Symbolic Productions Research Articles

Social and object support for early symbolic play

In this study we sought to determine the degree to which 2‐ to 3‐year‐old children use objects symbolically in the relative absence of adult symbolic actions or linguistic descriptions, and how the nature of objects influences symbolic play. Results revealed a dramatic increase in children’s creative symbolic productions between 2 and 3 years of age, with the tendency to produce symbolic actions influenced to an equal degree by adult symbolic action models and verbal directions. Children of all ages were heavily influenced by the nature of the object to be used as a symbol, with the youngest children using only replica objects as symbols. In a second study, we examined children’s looks to an adult as they engaged in different kinds of activities with objects. The main finding was that children looked to the adult immediately after performing a symbolic action more often than if they performed an instrumental action. We argue for the essentially social nature of symbolic play, both in terms of how children learn to use objects as symbols and in terms of the reasons they do so.

Ethos, Ethics and Translation

Antoine Berman’s theory of translation ethics is open to criticism in terms of Pierre Bourdieu’s analysis of symbolic productions. To understand the general ethics of translation, our scope should be wide enough to include both lowbrow and highbrow genres. If ethics is then situated in the significance of translated texts compared with the significance of their source texts, it must be based on a construction of potential homologies or a ‘community of destinies’. Here a case of unethical translation is found in the French version of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath carried out in Nazi-occupied Belgium. As a case of ethical translating, Boris Vian’s versions of Alfred E. van Vogt’s science-fiction novels modify the language register, introduce implicitation and fictionalization of the scientific discourse, and yet preserve the significance of the source text, contributing to a more thorough adherence to the genre.

Forward to Aristotle: the Case for a Hybrid Ontology

It behooves a science to pay careful attention to its ontological assumptions, especially in cases where they are likely to be complex. Psychology seems to require both material states of humans as organisms, and symbolic productions. But we must be careful not to think that the grammars of the latter are some sort of superscience. The duality shows up strongly in the difference between skilled perfomances and their material enabling conditions. I argue that the dual ontology appears in a science of psychology as a hybrid grammar. If we try to colonize one or the other side of the hybrid by terms from the other, the transplanted terms make no sense in their new surroundings. We find ourselves with a double or hybrid grammar and three main patterns of action to explain, causal, habitual and monitored. By assimilating the latter two under the symbolic ontology apparent problems dissolve. This is illustrated with a sketch of the sources and character of the sense of personal uniqueness.

The politics of the nuclear text: Reading Robert Oppenheimer'sletters and recollections

Nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear war are daunting “facts” of contemporary culture. Nonetheless, they are symbolic productions: the meaning of the Bomb historically has been created in a cultural dialogue between conflicting interests. This essay uses post‐structuralist theory to explore the utility of a key signifier in that dialogue, the scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. During the 1980s, critics interpreted a published volume of Oppenheimer's letters in ways that both clarified and challenged the conventional arrangements of nuclear deterrence. Their responses suggest the enduring value of Oppenheimer as an intertextual form that mediates cultural experience of nuclear weapons.

The capacity of animals to acquire language: do species differences have anything to say to us?

Following the Gardners' discovery that an ape named Washoe could learn to produce and combine a number of hand movements similar to those used by deaf human beings, a variety of 'ape-language projects' sprang up. Some projects used different symbol systems, others used different training techniques, and others used different species of apes. While debate still rages regarding the appropriate way to interpret the symbolic productions of apes, three species of great apes (gorilla, orangutan, and chimpanzee) have now been credited with this capacity while no lesser apes or monkeys have been reported, at present, to have acquired such communicative skills. Among all of the claims made for the various animal species, the philosophers have entered the fray attempting to define the essence of what it is about language that makes it 'human'. This paper will compare and contrast the above positions to arrive at behavioural definitions of symbolic usage that can be applied across species. It will then present new data on a fourth ape species Pan paniscus which is proving to be the first non-human species to acquire symbolic skills in a spontaneous manner.

Exposure of a "medical modeler" to behavior modification.

Abstract This article indicates the experience of the senior author to initiate a laboratory on the hypnotherapeutic use of unconscious fantasy and symbolic productions in a psychology program devoted to behavioral therapy. The information provided is to be a step toward an eventual coalescence between hypnosymbolic therapy and behavioral modification, with special reference to systematic desensitization. These approaches are examined in some detail with a view toward both their commonalities and their differences

Observations on group psychotherapy with hospitalized patients.

We have presented some observations regarding group therapy. In the opinion of the writer, group therapy has certain specific and unique advantages for the acutely disturbed patient of the type described. These advantages are: (1) schizophrenics appear to be able to understand one another's behavior and symbolic productions successfully; (2) the learning of new behavioral patterns or modification of old behavior is best achieved for some patients in group therapy; (3) group therapy facilitates the transition and adjustment of the patient to the hospital, and to discharge from the hospital; (4) group psychotherapy greatly facilitates the patient's ultimate adjustment to society.

Psychological effects of cortisone in acute catatonic excitement; a case report.

A patient who experienced an acute schizophrenic episode during an otherwise uneventful recovery following gun-shot wounds and surgery was treated with large amounts of cortisone. During cortisone therapy changes were encountered in her behavior, symbolic productions, and level of integration. In this patient the period of administration of large amounts of cortisone coincided with reversal of the downhill course and with development of interpersonal contact with subsequent gains in environmental relationships.

Observations on group psychotherapy with hospitalized patients.

We have presented some observations regarding group therapy. In the opinion of the writer, group therapy has certain specific and unique advantages for the acutely disturbed patient of the type described. These advantages are: (1) schizophrenics appear to be able to understand one another's behavior and symbolic productions successfully; (2) the learning of new behavioral patterns or modification of old behavior is best achieved for some patients in group therapy; (3) group therapy facilitates the transition and adjustment of the patient to the hospital, and to discharge from the hospital; (4) group psychotherapy greatly facilitates the patient's ultimate adjustment to society.