Basic Theoretical Issues Research Articles

Selection Bias in Cancer Risk Estimation from A-Bomb Survivors

We consider the possible bias in cancer risk estimation from A-bomb survivors due to selection of the cohort by survival. The paper considers both relevant information from the data and basic theoretical issues involved. The most direct information from the data comes from making various restrictions on the dose-distance range, partly to reduce differential selection and partly just to reduce the magnitude of the selection. These analyses suggest that there are no serious biases, but they are not conclusive. Theoretical considerations include laying out more explicitly than usual just how biases could result from the selection. This involves heterogeneities in the ability to survive acute effects, in baseline and radiogenic cancer rates, and most importantly the correlation between survival-related and cancer-related heterogeneities. Following on this, idealized modeling is used to quantify the extent of possible bias in terms of the assumed values of the magnitude of these heterogeneities and their correlation. It is indicated that these values would need to be very large to introduce substantial bias. Based on all these considerations, it seems unlikely that the bias in cancer risk estimation could be large in relation to other uncertainties in generalizing from what is seen among A-bomb survivors; in particular, indications are that the bias in relative risks is unlikely to be as large as 0.05 to 0.07. For solid cancer this would correspond to bias in the excess relative risk at 1 Sv of at most about 15-20%.

Not What It Seems: The Politics of Re-Performing Vito Acconci's Seedbed (1972)

Not What It Seems: The Politics of Re-Performing Vito Acconci’s Seedbed(1972) Theresa Smalec Review of: Marina Abramovic’s Seedbed. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. 10Nov. 2005. For seven days last November, Marina Abramovic engaged in a seemingly simple art experiment. The Solomon R. Guggenheim’s program straightforwardly outlines her weeklong endeavor: “In Seven Easy Pieces, Abramovic reenacts seminal performance works by her peers dating from the 1960s and 70s, interpreting them as one would a musical score and documenting their realization” (9). Myriad complexities unfold, however, as soon as one asks what it means to re-enact a performance that was arguably only supposed to happen once. Furthermore, a musical score is typically understood as written composition, where parts for different instruments appear on separate staves. By contrast, performance has historically been viewed as a profoundly embodied phenomenon, with no easy way to isolate its formal, sociopolitical, and site-specific elements. I explore the tensions outlined above by reviewing a particularly fertile and perplexing example of Abramovic’s efforts to re-perform the score. Before turning, however, to address the factors that make her rendition of Vito Acconci’s Seedbedso oddly provocative, I must elaborate on the basic theoretical issues at stake in her larger project. Back in the 1960s and 70s, the rules of performance were threefold: 1. No rehearsal. 2. No repetition. 3. No predictable end. 1Each of the earlier pieces featured in Abramovic’s 2005 program loyally followed these maxims. Bruce Nauman’s Body Pressure(1974), Vito Acconci’s Seedbed(1972), Valie Export’s Action Pants: Genital Panic(1969), Gina Pane’s Self-Portrait(s)(1973), Joseph Beuys’s How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare(1965), and her own Lips of Thomas(1975) shared a commitment to performance’s one-time insurgence. Because there were no dry runs, no one knew how things would turn out, not even the artists. And because these precarious acts were never repeated, many people argue that it has since become very difficult to pass on the knowledge they shared to new audiences. Indeed, the question of howto rebuild the genre’s ephemeral modes of transmission is integral to the museum’s account of what motivates Abramovic: “The project is premised on the fact that little documentation exists for most performance works from this critical period: one often has to rely upon testimonies from witnesses or photographs that show only portions of any given piece” (9). Yet as usefully urgent as Seven Easy Piecesseems to be, the artist’s proposal to research and re-do the works of her peers threatens the cardinal rules that have long defined this art form as singular. Peggy Phelan explains her sense of the non-reproductive ontology of performance in Unmarked(1993): Performance’s only life is in the present. Performance cannot be saved, recorded, documented, or otherwise participate in the circulation of representations of representations: once it does so, it becomes something other than performance . . . . The document of a performance then is only a spur to memory, an encouragement of memory to become present. (146) Part of Abramovic’s challenge to Phelan’s ontology comes from her never actually having witnessed most of the actions whose scores she would reenact. Her engagement with the remnants that survive of these works is not merely “a spur to memory,” because she has no first-hand knowledge to reactivate. Rather, her plan to use archival remains to literally reproduce acts that were previously “live” suggests that performance canbe transmitted across timeframes. Phelan insists that performance’s affective and authoritative power thrives solely in the here and now: “Performance honors the idea that a limited number of people in a specific time and place can have an experience of value which leaves no visible trace afterward” (149). Contrarily, Abramovic locates its ability to endure and inspire new audiences as residing in the copy: “ Seven Easy Piecesexamines the possibility of redoing and preserving such performance work” (9). In an unlikely way, then, Abramovic’s embodied experiment appears to support the counterintuitive theory that Philip Auslander puts forth in “The Performativity of Performance Documentation” (2006). Her implicit understanding...

