scholarly journals "Within and Without": Exploring the Mind in the Novels of George MacDonald

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Saskia Voorendt
Keyword(s):  
Focal Point ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Physical Illness ◽  
George Macdonald ◽  
Physical Body ◽  
Fantasy World ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Shadow It ◽  
The Relationship

<p>George MacDonald‟s first published novel, Phantastes, is the story of a young man who enters and must negotiate his way through a fantasy landscape. This landscape, it is suggested, is one of the mind, and Anodos‟ journey through it one of self-exploration and discovery. The sustained metaphor of the mind as a territory to be actively explored through the medium of the physical world, furthermore, is argued to be the basis of several of MacDonald‟s novels. While for Anodos the mind is all, forming as it does the basis of the entire fantasy world of Fairy Land, in the author‟s numerous realist texts the interest emerges in more varied ways, including for example, portrayals of depression, madness, and drug (ab)use. While this significant and unifying feature of MacDonald‟s novels has been at times observed by critics with regard to some individual texts, it has not been directly confronted in terms of an inclusive study of his oeuvre. What this thesis demonstrates is firstly the overwhelming significance of the mind as a focal point for MacDonald‟s novels, as represented by six central texts: Phantastes, Adela Cathcart, Wilfrid Cumbermede, Malcolm, Donal Grant, and The Flight of the Shadow. It is suggested that such a consistent prioritising of the mind over the physical body lies in the author‟s own experience of ongoing physical illness and resulting confrontation with mortality. The mind becomes, for MacDonald, a means of negotiating the relationship between the realms of the physical and the spiritual. In Phantastes, for example, Anodos‟ physical experience (achieved through the genre of fantasy) of his own mind in Fairy Land, concludes with reference to the afterlife. The mind in this (and MacDonald‟s other novels) provides the means by which transcendence is achieved.</p>

scholarly journals "Within and Without": Exploring the Mind in the Novels of George MacDonald

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Saskia Voorendt
Keyword(s):  
Focal Point ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Physical Illness ◽  
George Macdonald ◽  
Physical Body ◽  
Fantasy World ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Shadow It ◽  
The Relationship

<p>George MacDonald‟s first published novel, Phantastes, is the story of a young man who enters and must negotiate his way through a fantasy landscape. This landscape, it is suggested, is one of the mind, and Anodos‟ journey through it one of self-exploration and discovery. The sustained metaphor of the mind as a territory to be actively explored through the medium of the physical world, furthermore, is argued to be the basis of several of MacDonald‟s novels. While for Anodos the mind is all, forming as it does the basis of the entire fantasy world of Fairy Land, in the author‟s numerous realist texts the interest emerges in more varied ways, including for example, portrayals of depression, madness, and drug (ab)use. While this significant and unifying feature of MacDonald‟s novels has been at times observed by critics with regard to some individual texts, it has not been directly confronted in terms of an inclusive study of his oeuvre. What this thesis demonstrates is firstly the overwhelming significance of the mind as a focal point for MacDonald‟s novels, as represented by six central texts: Phantastes, Adela Cathcart, Wilfrid Cumbermede, Malcolm, Donal Grant, and The Flight of the Shadow. It is suggested that such a consistent prioritising of the mind over the physical body lies in the author‟s own experience of ongoing physical illness and resulting confrontation with mortality. The mind becomes, for MacDonald, a means of negotiating the relationship between the realms of the physical and the spiritual. In Phantastes, for example, Anodos‟ physical experience (achieved through the genre of fantasy) of his own mind in Fairy Land, concludes with reference to the afterlife. The mind in this (and MacDonald‟s other novels) provides the means by which transcendence is achieved.</p>

scholarly journals Imagination in the Semiotics of Creativity

2020 ◽  
pp. 84-89
Author(s):  
Alexander Yu. Nesterov ◽  
◽  
Anna I. Demina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Perception ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Modeling Systems ◽  
Semiotic Modeling ◽  
History Of ◽  
Imaginative Thinking ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship

