Emergent Self Research Articles

Birds on a Wire: A discussion of Çevrim’s “The Vulture in the room”

ABSTRACT Birds on a Wire is a discussion of Mustafa Çevrim’s, ”The Vulture in the Room”, a beautifully intersubjectively focused clinical paper. This discussion focuses on the bidirectional, self (therapist)regulation and self with “other” (patient and therapist) regulation. Çevrim’s elegant adherence to contemporary Self Psychological/Intersubjective Systems theory is spotlighted, as the emergent self object twinship transference highlights the dyad’s shared understandings through their co-created metaphoric use of bird imagery. Çevrim’s application of a Brandchaftian model of systems of pathological accommodation and his tracking of therapeutic rupture and repair sequences reveals a process of transformation and growth for patient and analyst. Finally, there is a consideration of the impact of what I term, the analyst’s “generative thoughts” on therapeutic process and contextualization.

EVOLUTIONARY EMERGENT SELF IN THE POETRY OF BULLEH SHAH

This paper affirms the significance of mystic love as a higher mental faculty in human evolutionary process. Man as evolutionary emergent self is the operational definition of mysticism; a process in which individual self of a person gains Unique Self Enlightenment through operational interaction of higher mental faculties and aspires for Love intelligence in order to get one with the Absolute. Emergent evolution is an anti Darwinian view of Evolution which runs quite contrary to Darwin’s theory of Evolution. Mystic literature in general and Bulleh Shah’s poetry in particular answers many queries of fundamental importance related to man’s existence and evolution in this universe and the nature of relationship between man and man, man and universe and man and God. Bulleh Shah (1680-1757), a mystic poet of Punjabi language, through his poetry offers a study of human existence and his mental and psychological evolution in this universe affirming that love is the cause of man’s creation and the very Eros of his evolution. The present paper explores how does individual love in mystic literature serve as a mode of evolution to get one with the whole (Deity) to attain the level of mystical union by fusing subject self into the object (Divinity) to complete the process of Emergent Evolution of consciousness with the lens of Morgan’s (1927) Emergent Evolution and Gafni’s (2011) Unique Self in Evolutionary Process. Bulleh Shah’s poetry affirms mysticism as a study of spiritual faculties of human beings which demolishes ethno-cultural and dogmatic boundaries and has a natural tendency towards pluralistic aspect of universalism as a counter narrative to ethno-centric global agenda. The basic theoretical assumption of this paper has been taken from my PhD dissertation in which the same theoretical framework has been applied on the poetry of Shah Hussain and John Keats.

The nested hierarchy of self and its trauma: In search for a synchronic dynamic and topographical re-organization.

The sense of self has always been a topic of high interest in both psychoanalysis and most recently in neuroscience. Nowadays, there is an agreement in psychoanalysis that the self emerges from the relationship with the other (e.g., the caregiver) in terms of his/her capacity to attune, regulate, and synchronize with the emergent self of the infant. The outcome of this relational/intersubjective synchronization is the development of the sense of self and its regulatory processes both in dynamic psychology and neuroscience. In this work, we propose that synchrony is a fundamental biobehavioral factor in these dialectical processes between self and others which shapes the brain–body–mind system of the individuals, including their sense of self. Recently in neuroscience, it has been proposed by the research group around Northoff that the self is constituted by a brain-based nested hierarchical three-layer structure, including interoceptive, proprio-exteroceptive, and mental layers of self. This may be disrupted, though, when traumatic experiences occur. Following the three levels of trauma theorized by Mucci, we here suggest how different levels of traumatic experiences might have an enduring effect in yielding a trauma-based topographic and dynamic re-organization of the nested model of self featured by dissociation. In conclusion, we propose that different levels and degrees of traumatic experience are related to corresponding disruptions in the topography and dynamic of the brain-based three-layer hierarchical structure of the self.

