The Primal Scene: The Enigma of Knowing

ABSTRACT

This article explores the ways in which the privileging of the Oedipus complex in psychoanalysis has signaled a forgetting of the primal scene. Through a close reading of Bion’s Cogitations (1992) and Pasolini’s film Oedipus Rex (1967), this article examines the Oedipus myth in relation to the primal scene as represented by Oedipus’s encounter with the Sphinx, hence establishing the Oedipus myth as the ultimate story about the acquisition of knowledge. Drawing on Bion, Laplanche, Faimberg, and others, this article grapples with the paradoxes involved in the process of “getting to know something,” querying the limits of knowing and not knowing, and the nature of such knowledge.     

The Commonality of Difference:

This paper discusses a study undertaken to determine the perceptions of new field instructors about the impact on the teaching/learning relationship of differences between them and their students. The differences and similarities arising in the tutorial relationship often parallel those in practice and provide many "teachable moments" about the significance of diversity for social workers. In a metropolitan social work program, new field instructors representing a wide range of fields of practice responded to a question asking them to consider the impact on the educational experience of "cultural, ethnic, gender, class, and age characteristics, and the implications of these similarities and/or differences for the teacher/learner relaionship." Asking the question succeeded in focussing the attention of field instructors on the significant but often unacknowledged impact of diversity in the educational encounter. A tendency for these field instructors to minimize differences may derive from their efforts to avoid stereotyping or stigmatization. The paper presents numerous examples of field instructors' perceptions and discusses the potential effect of differences and similarities in age, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation on the tutorial relationship. The study findings have implications for field teaching and performance evaluations as well as for social work advocacy around agency policies.     

The Biopolitics of Sex:

Contrary to the environmental determinism presumed by most social science commentators, and to the genetic determinism propounded by advocates of hardcore "sociobiology," the postion of this paper is the transactional, epigenetic approach commonly accepted in the life sciences. For the study of humans, this last approach requires a focus upon the reciprocal effects between genotype and both physical and sociocultural environments throughout development. Discussed are: the biology of human sexuality, sex roles and political behavior. The conclusion proposes the development of political models and practices that will take better advantage of the characteristic differences between female and male brains in political thinking and behavior and that will require a major reversal of the contemporary ratio in sex representation in political roles.     

The Power of Information:

This article explores the interactions of African-American foster parents with child welfare agencies. Data from the 1980 Survey of Foster Parents in Eight States were used in assessing the information exchange patterns between two groups of foster parents-traditional and extended-and child welfare workers. Findings show that traditional foster parents request and receive more information about general agency policies and services as well as the role of foster parenting than the extended types of foster families. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of recruitment and differences in expectations child welfare workers and foster parents have about the role and function of foster parents and the delivery of services in the child welfare field. Empowerment strategies are recommended to increase the power of foster parents, especially among related foster parents.     

The Efficacy of Prevention:

This article examines the status of children in selected parts of Southern Africa against the backdrop of current sociopolitical upheavals and weak economies that have kept some of these countries at the periphery of economic development. Given the limitations of international human rights legislations to enforce laws protecting children, without violating the rights of sovereign states and the limited social welfare resources, an ecological approach is used to argue for population control measures that have the efficacy of promoting the well-being of children and ensuring their survival.     

The Museum of Amor:

No abstract available for this article.     

The Act of Abuse:

Abuse is a problem that is of a social and moral as well as medical and psychological nature. A semiological approach is introduced as a way of encompassing those aspects in one definition. Abuse is seen as a social act, involving a witness: the necessary third actor who is evaluating the legitimacy of the act. Only those actions that are found to be illegitimate can be labeled abuse. Any definition of abuse must somehow consider morality.     

The Limits of Care:

In 1985, Roswell Gilbert was convicted of murder in the shooting death of his wife Emily who suffered from Alz- heimers disease and osteoporosis. Although Emily had asked to die in the presence of witnesses, the Florida jury was pressed to- ward its harsh treatment of Roswell by his choice of weapon, staunch refusal to repudiate his decision, and Emilys relatively high functional level at the time of her death. Nearly a decade lat- er, issues of the limits of family responsibility in caregiving re- main prominent in the literatures of gerontology and applied eth- ics. This paper revisits the Gilbert case with insights from Joseph A. Varon, Chief Counsel at the trial of Roswell Gilbert and Martha Gilbert Moran, Roswell and Emilys only daughter. The paper in- tegrates applied ethical and sociological theories about the family into a discussion of family decision making around caregiving and its termination. Specifically, the paper uses symbolic interaction theory with Nod- dings theory of caring and exchange theory with Blusteins discus-sion of duty and autonomy to address two questions: (1) Who owns the decision about the termination of care? and (2) What are the grounds for state intervention into family decision making on behalf of an individual who has expressed, verbally or through a written will, a desire to die? It is suggested that social scientists need to re- fine research methods in order to document the development of fam- ily belief systems that support life-and-death decision making. Fur- ther research is indicated on spousal and intergenerational relation- ships as the social context for decisions families make about care and its termination. The approach of the paper is to integrate family so- ciological theory with perspectives from legal and applied ethical analyses.     

The Shaman:

No abstract available for this article.     

The Sociology of Expertise: The Distribution of Social Fluency

Expert knowledge is an essential component of modern society. It is also a potentially difficult topic for sociology because of the importance sociology attaches to culture and context. The sociology of science has emphasised the continuity between scientific expertise and more traditional forms of knowledge. Whilst this suggests an increasing 'democratisation of expertise' is desirable, it also risks erasing the idea of expertise itself. This might be particularly detrimental for sociology as it restricts the role of sociological inquiry to examining how expert status is attributed rather than understanding what expertise is. This paper describes these developments and contrasts them with other approaches in which expertise appears less important. It concludes by setting out a new approach to expertise that respects the role of culture in generating knowledge but, by stressing the importance of socialisation and experience, argues for a more nuanced conception of expertise as both real and unequally distributed.     

The Political Sociology of Counter-Revolution: The Case of Brazil

Books reviewed in this articles:
Politics in Brazil 1930–1964: An Experiment in Democracy. By T homas E. S kidmore .
Brazilian Planning: Development Politics and Administration. By R obert T. D aland .
Le Brésil. Special issue of Les Temps Modernes.     

Book reviews: Desire: The politics of sexuality

Abstract

Snitow, Ann and Stansell, Christine and Thompson, Sharon. Virago, 1984. £6.50. (Reviewed by Elizabeth A. Smith)

Research Highlights: No.6 Working with Children

Department of Social Work, Aberdeen. £4.50. (Reviewed by Elizabeth A. Smith)

An Introduction to Therapeutic Communities

Kennard, David and Roberts, Jeff. Routledge and Kegan Paul. £5.95 Paperback. (Reviewed by Pauline Cunningham)     

The School: The Crossroads for Collaboration

This essay argues that the time has come to restructure schools to allow the “whole” child to receive service at the school. The provision of time, place, and personnel to respond to the needs of today's children might facilitate their academic progress. If students and families can find support in one location, perhaps anxiety can be reduced and academics can be strengthened. The school can do little on its own to help children whose lives are in chaos due to poverty, hunger, abuse, ill health, family disintegration, neglect, fear, or hopelessness. Collateral collaboration needs to evolve in which professional development is a shared responsibility of all agencies that serve a community.     

The Heart of the Story:

No abstract available for this article.