Kędzierzyn-Koźle – dziedzictwo przeszłości w kulturze miasta przemysłowego na pograniczu etniczno-kulturowym

Kędzierzyn-Koźle – The Heritage of the Past in the Culture of the Industrial City Functioning in the Ethnic and Cultural Frontier The article draws attention to the issues of symbolic functioning of the city which was formed of two different entities as a result of political and economic decisions. In the 20th century, the history of a traditional city got entwined with a modernistic industrial city which was taking shape. As a result, ideologies and politics impacted on the newly-established conurbation. The city denotes not only the material sphere, but also its urban community, which, in the case of the places under study, was basically historically complicated. The method of description is the ‘culturalistic’ orientation in the study of the city and also the (emotional) sociology of Silesia of the Rev. Emil Szramek. The author’s reflections touch upon ideas, facts as well as the real city’s organism shaped in its longterm and short-term perspective.

Kreacja postaci Świętego Jerzego w wybranych tekstach polskich

The work relates to the creation of Saint George – a dragon slayer emerging from the selection of texts published in the Polish language since the beginning of the 20th century. Analytical considerations are preceded by an outline of the history of the hagiographic message about Saint George, taking into account symbolic functioning of this character in various areas of culture. Works differentiated in genological terms and taken from various sources (classical literature, folklore texts, poetic songs) were selected as the research material. Saint George’s creation was characterized in four ways: 1. A pious knight, 2. A dragon slayer, 3. A character from artistic concepts, 4. A hero deprived of his legend. The article is finalized by conclusions regarding the differentiation of the plot, the way of taking into account the religious element (from the paraenetic pattern to desacralization), and literary references to visual arts.

The Role of Teaching Materials in Cognitive Development Focusing on the “Emergence of Symbolic Functioning” and Behaviour Issues

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the role of teaching materials focusing on the “Emergence of Symbolic Functioning” and latent behaviour issues. First, a literature review is performed on the behaviour issues associated with intellectual disability (ID) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Three kinds of assessment tools used in this study are described with underlying developmental meanings. Especially, one of those tools, a teaching device named “Tamahimo” is introduced as a practical assessment tool to visualize participants' cognitive conditions. Three cases, two adolescents and one young adult with ID, are discussed, with their autism-like behaviours and characteristic cognitive profiles evaluated using the assessment tools. All cognitive development is judged as corresponding to the “Emergence of Symbolic Functioning,” that is, the qualitative transition phase from non-symbolic to the explicit existence of a symbolic functioning stage. Factors preventing social adaptation are discussed as they relate to unstable cognitive conditions.

Lying and Deception in Development

Human self-consciousness and symbolic functioning bring deception to new levels, incomparable to all the other forms of deception found in other animals or in nature in general. It brings intention and open-ended delusional redescription of reality to fit our social needs, boost our self-worth, and maintain semblance of self-unity. Children learn and develop quickly the ability to use semblances as the primary tool in their navigation of the social world, gaining affiliation through the debunking and deliberate creation of false or pseudo beliefs. In fact, the catalogue of lies and deception found in toddlers starting at two years, even if they are at basic, putatively nonstrictly representational level (i.e., without explicit false belief understanding) is stunning.

Return of the Repressed: Revisiting Dissociation and the Psychoanalysis of the Traumatized Mind

Psychoanalytic treatment is often indicated when trauma and its psyche/soma companion, dissociation, severely disrupt symbolic functioning and associative linking. After Freud’s initial thinking on these matters, repression replaced rather than supplemented dissociation (which occasions segregating units of experience) as the primary defensive response to severe trauma. Because psychoanalysis had “repressed” the salience of dissociation as actively motivated (though passively experienced), an unnecessary schism has occurred between trauma theories and mainstream North American psychoanalysis, and within psychoanalysis itself. To fully restore dissociation’s role in primitive mental states and provide a more integrated approach to technique, it is necessary to comprehend the triadic nature of trauma, which entails economic/drive, structural conflict and deficit, and object-relational factors. For a treatment model that addresses defensive dissociation in the here and now, primary and secondary dissociation must be distinguished, with each differentiated from splitting and repression. Technique requires addressing unconscious, repressed fantasies associated with the “trauma,” object-relational patterns that interfere with linking, and psycho-economic issues that have disrupted ego functioning. A clinical example illustrates both the analyst’s persistence in suffering the dead, eerie space of dissociated trauma and efforts to find language that helps structure the patient’s somatic and enacted expressions (and accompanying dissociative and repressive processes) by which traumatic experiences are registered and conveyed.

Autism and the Philosophy of Mind

In order to understand the pathogenesis of autism, one needs to have an adequate framework within which to think about the nature of typical as well as atypical early human mental development. From a complementary perspective, the study of autism may challenge our ways of thinking about the mind itself. For example, are we justified in introducing divisions among cognition, conation, and affect in characterizing early development? What is the epistemological basis for children's understanding of others' minds? How should we think about the origins of and basis for symbolic functioning? This chapter explores the relevance of philosophy for our accounts of autism, highlighting the importance of ideas from Wittgenstein and Strawson in particular, and illustrates fresh ways in which autism might contribute to debates in philosophy of mind.