The research analyzes the concept of imagination set in the context of semiotics of creativity. It specifies the essence of this concept from the point of pragmatic, syntactic and semantic rules applied in imaginative thinking. The objectives of the research are to explicate the history of the concept of imagination; to define the role of imagination in the projective semiosis of reason, mind and perception; to identify the relationship between imagination and intuition in the creative act. The material of the research is the history of forms of philosophical and psychological reflection on “imagination”, “intuition”, “creativity” from I. Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, P.K. Engelmeyer, F. Dessauer, S.L. Rubinstein and up to the latest semiotics of creativity and technology. The research method is semiotic modeling, representing any phenomenon as a sign in receptive and projective semiosis, realizing as a complex, organized representation of contents in the substrates of sensory perception, mind and reason. In the receptive processes (in the acts of cognition and understanding), the order of representation is determined by the ascent from the reality to the concept: sensory perception, mind, reason. In projective processes (in acts of creativity, technology, interpretation, practice, etc.), the order of representation is reversed: from the concept (phantasm, image) to its logical-grammatical construction and to its physical embodiment in the form of an artifact. The study is built as an expansion and substantiation of the thesis that imagination is, firstly, the environment for the implementation of semiosis, and, secondly, it is one of the ways to remove uncertainty that arises both in reception and in projection. As an environment, imagination is revealed as a condition for the possibility of applying rules in the substrates of reason and mind and is defined as the sphere of the thinkable and imaginable, but impossible in the physical world. The uncertainty, in the epistemological sense, means the situations of knowledge about not knowing for receptive processes and not knowing about knowledge for projective processes. Removing the uncertainty, the imagination is revealed as an addition to reality within the framework of the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic rules of sensory perception, mind and reason. The analysis of imagination, as an addition to perception, is illustrated by the data of experimental psychology, in particular, the Zagorsk Experiment; as an addition to the mind by the concept of secondary modeling systems or semiological systems by Yu.M. Lotman and R. Barthes; as an addition to the reason by a comparative analysis of the concepts of intuition and imagination. The study concludes that the functional definition of imagination as an addition to reality at the levels of reason, mind and perception is justified both in the context of the theory of creativity, adhering to the model of “three-act”, and in the context of semiotic ontology itself.

A STUDY OF THE ATTITUDE OF COLLEGE STUDENTS OF PUNJAB TOWARDS YOGA

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (24) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anurag Asija
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
The Body ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Physical Body ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Mind

In modern life, people generally try to accomplish too much in too little time, consequently they accumulate a lot of stress in their lives. In that time, yoga plays an important role to alleviate the stress and rejuvenate the body. In the times, yoga was a form of Bhakti. Rishi Patanjali, rightly called the father of yoga, who around 200 b.c. gave us the present literary form of yoga doctrine in his famous treaties Yoga Sutra. In modern times, the value of yoga is being increasingly recognized for general and it’s preventive and curative effects. Yoga does not conceive man having a physical body but on the contrary, it emphasizes the greater values of the mind which characterizes his personality, Thus, yoga leads to ultimate physical health and happiness together with the achieve of mental and patience.

Psychology: Volume 5

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Science Volume ◽  
Western World ◽  
Mental Life ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Difference ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Indian Setting ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship

This survey of research on psychology in five volumes is a part of a series undertaken by the ICSSR since 1969, which covers various disciplines under social science. Volume Five of this survey, Explorations into Psyche and Psychology: Some Emerging Perspectives, examines the future of psychology in India. For a very long time, intellectual investments in understanding mental life have led to varied formulations about mind and its functions across the word. However, a critical reflection of the state of the disciplinary affairs indicates the dominance of Euro-American theories and methods, which offer an understanding coloured by a Western world view, which fails to do justice with many non-Western cultural settings. The chapters in this volume expand the scope of psychology to encompass indigenous knowledge available in the Indian tradition and invite engaging with emancipatory concerns as well as broadening the disciplinary base. The contributors situate the difference between the Eastern and Western conceptions of the mind in the practice of psychology. They look at this discipline as shaped by and shaping between systems like yoga. They also analyse animal behaviour through the lens of psychology and bring out insights about evolution of individual and social behaviour. This volume offers critique the contemporary psychological practices in India and offers a new perspective called ‘public psychology’ to construe and analyse the relationship between psychologists and their objects of study. Finally, some paradigmatic, pedagogical, and substantive issues are highlighted to restructure the practice of psychology in the Indian setting.

