Beautiful Things Research Articles

Freud, the Oedipus Complex, and Greece or the Silence of Athena

Given Freud’s classical education in school where, among other works, he read Sophocles’ Ajax and Antigone and then read Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex on his own at age seventeen; his love of antiquities as revealed in his extensive art collection, in which out of two thousand pieces many were from Greece and included several portrayals of Oedipus and the Sphinx; and his emphasis on the Oedipus complex as the nuclear complex, one cannot help but wonder why he went to Greece only once. He traveled there with his younger brother Alexander in the fall of 1904. They had intended to go to Corfu, but while they were in Trieste, Italy, a friend suggested that Corfu would be too hot and that the two should go to Athens instead. And so they did. They spent one afternoon and another day on the Acropolis. Freud referred to the trip in various writings over the years. At the time itself, according to Ernest Jones (1955), he wrote home that “the experience had surpassed everything he had ever seen or could imagine”(p. 26). Jones explains further that in a later letter to Marie Bonaparte, Freud wrote that “the ambercolored columns of the Acropolis were the most beautiful things he had ever seen in his life”(p. 24). In The Future of an Illusion, Freud (1927) wrote that as he stood on the Acropolis, between the temple ruins, looking out over the blue sea, “a feeling of astonishment mingled with joy” came over him (p. 25). He added that this feeling of astonishment seemed to stem from his own surprise that what he was seeing was actually true, just as he had learned at school. But then he made a disclaimer: “My astonishment could have had another explanation, which did not occur to me at the time and which is of a wholly subjective

Chiron Mentoring Program: Leadership opportunity in nursing

“I think it’s a magnificent program! There are often times in one’s career where you might want to do a 45 or 90 or 180 degree turn, or you may find yourself at a crossroads and not really be sure how to get to the next step. One of the beautiful things about this program was the matching with the mentor, but also the support of the group.” —Jane Barnsteiner, PhD, RN, FAAN, a 2004 Chiron mentor participant.

A Thing of Lasting Beauty

A Thing of Lasting Beauty

Chaucer and Aesthetics

When I say that beauty has been banished, I do not mean that beau tiful things have themselves been banished, for the humanities are made up of beautiful poems, stories, paintings, sketches, sculpture, film, essays, debates, and it is this that every day draws us to them. I mean something much more modest: that conversation about the beauty of these things has been banished, so that we coinhabit the space of these objects (even putting them inside us, learning them by heart, carrying one wedged at all times between the upper arm and the breast, placing as many as possible into our bookbags) yet speak about their beauty only in whispers.

高等教育における本当の教養教育について

Recently the true liberal education is uncommon in Japanese universities. Though there are liberal arts and science as the subjects. But the students want to attend to the lectures of the true liberal education by excellent professors in the small groups on such as on virtue and vice, on beautiful things, on great persons in the history and on what is the meaning to be in the world. But strange to say the true liberal educations are, though the cases are rare, in the private universities whose entrance exams are comparatively easy.

Letters

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article LettersFull AccessRobert B. Millman, M.D.Robert B. MillmanSearch for more papers by this author, M.D.Published Online:1 Oct 2004https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.55.10.1183-aAboutSectionsView EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail To the Editor: At the outset of my psychiatric training, John Talbott was the first faculty member I met who was committed to the principles and practices of community psychiatry. At the Payne Whitney Clinic, at that time, there were not many others who shared those interests. John was deeply interested in the provision of reasonable care to patients who were chronically mentally ill, often impoverished, and generally underserved. He was even interested in patients who had drug and alcohol abuse and dependence problems. Whereas organized psychiatry and psychiatrists were often reluctant to accept responsibility for the care of these apparently unattractive and perhaps incurable patients, John recognized that the drug use disorders were inextricably intertwined with other acute and chronic psychiatric conditions. He well understood the remarkable prevalence of comorbid disorders and actively sought interventions that might be effective on a large scale.And John is unique in the way he communicates his interests and enthusiasms. He is a charismatic, generous, and powerful leader and teacher. He brought me and many others in, and encouraged my involvement in committees, in the journal, and in our peerless board examiner group. That examiner group was a thing of beauty—responsible, incredibly hard working, and really fun, just like John.I believe that John Talbott has significantly influenced the care of underserved patient populations and enhanced the pool of interested academic and clinical psychiatrists who care for these individuals.Dr. Millman is the Saul P. Steinberg distinguished professor of psychiatry and public health and chief of the division of community and public health programs at Cornell University's Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College in New York City. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 55Issue 10 October 2004Pages 1183-a-1183 Metrics History Published online 1 October 2004 Published in print 1 October 2004