Atmospheres as media of transgenerational transmission. ‘Children and pet dogs understand everything, especially that which is not spoken.’ (Dolto, 1988)

Over the last two decades, the exploration of transgenerational phenomena has been supported by studies on infant development, epigenetics and trauma. In clinical work it is important, at times essential, to consider more than two generations in order to give meaning to what is happening to us and to our clients as well as to support the therapeutic process. We know that what happened to previous generations is transmitted to subsequent ones, but we need a better understanding of how transgenerational legacies are passed on and how they emerge in therapeutic processes. Building on a phenomenological and Gestalt perspective, and so on a conception of the self as an emergent process and on field theory, in this paper the author proposes the concept of atmosphere as a useful element of support for clinicians in being aware of, and working with, a transgenerational perspective. Atmospheres can be considered media of transgenerational transmission. In therapy, they can be useful for relating what is happening in the here and now with the history of previous generations, and thus supporting the therapist in being aware of therapeutic processes, intentionalities and transformations. Keywords atmosphere, transgenerational transmission and phenomena, emergent self, field theory, psychopathology, Gestalt therapy.

Theological Foundations for Moral Artificial Intelligence

The expanding social role and continued development of artificial intelligence (AI) needs theological investigation of its anthropological and moral potential. A pragmatic theological anthropology can characterize moral AI as experiencing its natural, social, and moral world through interpretations of its external reality as well as its self-reckoning. Systems theory can further structure insights into an AI social self that conceptualizes itself within Ignacio Ellacuria’s historical reality and its moral norms through Thomistic ideogenesis. This enables a conceptualization process capable of carrying moral weight and grounded in reality; structures the experience of an AI emergent self into multiple levels of interpretation; and drives a multi-level systems architecture for moral AI. Modeling AI’s interpretive experience and self-reckoning as a causal, sociotechnical, and moral actor can help moral AI identify conflicts between its normative values and develop the practical wisdom (phronesis) needed to apply its general moral models.

Understanding and Working with Performance Anxiety in Education

Recently, so-called mental health issues were exposed at the Tokyo Olympics. Yet the term “performance anxiety” was not in vogue in the media as it had been in the past. The emphasis was now on mental health in clinical terms. Although I acknowledge the work in this area being done in clinical psychology, I am not including this approach but rather provide a complementary one rooted in philosophy. An interpretation of experiences working with anxiety rather than with mental health issues is also possible by considering psychological perspectives that are derived from phenomenology and existentialism. This interdisciplinary conceptualization contributes to the concept of performance anxiety by providing a more detailed theoretical account of individual subjective experience involving a relational perspective on the nature of both positive and negative anxiety and its metaphorical implications for creative performances, be they musical, athletic, or any kind of performance. Performance planning is ultimately an indeterminate activity associated with negative and positive anxiety over time, because such preparation cannot predict the exact nature of a performer’s emergent, indeterminate self during any performance. Yet this “unfixed” emergent self is also connected to the preparatory self in that it is the self that also prepares the performance and is (hopefully) successfully blended into an emergent and thus indeterminate self. It can emerge as an earned attribute of positive anxiety and receptivity to risk-taking creativity and new understandings of anxiety based on experience and self.

The Emergent Self: A Psychosocial Study of Identity, Memory, and Trauma in The Kite Runner

This study aims at examining the impact of trauma from a psycho-social perspective, with a specific focus on the issues of psychological violence leading to social oppression, identity formation, and disenfranchisement of characters in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. The purpose of the psychosocial approach is to "express the recognition that there is always a close, ongoing circular interaction between an individual's psychological state and his or her social environment" (Agger 2001:307). Most of the research catering the "Afghan" problem has been from the political viewpoint, with little or no insight into psycho-social perspective dealing with identity, ethnicity, memory and gender.Since trauma is rooted in individual as well as collective forms of identity, it may affect the process of both collective and personal identity formation. This research will explore the common themes of trauma and suffering with respect to episodes of fear and violence in the book.

