In 1956 Jacques Lacan proposed as interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe's "Purloined Letter" that at once challenged literary theorists and revealed a radically new conception of psychoanalysis. Lacan's far-reaching claims about language and truth provoked a vigorous critique by Jacques Derrida, whose essay in turn has spawned further responses from Barbara Johnson, Jane Gallop, Irene Harvey, Norman Holland, and others. The Purloined Poe brings Poe's story together with these readings to provide, in the words of the editors, "a structured exercuse (...) in the elaboration of textual interpretation. The Purloined Poe reprints the full text of Poe's story, followed by Lacan's "Seminar on 'The Purloined Letter,'" along with extensive commentary by the editors. Marie Bonaparte's and Shoshana Felman's discussions of traditional and contemporary approaches to "psychoanalysing" texts precede Alan Bass's new translation of Derrida's "Purveyor of Truth." The subsequent essays join the Lacan-Derrida debate and offer alternative readings by literary theorists, philosophers, psychologists, and psychoanalysts. The Purloined Poe convenes much of the most important current scholarship on "The Purloined Letter" and presents a rich sampling of poststructuralist discourse. (shrink)

According to the Spatial Quantity Association of Response Codes (SQUARC), people hold a mental association between horizontal position and quantity (lower quantities left, higher quantities right). While a large body of research has explored this effect for response speed and judgment accuracy, the affective downstream consequences of the SQUARC remain unexplored. Aiming to address this gap, the present two experiments (pre-registered, total N = 521) investigated whether stimulus arrangements that are compatible with the SQUARC for luminance are affectively preferred to (...) stimulus arrangements that are incompatible. SQUARC-compatible square arrangements (dark-left, bright-right) were preferred over SQUARC-incompatible square arrangements (dark-right, bright-left). The preference for SQUARC compatibility was not moderated by the horizontal orientation of the response scale. Our results confirm the direction of the spatial-luminance association and provide initial support that the cognitive processing of SQUARC compatibility is hedonically marked and appears sufficient to impact affective evaluations. (shrink)

Recent controversy about the use of the vertebrate fossil record for external calibration of molecular clocks centers on two issues, the number of dates used for calibration and the reliability of the fossil calibration date. Viewing matters from a palaeontological perspective, we propose three qualitative, phylogenetic criteria that can be used within a comparative framework for the selection of well-constrained calibration dates from the vertebrate fossil record. On the basis of these criteria, we identify three highly suitable new fossil calibration (...) dates for molecular clock estimates: the lungfish–tetrapod split (between 419 and 408 Ma), the bird–crocodile split (between 251 and 243 Ma), and the alligator–caiman split (between 71 and 66 Ma). Together with our previously suggested bird–lizard split (between 252 and 257 Ma), these four fossil dates span a range of very different ages. They are, in our opinion, more suitable for molecular clock calibration than the traditionally used mammal–bird split, which is less well constrained. We plea for closer interactions between paleontologists and molecular biologists in studying the timescale of vertebrate evolution. BioEssays 27:1069–1075, 2005. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

In this original work of psychoanalytic theory, John Muller explores the formative power of signs and their impact on the mind, the body and subjectivity, giving special attention to work of the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. Muller explores how Lacan's way of understanding experience through three dimensions--the real, the imaginary and the symbolic--can be useful both for thinking about cultural phenomena and for understanding the complexities involved in treating psychotic patients. Muller develops Lacan's (...) perspective gradually, presenting it as distinctive approaches to data from a variety of sources, such as cognitive, social and developmental psychology, literature, history, art, and psychoanalytic treatment. The book's first four chapters present Muller's reading of selected data from child development research, psychology and linguistics, approximating a semiotic model of "normal" development. The following three chapters examine in a Lacanian framework the structural basis of psychotic stages as indicative of massive semiotic failure in development. The final chapters on human narcissism suggest reasons that "normal" development may be impossible. (shrink)