Back to Wicksell? In Search of the Foundations of Practical Monetary Policy

It is now widely held that the New Neoclassical Synthesis (NSS) offers central banks a user friendly, though rigorous, theoretical framework consistent with the current practice of systematic stabilization policy based on interest rate rules (e.g. Woodford (2003)). Particular interest and curiosity have been aroused by Woodford's argument that the NNS theory of monetary policy is in its essence a modern restatement and refinement of Wicksell's interest-rate theory of prices (1898a, b). This paper deals with two main issues prompted by Woodford's Neo-Wicksellian revival. The first questions the consistency between the NNS and Wicksell. The second concerns the value added for monetary policy of Wicksellian ideas in their own right. Section 2 clarifies some basic theoretical issues underlying the NNS and its inconsistency with a proper Wicksellian approach, which should be based on saving-investment imbalances that are precluded by the NNS theoretical framework. Section 3 presents a dynamic model whereby it is possible to assess, and hopefully clarify, some basic issues concerning the macroeconomics of saving-investment imbalances. Section 4 examines implications for monetary policy, in particular for Taylor rules, and section 5 concludes that there is some important lesson to be drawn from Wicksell (and Keynes) which is not in the NNS.

Organizacinio identiteto konstravimas mažumų bendruomenėse

The purpose of this article is to outline the basic methodological, theoretical, and technical issues in the development and practice of organizational identity formation through research.
 Power, or more precisely, empowerment is conceptualized as a proper communication variable rather than as a poorly disguised analogue of a dimension of physical calculation. This means that we shall not entertain in this discussion the push-pull metaphors so endemic to analyses presupposing the mechanical triad, force-resistance-change. Instead, we shall make some explicit assumptions about organizations and generate a communication evaluation of power.

Empiricism, rationalism and positivism in library and information science

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the importance and influence of the epistemologies: “empiricism”, “rationalism” and “positivism” in library and information science (LIS).Design/methodology/approachFirst, outlines the historical development of these epistemologies, by discussing and identifying basic characteristics in them and by introducing the criticism that has been raised against these views. Second, their importance for and influence in LIS have been examined.FindingsThe findings of this paper are that it is not a trivial matter to define those epistemologies and to characterise their influence. Many different interpretations exist and there is no consensus regarding current influence of positivism in LIS. Arguments are put forward that empiricism and positivism are still dominant within LIS and specific examples of the influence on positivism in LIS are provided. A specific analysis is made of the empiricist view of information seeking and it is shown that empiricism may be regarded as a normative theory of information seeking and knowledge organisation.Originality/valueThe paper discusses basic theoretical issues that are important for the further development of LIS as a scholarly field.

Usage-Based Models of Language (review)