Tautological Crimes: Why Women Can’t Steal Jewels

Max Ophuls's 1953 film de... begins with a close-up of a woman's gloved hands opening a jewelry box and carefully handling its contents. The camera follows her fingers as they visit her exhaustive collection of beautiful things, caressing and evaluating each one. is the nameless (and, at this point, faceless) woman hoping to find? Despite her apparent devotion to these precious possessions, Louise de... is in the process of locating the single object from which she can separate herself most painlessly. As her face appears in the ornate mirror hanging over her jewelry box, she begins to delimit the boundaries of her search. She pronounces that she would rather commit suicide than separate herself from her diamond necklace and that she adores her cross too much to part with it. Although-and possibly because-they were a wedding present from her husband, she settles on a pair of heart-shaped earrings as the precious objects she must sacrifice to pay her debts. She returns them to M. Remy, the jeweler who initially sold them to her husband. Later that evening, she stages a frantic search for the jewels at the opera to allay her husband's suspicions about the missing objects. Her plot is foiled when M. Remy resells the earrings to her husband. The film traces how these previously unwanted jewels move in and out of Louise's life through a series of fortunate and unfortunate coincidences. Later, when they become gifts from her lover and are confiscated by her husband, their value in her eyes increases exponentially; ultimately, she offers M. Remy the expensive clothing and jewels of the beginning scene in exchange for the earrings. While these jewels begin as the most dispensable objects for the heroine, they end up at the center of her and the narrative's lives. As the opening titles read, Madame de... was a very lovely, elegant and adulated woman. It seemed that she could look forward to a serene, uncomplicated life. And probably nothing would have happened were it not for this jewel.... Ophuls's nineteenth-century period piece maps the process through which what Louise desires least is transformed into her most treasured possession. The film suggests that the answer to Freud's famous question What does a woman want? is What she seems to want the least. In what follows, I will trace this formula for female desire to a period in literary history that engaged in public debates on the legal relationship between women and property. Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone (1968) and Anthony Trollope's The Eustace Diamonds (1872) narrate the conflicts emerging around the reform of the married women's property laws beginning in the late 1860s. In response to the anxieties surrounding married women's emerging status as property holders, these novels introduce the narrative tradition of the tautological crime. Through their depiction of woman's overly intimate relationship to her gems and to herself as gem, they figure female ownership as redundant. These narratives deploy a discourse of fakes and

The Religious and the Aesthetic Attitude

The author argues that there is a deep congruity between disinterestedness, which is considered a typical characteristic of the aesthetic attitude (we approach a work of art without immediate reference to practical concerns), and the ideal of detachment that is seen to be typical of the mature religious attitude described by mystical theologians. Disinterestedness refers to a non instrumentalising attitude in relation to the thing of beauty. In order to be captured by the piece of art—i.e. in order to be involved—I have to be disinterested. This is not indifference; it is the exact opposite. It is openness, receptivity, which takes delight in the sheer beauty revealed to us. Similarly, the ideal of detachment (or radical self-lessness) as described by mystical theologians such as Eckhart, John of the Cross or Simone Weil suggests how we can engage with God and world in a non-possessive manner. Weil's notion of attention is nothing else but the cultivation of this disinterested ness. The paper implies a critique of those who want to drive a wedge between aesthetics and religion.

The Orion Nebula: where stars are born

The glowing cloud in Orion's sword, the Orion Nebula, is a thing of beauty in the night sky; it is also the closest centre of massive star formation - a stellar nursery that reproduces the conditions in which our own Sun formed some 4.5 billion years ago. The study of the Orion Nebula, focused upon by ever more powerful telescopes from Galileo's time to our own, clarifies how stars are formed, and how we have come to understand the process. C. Robert O'Dell has spent a lifetime studying Orion and in this book he explains what the Nebula is, how it shines, its role in giving birth to star and the insights it affords into how common (or rare) planet formation might be. An account of astronomy's extended engagement with one remarkable celestial object, this book also tells the story of astronomy over the last four centuries. To help readers appreciate the Nebula and its secrets, O'Dell unfolds his tale chronologically, as astrophysical knowledge developed, and our knowledge of the Nebula and the night sky improved. Because he served as chief scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope, O'Dell conveys a sense of continuity with his professional ancestors as he describes the construction of the world's most powerful observatory. The result is a rare insider's view of this observatory - and, from that perspective, an intimate observer's understanding of one of the sky's most instructive and magnificent objects.

