scholarly journals Consciousness and Unconsciousness

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew James Shapiro ◽  
Lynn S. Chancer
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Sociological Inquiry ◽  
Multiple Dimensions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Racial Domination ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Unconscious Mind

Contemporary sociological theory frequently prioritizes that which is consciously known over thoughts, feelings and motivations that are beyond conscious awareness. Consciousness, being immediately measurable, resonates with the still often positivistic orientation of mainstream sociology. Unconsciousness, by contrast, is messy, resisting apprehension through conventional methodological approaches. Whereas many scholars have responded to this inscrutability by dismissing the importance and even the very existence of unconscious processes, this chapter seeks to highlight the significance of both consciousness and unconsciousness for the study of social life. We begin by illuminating how such pivotal sociological thinkers as Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Bourdieu have implicitly grappled with the unconscious mind. From there, we turn to a brief history of more explicit theorizations of unconsciousness, tracing the ideas of core psychoanalytic thinkers like Freud, Jung and Lacan alongside more socio-psychoanalytic theorists like Fromm and Fanon. Finally, we demonstrate the ongoing relevance of unconsciousness to sociological inquiry by highlighting contemporary theorists who have used the unconscious to account for social problems from racial domination to interpersonal violence. Ultimately, we call upon sociological theorists and empirical researchers to adopt a more multidimensional approach when analyzing the multiple dimensions of social reality.

scholarly journals Dissociation and the Unconscious Mind: Nineteenth-Century Perspectives on Mediumship

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 537-596
Author(s):  
Carlos S. Alvarado
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
William James ◽  
General Interest ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
History Of ◽  
Memory States ◽  
Hippolyte Taine ◽  
Unconscious Mind

There is a long history of discussions of mediumship as related to dissociation and the unconscious mind during the Nineteenth Century. After an overview of relevant ideas and observations from the mesmeric, hypnosis, and spiritualistic literatures, I focus on the writings of Jules Baillarger, Alfred Binet, Paul Blocq, Théodore Flournoy, Jules Héricourt, William James, Pierre Janet, Ambroise August Liébeault, Frederic W.H. Myers, Julian Ochorowicz, Charles Richet, Hippolyte Taine, Paul Tascher, and Edouard von Hartmann. While some of their ideas reduced mediumship solely to intra-psychic processes, others considered as well veridical phenomena. The speculations of these individuals, involving personation, and different memory states, were part of a general interest in the unconscious mind, and in automatisms, hysteria, and hypnosis during the period in question. Similar ideas continued into the Twentieth Century.

Sociology, theories of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey C. Alexander
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Empirical Processes ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Fundamental Properties ◽  
History Of ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S

Throughout the history of sociology, three types of theorizing have co-existed, sometimes uneasily. ‘Theories of’ provide abstract models of empirical processes; they function both as guides for sociological research and as sources for covering laws whose falsification or validation is intended to provide the basis for a cumulative science. ‘Presuppositional studies’ abstract away from particular empirical processes, seeking instead to articulate the fundamental properties of social action and order; meta-methodological warrants for the scientific investigation of societies; and normative foundations for moral evaluations of contemporary social life. ‘Hermeneutical theory’ addresses these basic sociological questions more indirectly, by interpreting the meanings and intentions of classical texts. The relation between these three forms of theorizing varies historically. In the post-war period, under the institutional and intellectual influence of US sociologists like Parsons and Merton, presuppositional and hermeneutical issues seemed to be settled; ‘theories of’ proliferated and prospects seemed bright for a cumulative, theoretically-organized science of society. Subsequent social and intellectual developments undermined this brief period of relative consensus. In the midst of the crises of the 1960s and 1970s, presuppositional and hermeneutical studies gained much greater importance, and became increasingly disarticulated from empirical ‘theories of’. Confronting the prospect of growing fragmentation, in the late 1970s and early 1980s there appeared a series of ambitious, synthetical works that sought to reground the discipline by providing coherent examples of how the different forms of sociological theory could once again be intertwined. While widely read inside and outside the discipline, these efforts failed in their foundational ambitions. As a result of this failure, over the last decade sociological theory has had diminishing influence both inside the discipline and without. Inside social science, economic and anthropological theories have been much more influential. In the broader intellectual arena, the most important presuppositional and hermeneutical debates have occurred in philosophy and literary studies. Sociological theorists are now participating in these extra-disciplinary debates even as they have returned to the task of developing ‘theories of’ particular institutional domains. The future of specifically sociological theory depends on reviving coherent relationships between these different theoretical domains.

