Containing States of Mind

Containing States of Mind
Author: Duncan Cartwright
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2014-02-04
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1317762924

Wilfred Bion’s insights into the analytic process have had a profound influence on how psychoanalysts and psychotherapists understand emotional change and pathological mental states. One of his most influential ideas concerns the notion that we need the minds of others to develop our own emotional and cognitive capacities. In Containing States of Mind Duncan Cartwright explores and develops some of the implications that Bion’s container model has on clinical practice. He argues that the analyst or therapist best fulfils a containing function by negotiating irreconcilable internal tensions between his role as ‘dream object’ and ‘proper object’. The container model is also used to illustrate different ‘modes of interaction’ in the analytic field, the nature of particular pathological states and some of the key dilemmas faced in attempting to make unbearable mental states more bearable. As well as addressing key theoretical problems, Containing States of Mind is a clinical text that renders complex ideas accessible and useful for psychotherapeutic and analytic practice and as such will be essential reading for all those involved in the fields of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.

Pleasure and the Good Life

Pleasure and the Good Life
Author: Fred Feldman
Publisher: Clarendon Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2004-03-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 019153269X

Fred Feldman's fascinating new book sets out to defend hedonism as a theory about the Good Life. He tries to show that, when carefully and charitably interpreted, certain forms of hedonism yield plausible evaluations of human lives. Feldman begins by explaining what we mean when we ask what the Good Life is. He argues that this should not be taken to be a question about the morally good life or about the beneficial life. Rather, the question concerns the general features of the life that is good in itself for the one who lives it. Hedonism says (roughly) that the Good Life is the pleasant life. After showing that the usual formulations of hedonism are often confused or incoherent, Feldman presents a simple, clear, coherent form of sensory hedonism that provides a starting point for discussion. He then considers a webalogue of classic objections to hedonism, coming from sources as diverse as Plato, Aristotle, Brentano, Ross, Moore, Rawls, Kagan, Nozick, Brandt, and others. One of Feldman's central themes is that there is an important distinction between the forms of hedonism that emphasize sensory pleasure and those that emphasize attitudinal pleasure. Feldman formulates several kinds of hedonism based on the idea that attitudinal pleasure is the Good. He claims that attitudinal forms of hedonism - which have often been ignored in the literature — are worthy of more careful attention. Another main theme of the book is the plasticity of hedonism. Hedonism comes in many forms. Attitudinal hedonism is especially receptive to variations and modifications. Feldman illustrates this plasticity by formulating several variants of attitudinal hedonism and showing how they evade some of the objections. He also shows how it is possible to develop forms of hedonism that are equivalent to the allegedly anti-hedonistic theory of G. E. Moore, and the Aristotelian theory according to which the Good Life is the life of virtue, or flourishing. He also formulates hedonisms relevantly like the ones defended by Aristippus and Mill. Feldman argues that a carefully developed form of attitudinal hedonism is not refuted by objections concerning 'the shape of a life'. He also defends the claim that all of the alleged forms of hedonism discussed in the book genuinely deserve to be called 'hedonism'. Finally, after dealing with the last of the objections, he gives a sketch of his hedonistic vision of the Good Life.

Psychoanalytic Conversations with States of Spirit Possession

Psychoanalytic Conversations with States of Spirit Possession
Author: Shalini Masih
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2023-10-16
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1666902128

Shalini Masih grew up in a stimulating environment of priests and healers, witnessing firsthand states of spirit possession and exorcism. In adulthood, she revisited these experiences, motivating her to extend psychoanalysis outside the clinic's realms into spaces of traditional healing. The outcome of her detailed exploration acknowledges the hugely productive interface between cultural manifestations and concerns of psychoanalysis without reducing the phenomenon of spirit possession to something formulaic. Instead, Psychoanalytic Conversations with States of Spirit Possession: Beauty in Brokenness highlights the intrinsic beauty of this complex experience, illustrating relevant themes through culturally sensitive psychoanalytic conversations with participants who felt haunted and possessed by ghosts. The author's journey reveals the ghosts of her own inner world. She draws upon her reveries, dreams, and nightmares to make sense of the unconscious processes in her informant's testimonies, journeys that are so often undertaken from one grotesque ghost to another until these ghastly beings reappear as broken part-selves in search of the glue of spiritual meaning.