A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever: Yang Mu's ‘Letters to Keats’

(2004). A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever: Yang Mu's ‘Letters to Keats’. The Keats-Shelley Review: Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 188-205.

Actions by Political Officials Have Weakened the Federal Government Workplace: Downsizing Has Cut Lower Level Workers the Most and Replacing Federal Employees with Private Corporations Costs Much More, Creating the Need for Immediate Reform

Abstract The authors of this paper are four practitioners each of whom has many years of experience working in the Federal government and also has pursued doctoral studies in public or business administration. Three ideas developed in this paper are that: (1) the Federal civil service has been changed from being a model workplace to a much less desirable one; (2) although downsizing has been touted as an efficiency and economy measure, lower level employees experienced the most cuts and (3) the current practice of replacing Federal employees with private corporations costs much more. Over the past two decades private sector workplaces in the United States, and now the Federal government workplace, have experienced so much change that previous theories, concepts, models, and expectations no longer hold. Just as private industry workplaces have been changed by downsizing, reorganizations, mergers, elimination of middle management, and outsourcing, so, too, has the Federal government workplace been fundament...

BEAUTIFYING THE UGLY AND UGLIFYING THE BEAUTIFUL: THE PARADOX IN CLASSICAL ARABIC LITERATURE

Normally, the function of poetry or rhetoric, according to writers on poetics and literary criticism, is to represent good things as good and bad things as bad. However, already in ancient Greece poets and orators delighted in perversely describing good or beautiful things as bad or ugly, and vice versa . The same is found in Arabic literature, where this ability was sometimes called the hallmark of excellence in a poet. Going against received opinion ( paradoxos ), which has been termed taghāyur in Arabic, is a favourite practice of several writers and poets, including al-Jāh&05B4;iz&05B4; and Ibn al-Rūmī. Another term for this phenomenon is tah&05B4;sīn al-qabīh&05B4; wa-taqbīh&05B4; al-h&05B4;asan , which is also the title of one of al-Tha ‘ālibī’s many anthologies, here discussed in more detail. In some cases the ‘paradox’ is put to subversive purposes; more commonly, it serves to show the poet's skill or wit.

Book Review

Revisiting Music Education Research Richard Colwell and Carol Richardson, eds. The New Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning New York: Oxford University Press 1222 pp. $175.00 A Thing of Beauty Is a Joy Forever? David Kenneth Holt The Search for Aesthetic Meaning in the Visual Arts: The Need for the Aesthetic Tradition in Contemporary Art Theory and Education Bergin & Garvey Publishers 148 pp. $62.50

Billboards, beautiful things and crafts in context: the World Summit on Sustainable Development, 2002

Billboards, beautiful things and crafts in context: the World Summit on Sustainable Development, 2002

Our Public Schools: Inclusive Mission Brings Us All Together

On a May Iowa morning, I sat in the sunlight pouring through the colored windows into Herrick Chapel at Grinnell College as I listened to one of my daughter’s classmates present her Baccalaureate address. Thirty-three years after my own graduation from this college, I had returned to celebrate with my daughter as she graduated. As I began to listen to Ms. Julia Haltiwanger, I did not realize that her speech and the other graduation events would become an important lens through which I would spend the summer reflecting on my work as a public schools advocate for the United Church of Christ. Ms. Haltiwanger exhorted her classmates to change the world, not so much because of the horrible injustices that surround us all, but because, “A world so full of important and wonderful things leaves absolutely no room for apathy and no excuse for being jaded.” “When we care, when we do the best we can to make things better, we’re doing it because of the things and people that are important to us. We should all be activists because of all the things we love about our world, the beautiful things that make us glad to be alive.” Ms. Haltiwanger’s speech has challenged me. Working as I do in the Justice and Witness Ministries of the UCC, I know that I cannot follow her advice entirely. Working as I do to eliminate economic and racial injustices in public schools in the United States, I am called to put the spotlight on injustice itself, to tear the blinders off the eyes of smug people who deny inequity and prefer to pretend we can manage away social injustice with a quick, simple remedy. As our nation’s largest social institution, public schools embody attitudes that desperately need challenging-attitudes about race and poverty, power and privilege, and cultural dominance and marginalization. Our unwillingness as citizens to fund public schools in particular locations is especially troubling because it reflects our attitudes, our biases, and frequently a level of bigotry we all prefer to deny. But what about following Ms. Haltiwanger’s advice? Should we set about working for public education justice on the premise that the schools many have come to disdain as “failing schools” are somehow worthy and