The Negative Selfobject

ABSTRACT The paper suggests that the selfobject concept includes very important developmental experiences that can be understood most helpfully as negative selfobject. The powerful shaping function of caretaker responses can often shape the emergent self as bad, worthless, depleted and defective. These inner shapes of the self are derived from interactions with caretakers in which the affect of the caretaker include rage, censure, indifference. They occur in the context of the child’s need for affirmation and response. Rather than cause deficits or result in accommodation, these interactions directly shape the emergent self in distorted ways. It is important for the treating therapist of such patients to understand that such shaping is not defensive or secondary, that it is a primary effect of caretaker affects that the child could not control. Treatment strategies are discussed.

Contested Space and Self-Determination: The Dynamics of Ethiopia's Digital Space

Abstract Government-to-people and people-to-people relationships are increasingly mediated and configured by emerging technologies, necessitating new ways of framing and understanding the role of government and digital technologies in the social order. Recent sociopolitical developments in Ethiopia demonstrate how digital platforms have become a space for contested narratives and a division of interests between socioeconomic policies and political views. By addressing the major technologically assisted counterpower movements in Ethiopia between 2015 and 2021, this article examines digitally mediated encounters and configurations that are struggling to produce a specific form of subjectivity. The article examines digitally mediated encounters and the patterns of the relationships among main actors in the digital space—users, the government, and platform technologies—through the lens of the network theory of power. The article problematizes the deployment of state surveillance, rulemaking and regulatory leverages, and the gatekeeping role of platform technologies in modulating and suppressing the emergence of a self-determined critical mass. As a remedial approach to addressing the risks inherent in intersecting state–corporate configuration and surveillance, the article proposes a broadly defined yet context-specific right to privacy that enables self-development, protects a socially and culturally constructed emergent self, and encourages the capacity for self-determination. To analyze the right to privacy as a remedy, the study uses a critical legal analysis of privacy rights with a focus on the 1995 Ethiopian Constitution. Throughout the analysis, it seeks to highlight three overarching arguments that have relevance beyond the specific case of Ethiopia. First, it challenges the assumption that the digital space is a neutral and free space. It argues that digital platforms provide venues for contested and rival narratives and interests, and that not every actor in the digital space has equal leverage over the digital infrastructure. The digital space therefore manifests an asymmetric power relationship. Second, it argues that the capacity of citizens for self-development and self-determination is increasingly modulated by expansive surveillance and the regulatory leverage of state and corporate power, which is used to suppress the emergence of critical mass. It therefore argues that third, there is a pressing need for the reinterpretation of legal protection for privacy rights as a protection for a socially and culturally constructed emergent self. By addressing this need, protection will be offered to the capacity for self-determination, critical subjectivity and democracy.

The Seven Selves of Dementia.

The self is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, encompassing a variety of cognitive processes and psychosocial influences. Considering this, there is a multiplicity of “selves,” the current review suggesting that seven fundamental self-processes can be identified that further our understanding of the experience of dementia. These include (1) an embodied self, manifest as corporeal awareness; (2) an agentic self, related to being an agent and influencing life circumstances; (3) an implicit self, linked to non-conscious self-processing; (4) a critical self, which defines the core of self-identity; (5) a surrogate self, based on third-person perspective information; (6) an extended self, including external objects or existences that are incorporated into the self; and, finally, (7) an emergent self, a property of the self-processes that give rise to the sense of a unified self. These are discussed in relation to self-awareness and their use in making sense of the experience of dementia.

Управление предпринимательскими структурами в России в контексте преодоления коронавирусного карантина

The article makes an attempt to substantiate the expected changes in the management of Russian companies after overcoming the main consequences of the use of forced restrictions on social life by the authorities, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyzing the work of Russian companies during the period of radical quarantine, the period of March — June 2020, the author, in particular, allows updating the needs of developers of in-house regulatory documents of companies regulating management practice, in terms of describing in them algorithms for “temporary emergency self- isolation” under force majeure circumstances of the institution of delegation of powers of the sole executive body, widespread remote forms of activity of collegial management bodies, strengthening of the trend of “immersion” of control participants of companies in the management system and transformation of business models.

