Observational Stance Research Articles

The empirical discovery of domains of assembly and communion

We consider chanting, or joint speech, which is ubiquitous, but not evenly distributed, in human activity. Taking an observational stance motivated by embodied cognitive science, we approach this topic without assumptions of the structure of persons, social formations, culture, or nature. This restrictive starting point motivates the use of a simple empirical definition of joint speech (the utterance by multiple persons of the same sounds at the same time) to allow us to induce four distinguished domains of assembly and communion among persons. These may be loosely indicated by the familiar terms of ritual, sports, protest and primary education. We use our empirical definition to induce these domains, and then consider how they might be regarded jointly. We are not aware of any social or psychological theory that would generate these four domains, and we suggest that our restricted mode of observation may be of use in the collective consideration of human patterning, without the common assumptions of cognitivism.

Kopräsenz-, Koreferenz- und Wissens-Netzwerke. Kantenkriterien in dramatischen Figurennetzwerken am Beispiel von Kleists Die Familie Schroffenstein (1803)

Abstract In my contribution, I argue that a fruitful integration of computational network analytic methods into literary studies depends on how the ›interaction‹ of two characters in an abstract character network is formalized. I support this hypothesis by using the examples of co-presence, co-reference, and knowledge networks, which I analyze in Heinrich Kleist’s tragedy Die Familie Schroffenstein (1803). I assume that the co-presence of characters can provide the basis for more specific formalizations of interaction. But due to its basal specification of interaction, co-presence networks can only be integrated into rather limited questions of literary studies. I illustrate this circumstance by examining Franco Moretti’s approach in his essay Network Theory, Plot Analysis (2011): How does he connect his network analyses to concepts of literary studies? How does he reflect his methods? Which observational stance does he adopt? How appropriate is his approach to the object of study? And how does he tie his results back to literary theory? Moretti’s explorations show that his network analyses seem to be incompatible with established conceptions of characters – at least partially. Therefore, he demands a new conceptualization of dramatic characters in literary studies. To me, however, it seems to be more productive to put into perspective or enhance – under the auspices of network analysis – existing quantitative aspects of established character presentation (configuration, constellation). I therefore propose two additional formalizations of character interaction to create dramatic networks: co-references and knowledge transfers. Regular co-presence networks, which have widely been tested and discussed among (computational) literary scholars, will serve as a ground of comparison. I illustrate the merits and limitations of co-presence networks on both a single text analysis of Die Familie Schroffenstein and a larger corpus analysis of 587 German-language plays. Cursorily, I present the operationalization of co-references and knowledge transfers. The linguistic concept of co-reference means that two or more linguistic expressions refer to the same entities. A knowledge transfer, in my understanding, is a transmission of new information from at least one literary character to at least one other character. Manual annotations of co-reference chains and knowledge transfers serve as basis for the subsequent network creation. I compare these different manifestations of character interaction in terms of the resulting network visualizations as well as of various mathematical network metrics. The goal is to elicit how useful these two criteria are regarding drama analysis, e. g., the analysis of character properties, and to what extent they can complement, differentiate, or even replace the established co-presence networks. Co-presence, co-reference and knowledge networks reveal different aspects of the characters under consideration, picture different dramatic structures, and place different groups of characters at the center of the networks. Therefore, the three abstract textual representations seem to complement each other. In my article, I show that the extent to which the various criteria can be integrated into research questions of literary studies ought to be discussed on (at least) two levels. Firstly, it is necessary to ask how interesting, relevant, and informative a specific criterion is for one’s own research and whether it can relate to the terminology of literary studies. Secondly, it is important to consider how precise the respective criteria can be annotated manually and, subsequently, if and how reliable they can be annotated automatically.