Renaissance Debates on Rhetoric (review)

224 Reviews Rebhorn, Wayne A., ed. and trans., Renaissance Debates on Rhetoric, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2000; paper; pp. viii, 332; R R P £14.95; ISBN 0801482062. The Renaissance has long been known as 'the age of rhetoric', but this collec of writings on the subject demonstrates w h y rhetoric was such an important, and yet unsettling force within Renaissance culture. Stressing the intention that the texts should speak for themselves, Wayne R e b h o m utilises excerpts, supplementing these with explanatory notes where necessary, in order to include the broadest selection of writers possible. Renaissance Debates on Rhetoric features 25 writers, spanning the period from Petrarch in the mid-fourteenth century to Rene Bary in the mid-seventeenth century. The texts range from expositions of rhetorical devices to extravagant attacks and ardent defences of rhetoric's power. Each selection is prefaced by helpful biographical details, a brief overview of the writer's work, and a short introduction to the selected text/s. Footnotes explain obscurities and trace sources where necessary, while the inclusion of a biographical glossary and a bibliography of works on rhetoric increase the userfriendliness of the volume. Rebhom has modernised the spelling of English texts, and his preference for idiomatic English has ensured that even the more obscure translations remain accessible. There is nothing monolithic about the texts included in this volume: they rehearse the disputes of classical antiquity, but illuminate the relevance of such arguments to Renaissance culture and thought. In an intelligent introduction, Rebhom outlines the disparity between writers w h o assert the inherent nobility of the art of rhetoric, and those who provide grave warnings about its capacity for disrupting social order and threatening peace. Somewhere between these poles, Francis Bacon and Peter Ramus appear to justify rhetoric while, at the same time, reveal their hostility towards an art of words. Rebhom conjectures that eloquence is easily dismissed in this way as 'mere rhetoric' (p. 10), due to its association with subjective rather than absolute truths. This tenuous relationship between truth and rhetoric is taken up by opponents, including Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and John Jewel, w h o deride rhetoric as the art of lying, declaring it to be an instrument of social dismption and the symptom of afracturedstate. In response, proponents, including George of Trebizond, laud rhetoric as the great equaliser, an indicator of man's worth, and the means of acquiring and maintaining social order. In a reversal of Mirandola's criticism, Rene Bary ventures so far as to assert eloquence's capacity for impeding man's corruption of truth (p. 286). Reviews 225 Rebhom has chosen and edited his texts carefully in order to highlight the scope of Renaissance debate about the usefulness and role of rhetoric in society. Excerpts from Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's On Rhetoric and Francesco Patrizi's Ten Dialogues on Rhetoric convey a concern that the art, perfected by legal practitioners, could subordinate the unbiased discovery of truth to the lawyer's desire to 'win'. B y way of contrast to such attacks, writers including Nicholas Caussin and Philip Melanchthon defend the power of rhetoric as a thing of beauty, a 'heavenly seed' capable of inspiring 'people's spirits' to feelings ofdivinity (p. 275). The rhetorician is thus variously imagined. For some writers, he is Pygmalion-like in his obsessive artifice and, for others, he embodies the civilising force of Orpheus' song. It is perhaps in the positioning of rhetoric as a specifically political tool, however, that these Renaissance writers distinguish themselves from the classical writers they are so heavily indebted to. While the writers of classical antiquity considered rhetoric's role within a republic, Renaissance writers responded to their o w n political model. Absolute sovereignty centralised the power of rhetoric in the Prince, and battled against the reality that an eloquent subject might threaten sovereignty by employing rhetoric to attack his Prince. More generally, this monarchic model was considered susceptible to corruption, providing skilledflattererswith a deceitful means of acquiring favour and status at court. The debate surrounding rhetoric as a political tool is, for R e b h o m 'one ofthe most striking debates' to emerge from...

