Psychoanalysis as functionalist social science: the legacy of Freud's 'Project for a scientific psychology'

The paper links Freud's early work in the 'Project for a scientific psychology' with the psychoanalytic psychology of Kleinian object relations theory now current. Freud is often accused of introducing mechanism into his psychology and installing at its core an irreconcilable dichotomy of two disparate ways of explaining human behaviour. I suggest that Freud's early mechanistic thinking is an attempt at what he only partly achieves, a functional account of the 'mental apparatus'. I consider whether this way of conceptualising the mind in functional terms is methodologically relevant to psychoanalytic investigation or whether it is at best heuristically useful. From a brief consideration of Kleinian object relations theory, illustrated by case material, I conclude that there are grounds for accepting the first of these alternatives.     

The enduring scientific contributions of Sigmund Freud

Through the development of a novel observational method, Sigmund Freud made possible the collection of reliable data about man's inner life. The scientific hypotheses he formulated about these formed the initial version of psychoanalysis. Many of these first thoughts have had to be revised in the light of subsequent scientific findings about the operations of the central nervous system, but even these refuted propositions often had much heuristic value. Despite the passage of a whole century, many Freudian hypotheses have retained their scientific standing. Most important among these was Freud's realization that human thought is usually unconscious. His understanding of the role of the automatic repetition of basic patterns of behavior, of the fateful consequences of early childhood emotional vicissitudes in structuring enduring mental dispositions, and of the distinction between two distinct modes of thinking are the most significant among his many contributions.     

Reply to Domhoff (2004): Dream Research in the Court of Public Opinion.

The author responds to Domhoff's critique (see record 2004-11640-001). He argues that the REM = dreaming equation was widely accepted at the time of his research. Misgivings about this equation by specialists in the dream research community were not shared by the wider public. The impression that the REM = dreaming equation disproves Freudian dream theory was actively propagated to this wider public between the 1970s and 1990s. The author's aim in the nonspecialist book criticized by Domhoff was to correct that specific misimpression, not to review the world literature. The author concludes with a brief statement of his views on Freudian dream theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why Did Empirical Dream Researchers Reject Freud? A Critique of Historical Claims by Mark Solms.

Neuropsychologist and psychoanalyst Mark Solms (1997) made a major contribution to dream research through his clinico-anatomical studies, which reveal the outlines of the neural network that underlies dreaming. However, in more recent work (see record 2002-17656-000) he misunderstands the history of the rapid eye movement (REM)/non-REM (NREM) controversy in a Freudian-serving way and ignores the considerable systematic empirical evidence that contradicts the key claims of the Freudian dream theory he is trying to revive. After summarizing Solms's claims about the history of laboratory dream research, this article suggests a different version of that history and summarizes the empirical findings that explain why Freudian theory is not considered viable by most dream researchers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Context of Ecosystem Theory

Arthur George Tansley's paper “The Temporal Genetic Series as a Means of Approach to Philosophy,” published here for the first time, provides the philosophical context for the development of his ecosystem theory. His rejection of idealist reasoning, his concern with ethics, and his long standing interest in Freudian psychology as well as mechanistic reasoning comprised the intellectual underpinnings for his thinking on systems and ecosystem theory.     

Addressing the Carbon‐Crime Blind Spot: A Carbon Footprint Approach

Governments estimate the social and economic impacts of crime, but its environmental impact is largely unacknowledged. Our study addresses this by estimating the carbon footprint of crime in England and Wales and identifies the largest sources of emissions. By applying environmentally extended input‐output analysis–derived carbon emission factors to the monetized costs of crime, we estimate that crime committed in 2011 in England and Wales gave rise to over 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. Burglary resulted in the largest proportion of the total footprint (30%), because of the carbon associated with replacing stolen/damaged goods. Emissions arising from criminal justice system services also accounted for a large proportion (21% of all offenses; 49% of police recorded offenses). Focus on these offenses and the carbon efficiency of these services may help reduce the overall emissions that result from crime. However, cutting crime does not automatically result in a net reduction in carbon, given that we need to take account of potential rebound effects. As an example, we consider the impact of reducing domestic burglary by 5%. Calculating this is inherently uncertain given that it depends on assumptions concerning how money would be spent in the absence of crime. We find the most likely rebound effect (our medium estimate) is an increase in emissions of 2%. Despite this uncertainty concerning carbon savings, our study goes some way toward informing policy makers of the scale of the environmental consequences of crime and thus enables it to be taken into account in policy appraisals.     