Translators of the Soul: Bingham Dai, Pow-Meng Yap, and the Making of Transcultural Psychoanalysis in the Asia Pacific

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-185
Author(s):  
Howard Chiang
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Cultural Narratives ◽  
Asia Pacific Region ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Conceptual Innovation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Unconscious Mind

This essay argues that Asian psychoanalysts developed a new style of science, what I call transcultural reasoning, in the twentieth century. This conceptual innovation drew on the power of cultural narratives to elucidate the unconscious mind across different historical and geographical contexts. Focusing on the life and work of two experts in particular, Bingham Dai (1899–1996) and Pow-Meng Yap (1921–71), this article reconsiders the role of biography in the history of psychoanalysis and elucidates the importance of the Asia Pacific region to the transformation of mental health science in the twentieth century.

scholarly journals The Dynamics of Time and Space in Sociological Theory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
patrick john burnett
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
The Past ◽  
Time Horizons ◽  
Sociological Inquiry ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Mind

To date, there has been much emphasis on, and critical inquiry into, the variety of ways sociological theories examine social life, social organization, and human conduct within and between the past and present time horizons. Under the auspice that no authentic anticipation of what we may 'have to be' (future) is possible without borrowing from the resources of what we already 'have been' (past) and 'currently are' (present), sociological inquiry has been primarily focused on the relationship of an experiencing person (or persons) within the complexities of past events and present circumstances as a means to reveal insights toward the future of social organization. The reasons for this focus on investigations into past and present time horizons are because they are facilitated by the presence of an observable and material reality consisting of identifiable documents and tangible objects that can be identified, observed, interpreted and measured. Whereas, investigations into the future are working within a different reality status all together, one that does not contain identifiable material and empirically accessible facts, thus making it much more difficult to study in that it is focused on a reality that does not yet exist. Given that only materialized processes of the past and present have the status of factual reality (what is real is observable), conclusions and predictions about future events, which are essentially beyond the realm of the material and observable, remain at the level of the senses, as an aspect of the mind, and are seen as belonging to the realm of the 'ideal' and the 'not the real'. This paper walks through these considerations in detail and examines how a focus on time and space can help us better understand the ways in which social beings act.

Medjugorje and the Supernatural

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Maria Klimek
Keyword(s):  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Epileptic Seizures ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Teresa Of Avila ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Village ◽  
Unconscious Mind ◽  
Rare Opportunity

In June 1981, six young Croatians in the village of Medjugorje, in the former Yugoslavia, reported that the Virgin Mary had appeared to them. The Medjugorje visionaries say that the Virgin Mary has returned every day since then, bringing them important messages from heaven to convey to the world. Throughout history, people have reported encountering extraordinary religious experiences—apparitions of the Virgin Mary, visions of Jesus Christ, weeping statues and icons, the stigmata, physical healings and miracles, and experiences of the afterlife—and interpreted them as supernatural in origin. Scholars have often tried to reinterpret such experiences, including those described by the great mystics of history like Francis of Assisi, Catherine of Siena, and Teresa of Avila, into natural or psychopathological categories, such as hysteria, hallucination, delusion, epileptic seizures, psychosis, the workings of the unconscious mind, or fraud. Are such reductionist explanations valid? Over the past three decades the Medjugorje visionaries have been subjected to extensive medical, psychological, and scientific examination, even while undergoing their visionary experiences. Daniel Maria Klimek argues that the case of Medjugorje affords a rare opportunity to understand a deeper dimension of extraordinary religious phenomena. Klimek concludes that the scientific studies in Medjugorje make a significant contribution in challenging a history of reductionism in scholarship on extraordinary religious experiences, the science pointing to something “more” in the experiences of the visionaries.

scholarly journals Cognitive Hypnotherapy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Brooker
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Community ◽  
Medical Profession ◽  
Behavioural Therapy ◽  
Psychodynamic Therapy ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Psychological Conditions ◽  
Cognitive Behavioural ◽  
History Of ◽  
Unconscious Mind