Reviewed by: Usage-based models of language ed. by Michael Barlow, Suzanne Kemmer Jean-Christophe Verstraete Usage-based models of language. Ed. by Michael Barlow and Suzanne Kemmer. Stanford: CSLI Publications, 2000. Pp. xxviii, 356. ISBN 1575862204. $22.95. Usage-based models of language provides an overview of recent work in linguistics that takes usage data seriously in modeling and theory formation, regarding language use not just as an instantiation of more abstract structures, but as a driving force that shapes and changes these structures. The editors’ introduction to the volume is a useful discussion of [End Page 875] some basic theoretical and methodological issues in usage-based approaches to language, such as the importance of patterns of frequency and variation in language change, the role of cognitive mechanisms as functional constraints on language structure, and the importance of contextual and cultural factors. The other papers in the volume elaborate specific aspects of usage-based approaches, ranging from highly programmatic papers that discuss what a linguistic model should look like if it takes usage data seriously, over psycholinguistic and computational experiments relating to the cognitive aspects of a usage-based approach, to data-intensive papers that show what it actually means to implement such an approach in linguistic description. The papers by Ronald Langacker and Sydney Lamb are the most programmatic ones in the volume: Langacker discusses why and how his model of ‘cognitive grammar’ is usage-based, and Lamb examines the theoretical and methodological prerequisites for network models of language. The articles by Brian MacWhinney and by Connie Dickinson and Talmy Givón both report on experiments that investigate the neural and cognitive aspects of usage-based models. MacWhinney provides an interesting overview of his work on connectionist modeling of language learning and acquisition, and Dickinson and Givón investigate the relationship between conversational interaction and the storage of information in episodic memory. The five other papers illustrate the implementation of a usage-based approach with data from different linguistic domains. Joan Bybee looks at phonetic variation relating to t/d deletion in Chicano English, showing that it is not distributed evenly over the lexicon and that it varies with the frequency of lexical items, and investigating the implications of these observations for phonological theory. Mira Ariel contrasts NP detachment and accessibility theory as two alternative explanations for the development of agreement markers from pronouns, and shows how synchronic patterns of usage in a corpus of Modern Hebrew can be used as evidence for the explanatory adequacy of accessibility theory. Arie Verhagen investigates the diachrony of causative constructions in Dutch, and argues that changes in the relative frequency of the two basic causative verbs laten and doen can be related to changes in cultural conceptions of authority. Douglas Biber illustrates how corpora can be used to study patterns of association between various linguistic features on different levels, and between linguistic and nonlinguistic features. Michael Barlow, finally, studies grammatical variation in collocations on the basis of corpora and provides an explanation in terms of blending theory. Taken together, the articles in this volume form a welcome introduction to usage-based models of language, with convincing arguments for the importance of taking usage data seriously, and interesting implementations of usage-based approaches on different linguistic levels. Jean-Christophe Verstraete University of Leuven Copyright © 2004 Linguistic Society of America

A new theory of migration of radon and its daughters in the ideal condition and their migration equation

The study of radon release and migration is the basic theoretical issue for rado n measurement, which has a close relationship with extensive applications in geo science, environmental science and so on. In this paper, a new theory of migrati on of radon and its daughters has been discussed. The mechanism of vertical mig ration of radon and its daughters is: after α-particles emitted by radon and it s daughters decelerate, they become He nucleus. The He nuclei can combine with r adon and its daughters and form clusters. Because He is very light, it can make the specific gravity of the clusters lower than their buoyancy in the medium. As a result, the clusters will rise of their own accord. When the specific gravity of the clusters is higher than their buoyancy, the clusters will drop down. The theoretical distribution equation is established to describe radon migration an d proved by experiment as well.

Spacelike and timelike response of confined relativistic particles

Basic theoretical issues relating to the response of confined relativistic particles are considered including the scaling of the response in spacelike and timelike regions of momentum transfer and the role of final state interactions. A simple single particle potential model incorporating relativity and linear confinement is solved exactly and its response is calculated. The response is studied in common approximation schemes and it is found that final state interactions effects persist in the limit that the three-momentum transferred to the target is large. The fact that the particles are bound leads to a non-zero response in the timelike region of four-momentum transfer equal to about 10% of the total strength. The strength in the timelike region must be taken into account to fulfill the particle number sum rule.

The duality of the brain and the multiplicity of minds: can you have it both ways?

Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), has been of great interest to the public for over a century. Case histories of MPD can be found in the literature as far back as the eighteenth century; nevertheless, publications from the latter part of the nineteenth century best describe this disorder as we know it today. This paper traces the case history literature of DID (MPD) from the earliest period to the present. This is done in such a way as to illuminate the basic theoretical and epistemological issues that are necessary to understand the process of dissociation (both normal, and abnormal aspects) and the role of hypnosis and its relationship to organic and 'hysterical epilepsy.' The theories of Fanet, Prince and Sidis are the major authorities discussed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the danger inherent in fostering a deterministic or reductionistic theory of consciousness.

