Repetitive Forms Research Articles

The relevance of “role reversal” in today's psychoanalytic work*

In this paper, the author's main focus is on “role reversal: ”a primitive inter–intra-psychic process at the forefront of our current psychoanalytic practice, but not sufficiently theorised in our literature. The dynamics of “role reversal” are clinically presented and discussed in their two main aspects (the unconscious identification with the parents and with their psychic culture, and therefore the concomitant dissociation of the infant part of the self) through the presentation of analytic material regarding a typical “role reversal” case. Furthermore, the author explores some of the reasons why analysts have not underlined this particular form of repetition, which is above all re-enacted in the transference–countertransference play with patients who have experienced in their past a cumulative trauma, suggesting in conclusion the curative factors in this kind of treatment.

Aspect and Ascription in the Music of Mathias Spahlinger

This paper employs a Wittgensteinian framework to describe the experience of listening to the music of Mathias Spahlinger. First, a ‘skeptical puzzle’ is introduced, based on a reading of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. The puzzle problematizes the security of ascriptions of meaning to material practices. Then, Spahlinger's éphémère is used as a test case: it is described from a first-person perspective, compared with an account of the work given by Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, and given as an example of an audible presentation of the ‘skeptical puzzle’. Such a presentation is marked by a phenomenon that Wittgenstein described as ‘the dawning of an aspect’. By focusing on the role of aspect perception and the problems of ascription in Spahlinger's music, it is possible to argue against Mahnkopf's criticism of Spahlinger's work, as well as understand an underlying affinity between extreme forms of repetition and perpetual transition within Spahlinger's compositional habitus.

The role of Purkinje fibers in the emergence of an incessant form of polymorphic ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation associated with ischemic heart disease

Background: The clinical and electrophysiological characteristic of ventricular premature contractions (VPCs) which trigger the incessant form of polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (VT), so-called “electrical storm” associated with ischemic heart disease, remains unclarified. The aim of this study was to evaluate those matters and the possible role of the Purkinje network in the emergence of an electrical storm.Methods and results: We experienced 5 patients (68 ± 5 years, mean LVEF: 29%) with electrical storms which occurred during the acute phase of an infarction in 3 patients and the remote phase in 2. The triggering VPCs were multifocal in 3 patients and monofocal in the remaining 2. Radiofrequency (RF) catheter ablation was performed for a goal of eliminating the triggering VPCs. A total of 9 different kinds of VPCs differentiated by their morphology were successfully eliminated by the RF deliveries targeting the VPCs’ foci. At the successful ablation sites, Purkinje potentials preceded the QRS onset of the VPC by 67 ± 23 ms, suggesting the VPCs originated in the surviving Purkinje fibers. Moreover, the extensive RF deliveries applied at the surviving Purkinje network rendered the polymorphic VT unable to be induced by programmed stimulation which reproducibly induced it before the ablation in 2 patients.Conclusion: A surviving Purkinje network might contribute not only to the initiation of the repetitive form of lethal ventricular arrhythmias, but also to the perpetuation of the arrhythmias in patients with ischemic heart disease.

Elegant Efficiency

The design of a cable-stayed bridge and approach viaducts in Malaysia took advantage of repetitive forms to lower the cost as well as the risk of errors. But it is the thoughtful determination of the flow of forces and the reflection of those forces in the architectural form that propel the crossing concept from basic to extraordinary.

A study on the Ending Repetition Form as the Grammatical Construction in Korean Language Education

A study on the Ending Repetition Form as the Grammatical Construction in Korean Language Education

Not all repetition is alike: Different benefits of repetition in amnesia and normal memory

While it is well known that repetition can enhance memory in amnesia, little is known about which forms of repetition are most beneficial. This study compared the effect on recognition memory of repetition of words in the same semantic context and in varied semantic contexts. To gain insight into the mechanisms by which these forms of repetition affect performance, participants were asked to make Remember/Know judgments during recognition. These judgments were used to make inferences about the contribution of recollection and familiarity to performance. For individuals with intact memory, the two forms of repetition were equally beneficial to overall recognition, and were associated with both enhanced Remember and Know responses. However, varied repetition was associated with a higher likelihood of Remember responses than was fixed repetition. The two forms of repetition also conferred equivalent benefits on overall recognition in amnesia, but in both cases, this enhancement was manifest exclusively in enhanced Know responses. We conclude that the repetition of information, and especially repetition in varied contexts, enhances recollection in individuals with intact memory, but exclusively affects familiarity in patients with severe amnesia.