This article argues that non-ideal theory is distinctive in its use of a certain methodology which is prior to specific topics (such as injustice, oppression, etc.), grounded in the idea of socially situated knowledge, and able to address ideological situatedness. Drawing on standpoint epistemology, we show that one’s social position within given power structures has implications for knowledge acquisition and that being in a vulnerable or marginalised position can be advantageous to knowledge acquisition. Following ideology critique, we argue that both (...) marginalised and powerful social positions are embedded within a given ideology. As ideology is more than a mere set of attitudes or beliefs that social agents endorse or resist, situated agents and theorists cannot develop normative criteria that are not themselves situated. Hence, non-ideal theory has to be equipped with methods that are likely to make this situatedness visible. We close by presenting some diverse methods that already do so. (shrink)

Made popular by John Rawls, ideal theory in political philosophy is concerned with putting preferences and interests to one side to achieve an impartial consensus and to arrive at a just society for all. In recent years, ideal theory has drawn increasing criticism for its idealised picture of political philosophy and its inability to account for the challenges posed by inequalities of, for example, race, gender, and class and by structural injustices stemming from colonialism and imperialism. The Routledge Handbook of (...) Non-Ideal Theory is the first handbook or reference source on this important and fast-growing debate. -/- Comprised of 34 chapters by an international team of contributors, the Handbook is divided into three clear parts: -/- Methodological Challenges Intersections Applied Issues and Contemporary Challenges. Within these sections key topics are addressed including: the question of whether non-ideal theory is methodologically linked to ideal theory; its intersection with feminist philosophy, critical race theory, decolonial theory, and critical theory; its characteristic features; the role of the non-ideal theorist; its relation to activism; and its application in the context of disability and health studies, climate justice, global injustices, colonialism and many more. As well as a comprehensive introduction which provides important background to the debate between ideal and non-ideal theory, the handbook also features a contribution by the late philosopher Charles Mills on non-ideal theory as ideology. -/- The Routledge Handbook of Non-Ideal Theory is essential reading for students and scholars of political philosophy, ethics and political theory and will also be of interest to those studying and researching related subjects such as gender, race and social justice. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungParallel zu einer noch immer weitestgehenden Tabuisierung von Homosexualität und normabweichendem Geschlecht im Leistungssport haben sich im Bereich des Breitensports in der Vergangenheit zahlreiche queere Sportvereine gegründet, die insbesondere homo-, bisexuelle, Trans*- und Inter-*, Non-Binary- bzw. queere Personen zur Zielgruppe haben. Der vorliegende Beitrag basiert auf einer qualitativ angelegten Interviewstudie, in der Mitglieder eines queeren (LGBTI*) Sportvereins zu ihren Sporterfahrungen und Motiven der Partizipation befragt wurden. Die Befunde zeigen, dass nicht nur auf Heteronormativität basierende Negativerfahrungen im herkömmlichen Verein ausschlaggebend sind, (...) sondern auch die Selbstsegregation innerhalb des queeren Vereins eine eigene Anziehungskraft hat. Dabei erweist sich der Verein für die Befragten als Gemeinschafts- und Wohlfühlraum, Kontaktbörse oder auch als mentaler Schutzraum. Im Beitrag werden die Bedeutungsfacetten des queeren Vereins ausdifferenziert beschrieben und kritische Perspektiven hinsichtlich der Teilnahme am queeren Sport aufgezeigt. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungBasierend auf einer systematischen Literaturrecherche über den Sport im Strafvollzug geht das Review der Frage nach, wie die Inhaftierten den Gefängnissport erfahren und reflektieren. Gestützt auf zehn qualitative Studien werden die zentralen Bedeutungsfacetten des Sports in der Haft herausgearbeitet. Grundsätzlich wird darauf verwiesen, dass der Sport für die Häftlinge ein wichtiges Medium bei der Bewältigung der mit der Inhaftierung typischerweise einhergehenden negativen Begleiterscheinungen ist: Die Teilnahme am Sport ermöglicht es ihnen, die Monotonie und Langeweile des Gefängnisalltags aufzubrechen, Stress abzubauen und (...) das Gefühl von sozialer Isolation zu reduzieren. Darüber hinaus bietet der Gefängnissport in einer totalitären Institution eine der wenigen Nischen, in denen sich die (männlichen) Gefangenen temporär als selbstbestimmte Subjekte erfahren können. Negative Einflüsse des Sports werden in bisherigen Studien kaum thematisiert, ebenso wenig wird Sport als Mittel der Resozialisierung gesehen. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden Forschungslücken und Perspektiven für zukünftige Studien aufgezeigt. (shrink)