Reflexive Self-awareness Research Articles

Reflexive neural circuits and the origin of language and music codes

Conscious activity is grounded on the reflexive self-awareness in sense perception, through which the codes signifying sensual perceptive events operate and constrain human behavior. These codes grow via the creative generation of hypertextual statements. We apply the model of Vladimir Lefebvre (Lefebvre, V.A., 1987, J. Soc. Biol. Struct. 10, 129-175) to reveal the underlying structures on which the perception and creative development of language and music codes are based. According to this model, the reflexive structure of conscious subject is grounded on three thermodynamic cycles united by the control of the basic functional cycle by the second one, and resulting in the internal action that it turn is perceived by the third cycle evaluating this action. In this arrangement, the generative language structures are formed and the frequencies of sounds that form musical phrases and patterns are selected. We discuss the participation of certain neural brain structures and the establishment of reflexive neural circuits in the ad hoc transformation of perceptive signals and show the similarities between the processes of perception and of biological self-maintenance and morphogenesis. We trace the peculiarities of the temporal encoding of emotions in music and musical creativity, as well as the principles of sharing musical information between the performing and the perceiving individuals.

Focusing on an object or reflexive self-awareness? Mindfulness, phenomenology and the Pāli suttas

ABSTRACT The concept of mindfulness within the contemporary mindfulness movement was the subject of a recent phenomenological critique. The present article confronts that critique in order to develop a phenomenologically viable interpretation of mindfulness that corresponds with how the word sati is used in the Pāli suttas. By clarifying the distinction between intentional objects and intentional acts, it can be shown that mindfulness was not originally conceived of as an exercise in focusing on a meditation object, but as reflexive self-awareness. Consequently, it is wrong to describe mindfulness as ‘bare attention’. Mindfulness was originally a philosophical enterprise, an attitude that can be cultivated only when one is attending to things while remaining aware of the broader context. Furthermore, an ordinary person (puthujjana) cannot cultivate what the Buddha called ‘right mindfulness’ (sammāsati). This is the province of the noble ones who have acquired the right view and are accomplished in virtue.

Minds in Motion and Introspective Minds

Buddhist philosophers provide several toolkits for exploring the relationship between meditation and introspection. Drawing on some of their tools, we explore three models of mind, which offer different ways of thinking about the possibility of introspection: an entirely mindful observer, who introspectively experiences 'pure consciousness'; a thin mind, which avoids appealing to a witness or observer of mental episodes by positing a form of reflexive selfawareness; and a thicker mind, which is active, historically situated, and dependent upon an ecological and social context. We then explore practical and theoretical models of a thicker mind, which suggest that meditation is not simply a matter of representing mental episodes and then using these representations for online behavioural control. Drawing upon these models, we close by proposing that meditation should be understood as a practice of mental cultivation, which requires a more radical reconceptualization of knowing a mind.

Telling about policy: Writing for reflexivity

How might we engage global or transnational practitioners in talking and thinking about policy? This article offers a particular kind of practitioner, already concerned with advocacy, engagement and organizational development, a way of thinking about what they do and, in turn, what policy is and does and how it is made. It presents a research-based, narrative account of a policy officer visiting a country for the first time, as the trip – and the policy work on which the officer has embarked – is reconstructed in conversation with a professional mentor. This dialogue generates a reflexive self-awareness in the protagonist-practitioner, and the reporting of it prompts a similar reflexivity in the reader: The reader-practitioner learns vicariously, by watching a counterpart learn. A supplementary discussion engages with the very different presumed academic readership of this journal, reflecting on the credibility and validity of the story as a mode of academic writing and on its design and form as pedagogy.

Reflexive structure of the conscious subject and the origin of language codes

The code paradigm in biological and social sciences arises to Aristotle. For conscious activity, Aristotle introduced the notion of reflexive self-awareness in sense perception. This reflexive process generates the codes that signify sensual perceptive events and constrain human behavior. Coding systems grow via the generation of hypertextual statements reflecting new meanings in the process defined by Marcello Barbieri as a codepoiesis. It results in the establishment of higher-level codes (metacodes) forming the semiotic screen that has a nature of the set of perceived objects internalized by the conscious subject in encoding the symbolic actions. The characteristic feature of the semiotic screen consists in its property of being shared between the communicating agents. A sufficient complexity of nervous system, through the appearance of mirror neurons that are fired both when a subject executes certain action and when he observes another subject performing a similar action, represents a prerequisite for the emergence of reflexive codes in evolution. The codes appearing as a result of reflexive awareness and establishing different sociotypes, span from the symbolic systems of art and music through the common language to the formal language of logic and mathematics. Social dynamics is based on the implementation of reflexive coding activity and results in the growth and decay of social systems and civilizations.