Brenner on Competition

This paper criticizes Brenner's emphasis on competition within Manufacturing in his analysis of the falling profit rate, and the subsequent extension of this fall to the entire economy. His assumptions concerning price competition appear arbitrary and proofs are deficient. Brenner cannot escape the reliance on the rise of wages, contrary to what he contends in his criticism of profit-squeeze theory. Several basic theoretical issues, such as adjustment by prices (as in neoclassical models) or by quantities produced (as in Keynesian models), partial or general analysis are not treated properly. For Marx, the decline of the profit rate causes competitive wars; the inverse relationship is posited by Brenner.

The Genetics of Alcoholism

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book Forum: SUBSTANCE USE AND ABUSEFull AccessThe Genetics of AlcoholismMICHELLE KIM LEFF, M.D., MICHELLE KIM LEFFSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., Ruxton, Md.Published Online:1 Jan 1999https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.156.1.155AboutSectionsView EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail This book is the first volume in a new series, Alcohol and Alcoholism, which is related to the editors’ first series, The Biology of Alcoholism. This new series will consist of nine volumes, each with a specific topic. This volume, on the genetics of alcoholism, is the first of four dealing with basic theoretical and experimental issues in alcohol and alcoholism research.The volume is organized into three main sections. Part 1 includes epidemiologic studies. Victor Hesselbrock, in his chapter on the genetic epidemiology of alcoholism (chapter 1), reviews the various familial-genetic studies, including twin studies and adoption studies. Michie Hesselbrock, in chapter 2, describes the genetic determinants of alcoholic subtypes. I found the third chapter, “Familial Transmission of Psychiatric Disorders Associated With Alcoholism,” very interesting. Remi Cadoret concisely analyzes the pertinent literature to date. Other chapters in this section include Andrew Heath’s very thorough review of the genetic influences on drinking behavior in humans (chapter 4) and James Wilson and Elizabeth Laffan’s chapter on testing for genetic influences on alcohol metabolism, sensitivity, and tolerance (chapter 5).Part 2, Selective Breeding Studies, focuses on the current knowledge that the animal studies have contributed to the field. These basic science studies may not have immediate applicability to clinical work; however, it is through these studies that factors influencing alcohol consumption and alcoholism have been identified. Richard Deitrich and Rodney Baker, in chapter 6, review the genetic influences on alcohol metabolism and sensitivity to alcohol in animals. In the next chapter, David Crabb et al. describe genetic factors that reduce the risk for developing alcoholism in animals and humans. They discuss the enzymology of alcohol-metabolizing systems, with one focus on the Asian alcohol flush reaction. Ann Kosobud and John Crabbe end this section with their chapter on the genetic influences on the development of physical dependence and withdrawal in animals.The first chapter in the last section of this volume, Phenotypic Studies, is a brief summation of the biochemical phenotypic markers in genetic alcoholism, presented by Ivan Diamond and Adrienne Gordon. In chapter 10, Henri Begleiter and Bernice Porjesz review the major neurophysiological phenotypic factors. This chapter is a good introduction to the field. They describe the confounding features of alcoholism, which make it difficult to identify specific genes, and the specific criteria critical for identifying a genetically influenced marker. They then discuss the pertinent findings from selected EEG and event-related brain potential studies. In chapter 12, Ralph Tarter et al. describe the studies in behavioral genetics that look to elucidate the etiology of alcoholism. Tarter presents the results from his well-known work, along with other studies looking at temperament associated with a greater risk for alcoholism. As a child psychiatrist who works with children of substance-abusing parents, I found this chapter very compelling. Gerald McClearn and Robert Plomin, in chapter 13, discuss various research strategies for the search for genetic influences on the phenotypes described in previous chapters. They stress the need for quantitative genetic research in this field. In the final chapter, Alexander Wilson and Robert Elston explain linkage analysis and review the linkage analysis research of alcoholism.This volume is a strong start in this new series. It is a well-organized, well-written volume that can be used as an up-to-date reference. I look forward to future volumes in this series.edited by Henri Begleiter, and Benjamin Kissin. New York, Oxford University Press, 1995, 378 pp., $79.50. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 156Issue 1 January 1999Pages 155-155 Metrics History Published online 1 January 1999 Published in print 1 January 1999

The Children of Hobbes: Education, Family Structure and the Problem of Social Order

This article suggests that the problem of social order remains a basic theoretical and practical issue for sociologists. It maintains that Dennis Wrong's discussion of this problem can help us conceptualize degrees of social order or disorder as emerging from patterns of social interactions. Given the increasing prevalence of single-parent families as an American social pattern, the article investigates the possibility that family structure may influence school outcomes by producing varying levels of social order in schools. Specifically, it looks at whether concentrations of students from single-parent families may lead to conflictual environments that can influence the school performance of all students, regardless of individual family backgrounds.

