Critical Realism and the Althusserian Legacy

This paper undertakes an historical re‐evaluation of Louis Althusser's philosophical legacy for modern Marxism. While Althusser self‐consciously sought to defend the scientific character of Marxism, many of his closest followers eventually exited the Marxian paradigm for a post‐structural post‐Marxism. We argue that this development was predominately rooted in a series of philosophical errors that proved fatal in a period of retreat for European socialism. There has always been, however, a second post‐Althusserian legacy associated with the critical realist conception of Marxism initiated by Roy Bhaskar. Bhaskar found part of his inspiration in Althusser's successful posing of the question of Marx's science and this paper sets out to excavate the proper links between Althusser and Bhaskar in order to deepen the relationship between critical realism and scientific Marxism.     

Democratic Values and Freedom "Russian Style"

All students—good, poor or undisciplined—must be approached individually. Such an approach should include, it seems to us, a systematic study of the student's personality, a knowledge of his character traits and the factors that gave rise to them, and a plan for promoting the all-round development of his personality on the basis of his positive qualities. The educational steps chosen in each case should correspond exactly with the student's individuality.     

Human Motivation in Question: Discussing Emotions,Motives, and Subjectivity from a Cultural‐Historical Standpoint

Vygotsky, at the end of his life, advanced a new representation of a psychological system that was ruled by a cognitive‐emotional unity, a theorization that remains inconclusive due to Vygotsky's early death. This article discusses the advances made by Vygotsky in the comprehension of human motivation through his concepts of sense and perezhivanie at the end of his work. Through these concepts, he further advanced the discussion of motivation, despite the fact that these concepts have only very recently been considered a relevant part of his legacy in both Russian and Western psychology. This paper discusses the departure from and the historical presentations of the concept of motive in the following two main approaches of Soviet psychology that were mistakenly equated in Western interpretations: Vygotsky's approach, mainly at the first as last moment of his work, and Leontiev's Activity Theory. Based on the final theoretical positions of Vygotsky and of other Soviet authors, and further developing this legacy, this article proposes a new definition of motivation as a specific quality of subjectively configured systems and defines motive as intrinsic to the functioning of all psychological function defines subjective functions as subjectively configured processes. This new proposal of human motivation within a new way of defining subjectivity defines new categories as subjective senses and subjective configurations on which the author bases a specific approach for advancing the topic of subjectivity and motivation within a cultural‐historical framework.     

The Concept of the Cultural-Historical Development of the Mind and its Prospects

Vygotsky's concept of the cultural and historical development of the mind, which he worked out together with his coworkers and students, never achieved finished form. It did, however, contain basic ideas that, when later systematically developed, opened paths toward knowledge about what Vygotsky considered to be the most important problem of psychology — knowledge of the human personality.     

Kurt Lewin's Leadership Studies and His Legacy to Social Psychology: Is There Nothing as Practical as a Good Theory?

This paper re‐examines Kurt Lewin's classic leadership studies, using them as a concrete example to explore his wider legacy to social psychology. Lewin distinguished between advanced “Galileian” science, which was based on analysing particular examples, and backward “Aristotelian” science, which used statistical analyses. Close examination of the way Lewin wrote about the leadership studies reveals that he used the sort of binary, value‐laden concepts that he criticised as “Aristotelian”. Such concepts, especially those of “democracy” and “autocracy”, affected the way that he analysed the results and the ways that later social scientists have understood, and misunderstood, the studies. It is argued that Lewin's famous motto—“there is nothing as practical as a good theory”—is too simple to fit the tensions between the leadership studies and his own views of what counts as good theory.     

Badiou and the philosophy of social work: a reply to Stephen Webb

Imre R. Badiou and the philosophy of social work: a reply to Stephen Webb Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 253–258 © 2010 The Author, Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. Stephen Webb's recent article ‘Against diversity and difference in social work’ claims that the work of Alain Badiou has the potential to be of great use in social work practice. Webb is faced with the problem of a discourse that has eroded any practical meaning attached to notions of diversity and difference, he laments the ‘ethical turn’ in social work practice and blames post‐modernism. Webb views the work of Badiou as a way to reinvigorate social work practice. I claim that Badiou's Being and Event is exclusive to ontology. Connections between Being and Event and possible ‘uses’ of Badiou's subtractive ontology, as an instrumentalisation, are not worthwhile. Critiquing Badiou's non‐ontological philosophies and political polemics is a better way to assess the practicality of his thought outside of his ontology. Webb's conflation of post‐modernism, neoliberalism and the difference, diversity and ethics discourse is also problematic and is critiqued here.     