A Strong Emergence Hypothesis of Conscious Integration and Neural Rewiring

In this paper we discuss the two-system framework, examine its strengths, point out a fundamental weakness concerning the unity of conscious experience, and then propose a new hypothesis that avoids that weakness and other related concerns. According to our strong emergence hypothesis, what emerges are not merely mental properties in specialized, distributed neural areas, but also a new, irreducibly singular entity (i.e., an emergent self) that functions in a recurrent (or top-down) manner to integrate its mental properties and to rewire its brain. We argue that the former function is suggested, in part, by the effects of anesthetics on sensory integration, and that the latter function is suggested by evidence garnered from the neuroscience of mindfulness, constraint-induced movement therapy for stroke, and neuroimaging data surrounding mental illness. We then discuss how our strong emergence hypothesis relates to the description and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. Finally, potential objections are addressed.

Transnational trajectories of multilingual workers: emerging geographies and spatialising practices of mutant sovereignty

ABSTRACTThis article discusses Volume 17 (1) where the editors (Garrido and Sabaté-Dalmau) push for a sociolinguistic, discourse-analytic and linguistic anthropological agenda in the study of transnational trajectories of multilingual workers and emergent entrepreneurial selves. I review this lens as suitable to document how language both mediates and becomes object of explicit attention/talk in institutionalised arrangements and subject-formation processes that enable such arrangements. In doing so, I focus on the alignments of market rationality, sovereignty, and citizenship that emerge across the articles in the volume, with focus on how they mutually constitute distinctive milieus of labour and life at the edge of emergence. I propose to think of these alignments via Ong's (2006. Neoliberalism as exception: Mutations in citizenship and sovereignty. Durham: Duke University Press.) analysis of variegated modes of neoliberal governmentality to articulate the set of paradoxes and contradictions identified by the authors of such articles. This, I argue, necessitates a kaleidoscopic framing of neoliberalism whereby the analysis of semiosis goes hand-in-hand with attention to dynamics of mutations in citizenship and sovereignty. I also suggest that such an exploration may also benefit from in-depth engagement with developments stemming from the spatial turn, for they help us map specific trajectories onto the patterns of global circulation of professionals, ideas about language, and resources.

Plural Embodiment(s) of Mind. Genealogy and Guidelines for a Radically Embodied Approach to Mind and Consciousness.

This article focuses on a scientific approach to the study of cognition that Warren McCulloch introduced in the era of cybernetics as “experimental epistemology.” In line with recent attempts to highlight its contribution to cognitive science and AI, our article intends to draw attention to its unexplored influence on contemporary embodied approaches to the investigation of mind and consciousness. To this end, we will survey a series of models of cognitive systems genealogically related to the McCulloch-Pitts networks-based modeling approach, i.e., von Foerster’s model of the biological computer, the Maturana-Varela model of the autopoietic system, and Varela’s model of emergent selves. Based on examination of the relevant aspects of these models, we will argue that they offered the McCulloch-Pitts “cybernetic of networks” a coherent methodological and theoretical line of development, complementary to the well-known computationalist one. As we will show, this alternative evolutionary line empowered the biological orientation of McCulloch’s experimental epistemology, laying foundations for contemporary “radically embodied” approaches to mind and consciousness – in particular the Thompson-Varela approach. We will identify the heritage of this tradition of inquiry for future research in cognitive science and AI by proposing guidelines that synthetize how its methodological and theoretical insights suggest taking into account the role(s) played by the biological body in cognitive processes – consciousness included.

‘Little Islands of Empathy’: networked stories of gender diversity and multiple selves’