Philosophy of Mind

Philosophy of Mind
Author: Ian Ravenscroft
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2005
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199252548

Designed specifically for students with no background knowledge in the subject, this accessible introduction covers all of the basic concepts and major theories in the philosophy of mind. Topics discussed include dualism, behaviorism, the identity theory, functionalism, the computational theory of mind, connectionism, physicalism, mental causation, and consciousness. The text is enhanced by chapter summaries, a glossary, suggestions for further reading, and self-assessment questions.

Cognitive Capital: Investing in Teacher Quality

Cognitive Capital: Investing in Teacher Quality
Author: Arthur L. Costa
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2014
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0807754978

Building on the authors' celebrated work in cognitive coaching, this important book provides teachers, schools, and policy leaders with the rationale and new direction for enhancing the development of the intellectual capacity of educators their performance, and their ultimate effects on student learning. The authors focus on assisting teachers in developing awareness in thier own ability to make effective judgements based on all their capabilities and experiences. When teachers weave internal expertise and external criteria together into the exquisite tapestry of teaching and learning, they gain confidence in their ability to make a difference for all students. Rather than spending time becoming better inspectors and enforcers, Cognitive Captial calls for skillful leaders to engage educators' though processes which promote practices that have high impacts on their students.

The Omnipotent State of Mind

The Omnipotent State of Mind
Author: Jean Arundale
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2022-06-23
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1000591964

This book presents an examination and exploration of the concept of omnipotence, its qualities and expression as a psychic state, its origins in the psyche and its appearance in the psychoanalytic process and in society. Linked with narcissism but underdeveloped as a concept in its own right, omnipotence is explored in this book from a range of psychoanalytic perspectives, including its positive value in normal development through to its potential as a destructive element in the personality. The Omnipotent State of Mind is presented in five parts, each exploring a specific theme. The contributors explore omnipotence in infants, children, adolescents and adults, consider why it is so difficult to give up, and examine how the omnipotent state of mind is expressed in culture and society. The range of attitudes towards omnipotence within different psychoanalytic traditions is represented by the international selection of contributors. The Omnipotent State of Mind will be of great interest to psychoanalysts in practice and in training, to psychoanalytic psychotherapists and to other professionals interested in omnipotent states of mind.

Armstrong's Materialist Theory of Mind

Armstrong's Materialist Theory of Mind
Author: Peter Anstey
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2021-12-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0192657372

A Materialist Theory of Mind (1968) by David Armstrong is one of a handful of texts that began the physicalist revolution in the philosophy of mind. It is perhaps the most influential book in the field of the second half of the twentieth century. In this volume a distinguished international team of philosophers examine what we still owe to Armstrong's theory, and how to expand it, as well as looking back on how it came about. The first four chapters are historical in orientation, exploring how the book fits into the history of materialism in the twentieth century. The chapters that follow discuss perception, belief, the supposed explanatory gap between the physical and the mental, introspection, conation, causality, and functionalism.

Philosophy of Mind

Philosophy of Mind
Author: John Heil
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2019-08-29
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0429015984

The book is intended as a reader-friendly introduction to issues in the philosophy of mind, including mental–physical causal interaction, computational models of thought, the relation minds bear to brains, and assorted -isms: behaviorism, dualism, eliminativism, emergentism, functionalism, materialism, neutral monism, and panpsychism. The Fourth Edition reintroduces a chapter on Donald Davidson and a discussion of ‘Non-Cartesian Dualism’, along with a wholly new chapter on emergence and panpsychism. A concluding chapter draws together material in earlier chapters and offers what the author regards as a plausible account of the mind’s place in nature. Suggested readings at the conclusion of each chapter have been updated, with a focus on accessible, non-technical material. Key Features of the Fourth Edition Includes a new chapter, 'Emergence and Panpsychism' (Chapter 13), reflecting growing interest in these areas Reintroduces and updates a chapter on Donald Davidson, 'Radical Interpretation' (Chapter 8), which was excised from the previous edition Updates 'Descartes' Legacy' (Chapter 3) to include a discussion of E. J. Lowe's arresting 'Non-Cartesian Dualism', also removed from the previous edition Includes a highly revised final chapter, which draws together much of the previous material and sketches a plausible account of the mind’s place in nature Updated 'Suggested Reading' lists at the end of each chapter