The muse as mother

This paper suggests that the concept of the muse in relation to the creative process is more than a myth or cultural artifact. It is argued that the muse is a psychic recollection of our memories of the female who presided over our first experiences of consciousness as we traversed the borders of inner and outer reality—that is, the mother. The shift of consciousness required in creative activity triggers recall of this figure. Object relations theory, recent findings from infant research, and the intuitive observations of several authors are used to support this thesis. Clinical examples illustrate the application of this concept in treatment.     

OCCUPATIONAL SEX SEGREGATION AND ECONOMIC INEQUALITY UNDER SOCIALISM:

An increase in scholarly attention to income differences between sex-typed occupations has generated a burgeoning literature. Typically-female occupations require preemployment education, not prolonged on-the-job training; receive less renumeration for work autonomy than male-typed occupations; and are concentrated in economically disadvantaged industrial sectors. However, these issues have received only preliminary consideration regarding noncapitalist societies and research has lacked an integrative, analytical focus. This study compares the earnings effects of education, type of work, and industrial sector between female- and male-dominated occupations in socialist Yugoslavia. As expected, average earnings are significantly higher in male than in female occupations. The results from the earnings regressions reveal a higher explained variance and larger economic returns to education among female- dominated occupations, especially in the managerial and professional strata. A decomposition of the earnings difference between sex-typed occupations suggests a variation in the source of inequality across skill strata. In the discussion, a comparison of capitalism and socialism reveals that while some aspects of the earnings attainment process may be unique to socialism, others are not.     

PROBLEMS WITH BINOMIAL TWO-SIDED TESTS AND THE ASSOCIATED CONFIDENCE INTERVALS

Confidence intervals for parameters of distributions with discrete sample spaces will be less conservative (i.e. have smaller coverage probabilities that are closer to the nominal level) when defined by inverting a test that does not require equal probability in each tail. However, the P‐value obtained from such tests can exhibit undesirable properties, which in turn result in undesirable properties in the associated confidence intervals. We illustrate these difficulties using P‐values for binomial proportions and the difference between binomial proportions.     

On Tiku's robust procedure — a Bayesian insight

Tiku's robust procedure for testing mean and variance from nonnormal universe is examined from the Bayesian viewpoint. The posterior distribution of the scale parameter is derived and then approximated by a Laguerre polynomial expansion while the posterior distribution of the location parameter is approximated by a linear combination of t-distributions. For the example with Darwin's data, the approximations appear to be extremely good.     

A Conversation With Virus X: Outing a Malevolent and Subversive Force in Parents' Lives

The following conversation describes a narrative means of uncovering (or ‘deconstructing’) some of the invisible forces that undermine parents' capacities in caring for their children in preferred ways. In the authors' experience, parents can be hugely resourceful and provide a clear account of what they ‘should’ be doing, yet seem unable to act upon their own good advice — it is as though an external agent, named below as ‘Virus X’, prevents them from being the parents they would like to be. Through naming this external agent, identifying its influences and noticing parents' acts of resistance in the face of these influences, antidotes to Virus X can be developed. This paper describes the development of such an approach within a child behaviour management group. In keeping with the playful approach encouraged by narrative therapy, the authors of this paper join forces to act as investigative journalists in exposing Virus X to the readers.     

The Return of Non‐DAC Donors to Africa: New Prospects for African Development?

This article examines the consequences of the return to Africa of donors that are not members of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC). It categorises these donors according to form, content, size and modality of their aid. It finds that their return increases external financial flows, in particular to countries not targeted by DAC donors. Moreover, for some donors like China and India the flows are closely related to other financial flow s such as trade and investment. Furthermore, it finds that the return of non‐DAC donors may conflict with plans to harmonise aid and may simultaneously raise transaction costs for recipients.