Development and implementation of second and third order vector finite elements in various 3-D electromagnetic field problems

A generalized theory of higher order vector finite elements is presented. The methodology, that is introduced, is used for the construction of new second and third order generalizations of the concept of tetrahedral edge elements. Basic theoretical issues about their construction, such as the proper choice and placement of degrees of freedom and the correct modeling of irrotational fields are discussed. The presented theory and methodology are also extended to the hexahedral element case. Some practical problems and difficulties related to the numerical implementation of higher order vector finite elements are also dealt with. Finally, both second and third order elements are successfully implemented in several electromagnetic field or potential formulations.

Korn’s Inequalities and Their Applications in Continuum Mechanics

Korn’s inequalities have played a central role in the development of linear elasticity, not only in connection with the basic theoretical issues such as existence and uniqueness, but also in a variety of applications. The Korn inequalities, and other related inequalities for integrals of quadratic functionals, also arise in the analysis of viscous incompressible fluid flow. The dimensionless optimal constants appearing in these inequalities, the Korn constants, depend only on the shape of the domains of concern. Information on the geometric dependence of these constants is essential in applications. In this review article, we summarize the major results on Korn’s inequalities for bounded domains in two and three dimensions, with emphasis on results concerning the Korn constants. Some applications in continuum mechanics are also described.

Socioeconomic Stratification in Family Research

Unresolved issues in stratification theory and measurement are pointed out and implications for family research are discussed. Sources of useful measures are suggested. In addition, the results of a survey of the use of socioeconomic stratification concepts in family research articles published from 1991 through 1993 in six major journals are presented. The results indicate that family researchers make extensive use of various socioeconomic variables. Two imperatives are emphasized, namely the need to place socioeconomic concepts in theoretical context and the need to learn more about the relative powers of various socioeconomic measures to account for important family variables and relationships among variables. The study of socioeconomic stratification has a long and complex history in the social sciences. Basic theoretical and methodological issues that have been debated for many decades without definitive resolution have been joined in recent years by additional contentious issues. Why societies are stratified, the dimension or dimensions of stratification and, consequently, the appropriate stratification variables to employ are unresolved issues. Perhaps that is one reason why recent family researchers have generally used socioeconomic variables in an atheoretical manner, with little apparent concern for relevant theoretical and methodological issues. Despite the unresolved controversies, however, family searchers might benefit from viewing the socioeconomic measures they use in terms of broader theoretical contexts. After all, family theorists and researchers have gained insights by viewing various family behaviors in terms of symbolic interaction, social exchange, and systems frameworks, even though these theoretical perspectives diverge from. each other and none is universally accepted as valid. Family theory and research can also benefit from more thorough consideration of relevant measurement issues and from efforts to identify the socioeconomic measures that are most useful in accounting for family variables. The central objective of this article is to increase awareness of the issues and alternatives that need to be considered when one uses socioeconomic concepts family theory and research. To that end we will (a) point out basic theoretical and methodological issues and some implications for the family, (b) present the results of a survey of the use of socioeconomic concepts in family research articles published from 1991 through 1993 in Journal of Marriage and the Family and selected sociological and psychological journals, and (c) indicate measurement Strategies and recommend needed research. STRATIFICATION ISSUES Long-Term Basic Issues in Stratification Theory Social class and socioeconomic status are concepts whose meanings are known to all social and behavioral scientists. The problem is that different social and behavioral scientists attribute different meanings for these concepts because they consciously or unconsciously take different positions on basic stratification issues. The following paragraphs will suggest what these issues are, but interested readers can find more complete analyses in several recent discussions of stratification history and theoretical issues (e.g., Borgatta & Borgatta, 1994; Boudon & Burricaud, 1989; Crompton, 1993; Langman, 1987). The long-term basic issues in stratification theory involve divergent answers to three questions. Why are societies stratified? Along what dimension or dimensions are they stratified? And what is the shape of the stratification hierarchy? Divergent explanations of the origins of stratification. Stratification theorists in general have assumed that people in modern societies are hierarchically arranged in terms of some value or values, but they have presented very different ideas about why these hierarchies exist. The dominant perspectives on why societies are stratified are the conflict view, the functionalist view, and the market view. …

A critical review on the dynamics of Jovian atmospheres.