This article draws on a methodologically interesting case study called ‘Stories Beyond Gender’, in which a small group of trans* people collaborates in social media storytelling. Building on the possibilities manifest in other more explicitly personal-as-political genres like digital storytelling, I explore the potential of this facilitated workshop practice to establish meaningful connections across difference, forging affinities that may continue to flourish online. Furthermore, I offer some specific examples of the ways in which my own networked story-sharing online, in a zine and in an exhibition affirmed emergent complexity. I address the theme of this Special Issue by examining the ways in which social media, despite paradoxical fragmentation, can be used creatively to mobilise interest in public aspects of gender expression. However, sharing stories, especially those linked to stigmatised identities, whether online or off, is not without its complications. In the face of highly valued privacy, a lack of familiarity with ever-changing privacy settings or the affordances of specific platforms can pose an obstacle to online self-representation that stands in the way of visible civic engagement. While acknowledging that the trans-phobic consequences of online misadventures continue to be dire, I address the self-protective skills and sophisticated ways in which gender-diverse people curate emergent and past selves across intersecting social networks both on and offline. I argue that, at the intersections of post-digital and post-gender ways of being, we can observe emergent acceptance of multiple selves that are capable of being inconsistent without being incoherent. These representations exist in stark opposition to pop psychology’s premise of a singular authentic ‘inner truth’.

Multilingualism and emergent selves: context, languages, and the anti-ought-to self

ABSTRACT This study examines motivation and multilingualism using quantitative data from 468 language learners in China. More precisely, the point of inquiry was to investigate the language-specificity of the psychological aspects of self within the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS). The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with the L2 English data revealed a strong anti-ought-to self factor, along with the expected ideal and ought-to selves; however, the EFA for Japanese patterned similarly to English with an emergent anti-ought-to self, whereas this was not the case for French. These results indicate that the appearance of the anti-ought-to self emerges only when there is some sort of public opinion or controversy involved with the language in question, such as with English and Japanese in the current study. As for the separate EFA analyses for the ideal, ought-to, and anti-ought-to selves, the results suggest that participants have distinct English and L3 ideal selves, whereas this distinction did not exist for the ought-to and anti-ought-to selves. Implications of the sociopolitical aspects of languages in specific contexts, and directions for further research are provided.

Heart to Heart: The Associative Pathway to Therapeutic Growth

Language is constitutive of who we are as people. Play between infant and carer has a strong influence on how language is acquired and the way it becomes generative of self. It is the communicative exchanges of life that create one’s sense of self and significance. When individuals enter into “free play” in therapy, they embark upon an associative pathway where distinct associations, emerging from what has been considered the “id”, form the basis of an emergent self, probably mediated by right-hemispherically determined communication. A case vignette illustrates a transition involving a moment of emotional connection, followed by a realization, at a later point in therapy, with discussion of both patient and therapist perceptions of these moments and an illustration of underlying physiology. The importance of right-hemispheric regulation in the psychotherapeutic setting calls for a revision of Freudian notions of primary and secondary process. The affective basis of associational life needs to be seen in a normative, integrative way rather than as an unruly process to be overcome by a rational ego.

Emergency Self- Expanding Metal Stenting for Malignant Colonic Obstruction: An Opportunity for Operation in a More Favorable Condition

Introduction: Lower gastrointestinal system tumors represent a major source of morbidity and mortality. Bowel obstruction is a common complication in advanced colorectal cancer.Case Report: An 86-year-old male patient who was admitted to the emergency department with clinical complaints of ileus showed multiple air-fluid levels in an abdominal X-ray film. Computed tomography scans revealed an obstructing malignant mass in the sigmoid colon region. For immediate relief of obstruction, a self-expanding metal stent was placed by colonoscopy. Recovery from abdominal discomfort, flatulence, and vomiting was achieved shortly after stenting. With appropriate treatment and preoperative investigations, the patient was referred to undergo elective colectomy.Conclusion: In elderly and critically ill patients, endoscopic stenting may be an effective treatment for malignant large bowel obstruction. It may also be used as a bridge to surgery in more favorable conditions

Victorian Children's Literature: Experiencing Abjection, Empathy, and the Power of Love by Ruth Y. Jenkins