A second-order witness: observing infant observers in South Africa

ABSTRACT Infant mental health is a new field in southern Africa. Some of its premises do not mesh neatly with local social forms and cultural precepts. Infant observation is a key element in the training of students in the only M. Phil programme on infant mental health in Africa. During training, students raised concerns about the model. Seminar discussions generated rich data about their efforts to secure an observational stance true to both the observational model and local relational practices. An anthropologist attended the seminars at which students reported on their weekly infant observations. Discussions were recorded and key themes identified. The anthropologist’s ‘second-order witnessing’ enabled careful reflection on the experience of learning to be an observer and observed. The article considers the process of finding an observational stance both epistemologically and practically in the socio-centric worlds of southern Africa, and reflects on the experiences of being observed from the points of view of the caregivers and infants. It demonstrates that despite the model’s presumption of distance, observers become significant persons in the life of the family. Through close attention to how received models settle in practice, we can derive important questions about epistemological conflicts and productive intersections.

“My Fibro Family!” A qualitative analysis of facebook fibromyalgia support groups’ discussion content

ABSTRACT Background Fibromyalgia (FM) is a diagnostically controversial syndrome characterized by chronic widespread pain, fatigue, sleep difficulties, cognitive dysfunction, and mental health symptoms. Though online peer support groups (OPSGs) may help persons with FM access support and information, there are concerns that such groups can be harmful. Aims and Methods Using a nonparticipatory observational stance, the authors analyzed discussions in three Facebook FM OPSGs (approximately 15,000 members, mostly women) to determine what themes best characterize their discussion content and whether being in a particular group was related to the type of thematic content to which they were exposed. Results Two themes were identified that represented explicit reasons group members participated in the OPSG (trying to understand FM and seeking/offering emotional support). Six themes represented underlying reasons members sought informational and emotional support in FM OPSGs (fighting FM, learning to live with FM, struggling with identity, distressing thoughts and feelings, judgment, empowerment-seeking). No salient differences were identified between the thematic content of each group. Conclusions The findings suggest that FM OPSGs may provide much needed psychosocial and emotional support regarding important aspects of psychological adjustment to living with FM while also inadvertently encouraging approaches to living with FM that do not align with evidence-based FM management recommendations (e.g., investment in fighting rather than accepting FM). These findings may be useful to patients considering joining an FM OPSG and to health providers helping patients navigate to resources that can address their emotional or psychological support needs.

Watching children play: toward the earth in bliss

Watching children at play is favorite pastime for many elderlies. However, the growing safety concerns have prompted parents to become increasingly resistant to the idea of having strangers watch their children in parks and playgrounds. This creates an intergenerational gap in communication with potentially detrimental consequences for all social groups. Oral interviews were conducted and written surveys distributed that validated the hesitance of seniors, especially in the United States, to spend time at children’s playgrounds despite their finding the vicinity of children stimulating. Behavioral observations were conducted at playgrounds to quantify the positive and negative effects of supervisors’ ages on children’s play and thus indirectly assess whether there can be mutual benefits of making the presence of older people at playgrounds, which is customary in many countries, more culturally acceptable. Observations focused on the behavior of a pair of siblings showed that there is an increased probability of both conflicts and joyful expressions when the children were in the presence of a middle-aged person than when they were watched over by the elderlies. This has suggested that freer expressions stimulated in the presence of parent-like figures simultaneously induce the undesired and the desired behavioral patterns in the form of propensities for conflict and propensities for expressions of joy, respectively. This has confirmed that the observational stance has a critical effect on the observational outcome and that the age of the watchers has an effect on the behavior of children at play, with the age correlating directly with the calmness of the play, but also with a lower degree of exhilaration.

The Tiger Skin on the Bannister (and Other Stories): Internal Dialogues and Parallel Autobiographical Process in a Reading of Wilfred Bion’s The Long Weekend, 1897–1919: Part of a Life

ABSTRACT This essay presents excerpts from a reading of the section ‘England’ in Wilfred Bion’s autobiography The Long Weekend, 1897–1919: Part of a Life. Findings are now presented alongside a series of the reader’s own memories that were evoked, at varied speeds, both during and after the reading process. Drawing on the fields of infant observation and child psychoanalytic psychotherapy, the essay demonstrates how exercising an observational stance to the reader's own subjective material and subsequent, reflexive internal dialogues contributed to penetrating layers of meaning of the book. Furthermore, it aims to show how a reading of an autobiography unexpectedly enabled a powerful, parallel creative process within the reader.