Toward an evolutionary forensic psychology

Most theories of crime have not explored intensively biological and especially evolutionary explanations for criminal behavior. Ellis presents a valuable new perspective that proposes that attention to physiological mechanisms shaped by evolutionary forces can provide insights into the causes of crime and sex differences in the patterns of crime. We discuss other theories and research relevant to Ellis' theory. We also propose that an evolutionary psychological perspective of crime will help to invigorate research and lead to a better understanding of criminality. An integrated evolutionary forensic psychology will help to explain sources of conflict between individuals, situations in which conflict leads to victimization, and victim defenses and coping mechanisms.     

Sleep- and non-sleep-related hallucinations—Relationship to ghost tales and their classifications.

To categorize four types of sleep- and non-sleep-related hallucinations experienced by normal people and classify ghost or ghost-like stories by these categories. A total of 183 reliable tales of ghosts [41 from “Tohno Monogatari” (Tohno Folktales) and 142 from “Nihon Kaidan Shu” (Ghosts Tales of Japan)] are classified into hallucinations that are sleep-related hallucinations [hypnagogic hallucination-like (HyH) and REM sleep behavior disorder or somnambulism-like (RBDS) tales] and sleep-unrelated [vivid hallucination-like (VH) and highway hypnosis-like (HHy) tales] according to the criteria. Sixty to 70% of these tales can be classified into these four types of hallucinations. Further, sleep-related hallucinations increased from 17.0% to 36.6% in about 40 years. Our criteria will be useful to classify hallucinations experienced by normal people and to elucidate the mechanisms of these kinds of hallucinations experienced in neurodegenerative or psychological disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the validity of Freud's dream interpretations

In this article I defend Freud's method of dream interpretation against those who criticize it as involving a fallacy-namely, the reverse causal fallacy-and those who criticize it as permitting many interpretations, indeed any that the interpreter wants to put on the dream. The first criticism misconstrues the logic of the interpretative process: it does not involve an unjustified reversal of causal relations, but rather a legitimate attempt at an inference to the best explanation. The judgement of whether or not a particular interpretation is the best explanation depends on the details of the case in question. I outline the kinds of probabilities involved in making the judgement. My account also helps to cash out the metaphors of the jigsaw and crossword puzzles that Freudians have used in response to the 'many interpretations' objection. However, in defending Freud's method of dream interpretation, I do not thereby defend his theory of dreams, which cannot be justified by his interpretations alone.     

The dream between neuroscience and psychoanalysis

The dream is tackled sometimes from the neurobiological viewpoint, sometimes from the neuropsychological angle, or from the positions of experimental and psychoanalytical psychology. Interest in dreams started with psychoanalysis in 1900, and 53 years later the discovery of REM sleep by Aserinski and Kleitman, and subsequent psychophysiological findings took the dream into the realm of biology. The dichotomous model of REM and non-REM sleep is described, as a basis for thought-like activity (non-REM sleep) and dreaming (REM sleep). This led to Hobson and McCarley's theory of activation-synthesis, suggesting that the mind while dreaming is simply the brain self-activated in REM sleep. Psychophysiological research has shown that people dream in all phases of sleep, from falling asleep to waking, but that the characteristics of the dreams may differ in the different phases. Bio-imaging studies indicate that during REM sleep there is activation of the pons, the amygdala bilaterally, and the anterior cingulate cortex, and disactivation of the posterior cingulate cortex and the prefrontal cortex. The images suggest there is a neuroanatomical frame within which dreams can be generated and then forgotten. Psychoanalysis studies the dream from a completely different angle. Freud believed it was the expression of hallucinatory satisfaction of repressed desires. Today it is interpreted as the expression of a representation of the transference in the hic et nunc of the session. At the same time it also has symbol-generating functions which provide an outlet by which affective experiences and fantasies and defences stored as parts of an unrepressed unconscious in the implicit memory can be represented in pictorial terms, then thought and rendered verbally. From the psychoanalytical point of view, the dream transcends neurobiological knowledge, and looks like a process of internal activation that is only apparently chaotic, but is actually rich in meanings, arising from the person's affective and emotional history.     