MAZMUR DAN PEMBINAAN INTEGRAL PELAYAN FIRMAN

There is a general sad observation that the formation of our priestly students is too intellectual to the detriment of its affective element. The students loose the capacity to perceive the things of beauty. How can this situation be remedied? The author of this article is of the opinion that one of the ways out is the study of the Bible as literature and the use of psalms in the atmosphere of beauty. As poetry of christian worship music, chant, oracle, wisdom, prayer, joyful praise and thanks, silence, dance, play, action and architecture are all main elements that make the psalms and therefore should integrated and manifested in their use. Only by then can the students be imbued by their feelings and emotions and be captivated by their beauty. The psalms are a school of integral formation.

Art of embroidery: history of style and technique

This glorious book is filled to the brim with a wide ranging history of textiles and 350 superb illustrations drawn from many countries and sources vestments and costume, samplers and pictures, great beds and furniture. The story of embroidery and needlework is discussed within the fascinating context of the history of fabrics, of decorative costume, of interior decoration, of church and state ceremonial, of girl's education, of furniture and pastimes. Silk, cotton, linen, and the significance of colours and dyes are also considered. Two interesting chapters reveal the world-wide fascination in an influence of Chinese embroidery and Indian textiles. With a broad account of the artistic achievements of every facet of decorative needlework the book is rich with the art-historical background encompassing the most magnificent of all embroidery, the mediaeval English vestments so coveted by Popes and Bishops across Europe, to the domestic treasures created in more recent centuries. Baroque, Rococo, neo-classical and other period characteristics are each discussed with reference to works created by children, young girls, and ladies who made furniture coverings destined for posterity. The nineteenth century saw extremes of art and fashion ranging from Berlin woolwork to Art Needlework and the eclectic inspiration represented by William Morris, all leading to simpler modernist styles which evolved over the twentieth century. The author sets in political and social context the whole panoply of textiles distinguishing between the magnificent products of professional workshops and the uniquely individual and especially charming amateur embroideries that survive today amongst the most beautiful treasures of the decorative arts. Mr Synge's text is authoritative but examines with infectious enthusiasm this field which has never been sufficiently understood but now interests more people than ever before. It will appeal to all who admire beautiful things, fine workmanship, good design and lovely fabrics.

Selected letters of Dashiell Hammett, 1921-1960

A literary event: first-ever selection from the letters of Dashiell Hammett, the genius of American crime fiction . This book is a thing of beauty, from concept to execution, taking us all the way down to the life-marrow of hardboiled's one true icon. Under Richard 'Shadow Man' Layman's masterful guidance, we find what Hammett sought (and fought for) his entire life...Truth.Andrew VachssMore than any book before it, this one gives us the complete Hammett, in his own words. Here is Hammett the family man, distant but devoted, sometimes late with the check but never too late; Hammett the student of politics, scanning the headlines from a Marxist perspective; Hammett the lover of Lillian Hellman, delighting in her style, humor, accomplishments but maintaining his independence. Celebrity, soldier, activist, survivor--Hammett was each in turn, but he was always, above all else, a writer. artist is present in every line, and this book adds to his stature as a classic American writer.That these letters read exceptionally well is no surprise...[Hammett] comes across here as authentically, contradictorily human. Book magazineAn illuminating collection of the famed writer's letters...A fine rendering of Hammett's life in his own words--and a remarkable slice of Americana.Kirkus ReviewsA dry fatalism in the letters sent me back to the novels and their absence of mercy. No book on Hammett has made that tone clear in terms of his life. But these letters show the old-fashioned literary gent (vaguely tickled by praise from Gide and Malraux) who still kept a thug in tow, a kind of inner Ned Beaumont, to make sure that pride or pleasure never got out of hand. David Thomson, New York Times Book Review The key revelations are personal: self-portraits of the author as doting father, unremitting drunk, self-educated intellectual, committed Marxist, patriot, soft touch, seducer, and romantic...Compelling and informative.Dick Lochte, Los Angeles Times Book ReviewThey do not disappoint. They sound gloriously like Hammett, full of wry observation, whether he is describing his evening at the Brown Derby or finally reading Wuthering Heights. Lisa Levy, Entertainment Weekly (A-)

Evidence-based art?

Evidence-based art?