Black cargo

Black cargo

The Impact of Kundalini Awakening on Personal Life and Psychotherapeutic Practice

The process of kundalini awakening has all the elements of an extraordinary experience. In this article, the author will show that from his research and experience this process of spiritual awakening can be seen as a benevolent developmental step for individuals. The process of kundalini awakening has a profound impact on yogis and meditators around the world. Different reports circulate varying from disturbing disintegrating experiences to blissful ones. In this article, Kundalini awakening is described as a natural process of activating dormant energy in the CNS. During Kundalini awakening the neutral observer, the witness, the container is awakened as part of the process. This article describes the spontaneous awakening of the author during an intensive Vipassana retreat. It took years to digest the impact of this experience. And while doing so, a natural integrating in the Psycho-therapeutic practice of the author evolved. The central insight is to cultivate the neutral internal observer. The neutral observer stance creates opportunities for beneficial and endurable change. Clients are trained to become aware of their feelings and (hidden) thoughts without reacting to them. By doing so clients learn how to contain dysfunctional emotions and transform them into functional emotions. For all of this neutral observing is the key ingredient.

“I recommend anti-depressants.” A study in the social denial of death

In this article I intend to address the topic of psycho-social interaction with bereaved relatives after the unnatural death of a loved one in Germany. The article raises methodological questions of the connection between affectedness and analytical resources in death studies and tries to combine both approaches. Inverting the classical observational stance in victims’ studies, as a mourner, I could watch and feel the others’ fear and pain “regarding the pain of others.” Susan Sontag’s moral analysis is taken as a second-order observation while the observational position in this case, is one of stronger instead of lower emotional attachment.

‘Introduction’ to Kingdoms of Elfin (Handheld Press, 2018)

Originally conceived of as an introduction to a new edition of Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Kingdoms of Elfin (Handheld Press, 2018), this article provides an overview of the place of Kingdoms of Elfin (1977) in Sylvia Townsend Warner’s oeuvre and life, placing it in the final phases of her life as an astonishing new departure. In Kingdoms, Warner experiments with the excision of affect from the narrative process, producing stories which construct the narrative voice uncompromisingly as a voice of observation rather than identification. The playing field on which this is carried through is nothing less than a whole new fictional universe in the form of meticulously worked-out ‘Elfin’ worlds. The narratives’ observational stance unfolds itself as a disinterested ethnography of the strangeness of behaviours both human and non-human, radically decentring human perceptions and moral convictions in the process.

Stimulus Preference and Mental Imagery: Influencing the Way Sexual Stimuli are Viewed and the Intensity of Subjective Sexual Arousal

Background: The connection between mental imagery and feelings of presence within a film has not yet been investigated in sex research in relation to observational stance (imagining oneself as either a spectator or participant while viewing a film). Several studies have shown that people who take a participant stance when viewing a sexual film are more likely to report greater subjective sexual arousal (SSA). Research on observational stance has also found that viewing a preferred stimulus is predictive of taking a participant stance. Despite this, very few studies have allowed participants to select their own stimuli.
 Methodology: Sexual films that were researcher-selected or participant-selected will be presented to women and men, while continuously measuring their SSA. Information will be collected about observational stance and vividness of mental imagery via questionnaires.
 Expected Results:
 1. Greater mental imagery ability will be associated with adopting a participant stance.
 2. The relationship between mental imagery ability and taking a participant stance will be stronger for participant-selected sexual stimuli than for researcher-selected sexual stimuli.
 3. Taking a participant stance will be associated with greater SSA.
 4. The relationship between taking a participant stance and SSA will be stronger for participant-selected sexual stimuli than for researcher-selected stimuli.
 Conclusions: This project is the first to examine the relationship between mental imagery and observational stance for sexual stimuli, and is among the first to allow participants to self-select stimuli. Results of this project will encourage the development of standardized procedures for providing participants with optimal sexual stimulation.