Zelda Foster and Her Contributions to Social Work in End-of-Life Care

ABSTRACT

This article is both a memoir of one social worker's professional collaboration with Zelda Foster and a tribute to Zelda's legacy in the form of an educational resource on end-of-life care. It reviews achievements of Zelda Foster in social work practice and teaching related to death and dying. Resources presented in this article were supported by the Soros Foundation's Project on Death in America, a funded grant project to which Zelda contributed. The end-of-life care education, training and informational tools discussed in this article are examples of ongoing efforts in the social work profession to improve the lives of the dying and bereaved.     

He Knew How to Make Himself Irreplaceable

Now that Sobchak is no longer with us, the remarks he made not long before his premature death take on the force of an invocation, a prophecy. I met with him—just think!—only last Monday in his small office on Nevskii Prospekt. It was Valentine's Day, and I felt that I was not intruding too much in Sobchak's family plans. "Lana," he told his wife on his mobile phone, "you didn 't know, but I am talking with Sosnov. No, I won't be late for dinner."     

The later social adjustment of a group of borderline defective delinquents trained at the oaks school 1

In Part 1 of this article, the author provides an overview of the history of psychoanalytic treatment of those identifying as homosexual. In Part 2, the author interviews “Rob” to more fully demonstrate the corrosive effects over a lifetime of analytic and psychotherapeutic treatment, as it had once been practiced. Rob, a man primarily attracted to men, spent many years in treatment with different therapists and analysts during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Now in his early eighties, Rob is married and remains closeted to all but a few close associates. When Rob entered treatment many years ago, he was told that his homosexual attractions were symptoms of an illness and with treatment he could change. Rob's experience is uncannily similar to multiple reports that exist in the professional and lay literature. Rob knows that nothing can undo the damage he suffered, yet it remains his wish that the psychoanalytic community would acknowledge, and even apologize, to all those who were harmed—including the many who took their lives—by theories and practices that were once so central to mainstream psychoanalysis.     

Robert Frost's Visit to the USSR

Yesterday we saw off Robert Frost, the eminent veteran American poet, who had been our guest for ten days. This is too short a span for a close-up of the face of a country, especially when it is as large as ours. It is also impossible to establish and strengthen those bonds of cordial amity without which there is no profound and frank mutual understanding. But though this is all very true, it can also turn out otherwise. Our guest's inexhaustible and youthful curiosity enabled him even in so short a time to attain, if not a deep understanding, at least a fresh and strong feeling of our country's creative atmosphere, of the manifestations of the Soviet people's creative energies discernible in every aspect of their daily life, and—in particular and especially—the Soviet man's burning, direct, all-embracing interest in the destinies of his own literature and that of the world in general, and his keen heartfelt interest in the ringing word of poetry.     

Bipolar Illness,God, and Object Relations: The Treatment of M

This article explores the concomitant change in one client's object relations and his image of God that occurred in the context of psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy. The case demonstrates the benefit of long-term psychoanalytically oriented treatment to help an individual with major mental illness to heal emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. The client, who suffers from bipolar I disorder, experienced significant developmental mastery as he moved from the paranoid/schizoid position to the depressive position (developmental stages conceptualized by theorists Melanie Klein and Douglas Fairbairn). In addition, the psychotherapy mitigated the effects of homonegativity on M's self-image and his experience of his homosexuality. Through our work, the client began to see and interact with this clinical social worker, others, and the God of his understanding, in a more realistic and healthy manner. M's participation in a 12-Step group and his adherence to its beliefs augmented changes he made through psychotherapy. Through a long-term psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy and involvement in Al-Anon meetings, the client's belief in a punishing God shifted toward a more benevolent one—a God who had a plan for his life that was revealed through the transformation of his suffering. In summary, M's object relations changed toward a greater balance of emotions and development of more textured relationships, including his relationship toward himself and God.     

A Leap to the Realm of Freedom: A Brief Essay on the Most Recent Period in the History of Contemporary Russian Journalism

Many centuries of mankind's history and modern world practice teach us that no civilization in any country can develop in full measure and exist without a firm rear guard [tyl] in the form of a viable countryside providing a reliable food front. It is highly regrettable that the present state of our society confirms this truism. As repeatedly emphasized at congresses of people's deputies and sessions of the USSR Supreme Soviet not only by rank-and-file deputies but also by the country's principal leaders—work superintendents [proraby] of perestroika— roughly 70 percent of the realization of all the tasks of perestroika (political, economic, and social) hinges on the existing state of the food supply and on the agrarian sector as a whole.     