scholarly journals Reconsidering a role for attachment in eating disorder management in the context of paediatric diabetes

2021 ◽  
pp. 135910452098621
Author(s):  
Rosie Oldham-Cooper ◽  
Claire Semple ◽  
Laura L. Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Disordered Eating ◽  
Holistic Care ◽  
Stable Set ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Paediatric Diabetes ◽  
Attachment Orientation ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship

We suggest a reconsideration of the role of ‘attachment orientation’ in the context of eating disorders and paediatric diabetes. Attachment orientation is a psychological construct that describes a relatively stable set of expectations and behaviours an individual relies upon in managing relationships. There is considerable evidence of an association between attachment orientation and the development and maintenance of disordered eating in individuals without diabetes, though evidence is more scant in populations with diabetes. We discuss the underpinning theory and critically examine the existing literature for the relationship between attachment orientation and disordered eating in paediatric diabetes. Finally, we draw on adjacent literatures to highlight potential future directions for research should this area be revisited. Overall, we contextualise our discussion in terms of patient-centred, holistic care that addresses the mind and body (i.e., our discussion of attachment orientation assumes a psycho-biological approach).

The Fragmented Mind

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Implicit Attitudes ◽  
David Lewis ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Belief State ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship

Mental fragmentation is the thesis that the mind is fragmented, or compartmentalized. Roughly, this means that an agent’s overall belief state is divided into several sub-states—fragments. These fragments need not make for a consistent and deductively closed belief system. The thesis of mental fragmentation became popular through the work of philosophers like Christopher Cherniak, David Lewis, and Robert Stalnaker in the 1980s. Recently, it has attracted great attention again. This volume is the first collection of essays devoted to the topic of mental fragmentation. It features important new contributions by leading experts in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and philosophy of language. Opening with an accessible Introduction providing a systematic overview of the current debate, the fourteen essays cover a wide range of issues: foundational issues and motivations for fragmentation, the rationality or irrationality of fragmentation, fragmentation’s role in language, the relationship between fragmentation and mental files, and the implications of fragmentation for the analysis of implicit attitudes.

scholarly journals Top-down causation and emergence: some comments on mechanisms

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
George F. R. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Causal Power ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Information Control ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Adaptive Selection ◽  
Abstract Entities ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Medical Healthcare

Both bottom-up and top-down causation occur in the hierarchy of structure and causation. A key feature is multiple realizability of higher level functions, and consequent existence of equivalence classes of lower level variables that correspond to the same higher level state. Five essentially different classes of top-down influence can be identified, and their existence demonstrated by many real-world examples. They are: algorithmic top-down causation; top-down causation via non-adaptive information control, top-down causation via adaptive selection, top-down causation via adaptive information control and intelligent top-down causation (the effect of the human mind on the physical world). Through the mind, abstract entities such as mathematical structures have causal power. The causal slack enabling top-down action to take place lies in the structuring of the system so as to attain higher level functions; in the way the nature of lower level elements is changed by context, and in micro-indeterminism combined with adaptive selection. Understanding top-down causation can have important effects on society. Two cases will be mentioned: medical/healthcare issues, and education—in particular, teaching reading and writing. In both cases, an ongoing battle between bottom-up and top-down approaches has important consequences for society.

scholarly journals To write or not to write: censorship in "The Woman in the Photo" by Tia Șerbănescu and "A Censor’s Notebook" by Liliana Corobca