Somatics and phenomenological psychopathology: a mental health proposal

This work begins with a brief review – from the physical education movement that began in ancient Greece and is deeply rooted in 19th century Europe, to the somatics movement alive today. The review captures primary historical and conceptual references, relevant to the therapeutic-embodied exploratory work. Then, G. Stanghellini’s mental health care model [2] is reviewed. This model is considered within reflexive self-awareness and spoken dialogue: the main vehicles in relation with alterity and its consequences in the realm of psychotherapeutic encounter and intervention. This will highlight the individual’s bodily movement and inter-corporeal ‘proto-dialogue’ as a prior realm of therapeutic intervention. Next, a brief consideration of E. Strauss work [31] is presented. This paper’s hypothesis is that bodily qualitative dynamics highlighted by phenomenology are essential for an effective mental health therapeutic intervention. A ‘seed’ of a framework is proposed in this paper; this seed assesses some phenomenological assets of a positive conception of mental health, for which self-awareness education is key to develop skills such as kinaesthetic intelligence and attunement and to educate healthy persons who can promote edifying social relations and environments.

Exploring the Relationship Between the Supervisory Alliance and the Development of Reflexive Self-Awareness: A Mixed Methods Approach

Exploring the Relationship Between the Supervisory Alliance and the Development of Reflexive Self-Awareness: A Mixed Methods Approach

MRI-DTI Imaging Reveals Specific Neuro-degeneration Signature in Precuneus Node of Awareness Processing in Brain under Alzheimer’s Disease

Introduction:Alzheimer's disease(AD) displays progressive neurodegenerative atrophy, causing neuronal lossaffecting cognitive skills and memory. As precuneus is associated with episodic memory and is the reflexive self-awareness hub node, we consider precuneus as region-of-interest(ROI) for analysing AD.Objective:The main objective is find AD-caused alteration in nerve fibres, using diffusion tensor imaging(DTI) parameters like Mean Diffusivity(MD), Fractional Anisotropy(FA), and Nerve-tract Parameters, as number, length, volume, density, and thus, analyse the effect on precuneus by AD [when compared to normal subjects(CN)].Materials/Methods:Normals and Alzheimer’s subjects (n=50 each) were scanned with Siemens 3-tesla MRI-scanner. DTI parameters were estimated by DSI-FSL procedure, with statistical analysis usingt-test/ANOVA.Results:While ageing-process occurs in both AD and CN subjects, there is no change in “macro-structural” nerve fibre characteristics (e.g. Tract Indices: Number, density, volume, length). Contrastingly, there is significant alteration in “micro-structural” fibre characteristics, as increase in Mean Diffusivity(p=0.0006) and decrease in Fractional Anisotropy(p=0.0009) in Alzheimer's disease, when compared with normal subjects. Furthermore, comparing left-versus-right brain, Alzheimer’s patients (but not Normal subjects) show diminution in macro-structural nerve characteristics in left precuneus (compared to right precuneus): namely Tract’s number(p=0.0010), length(p=0.0107), volume(p=0.0225), density(p=0.0340).Conclusion:Under neurodegeneration, change in “micro-structural” nerve-fibre characteristics (Tract Indices), as opposed to “macro structural” fibre indices, can be hallmark for AD. Moreover, right precuneus is more protected in AD. Conversely, left precuneus has more neurodegeneration since its blood-flow is supplied by left common-carotid artery (unlike right common-carotid artery), this left artery arises directly from high-pressure aortic flow, transmitting turbulent hemodynamic stress to left precuneus.

Nonviolent youth activism and symbolic violence: Some problems in Bourdieu’s notion of victim complicity

The coupling of victim complicity with violence is intuitively objectionable, yet it is an underexamined aspect of Bourdieu’s ‘symbolic violence’. Within sociology, the nature of violence continues to be debated and refined with contested boundaries particularly concerning non-physical forms of violence. Symbolic violence offers an avenue to investigate this realm; however, it has been both employed and rejected without close examination of the issue of complicity. Moreover, the varying interpretations of Bourdieu’s use of the term ‘violence’ present problems for sustaining sociological distinctions between power and violence. This article examines these issues through the experiences of youth activists employing Nonviolent Direct Action with a focus on their reflexive self-awareness of participation in systems of violence. The author argues that complicity in symbolic violence presents epistemological and ontological problems for the sociology of violence that can be avoided by adopting viable alternative interpretations that emphasise the subject’s reflexivity and the systemic origins of violence.