Study of the Personality of Adolescents in Learning Activity

April 12, 1961, marks the achievement of one of the most far-reaching scientific goals in history—manned space flight. Some vivid comments about this flight were made by Yuri Gagarin, the world's first astronaut, in an interview with G. Ostroumov, an Izvestia correspondent. The interview appeared in Izvestia on April 14.     

《一个自行发完病毒的病例》主题刍议

英国作家格雷厄姆.格林的长篇巨作《一个自行发完病毒的病例》是一部充斥着众多矛盾的作品:小说主角奎利想去遥远的非洲茫茫森林之中葬送自己,然而在葬送奎利自身的过程中,他大彻大悟且逐渐想去寻觅自己;奎利不管是在葬送自己,还是在找寻自己的那个艰辛和漫长的过程之中,其言语都表现出了他那种暴力和软弱的多重性格;神秘莫测的非洲大陆广阔无垠的茂密森林预示着衰落和灭亡,但也给人一种对美好未来的憧憬和期盼。以上众多矛盾构成了一个让人感到非常神奇的格林之原:放逐与找寻的合二为一,找寻和被找寻的对立合一,莽原和绿原的合二为一,信仰和理智的对立合一。     

Women Reconciling Paid and Unpaid Work in a Confucian Welfare State: The Case of South Korea

The participation of married women in the labour market has been increasing since industrialization in the 1960s in Korea; in 1999 it overtook that of unmarried women. This raises the issue of how women reconcile paid and unpaid work and how state policy responds to this issue. In Korea, there have been numerous policy reforms designed to support working women in combining work and family life. For example, a parental leave scheme was introduced in 1995 and maternity benefits were also introduced in 2001. However, it is doubtful whether these policies can be effective in practice in Korea, where Confucian traditions in respect of women's roles remain strong. Confucian tradition has long influenced Korean society culturally and socially. Although Korean society today is not as Confucian as in the past, some traditions still remain strong, particularly with regard to the family: for example filial piety, seniority, the married woman's responsibility for her parents‐in‐law. This paper will argue that Confucian tradition makes for difficulties in Korean women's experiences of reconciling paid and unpaid work and also affects the formation of state policy. The paper explores the impact of the Confucian welfare regimes on Korean women's experience of reconciling paid and unpaid care work, and questions the gendered characteristics of the Confucian welfare state.     

The Romantic Realism of Michel Foucault The Scientific Temptation

Beatrice Han has argued that the theories of subjection (determinism: structure) and subjectivation (freedom: agency) are the “the blind spot[s] of Foucault's work.” Furthermore, she continues, as historical and transcendental theories, respectively, Foucault left them in a state of irresolvable conflict. In the Scientific Temptation I have shown that, as a practicing researcher, Foucault encourages us to situate the theories of the subject in the context of his un‐thematized search for a metaphysics of realism, the purpose of which was to ground his complementary reach for a possibility of naturalism. In Returning to Kant I now argue that it is this fundamental feature of “Foucault's Foucault” that drives his returns to Kant, the purpose of which was to resolve the conflicting theories of the subject and thereby solve his Giddensian problem of structure and creativity. Locating the returns and their purpose in the context of my own arguments for the recovery of human agency, I argue that Foucault's attempts to solve his Giddensian problem led to two unfortunate solutions. In the first return, his resort to Baudelaire's aesthetic subject is a regression to a pre‐noumenal conception of the Kantian subject. With the second return, the reinstatement of the Kantian subject as causally empowered, minus the noumenalism, is nothing more than a reclamation of Kant's conception. I argue that only a reconstruction of Foucault's scientific realism permits us to understand that he could have moved beyond mere reclamation to the actual recovery of human agency.     

梅贻琦人格特征的历史心理学分析

基于历史心理学的研究方法,采用人格形容词评定法研究梅贻琦的人格,可以看出梅贻琦的人格特征具体表现为:严谨笃实、积极负责、志高见远、廉洁奉公、品尚自律等五个方面。146名大学生在阅读《梅贻琦略传》的基础上对202个人格形容词的评定选择充分证明了这一点。梅贻琦上述人格的形成、发展,受遗传、家庭环境、早期教育以及后期多元文化等多种因素的交互影响。