Cognitive hypnotherapy (CH) is an assimilative therapy rooted in cognitive therapy and behavioural therapy, with the addition of hypnosis. It is a psychodynamic therapy that focuses on the unconscious mind (implicit thoughts, actions and emotions) no longer in conscious awareness. This chapter gives a brief synopsis of the hypnotic procedures and protocols that are most pertinent for understanding the case for integration. It gives the background of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and a brief history of how this therapy evolved. It further gives the rationale for the integration of hypnosis with CBT, corroborated with evidence from the literature. CH treatments are documented in some detail in a number of different domains where hypnosis is used as an adjunct to therapy for the treatment of debilitating psychological conditions. The techniques and procedures are designed to desensitise and reprocess dysfunctional cognitions, emotions and memories enabling positive change in cognitive perceptions and visualisation. The author, an academic and experienced clinical practitioner of CH for more than 10 years, recognises that there is much scepticism regarding this therapy. It is hoped that this review will give greater understanding and more credence to this highly effective therapy in both the scientific community and medical profession.

scholarly journals The continuum of coal violence and post-coal possibilities in the Appalachian South

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin R. Eldridge
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Coal Ash ◽  
Economic Incentives ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Power Stations ◽  
Multiple Dimensions ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Continuum

From the coalfields in the mountains to the coal-fired power stations scattered throughout the region, the coal economy has long shaped landscapes and livelihoods in the Appalachian South. This article combines the "continuum of violence" framework developed by Scheper-Hughes and Bourgois (2004) with a political ecological approach to examine at the multiple dimensions of violence associated with the coal economy in the Appalachian South. Drawing on insights from fieldwork and the history of coal in the region, this article specifically examines the socio-political arrangements, perverse economic incentives, and legitimation strategies at the heart of the blatant, symbolic, and structural forms of violence that manifest all along the 'social life' of coal. There has always been much more to this popularly misunderstood region than coal, however. As a number of anthropologists working in the region recently noted, Appalachia also has a long history of activis m, solidarity networks, mutual aid traditions, and non-market subsistence strategies. To conclude, some of the possibilities emerging out of current crises of the coal economy are discussed.Keywords: extraction, coal economy, coal ash, socio-ecological violence, political ecology, Appalachia

Re-conceiving rights revolutions: The persistence of a sociological deficit in theories of rights

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Thornhill
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Sociological Inquiry ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conventional Paradigm

AbstractThis article argues that the history of sociological theory has been shadowed by the attempt to account for the social status of rights: the analysis of rights revolutions is in fact a question of deeply formative significance for sociological inquiry. Both in classical and contemporary literature, however, the endeavour to explain rights sociologically has not been fully successful. Consequently, an attempt is made here to adjust the conventional paradigm for observing rights and to explain the underlying social dimensions of rights. To this end, this article aims to analyze rights, neither as institutions imposed on political power nor as expressions of primary human emphases or liberties, but as constructs that allow modern societies to articulate the reserves of power on which they rely. The construction of rights is examined as an element in the positivization of modern political power, and the role of rights in producing power is approached through a functional reconstruction of the historical formation of institutions conventionally utilizing political power in modern society. The article concludes by offering a critique of standard assumptions about rights.

Victorian Pain

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Ablow
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Victorian Literature ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Harriet Martineau ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Natural Philosophers ◽  
First Time

The nineteenth century introduced developments in science and medicine that made the eradication of pain conceivable for the first time. This new understanding of pain brought with it a complex set of moral and philosophical dilemmas. If pain serves no obvious purpose, how do we reconcile its existence with a well-ordered universe? Examining how writers of the day engaged with such questions, this book offers a compelling new literary and philosophical history of modern pain. The book provides close readings of novelists Charlotte Brontë and Thomas Hardy and political and natural philosophers John Stuart Mill, Harriet Martineau, and Charles Darwin, as well as a variety of medical, scientific, and popular writers of the Victorian age. The book explores how discussions of pain served as investigations into the status of persons and the nature and parameters of social life. No longer conceivable as divine trial or punishment, pain in the nineteenth century came to seem instead like a historical accident suggesting little or nothing about the individual who suffers. A landmark study of Victorian literature and the history of pain, the book shows how these writers came to see pain as a social as well as a personal problem. Rather than simply self-evident to the sufferer and unknowable to anyone else, pain was also understood to be produced between persons—and even, perhaps, by the fictions they read.

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