Investigation of Tactile Illusion Based on Gestalt Theory

Time-evolving tactile sensations are important in communication between animals as well as humans. In recent years, this research area has been defined as “tactileology,” and various studies have been conducted. This study utilized the tactile Gestalt theory to investigate these sensations. Since humans recognize shapes with their visual sense and melodies with their auditory sense based on the Prägnanz principle in the Gestalt theory, this study assumed that a time-evolving texture sensation is induced by a tactile Gestalt. Therefore, the operation of such a tactile Gestalt was investigated. Two psychophysical experiments were conducted to clarify the operation of a tactile Gestalt using a tactile illusion phenomenon called the velvet hand illusion (VHI). It was confirmed that the VHI is induced in a tactile Gestalt when the laws of closure and common fate are satisfied. Furthermore, it was clarified that the tactile Gestalt could be formulated using the proposed factors, which included the laws of elasticity and translation, and it had the same properties as a visual Gestalt. For example, the strongest Gestalt factor had the highest priority among multiple competing factors.

The Politics of Living Death in Nuruddin Farah's Sweet and Sour Milk

This article examines Nuruddin Farah's 1979 novel Sweet and Sour Milk, asking how we read representations of postcolonial mourning and living death in the context of global authoritarianism. The first novel in Farah's influential dictatorship trilogy, Sweet and Sour Milk introduces us to “the General,” a fictionalized version of Siyad Barre, who ruled Somalia from 1969 to 1991. Like Barre's, the General's power exemplifies what Achille Mbembe calls “necropolitics,” or “the contemporary subjugation of life to the power of death.” The General's necropower manifests, peculiarly, as a politics of substitution—that is, when he takes a life, he leaves something in its place. Rebels do not simply disappear; they are killed and then given sycophantic zombie afterlives in the General's propaganda. In response to this politics of substitution, Farah explores a politics of mourning, which insists upon the irreplaceability of lost love objects and thereby broadly reveals what truly can and cannot be substituted. The General insists on the uniqueness of his power, for example, but Farah reveals it to be a cliché, easily substituted by that of other dictators throughout history. Cliché becomes revolutionary in this way, suggesting that dictators share a common fate: they will be deposed or, eventually, die of old age. However, like a horde of the living dead, others like them will return. The article concludes with analysis of the apparent pessimism of this point and the global implications of Farah's ideas about both necropolitics and the limits of the novel form in the face of authoritarian power.

Collective Narcissism, In-Group Satisfaction, and Solidarity in the Face of COVID-19

The present study explored the antecedents of solidarity amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that solidarity during mass emergencies involves the development of a social identity encompassing those facing a common fate, we examined how national in-group satisfaction (IS, a belief that the national in-group and one’s membership in it are of high value) versus national collective narcissism (CN, a belief that the national in-group is exceptional and entitled to privileged treatment but not sufficiently recognized by others) predicted solidarity with those affected by the pandemic in Poland. The results of cross-sectional and dynamic analyses from a panel study on a representative sample of Polish adults indicate that IS predicted greater COVID-19 solidarity, whereas CN predicted reduced COVID-19 solidarity.

Collective Narcissism, In-Group Satisfaction, and Solidarity in the Face of COVID-19

The present study explored the antecedents of solidarity amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that solidarity during mass emergencies involves the development of a social identity encompassing those facing a common fate, we examined how national in-group satisfaction (a belief that the national in-group and one’s membership in it are of high value) versus national collective narcissism (a belief that the national in-group is exceptional and entitled to privileged treatment, but not sufficiently recognized by others) predicted solidarity with those affected by the pandemic in Poland. The results of cross-sectional and dynamic analyses from a panel study on a representative sample of Polish adults indicate that in-group satisfaction predicted greater COVID-19 solidarity, whereas collective narcissism predicted reduced COVID-19 solidarity.