurity. The model illustrates how the unique IDN associated with attachment-anxiety and attachment-avoidance respectively invoke hyperactivating and deactivating defenses. In clinical contexts, the model’s application may possibly contribute to the development of more effective therapeutic strategies that target the root causes of a client’s defensive behaviour. By recognizing the IDN as a key factor in the maintenance of the insecure cycle, therapists can potentially help clients gain insights into the psychological mechanisms driving their behaviour and provide them with tools for change, leading to improved therapeutic outcomes for individuals struggling with these issues. Further research is needed to validate and elaborate on the proposed model and its implications for clinical practice.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-26DOI: 10.1177/09593543231219534
Thomas Teo
The argument is based on the premise that method follows subject matter. A representational view of methodology is discussed, arguing that a natural–scientific approach based on variabilization and subdivision of mental life is epistemically insufficient. Subjectivity as the subject matter of psychology must be studied with methods that are capable of addressing wholistic entities and integrating a mostly sociohistorical object, which can be addressed through the psychological humanities. The methodologism of psychology leads to a representational self-misunderstanding that simulates knowledge about human subjectivity but is based on artificial distinctions that are embedded in research practices removed from psychosocial reality. The case is made for representational as well as nonrepresentational psychologies that are grounded in the idea that parts of subjectivity address what is possible and not only what exists. It is concluded that psychology needs a much broader knowledge base and methodological canon, including armchair reflection, for an understanding of human mental life.
{"title":"Subjectivity and method: Why psychology needs more armchair scholarship","authors":"Thomas Teo","doi":"10.1177/09593543231219534","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543231219534","url":null,"abstract":"The argument is based on the premise that method follows subject matter. A representational view of methodology is discussed, arguing that a natural–scientific approach based on variabilization and subdivision of mental life is epistemically insufficient. Subjectivity as the subject matter of psychology must be studied with methods that are capable of addressing wholistic entities and integrating a mostly sociohistorical object, which can be addressed through the psychological humanities. The methodologism of psychology leads to a representational self-misunderstanding that simulates knowledge about human subjectivity but is based on artificial distinctions that are embedded in research practices removed from psychosocial reality. The case is made for representational as well as nonrepresentational psychologies that are grounded in the idea that parts of subjectivity address what is possible and not only what exists. It is concluded that psychology needs a much broader knowledge base and methodological canon, including armchair reflection, for an understanding of human mental life.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141781245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-26DOI: 10.1177/09593543241254798
A. Alexander Beaujean
The problem driving this debate issue is old, going back to at least to the 17th century. Yet, psychologists are no closer to solving the problem now than they were centuries ago. In this article I argue that the reason for the lack of definitive solution is that disputants share assumptions that make the problem unsolvable. More specifically, the problem is based on the assumptions that (a) the knowledge field of psychology is coherent and (b) natural scientists employ a common inquiry approach. Both are troublesome. As such, instead of asking questions such as “Should psychologists follow the natural sciences?” it would be much more meaningful to ask questions such as “What does it look like for psychologists in this subfield to follow a scientific approach?”
{"title":"Towards solving psychology’s fundamental problem","authors":"A. Alexander Beaujean","doi":"10.1177/09593543241254798","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543241254798","url":null,"abstract":"The problem driving this debate issue is old, going back to at least to the 17th century. Yet, psychologists are no closer to solving the problem now than they were centuries ago. In this article I argue that the reason for the lack of definitive solution is that disputants share assumptions that make the problem unsolvable. More specifically, the problem is based on the assumptions that (a) the knowledge field of psychology is coherent and (b) natural scientists employ a common inquiry approach. Both are troublesome. As such, instead of asking questions such as “Should psychologists follow the natural sciences?” it would be much more meaningful to ask questions such as “What does it look like for psychologists in this subfield to follow a scientific approach?”","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141781241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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