The First Book of Samuel (review)

Hebrew Studies 49 (2008) 352 Reviews pages for results from the study is a rather meager haul for an entire book of 200 pages. The methodological questions relating to use of the data from Mesopotamian , Egyptian, and Greek temples should have been debated. The positions taken and interpretations offered should have had more discussion in many cases. Each individual chapter should have had a concluding synthesis of what the chapter had demonstrated, and the final conclusion could have been of sufficient length and detail that it was clear what had been demonstrated by the book as a whole. There are many useful data here, but readers will have to analyze it for themselves. Lester L. Grabbe University of Hull Hull, England l.l.grabbe@hull.ac.uk THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. By David Toshio Tsumura. NICOT. Pp. xxii + 698. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2007. Cloth, $50.00. David Tsumura has given us a modern philological and literary commentary which addresses a number of issues that are not normally part of scholarly discourse. A comprehensive introduction reviews modern theories of the history of the text (including the latest publications on the texts from the Judean Desert), recent literary-historical and literary-structural/semiotic (‘holistic’) scholarship, historiography, historical and religious background, and questions of grammar and syntax. The present reviewer was happy to note chapters on discourse analysis, including an expose of Longacre’s approach and a note of viewpoint (though not from a literary angle). A chapter on prose and poetry discusses the structure of parallelism, poetic prose, different forms of repetition and brachylogy. The keys include an index of Subjects, Modern Authors, Scriptural references, and Foreign words (Hebrew, Akkadian, Ugaritic, Phoenician/Punic, and other ancient languages). 1 Samuel is considered to serve two purposes: the establishment of the monarchy and the preparation of David for the role of the king, all through the prophetic authority of Samuel as God’s messenger. The author’s critical position is fairly (and rationally) conservative. The final redaction of the book of Samuel is attributed to the late tenth century, in view of the note on the Judean crown possession of Ziklag which seems to refer to the period before the campaign of Shishak, and in any case does not make sense after the Assyrian conquest of the entire Philistine area Hebrew Studies 49 (2008) 353 Reviews (1 Sam 27:6, pp. 11, 612). The author rejects the assumption of such blocks as a comprehensive “Ark Narrative” (1 Samuel 4–7; 2 Samuel 6) and the “History of David’s Rise” (1 Samuel 16–2 Samuel 5), and tends to prefer smaller frames, such as the “Ark Narrative” (1 Samuel 4–7only), embedded within the Samuel History (1 Samuel 1–7), followed by a “Story of Saul” (1 Sam 9:1–15:35), and a “Story of Saul and David” (1 Samuel 16–31). Of these blocks, the Ark Narrative is tentatively attributed to the pre-Davidic era, in view of the lack of allusions to a royal cult in Jerusalem (pp. 11–12). The Saul-David Story is considered to reflect the political tensions in the time of David’s rule, and is intrinsically linked to the “Story of King David” (2 Samuel 1–20), in particular by means of the report of Saul’s death and David’s elegy in the opening chapter (pp. 13–16). The framework of 2 Samuel 21–24 is viewed as an epilogue that provides a thematic closure for the David tales, and in which the tale of the offering at the threshing floor of Araunah marks the transition to the account of Solomon’s Temple building. The author regards Solomon’s accession narrative (1 Kings 1–2) as an interface of David and Solomon tales (pp. 67–68). In Tsumura’s view, the contrast between the alleged pro-monarchic and anti-monarchic passages has been exaggerated (pp. 11, 248), seeing that in biblical context the human king always is considered the regent/deputy of God, as the heavenly king (pp. 249, 275, 282; following to a certain extent M. Tsevat). Instead of an anti-monarchic division, the author locates the tale on the “Transition to...

Self-injurious behavior: A clinical appraisal.

A case series of self-injurious behavior (SIB) encountered in a General Hospital setting has been described. Limitations of current definition of SIB are explained. SIB is not a single clinical entity and it occurs in various psychiatric syndromes with wide range of psychopathology. Based on clinical criteria, a classification of SIB into three groups has been proposed viz 1) Mild and isolated form, 2) Moderately severe and repetitive form, and 3) Very severe and isolated form. Psychodynamic, cognitive and neurochemical explanations of SIB have been reviewed. Frustration, aggression and impulsivity appearing in helpless situation appear to be a common script across most of these models of explanations. Severity of injury seems to be determined by severity of psychopathology. Site of injury appear to have symbolic significance for a particular patient. Understanding some of these clinicopsychopathological issues helps in management of these cases.