The Everyday Soundscape: Sound and Mixed Aesthetic Modes in Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journals

ABSTRACT This article considers the ways in which Dorothy Wordsworth’s discontent with available aesthetic modes is suggested by shifts in her observational stance from that of a distanced and autonomous viewer to that of an active and involved listener. Throughout the Grasmere Journal and the Alfoxden Journal, Wordsworth establishes herself as continuously situated within a sonic environment, simultaneously subject to the soundscape as a resonator and reciprocally contributing to it as a sounding body. Wordsworth’s approach to recording her listening experiences in the journals gives voice to a dynamic world, weaving its familiar “undersongs” and “strange sounds” into a sonic fabric of everyday life. Her receptivity to sound looks beyond the reign of the visual in picturesque landscape aesthetics and resonates presciently with twentieth- and twenty-first-century theories of sonic sensation. I argue that Wordsworth treats attunement to disorganized, even disharmonious sounds as generative of aesthetically meaningful engagement with a world that she finds cannot be composed or framed in order to be legible according to a conventional aesthetic rubric.

Another man in the house: Oedipal phantasies and the male observer in an infant observation

This paper considers the way in which powerful Oedipal phantasies come into play in any observation, arising from the disruption caused by the introduction of a new baby and a new observer into an intimate family environment. It argues that this disruption can take on an added complexity when the observer is a male. The paper uses excerpts from the author’s own infant observation to demonstrate and expand upon these themes that show how Oedipal phantasies and anxieties were a prominent feature of the early months. It focuses on the dynamics arising between the observer and the parents of the baby and comments on the ways in which Oedipal anxieties and phantasies at times unbalance the observational stance, drawing the observer into something that could feel both unsettling and seductive. It also looks at some of the ways in which these anxieties can be gradually contained and managed by both the observer and family. The paper draws parallels between the observer’s role and that of the therapist.