The reintegration of criminal deportees in society

This article deals with reintegrating deportees in Jamaica. There is the belief among the citizenry, the media, and the government that the deportees are fueling the crime rate. Jamaica has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Some 15,618 deportees were sent to Jamaica from various countries between 2005 and 2009. The purveyors of the deportee–crime link ignore the influence of garrison communities on the crime rate which are political communities governed by criminals. Another view argues that the deportees have a minimal impact on the crime rate. None of the viewpoints can be substantiated without a representative survey with a rigorous methodology on the deportee–crime link. The various viewpoints also ignore the need to reintegrate the deportees. Only one church group the Cornerstone Ministries has a reintegration program. The government has a temporary piecemeal program that provides assistance and temporary housing rather than reintegration. Some societies (e.g. China, New Zealand, and Australia) have reintegration programs for ex-offenders which give them a stake in conformity by reaccepting them in the community after punishment. These models can be applied to Jamaica with the creation of a national reintegration program taking into account the cultural differences.     

The nature of crime

The classical social theorist Emile Durkheim proposed the counterintuitive thesis that crime is beneficial for society because it provokes punishment, which enhances social solidarity. His logic, however, is blemished by a reified view of society that leads to group-selectionist thinking and a teleological account of the causes of crime. Reconceptualization of the relationship between crime and punishment in terms of evolutionary game theory, however, suggests that crime (cheating) may confer benefits on cooperating individuals by promoting stability in their patterns of cooperation.     

The histologist Sigmund Freud and the biology of intracellular motility

Sigmund Freud, the acclaimed founder of psychoanalysis, invested nine years of his early scientific effort investigating animal histology, cell biology and basic neuroscience prior to concentrating on human nervous and mental disorders. Through his histological studies Freud provided coherent evidence suggesting that the protoplasm consists of a contractile fibrillary network, the present-day cytoskeleton; he was one of the original founders of the fibrillary theory on the structure of the protoplasm. Concerning the biology of the cell nucleus, Freud appears to have been the first author who documented movements of nucleoli in nerve cells, a phenomenon presently referred to as nuclear rotation. In certain instances, Freud's observations antedate later views by more than half a century and are important to our current understanding of cell structure and basic processes of intracellular motility.     

To punish or repair? Evolutionary psychology and lay intuitions about modern criminal justice

We propose that intuitions about modern mass-level criminal justice emerge from evolved mechanisms designed to operate in ancestral small-scale societies. By hypothesis, individuals confronted with a crime compute two distinct psychological magnitudes: one that reflects the crime's seriousness and another that reflects the criminal's long-term value as an associate. These magnitudes are computed based on different sets of cues and are fed into motivational mechanisms regulating different aspects of sanctioning. The seriousness variable regulates how much to react (e.g., how severely we want to punish); the variable indexing the criminal's association value regulates the more fundamental decision of how to react (i.e., whether we want to punish or repair). Using experimental designs embedded in surveys, we validate this theory across several types of crime and two countries. The evidence augments past research and suggests that the human mind contains dedicated psychological mechanisms for restoring social relationships following acts of exploitation.     

The Phylogeny of Little Red Riding Hood

Researchers have long been fascinated by the strong continuities evident in the oral traditions associated with different cultures. According to the ‘historic-geographic’ school, it is possible to classify similar tales into “international types” and trace them back to their original archetypes. However, critics argue that folktale traditions are fundamentally fluid, and that most international types are artificial constructs. Here, these issues are addressed using phylogenetic methods that were originally developed to reconstruct evolutionary relationships among biological species, and which have been recently applied to a range of cultural phenomena. The study focuses on one of the most debated international types in the literature: ATU 333, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. A number of variants of ATU 333 have been recorded in European oral traditions, and it has been suggested that the group may include tales from other regions, including Africa and East Asia. However, in many of these cases, it is difficult to differentiate ATU 333 from another widespread international folktale, ATU 123, ‘The Wolf and the Kids’. To shed more light on these relationships, data on 58 folktales were analysed using cladistic, Bayesian and phylogenetic network-based methods. The results demonstrate that, contrary to the claims made by critics of the historic-geographic approach, it is possible to identify ATU 333 and ATU 123 as distinct international types. They further suggest that most of the African tales can be classified as variants of ATU 123, while the East Asian tales probably evolved by blending together elements of both ATU 333 and ATU 123. These findings demonstrate that phylogenetic methods provide a powerful set of tools for testing hypotheses about cross-cultural relationships among folktales, and point towards exciting new directions for research into the transmission and evolution of oral narratives.     