Structural priming: a critical review.

Repetition is a central phenomenon of behavior, and researchers have made extensive use of it to illuminate psychological functioning. In the language sciences, a ubiquitous form of such repetition is structural priming, a tendency to repeat or better process a current sentence because of its structural similarity to a previously experienced ("prime") sentence (J. K. Bock, 1986). The recent explosion of research in structural priming has made it the dominant means of investigating the processes involved in the production (and increasingly, comprehension) of complex expressions such as sentences. This review considers its implications for the representation of syntax and the mechanisms of production and comprehension and their relationship. It then addresses the potential functions of structural priming, before turning to its implications for first language acquisition, bilingualism, and aphasia. The authors close with theoretical and empirical recommendations for future investigations.

Perception, Judgment and Individuation: Towards a Metaphysics of Particularity

The aim of this paper is to develop a new theory of particularity. In so doing it redefines the concepts ‘perception’ and ‘judgment’. The redefinition occurs once perception is understood as recognition. The move to recognition entails the centrality of repetition. Recognition, it is argued, is a form of repetition. Allowing for repetition necessitates changing the way the relationship between universals and particulars is understood. This is developed via an engagement with Hume and Plato. The article concludes with the outline for a rethinking of the metaphysics of particularity.

Two Forms Of Spoken Repetition In A Girl With Autism

The talk of persons with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) often features distinctive forms of repetition (echophenomena). Although often characterized as meaningless or inappropriate, there is evidence that such practices can sometimes have communicative functions. To investigate the interactional organization of repetition practices found in the talk of an adolescent girl with an ASD. As part of a project examining the interactional practices of children with ASD, we video-recorded 6 hours of activity in a school classroom for severe learning difficulty (SLD) children. This paper considers instances of repeated talk produced by a class pupil, 'Helen'. The analysis involved assembling a collection of examples of the repeated talk which were then transcribed in detail. Conversation Analysis was used to explore the sequential contexts in which they occur and precisely how they are produced. Two forms of repetition occur very frequently in Helen's talk: first, repeats of turn-final lexical items from another speaker's immediately before talk (prior-turn repeats, a form of immediate echolalia), and second, repeats of the first item within a turn such that a turn is produced consisting entirely of repeated items (within-turn repeats). The latter appears to be a form of palilalia (repeats of one's own prior talk) that has not been widely reported in ASD. The prior turn repeats follow other speaker's initiating actions (e.g. questions) that are addressed specifically to Helen and make a response from her relevant. Helen apparently uses these to demonstrate that she has nevertheless heard, and is orienting to, that prior turn. Within-turn repeats are tied to and bounded by the accomplishment of non-vocal activities, e.g. handing an object to a co-participant, such that the repetitions cease when the object has reached its recipient. The two forms of repetition frequently co-occur to display on-going engagement with a recipient's prior turn. Although Helen has limited verbal resources she is more interactionally competent than this may initially suggest. We propose that these repetition practices may constitute an adaptation to interacting with a limited lexicon. We discuss the relevance of Conversational Analysis for understanding autistic children's pragmatic competence, and the implications for remediation and further research.

Prevalence and Psychological Correlates of Occasional and Repetitive Deliberate Self-harm in Adolescents

To determine the prevalence and the associated psychological and social factors of occasional and repetitive deliberate self-harming behavior in adolescents. Cross-sectional self-report survey. One hundred twenty-one schools in Germany. A representative sample of 5759 ninth-grade students was studied between 2004 and 2005. Deliberate self-harm (DSH) and suicidal behaviors, emotional and behavioral problems (Youth Self-Report), living standard, family composition, parental conflict and illness, school type and performance, relationship to peers, bullying, body satisfaction and dieting, media consumption, smoking, and alcohol and drug use. Occasional forms of DSH within the previous year were reported by 10.9% of the ninth-grade students. Four percent of the students reported repetitive forms of DSH. Suicidal behavior was strongly associated with repetitive DSH, an association that held for both subtypes of DSH. The findings also indicated that social background factors were important concomitants of occasional DSH but were not related to an increased likelihood of repetitive DSH. Symptoms of depression/anxiety and delinquent/aggressive behavior were associated with self-harming behavior in both adolescent girls and boys. The data suggest that there is a link between social factors and occasional DSH and, especially in repetitive DSH, that there is a strong association between DSH and suicidal behavior as well as DSH and emotional and behavioral problems. These findings indicate a different pathway in the development of DSH in adolescents. The results support a need to investigate the possible neurobiological underpinnings of DSH within a longitudinal model to enhance the knowledge of this poorly understood behavior.

