Volume 16, Number 4, Autumn

The Internet and Research: Explanation and Resources
David A. Allie, Phoenix Systems The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Winter 1995, Volume 16, Number 4, Pages 339-368, ISSN 0271-0137

Since the roots of the Internet lie in academia, educators and researchers have had the opportunity to engage in research over the Internet for some years now, though many have not been aware of its existence or the extent of available information until recently when the US government publicized its goal of furthering the global dissemination of information via the Internet. The article describes and explains (1) the origin and intent of the Internet, (2) its application for assisting in research, (3) the various tools for delving through the wealth of information available in what is termed cyberspace, (4) a listing of specific, recommended software applications, and (5) a listing of Internet-accessible resources of interest to researchers in the social and behavioral sciences and related fields.

Requests for reprints should be sent to David A. Allie, Phoenix Systems, 25 Village Lane, Biddeford, Maine 04005-9334. E-mail: allied@biddeford.com

Body Image and Body Schema in a Deafferented Subject
Shaun Gallagher, Canisius College and Jonathan Cole, University of Southampton and Poole Hospital, Dorset The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Winter 1995, Volume 16, Number 4, Pages 369-390, ISSN 0271-0137

This paper employs a conceptual distinction between body image and body schema to clarify the experience of a patient who has lost the sense of touch and proprioception from the neck down. As a result of a large fiber peripheral neuropathy, the patient has lost the major functional aspects of his body schema, and thereby the possibility of normally unattended movement. To maintain control of posture and movement, he is forced to compensate for that loss by depending on the perceptual system of a body image that is modified in important respects. Both the conceptual distinction and the real relations that exist between body image and body schema are clarified by an examination of the specific limitations placed on motor control in this patient.

Requests for reprints should be sent to Shaun Gallagher, Ph.D., Philosophy Department, Canisius College, 2001 Main Street, Buffalo, New York 14208-1098

The Completeness of Systems and the Behavioral Repertoire
Robert E. Lana, Temple University The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Winter 1995, Volume 16, Number 4, Pages 391-404, ISSN 0271-0137

It is argued that behavior analysis is an actual or potential axiomatic system based upon the schedules of reinforcement which are behavioral, causative laws. Gödel proved that all axiomatic systems are complete or consistent, but not both at the same time. The point is made that behavior analysis is an incomplete, consistent system. The system’s incompleteness is compensated for by the concept of the behavioral repertoire which, although in part lying outside of the axiomatic core of behavior analysis, both extends and strengthens it.

Requests for reprints should be sent to Robert E. Lana, Ph.D, P.O. Box 7, Narberth, Pennsylvania 19072

The Linguistic Network of Signifiers and Imaginal Polysemy: An Essay in the Co-dependent Origination of Symbolic Forms
Harry Hunt, Brock University The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Winter 1995, Volume 16, Number 4, Pages 405-420, ISSN 0271-0137

The relations between language and imagery are addressed by cross referencing Lacan and James Hillman, along with Mead, Geschwind, and Gibson. Not only is neither symbolic frame reducible to the other, but neither can be rooted in perceptual capacities that would be distinct from or more “primitive” than the other. Outside of specific theoretical agendas that would analyze one by simplifying the other, word and image are co-emergent and co-dependent expressions of the inherent openness of the human mind.

Requests for reprints should be sent to Harry Hunt, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, L2S 3A1

Psychiatric Drugging: Forty Years of Pseudo-Science, Self-Interest, and Indifference to Harm
David H. Jacobs, Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology – West The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Winter 1995, Volume 16, Number 4, Pages 421-470, ISSN 0271-0137

The “modern” era of psychiatric drug treatment began with the introduction of chlorpromazine into the chaotic mental hospital setting in the 1950s as a new psychotropic agent for controlling excitement, agitation, and aggressivity. In that setting the urgency of management problems operated to shrink the complexity of the patient as a psycho-social being down to specific “symptoms” targeted for chemical subjugation. From this beginning – a chemically produced quieting or “tranquilization” — there emerged a revitalized psychiatric movement to expand the “strictly medical” understanding and treatment of psychological disturbance that acknowledges no limits. This state of affairs has achieved a position of dominance and respect in the mental health industry, based upon social forces operating within psychiatry as a profession and outside of psychiatry in the larger political-economic realm. The catastrophe of widespread and expanding medically-produced disease has failed to alarm psychiatry into taking stock of the determinants of the catastrophe – indeed the existence and magnitude of the tragedy is barely recognized within psychiatry. This conclusion is illustrated by detailed examination of the psychopharmacologic agents alprazolam (Xanax) and fluoxetine (Prozac).

Requests for reprints should be sent to David H. Jacobs, Ph.D., Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology – West, 528 Fourth Street, Encinitas, California 92024.

Book Reviews

The Correspondence of John Stuart Mill and Auguste Comte
Book Translator: Oscar A. Haac. Introduction by Angele Kreme-Marietti. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1995
Reviewed by Robert C. Scharff, University of New Hampshire The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Winter 1995, Volume 16, Number 4, Pages 471-474, ISSN 0271-0137

The translation of the Comte-Mill correspondence is a welcome event, long overdue, and very likely to stimulate wide, multidisciplinary interest. It is fitting that it should have an Introduction by Kremer-Marietti, who in the past 20 years has probably done more substantial work on Comte, classical positivism, and its continuing relevance for contemporary history, sociology, and philosophy of science than anyone (e.g., Kremer-Marietti, 1982, 1983). By happy coincidence, the book appears close on the heels of a major new intellectual biography of Comte (Pickering, 1993) and in the same year as a full-length philosophical reconsideration of Comte=s positivism (Scharff, 1995).

Requests for reprints should be sent to Robert C. Scharff, Ph.D., Comte’s Department of Philosophy, Hamilton Smith Hall, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824-3574.

Dream Reader: Contemporary Approaches to the Understanding of Dreams
Book Author: Anthony Shafton. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995, 676 pages, paper.
Reviewed by Robert E. Haskell, University of New England The Journal of Mind and Behavior , Winter 1995, Volume 16, Number 4, Pages 475-478, ISSN 0271-0137

Dream Reader is an extensively documented, scholarly yet easily readable, veritable state-of-the-art encyclopedic compendium of laboratory research, clinical interpretation, and theories of dreams and dreaming. To preface this review, Dream Reader is a superb volume for anyone interested in dreams and dreaming. The title, however, is somewhat misleading. A “reader” is typically either an edited collection of papers on a subject, or a text with multiple brief inserts from other works. Dream Reader is neither; it is a standard single author text.

Requests for reprints should be sent to Robert E. Haskell, Ph.D., Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of New England, 11 Hills Beach Road, Biddeford, Maine 04005 or via e-mail at haskellr@biddeford.com

 

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