Perception Of Ourselves Research Articles

‘At the still point of the turning world’: a journey through the temporal dimensions of a father–son conflict

This paper will examine aspects of the permeability of time, with a view to exploring our perceptions of ourselves as present–focused distinct individuals. Permeability of time is defined as time’s fluidity, its ability to move across boundaries of past, present and future. Fluidity, in this sense, is our capacity to experience past, present and future simultaneously.Time will be examined from both psychoanalytic and systemic viewpoints. Issues of time and timelessness, consciousness and memory will be raised and the usefulness of working from an affective base discussed. The case cited in the paper is one in which the family was in the stage of having an adolescent child. Adolescence will therefore be discussed as it relates to the issue of time. The clinical discussion will be based on an integration of the two theoretical perspectives as they relate to time and affect. In conclusion I will revisit the question of our perception of ourselves as present–focused distinct individuals within a family context.

A day at the museum: science centres and museums play an increasingly important role in bringing science and technology to the public.

Blue, yellow, fluorescent lighting, computer terminals in every corner, exhibits resembling a Fisher Price toy or a wooden building kit—museums and science centres nowadays appear to be a cross between a computer technology exhibition and a child's dream of a playground. They reflect many of the efforts that are currently being devoted to making science and technology interesting for the younger generation, the one that will give rise to the scientists and engineers of the future. But also as science and technology increasingly impact on society, the 'shelf‐life' of formal education is becoming shorter and informal lifelong learning is becoming more important. The result is a flurry of activities instigated by politicians, scientists and educators to bring science to the people and increase their understanding. National Science Week, science buses touring the countryside and visitor days in research institutes are just a few examples of how they are reaching out to the public and, importantly, to the next generation of students. Museums and science centres form a prominent base for the communication of science, but despite their comparatively long history, the art of exhibiting science is relatively in its infancy. Dating back to the late 19th century, museums were then the theme parks of the day and important collections have been amassed in such mighty institutions as London's Science Museum, Munich's Deutsches Museum, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Particularly during the last decade, the USA has pioneered the creation of more informal interactive science centres, most famously with the Exploratorium in San Francisco in 1969. Today, virtually every major American city boasts its own version, some 300 in all. Europe has also witnessed a similar trend, to the extent that the distinction between museums and science centres …

Interstellar humanity

Fifty years after Olaf Stapledon's landmark essay “Interplanetary man?”, we propose the coming era of “interstellar humanity”. Over the next 1000 years the domain of humanity will increasingly spread to the stars, a process that will alter our future in profound ways. At least three factors will drive this expansion: (1) increased understanding of cosmic evolution, changing our perception of ourselves and our place in the universe; (2) contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, bringing knowledge, wisdom, and problems of culture contact now unforeseen; and (3) interstellar travel, transporting humanity's emissaries to at least the nearest stars. The consequences of these events are not predictable in detail, but may be studied by examining the lessons of cosmic evolution; by using history to analyze the reception of new world views and intellectual culture contacts on Earth; and by anticipating the likelihood of success in interstellar travel and its effects. The prospect of interstellar humanity during the next millennium is likely to have an effect on all branches of terrestrial endeavor, whether religion, philosophy, science or the arts. The stage of human drama will be vastly expanded.

Hearing voices: modern drama and the problem of subjectivity

In this postmodern world where the very foundations of traditional moral practices are called into question, Hearing Voices explores the issue of ethics by looking at the processes through which we define ourselves as individuals and the effects these choices have on our relations with others. John Lutterbie uses five plays from the canon of modern drama to elucidate the notion that the values we adopt in defining ourselves--and in particular, the values that men adopt in defining themselves-- are the effects of of consciousness, positive practices that encourage a subject to inhabit a particular place in the world. If we retreat from the desire to interpret, says Lutterbie, we can open a space in which we can hear the voices of others.Advancing Foucault's theoretical argument that defines an ethics of self based on the belief that caring for another is the same as caring for the self, Lutterbie critically reviews plays by male writers Eric Begosian, Jean Genet, Sam Shepard, Samuel Beckett, and Heiner Muller to identify practices through which we individuate ourselves, those acts that reinforce systems of pleasure and give us joy and confidence in our perception of ourselves. Turning then to a wide range of theorists, including Deleuze, Guattari, Derrida, Irigaray, Judith Butler, Jessica Benjamin, and Herbert Blau, Lutterbie develops an ethical theory based on the creation of new habits of consciousness through the recognition of new pleasures, or an ethics based on pleasure rather than repression.John Lutterbie joins a growing number of scholars currently working in this lively area of investigation, building on the extensive body of feminist theater scholarship that has appeared in the past decade to pose new questions about the complex and sophisticated interrelationships of ethics, subjectivity, and performativity, and to challenge our common held beliefs that our relationships with others are inherently negative.John Lutterbie is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts, the State University of New York, Stony Brook.