Atrial fibrillation after non-cardiac surgery: P-wave characteristics and Holter monitoring in risk assessment☆

We investigated the role of 12-lead ECG P-wave duration and dispersion and of Holter monitoring as predictors of post-thoracic surgery atrial fibrillation. One hundred and five consecutive patients (88 males-17 females; age 60+/-9), undergoing thoracic surgery at National Cancer Institute between 2001 and 2003, were enrolled and both standard ECG and Holter monitoring were obtained from each patient. P-wave study was made on a magnified ECG paper copy. Holter monitoring was performed 1-3 days before surgery; patients were divided into three classes according to number and complexity of premature supra ventricular complexes (0: <30/h and no repetitive forms; 1: >30/h or couplets; 2: run of supraventricular tachycardia or atrial fibrillation). Atrial fibrillation was detected in 12 patients (11%) within 96 h from surgery. In univariable logistic model, P-wave duration was not associated with postoperative atrial fibrillation while P-wave dispersion and Holter monitoring demonstrated a statistically significant association with the occurrence of atrial fibrillation (OR of 30 vs 20 ms=2.06; CI: 1.17-3.64; p=0.012, OR of class 1-2 vs class 0=8.16; CI: 2.04-35.59; p=0.003, respectively). In the multivariable model, both P-wave dispersion and Holter were shown to be significantly associated with the end-point. Holter monitoring enhanced the predictive ability of P-wave dispersion (area under the ROC curve increased from 0.64 to 0.80). P-wave dispersion, but not duration, was associated with atrial fibrillation after thoracic surgery. Preoperative Holter monitoring adds further information and could be used to enhance the P-wave predictive power.

Responses to Recasts: Repetitions, Primed Production, and Linguistic Development

Although a number of studies have associated recasts with second language development, the actual mechanisms by which recasts work to impact learning are still little understood. In particular, researchers have sought to gain a deeper understanding of the connections among recasts, learners' responses to recasts, and subsequent development. To this end, the current study examines the impact of recasts and different types of responses on English as a second language (ESL) question development. In a pretest/posttest design, 58 Thai English as a foreign language university students carried out a series of communicative tasks with native English speakers and completed four tests over a 9‐week period. The learners' treatment task data were analyzed for the occurrence of recasts and responses to recasts that targeted developmentally advanced question forms. Their test data were examined for evidence of advancement to a higher stage in the developmental sequence for question formation. Results indicate that recasts were a significant predictor of ESL question development. Learners' responses in the form of primed production of the question forms targeted in the recasts were also predictive of ESL question development, but responses in the form of immediate repetitions of recasts were not associated with development.

MEANING OF THE SOUND: MAGIC AND SUFI MYSTICISM IN THE PHONIC STRUCTURE OF THE MALAY CHARM AND CHANT

The poetics of oral Malay charms (incantations) is based on lexical repetitions and parallelisms intended to enhance their magic power. These poetical devices, in their turn, bring forth phonic repetitions of different kinds (alliterations, assonances, etc.), which make possible an increase in information conveyed by the incantation without diminishing its magical efficacy. One of the forms of such repetitions is the anagram, i.e. a device based on the division of the word-theme, for instance the name of the spirit invoked, into individual sounds or syllables and their reiteration in other words of the text. The article discusses the structure and meaning of anagrammatic sound organisation, its origin from the magic notion of the equivalency between the whole and its part, as well as the use of poetical devices of oral literature, and of the anagram in particular, in written Sufi works (Hikayat Si Burung Pingai, verses by Abd al-Jamal and Syair Perahu) which resort to the archaic poetics of the charm and chant, although reconsidering them from the new perspective.

