Czarny scenariusz. Strategie obrazowania potransformacyjnego Górnego Śląska w Sercu z węgla i Benku

Author(s): Alicja Kosterska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 6/2015

Based on an analysis of pop cultural representations – the reality television show Serce z węgla [Heart of Coal, 2001] and the feature film Benek [Benek, 2007] – Kosterka examines the visualization of post-transformation Upper Silesia in 21st-century Polish film. She draws on psychoanalysis to explore why Upper Silesia has become attractive especially to those directors who aim to highlight the negative consequences of the socio-economic transformations after 1989: poverty, unemployment, frustration and a lack of perspective. The aim of this article is to draw readers’ attention to the fact that in 21st-century representations, Upper Silesia is mostly understood, visualized and spoken about as a space of ‘wilful exclusion,’ which has helped solidify the post-transformation status quo.

Polscy akcjoniści. Przyczynek do genealogii i teorii polskiej sztuki krytycznej

Author(s): Marcin Kościelniak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 6/2015

Karol Sienkiewicz’s book Zatańczą ci, co drżeli [Those Who Trembled Shall Dance] has revived the debate on the genealogy of Polish critical art. Kościelniak enters into the conversation by placing two dramatic works within this framework, namely Tadeusz Różewicz’s Do piachu [Into the Sand] and Helmut Kajzar’s Koniec półświni [The End of the Half-Pig]. He argues that there is structural and political similarity with the Viennese Actionists – the pioneers of critical art. Kościelniak grounds his interpretation of Różewicz and Kajza in Julia Kristeva’s theory of the abject. Addressing the fact that art of the abject tends to be automatically associated with critical art, Kościelniak discusses the limits of art’s critical function.

VPLYV ZAPAMÄTANÉHO RODIČOVSKÉHO SPRÁVANIA NA VNÍMANÉ BEZPEČIE

Author(s): Miroslava Kopaničáková / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 4/2014

The main objective of the presented study was to determine whether there is a relationship between selected variables of perceived safety /fear of crime/ (perceived risk, perceived sense of security and preventive behavior), 3 types of retrospective parental behavior and self-efficacy. We were interested also whether there are differences in remembered parental behavior by the respondents who have experienced some kind of victimization and those who have no experience with crime. The research sample represented 265 university students (including 83 men and 182 women) with different study focus of an average age of about 22 years. The results show that if respondents perceived their parents as controlling and protective, they showed more preventive behavior, and the greater sense of perceived risk. The results showed that respondents who had experience with some kind of victimization, perceived parental behavior as less unfavorable, more emotionally warm and less hyperprotective compared with those who did not have direct experience with some kind of crime. The self-efficacy of these groups did not differ significantly.

Zamestnanecká neistota: individuálne a organizačné dôsledky

Author(s): Lucia Ištoňová / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 4/2015

Job insecurity represents a prevailing problematic issue for many employed people. In this study we examined chosen individual and organizational consequences of job insecurity. On the individual level we focused of job satisfaction, whereas on the organizational level we focused on affective commitment and turnover intentions. Research sample consisted of 111 respondents (men 45% and women 55%) acquired via non–probability sampling. The average age of respondents was 37,98 years (SD = 6,88). Four measures were used. Namely: Scale of affective and cognitive job insecurity (Elizur, & Borg, 1992), Job Satisfaction Scale (Warr, Cook, & Wall, 1979), Affective Commitment Scale (Meyer, & Allen, 1997) and Turnover intention scale (Roodt, 2004). The results suggested that job insecurity is significantly negatively associated with job satisfaction. Moreover affective job insecurity seems to be significant predictor of worsen job satisfaction. However, job insecurity was not significantly linked to affective commitment nor to fluctuation. The present study provides results that are first of its kind acquired on the Slovak sample. Nevertheless more, preferably longitudinal, studies are needed on this topic.