A Planned Pregnancy

Getting pregnant starts with wondering: when, or even if, the next period will arrive. Then, waiting. A woman may urge this monthly punctuation, that she often begrudges, to arrive, or she may actively will it to stay away for once. Either way, accompanied perhaps by fatigue, nausea, or swollen breasts, when the telling sign of blood fails to appear, its absence is as profoundly mystifying as, at twelve or fourteen, its initial appearance, those red stains, which magically altered our perception of ourselves. Since then, this very moment of absence has always been menstruation's distant promise, or threat. When a woman finds herself pregnant, her sense of self is again transformed. At thirty-one, married just over a year, I am pregnant-mutually agreed upon and endlessly discussed and (surprisingly) easily accomplished. Inside me, like snow during a blizzard, a mass of cells are accumulating; I see nothing, feel little, except for tender breasts, fatigue, and intermittent waves of nausea. However, in about eight months, a baby will-if all goes well-appear in my arms, move into our house, and become a part of our lives for many years to come. Long before this, I will begin to sense, then to get acquainted with, this baby with whom I'll be sharing my living quarters. Planned and dreamt of, I still find this sea change in my life, in our lives, beyond comprehension. Barbara Katz Rothman once speculated that if abortion and birth control were truly woman-centered, then abortion would not be considered a major decision because women-from that initial tingling of the breasts onwards-understand that having children is as large an undertaking as one can commit to and hence that no woman would take on such a task unless she believed herself ready and able to do so.1 I first read her essay on this subject while I was working as an abortion counselor. What she wrote rang true; on a daily basis I was granted an intimate view into women's decision-making processes. Teenagers needed abortions; women

The Farther Shore: A Natural History of Perception, 1798-1984

This book examines in what way our perception of ourselves and our natural environment has changed over the past 200 years. In his history of everyday life, the author draws on a wealth of sources for illustration: 18th-century natural science, modern technology and the new physics, and the arts.

Table of Contents & Editorials

Yoga may be defined as the bringing together (yug) of two things that were never separate in the first place. Yoga affirms that this ultimate healing occurs when we understand that we are always already whole, not separate, and healthy where we stand in our native (sahaj) condition. Understanding the phenomenal level of bodymind and the noumenal level of spirit are important if we are to be healed of the illusion that yoga aims to dispel. Understanding what we are not—body, senses, and mind—brings us toBeing Understanding that which we always already are. Therapy implies healing, whether it be at the phenomenal level or at the noumenal level. It implies a, distance that is covered as we move from the perception of ourselves as unhealthy to the disposition of ourselves as possessing health.

The Fallout-Shelter Owners: A Study of Attitude Formation

From the inception of the debate over fallout shelters it was apparent that the issue would not be resolved on the merits of the facts alone. The content and pattern of the contenders' supporting arguments bespoke a diverse perception of ourselves, the enemy, and the situation. Here is another study that sought to pinpoint these differences, and then use the information to learn about the formation of the attitudes upon which decisions on these momentous issues are based. F. K. Berrien is Professor of Psychology at Rutgers, The State University, and author of Practical Psychology and Human Relations: Comments and Cases. His articles have appeared in numerous psychological journals. Carol Schulman is a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Rutgers, The State University, having obtained here A.B. from Rutgers in 1961. Marianne Amarel is Research Associate at the New Jersey Neuropsychiatric Institute near Princeton, New Jersey. She holds a B.S. from Columbia.