Aspects sociologiques de la paternité tardive

Starting from a sociological research on late parenthood, the article shows quantitative and qualitative lessons on the subject--in particular concerning the fathers' perspective. Late parenthood has declined over the 20th Century, to increase again since 1980. The further exploitation of the survey EHF 99 shows the processes and the socio-demographic of late fatherhood, over three generations. This phenomenon is tightly related to the multiple descents and family recombinings. We also observe in these configurations major age differences between spouses and late relationship. The social bipolarity of this phenomenon appears clearly as far as late motherhood is concerned, but is less clear concerning fatherhood, since more blue collars and non qualified men are concerned. This difference is due to the important role played by migrants in this phenomenon. A qualitative survey conducted on the basis of biographic interviews has underlined the gendered logics of late family founding. These logics are linked to the discrepancies due to man/woman differences regarding their respective calendar of fertility and to their attitude towards work. The interviews which provide an analysis of the biographical processes of late parenthood are organised according to postponement or renewal logics, in the form of refoundation or repetition. They are linked to self-introspection and to the negotiations at work within a couple.

Primordial Sacrifice, Typology and the Theological Vocation of Literature: Extending Gian Balsamo's Interpretation of Joyce and Christian Epic

Extending the new contribution to the Joyce scholarship offered by Gian Balsamo, this essay develops a typological perspective upon literature as a ritualistic repetition of primordial sacrifice. It traces this function of literature from Dante through the Christian epic to Joyce. Poetry, viewed in this perspective, envisions and expresses what makes a culture possible as a whole and from its deepest roots. Such theologically laden types as sacrifice and eucharistie celebration reveal western culture in its development from both Greek and Hebrew antiquity to its ultramodem apotheosis in Joyce as one ongoing negotiation with itself. Culture is a continual reworking and revisioning of traditionary types that ran from the beginning to the end of the history—and back again—becoming the overarching metaphors that connect everything in the universe of human experience together. The figurative powers that pre-dispose poetic language to perform the work of revelation in a sense akin to and even indiscernible from religious revelation are evinced with particular force in the operation of literary and theological types and in the compositional and exegetical methods of typology. Under various names, the type is one of the most classical topics in figurative rhetoric. The recognisability of characters and events as typical—as based on and repeating, as well as estabhshing precedents—is fundamental to literary and symbolic significance, in general. More specifically, typology has been indispensable to biblical interpretation since ancient times and has parallels Literature & Theology © The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press 2006; all rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: joumals.permissions@oxfordjoumals.org The Author 2006. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.73 on Thu, 11 Aug 2016 04:46:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 252 THE THEOLOGICAL VOCATION OF LITERATURE in the methods used for interpreting Homer and other poets in pagan antiquity. Even more primordially, typology is inextricably bound up with the repetitions of religious rite and specifically sacrifice. For the type is inherently a form of repetition, and sacrifice is an archetypal origin that is typically repeated. Typology has taken on a new life in contemporary literary criticism and particularly in a very recent criticism ofjames Joyce. Gian Balsamo is currently applying an innovatively typological method, inspired by biblical typology, in a penetrating reading of Joyce and Christian epic.1 Balsamo shows how primordial sacrifice is repeated by literary representations or types that re-invent and fulfil the primitive motifs that they subsume. This enables us to see literature as fulfilling a unitary purpose from ancient Greek tragedy through the Christian epic to Joyce and the novel: literature, in all these guises, has been discovered as being deeply liturgical in nature and as responding to a theological vocation. Viewed typologically, literature gives an original access to direct, especially sensuous experience of the divine; it even reveals this experience as the origin of human society and consciousness. These are, in fact, perennial ideas concerning the mission and function of poetry that can be traced all the way back to Orphic sources, in which Orpheus is designated as the instituter of the sacrificial rites of Bacchus,2 but they are now being worked out with critical acumen in a perspective that can help us discern a new horizon for the experience of literature and religion. I will elicit from this work on typology aspects that bear particularly on linguistic repetition as a means of theological revelation. Balsamo's work on scriptural poetics and James Joyce, conducts poetry back to its originally theological inspiration by showing how the experience of literature today, that is, in the day of James Joyce, is really not to be understood fully except in terms of the experience of liturgy, and that means an experience of primordial sacrifice. This clears a vista for overviewing the purport of poetry quite generally that extends beyond our customary field of vision, opening a wider panorama in which poetic literature can be seen as responsive to a theological vocation. In former ages, poets made claims to theological inspiration with great frequency, but such claims seem to many to have become virtually unintelligible today. It is striking, then, that out of the midst of the modemist writing of Joyce, Balsamo evokes primordial types or archetypes for envisioning literature—the very existence and inexhaustible concreteness of literature—as theological in its deepest motivations. In Joyce's works, it becomes fully clear that the literary, at the level of seriousness represented by Christian epics, operates fundamentally as a religious rite. This emerges clearly, moreover, as having been at stake in the Christian epic all along. Joyce and the Christian epic tradition taken together show how literature can be understood as the actualisation of religious ritual This content downloaded from 207.46.13.73 on Thu, 11 Aug 2016 04:46:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