Powrót terrorystki. Przypadek Brigitte Mohnhaupt

Author(s): Beata Łazarz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2016

This article aims to analyse works from the series ‘Sympathy for the Devil?/The Wretched of the Earth’ (2008-2011) by the British artist Esiri Erheriene-Essi. The central figure is Brigitte Mohnhaupt, the German terrorist responsible for the most brutal attacks perpetrated by the Red Army Faction (RAF). Łazarz draws on psychoanalytical tools, especially ones based on the works of on Sigmund Freud and Hanna Segal. Her analysis suggests that the creation of Mohnhaupt’s portrait allowed the artist to engage in a sort of public autotherapy that made it possible to confront herself with her own emotions relating to terrorism, to become aware of ambivalence and to become empathic towards the protagonist. Her audience can participate in this experience, both consciously and unconsciously.

Morálne zdôvodňovanie v kontexte na cieľ orientovaného správania

Author(s): Radka Čopková / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 3/2016

The aim of the current research was to confirm the properties of one possible way how to measure the phenomenon of self-licensing in goal directed behavior. As the name of variable suggests, we have connected two significant fields of self-regulation research – moral justification (specifically self-licensing) (Khan & Dhar, 2006; Kivetz & Zheng, 2006; Monin & Miller, 2001) and goal directed behavior (Carver & Scheier, 2001; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Perugini & Bagozzi, 2001). The sample of 114 university students (78% women; 22% men) aged from 18 to 33 years (the average age was 23,03 years, SD=2,78) has been used. We have constructed a reliable questionnaire (Cronbach´s alpha=0,921) capturing the way of goal attainment in morally questionable conditions. The questionnaire consists of three reliable sub-dimensions: Remorse (0,848), Self-reassurance (0,841) and Depersonalization (0,832). Except of new measure, next three have been used: Machiavellian Personality Scale (Dahling et al., 2008), Short Self-Control Scale (Tangney, Baumeister & Boone, 2004) and Conscientiousness dimension from NEO-FFI (Ruisel & Halama, 2007). Gender differences have been confirmed in self-licensing in goal directed behavior as whole and also in sub-dimensions of Remorse and Self-reassurance. The correlation analysis has confirmed significant inter-correlations between all sub-dimensions of self-licensing in goal directed behaviour. Also it has confirmed significant relationships with machiavellian personality, self-control and self-conscientiousness. The aim of the current research was reached by finding factor structure of Self-licensing in goal directed behavior questionnaire and its relationships with machiavellianism, sef-control and conscientiousness.

Conference Report of the 9th International Conference „InPACT 2021“

Author(s): Miroslava Bozogáňová / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

Conference report of the 9th International Conference „InPACT 2021“, April 24 – 26, 2021, online

Ķermenis un afekta reprezentācija Ilmāra Blumberga portretu sērijās

Author(s): Iveta Feldmane / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 27/2023