How art therapy supports development of self-consciousness

As a therapeutic tool, art is a way to develop reflexive self-awareness. We suggest that to establish a link between art-therapy and the advancement of self-consciousness is a necessity taking into account that consciousness compounds of awareness of one’s body and one’s environment. Then we can regard self-awareness as recognition of consciousness. We suggest that a human body plays a key role in the process of conscious experience and that art can refine this process, increasing the awareness of self and others.

Toward an understanding of young consumers' daily consumption practices in post-Doi Moi Vietnam

More than 30years have passed since Doi Moi, the economic and political reforms that transformed Vietnam into a lower middle-income market from one of the world's poorest markets. This transformation brought about changes in the consumption practices of Vietnamese consumers. Despite several studies focusing on these changes, the impact of the government's politics on young Vietnamese consumers' consumption practices has been largely unexamined. This study explores how young Vietnamese consumers develop and express their self-identity through their everyday consumption practices. Our findings from in-depth interviews and participatory observation indicate that consumption fosters reflexive self-awareness concerning the young consumers' competences, body sensitivities, and distinctive tastes in response to the control exerted by the government. The findings also reveal that young Vietnamese consumers use their everyday consumption practices to achieve individualization through self-emancipation, self-enrichment, and self-actualization, and to achieve socialization through self-authentication and self-cultivation. In this way, young Vietnamese consumers reject the communist identity and lifestyles promoted by the government.

‘Mr K’ – A successful case of analytic oriented therapy documented empirically: the role of the therapeutic relationship and reflexive self-awareness

A successful case of analytic treatment over the course of 250 sessions is described from different perspectives, including considerations from the two-year follow-up. The therapeutic alliance and the patient’s experiencing were evaluated. Pre-treatment diagnosis was validated via diagnostic interview. Symptoms and interpersonal problems were assessed at intervals. Data were analysed using two different time-series analyses. Aspects of agency with regard to mentalizing capacity were assessed with the Metacognitive Assessment Scale. We obtained the following main results: (1) Symptoms and interpersonal problems improved continuously until the end of treatment. Symptom severity fell to below the clinical cut-off. This successful outcome remained stable at the two-year follow-up. (2) The therapeutic relationship improved during the therapeutic process. (3) The patient’s capability for reflexive self-awareness, operationalized as experiencing, decreased. (4) The metacognitive mastery of the patient increased. The following conclusions were made after combining the empirical data with the clinical observations: (1) Mr K improved clinically in terms of symptoms, self-regulation and interpersonal problems as a result of his gaining affect control. (2) The patient’s experiencing does not capture a positive outcome in all cases. (3) Aspects of agency (i.e. metacognitive mastery) deserve further attention in psychoanalytic treatments.

Accounting for Consciousness: Epistemic and Operational Issues

Within the philosophy of mind, consciousness is currently understood as the expression of one or other cognitive modality, either intentionality (representation per se), transparency (immediacy of cognitive content consequent upon the unawareness of underlying representational processes), subjectivity (first-person perspective) or reflexivity (autonoetic awareness). However, neither intentionality, subjectivity nor transparency adequately distinguishes conscious from nonconscious cognition. Consequently, the only genuine index or defining characteristic of consciousness is reflexivity, the capacity for autonoetic or self-referring, self-monitoring awareness. But the identification of reflexivity as the principal index of consciousness raises a major challenge in relation to the cognitive mechanism responsible for operationalizing such a reflexive state. Current reliance by higher-order and intrinsic self-representational theories on self-representing data structures to achieve reflexive self-awareness is highly problematic, suggesting a solution in terms of a self-referential processing regime.

Playing with perspectives: spirit possession, mimesis, and permeability in thebuutaritual in South India

The aim of this study is to investigate spirit possession through the lenses of mimesis, permeability, and perspectivity. Recent studies have explored the significance of perspective exchange as reciprocal subjectification. At the same time, the importance of reflexive self-awareness amid perspective exchange has been noted. Linking studies on perspective exchange with those on spirit possession, this article tries to show an alternative understanding of perspective exchange as the de-subjectification and generative transformation of self and other. Focusing on the buuta ritual in South India, I examine perspective exchange as the capability for freeing oneself from one's subjectivity enough to let various perspectives come and go through the permeable self. Being permeable and reflexive, the buuta impersonator plays with multiple perspectives to transform both his and others' perspectives to enable all to become ‘real’ humans in relation to the deity.