Peter Handke's Landscapes of Discourse by Christoph Parry

596 Reviews is particularly persuasive in his understanding of the interrelation between music and text. Yet, typically, there is no detailed interpretation of the lyric Dorfmusik within context, and Degen misses out in general on the humour, lightness of touch, and im mediacy of Bobrowski's writing. Specialist readers will also be surprised by Degen's lack of first-hand reference to the extensive Nachlass and by some deficiencies in his bibliography. MELLEN UNIVERSITY, IOWA BRIANKEITH-SMITH Peter Handke's Landscapes of Discourse. By CHRISTOPH PARRY. (Studies inAustrian Literature, Culture and Thought) Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press. 2003. 25 Ipp. $29; ?45. ISBN I-5724I-I2I-X. Peter Handke's Landscapes of Discourse is the culmination of Christoph Parry's en during interest in the representation of space and place inHandke's fiction, drama, and essayistic work. As Parry explains in his introduction, the phrase 'Landscapes of Discourse' is to be understood both literally and metaphorically: it refers both to the ways inwhich landscape is constructed through the medium of words and to the wider discursive field that is generated by and forms the context of contemporary writing (p. 4). The book is loosely structured around these two meanings of 'Land scapes of Discourse', as commentary on the representation of space within Handke's texts alternates with sections that trace the intertextual, biographical, and reception oriented aspects of his work. In his first main chapter, Parry points to the ineluctably conventional character of vision and the consequent impossibility of knowing nature other than through discursive practices and conceptual constructs. He goes on to link this to questions of narrative, particularly memory and repetition. Parry situates themimetic capacity of language in its ability to generate memories that, asmental constructs, are indis tinguishable from other, 'real'memories. He argues that an awareness of the role of memory in the construction of both real and fictional worlds leads to the question of recollection, which is itself allied to repetition: both recollection and narrative are forms of repetition by means of which absent worlds-be they past or fictional-can be made present to consciousness. This leads into a discussion of the phenomeno logy of reading based on Ingarden, Iser, and Eco. Parry's main theoretical innovation is tomarry this Konstanz School phenomenology to a post-Genettian narratology, with its concern with focalization, narration, and the distinction between author and narrator. But he suggests that narratology's obsession with separating author and narrator is historical, not ontological, thereby paving the way for a rehabilitation of the author. Throughout the study, Parry examines the ways inwhich Handke's texts problematize the author-narrator distinction, and considers the degree towhich the protagonists can be identified with the author himself. The main body of the book begins with a discussion of Die Lehre der Sainte Victoire, the text inwhich Handke engages most extensively with questions of land scape and representation. Parry then offers a broadly chronological account of Hand ke's work from Der kurze Brief zum langen Abschied to Die Fahrt im Einbaum. He sees the former as embodying a qualitative shift inHandke's writing, which moves away from the preoccupation with the linguistic surface that characterized the early work and towards a new concern with visual experience. But Parry also notes that this shift should probably be seen as a gradual process rather than a caesura, a point that could have been even more forcefully made by analysing the narratological aspects of the depiction of Vienna and the Carinthian village inDie Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter. MLR, I01.2, 2006 597 Parry provides a series of thoughtful, intelligent, and highly differentiated com mentaries on many of Handke's most important novels: the quotation of what amount to cultural cliches about the USA (in Der kurze Brief) and Paris (in Die Stunde der wahren Empfindung); the geological excavation of space in Langsame Heimkehr; the private mythology of space inDie Wiederholung; the indeterminacy of space inDie Abwesenheit. Parry is at his best when analysing the interplay of formal structure and the thematics of landscape. Of many excellent examples, one might single out the section on Mein Jahr in der Niemandsbucht, inwhich Parry argues persuasively and ingeniously that the...