Some basic theoretical issues of the Jovian atmospheric dynamics are discussed. Those include the depth of the motions, thermal convection both with deep and shallow configurations, the two-dimensional turbulence theory and its relevance. The refractive index analysis is suggested to interpret the coherent structures like Jupiter's Great Red Spot in terms of Charney-Drazin constraint based on the observations. A possibility of Jovian data assimilation is proposed as a future direction.

A Most Fundamental Principle of Marxism

Chairman Hua emphasized in his speech last year at the opening ceremony of the Central Party School that: "Chairman Mao instructed us over and over that ‘the integration of theory and practice is the most fundamental principle of Marxism.’ Chairman Mao fought all his life against the evil work style of boasting and of separating theory from practice. … Political swindlers such as Lin Biao, Chen Boda, and the "gang of four" have messed up many basic theoretical issues and damaged our Party's good learning style. We must make a tremendous effort to correct that."

The Detectability of Geometric Structure in Rapidly Changing Optical Patterns

Human vision is sensitive to the coherent structure and motion of simple dot patterns undergoing rapid random transformations, even when the component dots are widely separated spatially. A study is reported in which visual sensitivity to translations, rotations, expansions, pure shear, and additive combinations of these transformations was investigated. Observers discriminated between coherent (correlated) movements, in which all the component dots moved simultaneously in corresponding directions and distances, and incoherent (uncorrelated) movements, in which the movements of individual dots were statistically independent. In experiment 1 the accuracy of coherence discrimination was found to be similar for all four of the basic transformations and to increase linearly with the distance of the movements. The discriminability of coherent versus incoherent motion was also found to be similar to the detectability of any motion, suggesting that concurrent movements of individual dots are visually interrelated. In experiments 2 and 3 the visual independence of these four groups of transformations was tested by comparing the accuracy of coherence discrimination of each of the transformations presented alone with that when added to background motions produced by each of the four transformations. Coherence discriminations were less accurate when the target transformation was added to another background transformation, indicating that these transformations are not visually independent. Rotations and expansions, however, were visually independent. In experiment 3 qualitatively similar effects for patterns of several different sizes and dot densities were found. In general, an impressive visual sensitivity to globally coherent structure and motion under several different geometric transformations was observed in these experiments. A basic theoretical issue concerns the local visual mechanisms underlying this sensitivity.

Measuring health lifestyles in a comparative analysis: Theoretical issues and empirical findings

The concept of lifestyle bears great potential for research in medical sociology. Yet, weaknesses in current methods have restrained lifestyle research from realizing its full potentials. The present focus is on the links between theoretical conceptions and their empirical application. The paper divides into two parts. The first part provides a discussion of basic theoretical and methodological issues. In particular selected lines of thought from Max Weber are presented and their usefulness in providing a theoretical frame of reference for health lifestyle research is outlined. Next, a theory guided definition of the subject matter is introduced and basic problems in empirical applications of theoretical lifestyle concepts are discussed. In its second part the paper presents findings from comparative lifestyle analyses. Data from the U.S. and West Germany are utilized to explore issues of measurement equ validity. Factor analyses indicate high conceptual equivalence for new measures of health lifestyle dimensions in both the U.S. and West Germany. Divisive cluster analyses detect three distinct lifestyle groups in both nations. Implications for future lifestyle research are discussed.

The silent patient

The silent patient is defined as one who speaks for less than 10% of the entire analytic treatment period, and for many sessions, not at all. This article derives from the author's experience in the analyses of eight such patients during her working life as an analyst (30 years). After a brief discussion of some basic theoretical issues that are usually kept in mind in the early stages of such analyses, there follows an examination of the particular technical problems presented by extended silence; short clinical vignettes, illustrative of these problems, are woven into this part of the text. Special emphasis attaches to the detailed study and use of the countertransference, probably more valuable in these cases than in any others. The qualities that are desirable, even necessary, in the analyst are discussed, among them the capacity for love, a subject still approached gingerly in our literature. Reference is made to two eccentric forms of silence: absence and sleep. Notes on the study of body language a...