Reviewed by: Victorian Children's Literature: Experiencing Abjection, Empathy, and the Power of Love by Ruth Y. Jenkins Patrick C. Fleming (bio) Ruth Y. Jenkins, Victorian Children's Literature: Experiencing Abjection, Empathy, and the Power of Love. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. Print. From its title, Victorian Children's Literature led me to expect an argument about nineteenth-century culture and society. I might be forgiven this assumption, since the book jacket promises revelations about "social, economic, religious, and national energies" and Jenkins's earlier book, Reclaiming [End Page 406] Myths of Power: Women Writers and the Victorian Spiritual Crisis (1995), had examined gender roles and the Victorian crisis of faith. Astute readers of Jenkins's subtitle—those drawn to the term "abjection"—might have more accurate expectations, for the book ultimately has less to do with the Victorian period than with Julia Kristeva. Though Jenkins discusses texts published between 1858 and 1911, Kristeva's writings, rather than anything particularly Victorian, provide the foundation holding the chapters together. She reads Victorian-era texts "through Julia Kristeva's theories of abjection, the beloved authority, and Herethics" (173). Citing the chapter on the "Adolescent Novel" in Kristeva's New Maladies of the Soul, Jenkins explains Kristeva's concept of subjects-in-process who, through literature, "can experiment with alternative constructs of self without the risk of sanction." For young readers, "the open psychic structure enables experimentation with personalities that endorse or challenge, test or develop responses to cultural values" (7). Jenkins explores how texts for adolescents challenge those values and allow for the reader's psychic development. Jenkins's approach is perhaps best revealed in the verb most often used in her claims: "illustrate." In chapter 2, the metaphor of bathing in The Water-Babies "illustrates a return to the Semiotic state for Tom" (25). In chapter 4, the experiences of Ralph, the narrator of The Coral Island, "illustrate what is at the heart of Kristeva's theories of the signifying process" (71) while Nesbit's The Story of the Treasure Seekers "illustrates a variety of opportunities for a beloved authority to acknowledge the emerging self" (83). In chapter 5, which is about animal narrators, Rambles of a Rat "illustrates the process Kristeva posits as necessary for the emergent self" (103) while "Black Beauty illustrates a reassessment of the inevitability or appeal of binaried constructs" (108). In each case, a Victorian text "illustrates" a concept from Kristeva (such as the signifying process, beloved authority, the emergent self, or binary constructs). Those readings are convincing, as far as they go, but in my view the most insightful and compelling readings come in the last two chapters. In chapter 6 Jenkins responds to interpretations of The Secret Garden as a restoration story that, in shifting attention from Mary to Colin, privileges male energy and re-establishes traditional social patterns. Jenkins instead reads the novel as offering "an alternative model of social interaction" that challenges the "Victorian discourse of competition," even though its 1911 publication puts it slightly outside the period (120–21). The chapter is framed by readings of Friedrich Fröebel's and Herbert Spencer's educational theories, claiming that "Fröebel's description of mother-love anticipates" a Kristevan dynamic that challenges Spencer's model of "competitive struggle" (123). In Jenkins's view, "Burnett is not just replacing one cultural model with another; she is [End Page 407] blurring the boundaries between them … dismantling the binary oppositions and offering a non-competitive, companion image in its stead" (131). So any interpretation that reads the novel's return to Colin as re-establishing traditional social patterns "falls into a trap built from binary constructs—that it is either Mary's or Colin's story, that theirs is a competitive relationship" (137). Jenkins's application of Kristeva offers an alternative interpretation, based in compassion rather than competition. Chapter 7 applies Kristeva's "maternal thinking" and Herethics to one of Christina Rossetti's less famous works, Speaking Likenesses. Jenkins shows how "Speaking Likenesses illustrates the dynamic relationship of abjection's sublime, empathy, and love central to Herethics" (145). Jenkins situates her reading within the critical reception of Rossetti's text, which since its publication has been criticized...

Travel medicine physician adherence to guidelines for the emergency self treatment of malaria: Table 1

Few studies have examined emergency self treatment (EST) antimalarial prescribing patterns. 110 physician-members of the Travel Medicine Society of Ireland and British Global and Travel Health Association participated in this study. There was a trend towards the prescription of EST for travel to remote low-risk malaria areas; for long-term residents living in low-risk areas; and for frequent travellers to low-risk areas. This study provides insights into the use of EST in travellers' malaria.