Repetitive Photodynamic Therapy of Malignant Brain Tumors

The probability of achieving local control with current single-shot, intraoperative photodynamic therapy (PDT) treatments of intracerebral gliomas seems improbable due to the length of time required to deliver adequate light fluences to depths of 1-2 cm in the resection margin. Additionally, due to the short doubling time of many malignant gliomas, the kill rate per cell doubling indicates that it seems unlikely that a single treatment would be sufficient to prevent tumor recurrence. Multiple repetitive treatments would therefore seem required. In this publication we primarily review our work examining the effects of repetitive PDT on malignant brain tumor cells both in vitro and in vivo. The in vitro therapy response of human and rat glioma spheroids to 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA)-mediated PDT in repetitive form was investigated. The results indicated that PDT repeated at relatively long intervals (weeks) was more effective at inhibiting spheroid growth than either daily fractionated PDT or single-treatment regimes. The in vivo response to repetitive treatment was evaluated in a rodent glioma model where BT4C cell line tumors were established in the brains of inbred BD-IX rats. Microfluorometry of frozen tissue sections showed that PpIX is produced with a 10-20:1 tumor to normal tissue selectivity ratio 4 hr after ALA injection. Preliminary evidence of increased efficacy of repetitive PDT and low fluence rate treatment is presented.

The Virtual, the Symbolic, and the Actual in Bergsonian Philosophy and Durkheimian Sociology

Today, we have a problem with the symbolic. Psychoanalysts explain "abnormal" acts as violations of a symbolic order inscribed in the unconscious by culture, and cognitivists conceive "normal" minds as computational machines manipulating natural symbols through logical inference. Yet we still don't know what is a symbolic rule or a symbolic norm or symbolic efficacy, and we still need a word to understand how language affects our daily life at the most intimate level. Concepts are not just arbitrary constructions: they point toward a reality, which they can also obscure. They are like dresses on a body; they can become used and old-fashioned, they may have always been badly cut, but we need to use them, otherwise we would be naked and dumb. The concept of the symbolic has become so over-determined that it has uncovered a phenomenon that we have yet to see and describe. Henri Bergson's philosophy, since it is a method for identifying problems and clarifying concepts, can be a useful tool that can recast the problem of the symbolic in new terms today. We need to understand the mode of existence of language, the way it affects the life of our body, the constraints it imposes on our freedom, the forms of inventions and repetitions it allows—all themes that are central in Bergson's philosophy. We can, therefore, find here lines of problematization of the symbolic which might be useful for today. Two lines of problematization can be drawn in Bergson's work. First, we can show [End Page 1133] how the symbolic appears in a field of virtualities around human action, which it tends to fix though intellectual schemas. We would then dissolve the rigid frames of the symbolic in a fluid and dynamic activity. Following this line, the symbol is not a representation of something, but rather an image, connected to other images in a field of movements and actions. It can thus be opposed to the virtual just as the concepts of intelligence are opposed to the images of intuition. This line is particularly enlightening if one reads Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience or Introduction à la métaphysique. Another line would problematize the symbolic not through the field of virtualities it schematizes, but rather through the actuality that it tends to produce, in the sense of the act of consciousness that constitutes itself through symbolic activity, or the actual object that the symbol refers to—the originality of Bergson's philosophy lies in the fact that object and subject constitute themselves together in the act of symbolization. Following this line, the symbolic could be opposed to the actual as a vague generality is opposed to a precise singularity. This line is particularly enlightening if one reads Matière et mémoire or L'évolution créatrice.1 I want to argue that Bergson's philosophy holds these two lines that tend to be separated in contemporary philosophy in the same work, and that the great tension of this work is to think the symbolic between the virtual and the actual. Bergson proposes a new concept of the symbolic because he doesn't conceive it as the representation of an object, in a two-strata theory of knowledge, but as a way to express and mediate experience through language, in an image of thinking as a layered reality, composed of several strata or " plateaux." Therefore, I want to show that the virtual, the symbolic, and the actual are three degrees of experience that are intertwined in complex and productive ways, and that the symbolic is an intermediary level between the virtual and the actual, that allows their inter-expression.2 Therefore, the symbolic is overwhelmed from beside and from below, and cannot be conceived as an autonomous production. Bergson teaches us that there is no experience outside of language, and...