Thinking, Experiencing and Rethinking Mereological Interdependence

Summary The present article is a partly ontological, partly Gestalt-psychological discussion of the thinkability of structures in which parts and whole are interdependent (MI). In the first section, I show that in the framework of E. Husserl’s formal part–whole ontology, the conceptualization of such an interdependence leads to (mereo)logical problems. The second section turns to and affirms the experience of this interplay between parts and whole, exemplified with B. Pinna’s recent research on meaningful Gestalt perception. In the final section, I take the experienceability of MI as a justification to suggest a way of rethinking it. This entails an implementation of the process of foregrounding and backgrounding displayed by reversible figures and originally described by E. Rubin. This can avoid both an identity relation between parts and whole and their mutual exclusion as well as hierarchization due to their apparent differences. It would also guarantee the inherent dynamics of interdependence.

A Look at Psychology in Papua New Guinea Since Independence

When the New Guinea Psychologist ceased publication, psychology in Papua New Guinea effectively lost its voice. The journal had been closely linked with both the P.N.G. branch of the Australian Psychological Society (A.Ps.S.) and the Psychological Services Branch of the Public Service Commission. The decision to wind-up the A.Ps.S. in Papua New Guinea was taken in anticipation of independence, and the same event saw substantial changes in the personnel of the Public Service. As a result, the New Guinea Psychologist also went out of existence, and the only journal in P.N.G. devoted specifically to the publication of psychological reports and discussion became extinct.In the post-independence years, many changes occurred in melanesian psychology, but they were less adequately discussed and publicised than in earlier times. Research did not cease; if anything it expanded during that time. However, the absence of a readily identifiable forum for psychological discussion meant that most research received less attention from practicing psychologists in P.N.G. because the material was published in reports, which had limited circulation, or in overseas journals, or was not publishld at all. The final issue of New Guinean Psychologist was published in December 1974, by which time both Editors had left the country. Plans for the further development of the journal never came to fruition. The purpose of the present paper is to review developments in psychology since 1974.