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-27
Author(s):  
Monica Manolachi
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Psychological Process ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
Mise En Abyme ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Compare And Contrast

Censorship as a literary subject has sometimes been necessary in times of change, as it may show how the flaws in power relations influence, sometimes very dramatically, the access to and the production of knowledge. The Woman in the Photo: a Diary, 1987-1989 by Tia Șerbănescu and A Censor’s Notebook by Liliana Corobca are two books that deal with the issue of censorship in the 1980s (the former) and the 1970s (the latter). Both writers tackle the problem from inside the ruling system, aiming at authenticity in different ways. On the one hand, instead of writing a novel, Tia Șerbănescu kept a diary in which she contemplated the oppression and the corruption of the time and their consequences on the freedom of thought, of expression and of speech. She thoroughly described what she felt and thought about her relatives, friends and other people she met, about books and their authors, in a time when keeping a diary was hard and often perilous. On the other hand, using the technique of the mise en abyme, Liliana Corobca begins from a fictitious exchange of emails to eventually enter and explore the mind of a censor and reveal what she thought and felt about the system, her co-workers, her boss, the books she proofread, their authors and her own identity. Detailed examinations and performances of the relationship between writing and censorship, the two novels provide engaging, often tragi-comical, insights into the psychological process of producing literary texts. The intention of this article is to compare and contrast the two author’s perspectives on the act of writing and some of its functions from four points of view: literary, cultural, social and political.

scholarly journals Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test: Relationship with Neurocognition and Facial Emotion Recognition in Non-Clinical Youths

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 835-839
Author(s):  
Eunchong Seo ◽  
Se Jun Koo ◽  
Ye Jin Kim ◽  
Jee Eun Min ◽  
Hye Yoon Park ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Bootstrap Method ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Reasoning By Analogy

Objective The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) is a common measure of the Theory of Mind. Previous studies found a correlation between RMET performance and neurocognition, especially reasoning by analogy; however, the nature of this relationship remains unclear. Additionally, neurocognition was shown to play a significant role in facial emotion recognition. This study is planned to examine the nature of relationship between neurocognition and RMET performance, as well as the mediating role of facial emotion recognition.Methods One hundred fifty non-clinical youths performed the RMET. Reasoning by analogy was tested by Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) and facial emotion recognition was assessed by the Korean Facial Expressions of Emotion (KOFEE) test. The percentile bootstrap method was used to calculate the parameters of the mediating effects of facial emotion recognition on the relationship between SPM and RMET scores.Results SPM scores and KOFEE scores were both statistically significant predictors of RMET scores. KOFEE scores were found to partially mediate the impact of SPM scores on RMET scores.Conclusion These findings suggested that facial emotion recognition partially mediated the relationship between reasoning by analogy and social cognition. This study highlights the need for further research for individuals with serious mental illnesses.

scholarly journals Tuning the mind: Exploring the connections between musical ability and executive functions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Robert Slevc
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Musical Ability ◽  
Switching Performance ◽  
Socio Economic Status ◽  
Auditory Tasks ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Auditory Processes ◽  
The Relationship

A growing body of research suggests that musical experience and ability are related to a variety of cognitive abilities, including executive functioning (EF). However, it is not yet clear if these relationships are limited to specific components of EF, limited to auditory tasks, or reflect very general cognitive advantages. This study investigated the existence and generality of the relationship between musical ability and EFs by evaluating the musical experience and ability of a large group of participants and investigating whether this predicts individual differences on three different components of EF – inhibition, updating, and switching – in both auditory and visual modalities. Musical ability predicted better performance on both auditory and visual updating tasks, even when controlling for a variety of potential confounds (age, handedness, bilingualism, and socio-economic status). However, musical ability was not clearly related to inhibitory control and was unrelated to switching performance. These data thus show that cognitive advantages associated with musical ability are not limited to auditory processes, but are limited to specific aspects of EF. This supports a process-specific (but modality-general) relationship between musical ability and non-musical aspects of cognition.

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