What are we making? The Reflexive Self-Awareness Consultation Tool (RS-ACT)

Support staff are required to make, often complex, moment to moment judgements in their support practices. Guidelines and general principles may not always be enough to support good decision making in particular contexts. This paper presents the Reflexive Self-Awareness Consultation Tool (RS-ACT) designed for clinicians supporting staff to explore the situated actions they take; the stories they use to make sense of these actions; the evidence for these stories; the possibility of other stories and of conceptualising their work as consisting of the co-creation of new episodes, identities, relationships, organisations and cultures with those they support. Having an awareness of such communicative processes of social construction has been termed self reflexive awareness. The RS-ACT may be used in a variety of consultative, therapeutic and supervisory contexts where developing self reflexive abilities is important. The paper gives a detailed illustration of the tools use.

Retrospective: Julian Jaynes and The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Abstract In the previous installment we looked at the circumstances surrounding the great Catastrophe of 1200 b.c.e. That historic moment set the stage for a dramatic change in human consciousness. On the far side of that event we see people unencumbered by the stresses of reflexive self-awareness. On the near side we witness the advent of the self-conscious individual. This transition gave the world great literature, art, religion, and philosophy. But it also guaranteed a troubled existence, from the invitation to "know thyself" that we see in the Dialogues to the expulsion from the garden in Genesis for knowing too much. It does indeed seem that "Hellenistic existence had been propelled into an individualism without instruction, an aimlessness motivated by a profound sense of alienation; in short, into a crisis of freedom" (Martin, 1987, p. 24). This is, of course, the metaphorical self, described by Julian Jaynes. We ended the previous installment with a metaphorical rendering of that transition that I called flash blindness: When the lights come back on after the great Catastrophe, they come on with the psychological equivalent of dark-adapted eyes stabbed by the flash of a thousand halogen lights. Whole civilizations stumble their way into the uncompromising brilliance of human subjective consciousness. What do we do now? Now We Pray

Love and money in Kinois popular music

This essay looks at the lyrical and performative conventions of popular music from Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, concentrating particularly on how these conventions interact with ideas of emotion and exchange in the region. Setting the romantic texts of popular songs in the context of wider patronage relationships, the essay argues that love and money are not perceived as contradictory forces. At the same it is argued that the romantic lyrics of popular songs also contain a strong sense of the individual, and of a reflexive self-awareness which is often asserted to be absent in African cultural products. It is argued that Kinois popular music, viewed in its social context, does not merely reflect, but actively reproduces a set of affective and political economic relationships.1

At the Cutting Edge: Creative and Holistic Responses to Self-Injury

This article draws from a larger research project in which I used creative methodologies to explore self-injury in a holistic and harm reduction ethos. The conscious presence and reflexive self-awareness of the researcher (and practitioner) is essential to hearing the voices of the participants and understanding their experiences. Here, the participants share the creative and holistic practices that have supported them. These insights offer practitioners opportunities to build a broad repertoire of healing interventions and supports for their clients.

My career chapter as a tool for reflective practice

The career assessment and counselling procedure My Career Chapter is presented as a tool for reflexive self-awareness within career counsellors. To demonstrate application of the procedure as a method of self-supervision, this paper presents a study in which the participant studies himself. Results indicate a reflexive consciousness for the career counsellor that extends his self-awareness as a professional into his personal, non-professional life. Implications are presented with a focus upon the scope of self-report in qualitative research and collegial supervision.

Exploring Self-Study to Improve My Practice as a Mathematics Teacher Educator

While supervising a student teacher in school, an incident occurred that highlighted a contradiction between my practice and my beliefs and prompted me to question why I do not always live the values I profess. The aim of this article is to investigate how self-study can help me to understand the complex and context-based situations of my practice. I draw on the work of other teacher educators to examine the potential of self-study to improve my practice. Through this exploration I have begun to transform the way that I comprehend teaching and learning in teacher education. I identify several tensions and challenges in implementing the methodology within my professional context. I believe that self-study can help us in our roles as teacher educators to develop more reflexive self-awareness and to problematize taken-for-granted assumptions relevant to our contexts of practice.