The Opacity of Bodily Symptoms: Anonymous Meaning in Psychopathology

The Opacity of Bodily SymptomsAnonymous Meaning in Psychopathology René Rosfort (bio) Keywords Body, phenomenology, ontology, biology, emotions Through an original combination of phenomenology and psychoanalysis, Ingerslev and Legrand (2016) argue convincingly for a complex theoretical framework for making sense of bodily symptoms in psychopathology. The argument is particularly interesting because it manages to show how the theoretical efforts to arrive at a better understanding of bodily symptoms are connected closely with the ethical demand involved in the dialogical situation of therapy. The framework thus operates on two interconnected levels, on the one hand ensuring a more careful clinical differentiation of bodily symptoms and, on the other, encouraging the clinician to adopt a responsive stance that allows for those symptoms to be recognized as subjects of communication. This is a much welcomed contribution to the understanding of the vital role of the body in mental suffering, and to the ethical problem involved in not being attentive to the complexity of bodily communication in therapy. It is, of course, not possible to address all the subtle aspects of this rich article, so I will focus on the distinction between the ‘meaning’ and the ‘meaningfulness’ of bodily manifestations that is fundamental to the argument, but—in my view—not sufficiently articulated. I argue that the phenomenological approach to the ‘meaningful’ body advocated in the article needs to deal more carefully with the question of the ontology of the body. A phenomenological approach to the body is an appropriate methodological choice for a psychopathological investigation of bodily symptoms. Phenomenology focusses on and articulates the subjective, experiential features of bodily symptoms, whereas a biological approach to bodily symptoms normally employs an instrumental use of the experiential aspect to arrive at the objective, ontological features of those symptoms (what they are rather than how they are experienced). In this sense, phenomenology serves the important purpose of making us aware that bodily symptoms are expressions of a self-aware human being who experiences and acts as “a bodily-subject-in-the-world” (Legrand, 2011, p. 209; Zahavi, 1999, pp. 92–97), and as such these symptoms cannot be interpreted on a par with the biological manifestations of nonhuman organisms. The biology of the human body is complicated by the fact that humans are aware of their bodily functioning, and this awareness is part of the constitution and dynamics of the body. This complexity is at [End Page 69] the heart of the phenomenological critique of the ontological (pre)conceptions of the body at work in biological explanations of bodily symptoms (Ratcliffe, 2009, pp. 225–228; Zahavi, 2010, pp. 5–7). We cannot simply adopt an observational stance that cuts through the personal character of bodily symptoms, that is, the experiential features, to arrive at a (preconceived) ontological explanation of the anonymous functions of those symptoms. This is what the authors convincingly argue for when insisting on the expressive and communicative features of bodily symptoms rather than operating with ‘an identified meaning,’ for example, a biological meaning of these symptoms in terms of distant evolutionary or proximate neuroscientific explanations (e.g., Murphy, 2008; Wakefield, 2007). And in a time dominated by naturalistic ambitions in psychiatry in the form of neuroscientific and evolutionary investigations into mental suffering, this insistence on a phenomenological approach to psychopathology that allows us to systematically take into account the (phenomenologically) ‘meaningful’ experience of symptoms, rather than merely focusing on the (ontological) ‘meaning’ of the symptoms, is more necessary than ever. The insistence on phenomenology comes at a cost, however. The phenomenological perspective advocated in the article enables us to interpret bodily symptoms as meaningful. This meaningfulness is then further differentiated by distinguishing impersonal expressive bodily manifestations from the more personal, intersubjective character of communicative body language. This latter distinction between impersonal and personal aspects of bodily manifestations is an important recognition of the limits to the idea of bodily familiarity (i.e., my bodily experience is that which makes the world familiar to me) at work in some phenomenological accounts of the body (Ingerslev, 2013). The problem is, however, that the phenomenological notion of meaningfulness is not able to assess, let alone provide us with theoretical tools to explore, the complexity...

Sustainability assessment and complementarity

Sustainability assessments bring together different perspectives that pertain to sustainability to produce overall assessments, and a wealth of approaches and tools have been developed in the past decades. However, two major problems remain. The problem of integration concerns the surplus of possibilities for integration; different tools produce different assessments. The problem of implementation concerns the barrier between assessment and transformation; assessments do not lead to the expected changes in practice. We aim to analyze issues of complementarity in sustainability assessment and transformation as a key to better handling the problems of integration and implementation. Based on a generalization of Niels Bohr’s complementarity from quantum mechanics, we have identified two forms of complementarity in sustainability assessment, observer stance complementarity and value complementarity. Unlike many other problems of sustainability assessment, complementarity is of a fundamental character connected to the very conditions for observation. Therefore, complementarity cannot be overcome methodologically, only handled better or worse. Science is essential to the societal goal of sustainability, but these issues of complementarity impede the constructive role of science in the transition to more sustainable structures and practices in food systems. The agencies of sustainability assessment and transformation need to be acutely aware of the importance of different perspectives and values and the complementarities that may be connected to these differences. An improved understanding of complementarity can help to better recognize and handle issues of complementarity. These deliberations have relevance not only for sustainability assessment, but more generally for transdisciplinary research on wicked problems.