Fairy-tale Semantics in the Play of Preschoolers

The following study was done within the mainstream of the cultural-historical theory of mental development, which postulates that mental development consists in the assimilation of the tools and instruments of culture. Our main purpose in this article is to describe this process using fairy tales as an example and to answer the question of how the objective semantics of a story becomes a subjective semantics.     

Darwinian functions and Freudian motivations

Badcock, and Nesse and Lloyd, have argued that there are important points of agreement between Freud's theory of the mind and a theory of mind suggested by adaptive reasoning. Buller, on the other hand, draws attention to the need to avoid confusing an adaptive rationale with an unconscious motivation. The present paper attempts to indicate what role adaptive reasoning might have to play in justifying psychoanalytic claims. First, it is argued that psychoanalytic claims cannot be justified by the clinical experience of psychoanalysts alone. It is urged that, to avoid interpretative proliferation, it is necessary to base interpretation on some theory which is external to psychoanalysis. Next, Buller's reservations about using adaptive reasoning to justify claims about a personal unconscious, are summarized. Then an argument for the existence of a personal unconscious, is offered, based on experimental evidence from Gur and Sackeim. Then it is argued that adaptive reasoning, though it cannot itself provide evidence for the existence of any psychological mechanism, can valuably guide the search for such evidence. It is argued that such an approach has borne fruit, both in biology generally and specifically in psychology. Finally, it is argued that psychoanalysis is important enough to justify such a research project.     

国内住区环境设计预防犯罪研究进展与反思

通过计量分析方法对近30年来住区环境设计预防犯罪领域的文献进行关键词共现分析、关键词时区分析以及关键词聚类分析等,总结了该领域在国内的研究进程及学科发展趋势。以CPTED理论为分析框架,简要梳理了该领域当前的研究方法、数据来源类型和研究发现,并结合现有城市居住区规划设计规范内容探讨其在犯罪环境预防方面的启示;在此基础上从数据来源、研究的地域性和案件类型的差异性以及研究成果的实践应用等方面对当前的研究进展进行剖析与反思。针对当前该领域实践与理论研究中存在的不足与瓶颈,对未来这一研究领域的发展和实践提出具体建议。     

A funny thing happened on the way to mass subjugation: propensity,opportunity, and irony in two accounts of the crime decline

This article first uses the analytical lenses of crime opportunity, criminal propensity, and routine activity theory to evaluate Wendel et al.’s (2016) plausible and compelling “more drugs, less crime” hypothesis, the latest attempt to explain the crime decline that began in the 1990s. The authors’ present exposition of the hypothesis is beleaguered by methodological problems that jeopardize the validity of its central claims. An alternative media-consumption hypothesis is then briefly outlined, which suggests that changes in media-consumption patterns beginning in the 1980s were a powerful catalyst for reductions in street crime. Because both hypotheses identify mechanisms that reduce both the opportunities and the propensities to commit crime, they stand out from the majority of crime-decline accounts which are presently oriented toward opportunity almost exclusively. Both hypotheses also happen to subvert conventional wisdom in ironic ways.     

The Bio-semiotic Roots of Metapsychology

This paper provides an overview of the origins, vicissitudes, and abandonment of ‘metapsychology’, the psycho-biological scientific core of the Freudian opus, and introduces the authors’ key revisions. Although couched in the language of metaphor and analogy from 19th century physics, the conceptual foundations of Freud’s theories contained the seeds of a bio-semiotic theory of mind and of human nature in the natural world. Its updated, modernized, version opens the door to an inter-penetrative epistemology leading to universal principles of logical form, applicable to all types of vital inter-action.