Register-Specific Collocational Constructions in English and Spanish: A Usage-Based Approach

Abstract: Constructions are usage-based, conventionalised pairings of form and function within a cline of complexity and schematisation. Most research within Grammar has focused on the monolingual description of schematic constructions: Mainly in English, but to a lesser extent in other languages as well. By contrast, very little constructional analyses have been carried out across languages. In this study we will focus on a type of partially substantive construction from the point of view of contrastive analysis and translation which, to the best of our knowledge, is one of the first studies of this kind. The first half of the article lays down the theoretical foundations of the study and introduces Grammar as well as other formalisms used in literature in order to provide a construal account of collocations, a pervasive phenomenon in language. The experimental part describes the case study of V NP collocations with disease/enfermedad in comparable corpora in English and Spanish, both in the general domain and in the specialised medical domain. It is provided a comparative analysis of these constructions across domains and languages in terms of token-type ratio (constructional restriction-rate), lexical function, type of determiner, frequency ranking of the verbal collocate and domain specificity of collocates, among others. New measures to assess construal bondness will be put forward (lexical filledness rate and individual productivity rate) and special attention will be paid to register-dependent equivalent semantic-functional counterparts in English and Spanish and mismatches.Keywords: Grammar, Corpus Linguistics, Phraseology, Collocations, TranslationIntroductionThe term Grammar (CXG) refers to a family of closely related grammars (or constructionist approaches) which are in contrast to Chomskyan's views on language and idiomaticity. CXG aims at providing a comprehensive account of language that explains all aspects of a speaker's knowledge about their language. As Hoffmann (2013: 326) puts it, Construction Grammar does not only focus on the idiosyncratic periphery of language, but [that] is a full-fledged grammatical theory that it is observationally, descriptively as well as explanatorily adequate.Within constructional approaches, linguistic knowledge is acquired through repeated experience with actual instances of constructions and their generalisations. Usage frequency appears to play a crucial role in the emergence of constructions or cognitive schemata (mental representations) and their storage strength in memory (entrenchment).Contrary to mainstream Generative Grammar, constructions are not the result of a limited set of transformations or derivations, but symbolic units which are linked to each other and constitute complex networks (Goldberg, 1995; 2006). Thus, language is conceived as an idiomatic continuum of which constructions are the building blocks and general patterns and idioms stand on an equal footing (Kay and Fillmore, 1999: 1).In this study we will adopt a constructionist approach to collocation in line with CXG postulates. In addition, we will take an observational stance toward a corpusbased analysis of constructions in English and Spanish, with a special emphasis on equivalent semanticfunctional counterparts and potential mismatches.This paper is organised as follows. Section 2 (On the Construal Nature of Collocations) provides a theoretical framework for collocation within competing linguistic approaches. As we will argue, collocations have a clear construal nature, as evidenced by their lexical filledness restrictions, semantic dependency and coercion along a cline of complexity and schematisation. Section 3 (Constructions in Contrast: A Case Study) furnishes a fine-grained characterisation of the V NP construction with disease/enfermedad in two comparable reference and specialised medical corpora in English and Spanish. …

Enactivism and neonatal imitation: conceptual and empirical considerations and clarifications.

Recently within social cognition it has been argued that understanding others is primarily characterized by dynamic and second person interactive processes, rather than by taking a third person observational stance. Within this enactivist view of intersubjective understanding, researchers differ in their claims regarding the innateness of such processes. Here we proposed to distinguish nativist enactivists—who argue that studies on neonatal imitation support the view that infants already have a non-mentalistic embodied form of intersubjective understanding present at birth—from empiricist enactivists, who claim that those intersubjective processes are learned through social interaction. In this article, we critically examine the empirical studies on neonate imitation and conclude that the available evidence is at least mixed for most types of specific gesture imitations. In the end, only the tongue protrusion imitation appears to be consistent across different studies. If neonates imitate only one single gesture, then a more parsimonious explanation for the tongue protrusion effect could be put forward. Consequently, the nativist enactivist claim that understanding others depends on second person interactive processes already present at birth seems no longer plausible. Although other strands of evidence provide converging evidence for the importance of intersubjective processes in adult social cognition, the available evidence on neonatal imitation calls for a more careful view on the innateness of such processes and suggests that this way of interacting needs to be learned over time. Therefore the available empirical evidence on neonate imitation is in our view compatible with the empiricist enactivist position, but not with the nativist enactivist position.

“Living is easy with eyes closed …” on blinded RCTs and specific and non-specific effects of complex therapeutic interventions

IntroductionIt is assumed that, as measured during randomised placebo-controlled trials, specific and non-specific effects of an intervention do not interact with each other, and are simultaneously observable. It is argued this assumption means the results of RCTs (particularly for complex interventions, such as homoeopathy) are treated too simplistically. Purpose of studyTo examine if a complex intervention's specific effects and non-specific effects are complementary (in a sense derived and generalised from quantum theory), i.e., correlated sets of observables from an RCT, in which both are necessary to achieve a more complete understanding of the efficacy of an intervention. MethodsBuilding on earlier work, and based on the properties of Abelian and non-Abelian algebras, a mathematical argument is developed, which is used to examine the nature of the relationship between a complex intervention's specific effects and non-specific effects as observables from RCTs. ResultsThe mathematical argument suggests that it is essentially incorrect to assume specific effects and non-specific effects of a complex intervention (as measured during an RCT of a complex intervention) can be separated into simultaneously measurable, non-interacting sets of observables. ConclusionThis calls into question not only the legitimacy of conclusions drawn from RCTs, but also the blinded observational stance of the RCT protocol (which currently justifies – and is justified by – a reductionist approach to the efficacy of complex therapeutic interventions). Indeed, such RCTs might well be demonstrating a Heisenberg-type uncertainty between the specific effects of the intervention and the non-specific effects of the consultation, as complementary observable parts making up a whole irreducible phenomenon: the therapeutic process.

Beneficence in psycho-social research and the role of containment

Within the context of research ethics beneficence consistently receives less attention than non-maleficence and research ‘benefits’ are predominantly understood in tangible, intentional terms. Scanter attention has been given to the more subtle aspects of the research process that elicit less tangible, and often unexpected, benefits for research participants. Drawing on a study conducted with social workers in two childcare social work settings, this article outlines how psycho-social approaches to research – and specifically the concept of containment – can provide fruitful theoretical and conceptual frameworks for the development of more complex understandings of beneficence in the research process. The article concludes by proposing that there is scope to enhance the experience and quality of research if, from the outset, attention to containment is embedded within the research process. Realizing ‘containing’ research involves firstly, recognizing the capacity of researchers to retain an observational stance of ‘negative capability’ that attends to research processes and secondly, understanding the importance of social researchers being contained through appropriate support systems that help to manage the anxiety inherent in social work research contexts specifically, and human relations research, more broadly.

Complementarity in biological systems: A complexity view

Niels Bohr and Max Delbruck believed that complementarity—such as wave–particle duality—was not limited to the quantum realm, but had correlates in the study of living things. Biological complementarity would indicate that no single technique or perspective allows comprehensive viewing of all of a biological entity's complete qualities and behaviors; instead, complementary perspectives, necessarily and irrevocably excluding all others at the moment an experimental approach is selected, would be necessary to understand the whole. Systems biology and complexity theory reveal that, as in the quantum realm, experimental observations themselves limit our capacity to understand a biological system completely because of scale‐dependent “horizons of knowledge,” a form of biological complementarity as predicted by Bohr and Delbruck. Specifically, observational selection is inherently, irreducibly coupled to observed biological systems as in the quantum realm. These nested systems, beginning with biomolecules in aqueous solution all the way up to the global ecosystem itself, are understood as a seamless whole operating simultaneously and complementarily at various levels. This selection of an observational stance is inseparable from descriptions of biology indicates—in accordance with views of thinkers such as von Neumann, Wigner, and Stapp—that even at levels of scale governed by classical physics, at biological scales, observational choice remains inextricably woven into the establishment, in the observational moment, of the present conditions of existence. These conceptual shifts will not only have theoretical impact, but may point the way to new, successful therapeutic interventions, medically (at the scale of organisms) or environmentally/economically (at a global scale). © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 18: 11‐20, 2013