The article analyses painter, graphic artist and stage designer Ilmārs Blumbergs’ (1943–2016) artworks in which he thematises the body as his intimate space subject to finality and death. Besides existential and intellectual issues, Blumbergs has always been interested in human physical existence in art. Searches for the meaning of the body and bodily states are an important theme in Blumbergs’ art. The author interprets Blumbergs’ self-portraits as imprints of his individual experience. They embody the transformations of the portrait genre in Latvian art since the 1980s; thus in his case, the traditional boundaries of the genre are significantly expanded. Affect theory as a critical discourse in the social sciences and humanities surged in the mid-1990s. This article deals with affect theory and the possibilities of using it in the interpretation of artworks. The author provides a brief insight into the history of studying affect, the meaning of the terms affectus and affectio in the shaping of two paradigms in this theory: affect as an elementary state and affect as an intensive power. The article emphasises those facets of the theory which relate to the body, bodily reactions as well as aspects of the artwork’s creation and perception. Several theoretical approaches of how to view an artwork through the prism of affect theory have been examined in the article. Focusing on the aspect of the affect’s working and influence, the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995), in collaboration with the philosopher and psychoanalyst Felix Guattari (1939–1992), developed the theoretical trend of affect as an intensive force, and this perspective seems to be the most appropriate for the research of art. According to Deleuze’s and Guattari’s philosophical stance, affect is a result of the clash between organic or inorganic bodies; it is also present in the artwork as a peculiar aesthetics of materials and forms where colouring, surface texture, mass and volume are significant. Considering the mutual connection between affect and body, the article outlines several conceptions of the body identifiable in Blumbergs’ art, including body as a space where the battle for survival takes place, and the performative body as a constituent part of the artwork. The author takes up the interpretation of works titled “Me Myself in Strontium Radiation” (2010–2012) and “My Head in Strontium Radiation”, concluding that Blumbergs’ body in “Strontium” works is real, corporeal and affected by external conditions, while at the same time being abstract too. Material and abstract features are united in the context of affect studies. In other words, the body depicted in the artwork and related to the affect can be viewed as an indivisible unity embracing both spiritual and material substances. From the perspective of Deleuze’s affect theory defining affect as an intensive force, the idea of active matter comes to the fore. Strontium radiation depicted in Blumbergs’ paintings is a representation of “expressive” matter. The author invites viewers to spot connotations of affect and bodily reactions in several of Blumbergs’ works. In the performance “The Drawings are in the Box” (2003), the artist has used his body as a part of the artwork. Equipped with sheets of paper, charcoal sticks and loose charcoal, the artist drew lines and scratches with his naked body, leaving traces on the plane of the paper. Creating a soundtrack was important for this performance. Alongside other associations, emotions and reflection possibly caused by this artwork, the viewer (listener) could have quite an affective reaction of goosebumps caused by such a sound. In the series of photographic portraits “House-Keeping” (2002) Blumbergs has captured himself and his closest associates, emphasising the process of aging. In these photographic works he stresses the biological nature of the human body, its inescapable finality that is the main bodily limitation experienced by everyone. Body and ash as a metaphor or tangible matter is revealed in ten large-sized photographs, portraying a man’s body and skin that was part of the multi-media exposition in the exhibition “A Prayer for Seeing” in the Riga Gallery in 2004. The motif of ashes has a special place in Blumbergs’ art as a connection with his friend Imants Tilbergs (1939–2023) who was Blumbergs’ model or alter ego in most photographs as well as in the short films “Man” (2004), “Room” (2007) and “Ashes” (2010). In the film “Man”, Blumbergs created a peculiar human portrait in the interior. Blumbergs himself and Tilbergs are doing performative actions but the shabby room with dusty furniture and a rundown sofa serve as a static background for naked male figures, briefly entering the shot in a disorderly and unexpected manner. The film lasts no more than a few minutes but its viewing demands concentration from the spectator who is confronted with a rapid change of shots and a sudden noise able to cause anxiety by the means of image and sound. Therefore, besides the thematisation of the body, one can speak about yet another point of intersection between affect and art in the context of this video – the artwork’s ability to cause not only certain emotional states but also to affect the viewer directly. The author concludes the article with at least three conceptions of the body emerging in Blumbergs’ art. Firstly, this is the body as an inner, closed space where the ongoing processes are captured. Secondly, representation of the body as it interacts and connects with other bodies, with space and the outer world. Thirdly, the body as a constituent part of the artwork, meaning its direct involvement in the artwork as a performative act. Discussion about affect in the context of Blumbergs’ art is significant because spiritual and bodily dimensions, the latter unfortunately and inevitably encountering illness, are equally manifested in his art.

En deçà et au-delà du cauchemar chez Samuel Beckett, avec un effet de halo sur Film

Author(s): Liviu Dospinescu / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2023

The oneiric universe is present in almost all of Samuel Beckettʼs work, if only in the aspect of a form of reverie as found in modified states of consciousness, distinct from the usual states of mind, and which are often quite closeto trance or hypnotic states, or even, sometimes, to quite problematic psychologicalstates. At first glance, all of Beckettʼs characters are dreamers, but by dint offollowing them in their inner turmoil, we may discover the signs of a deeper if notfunding activity of the spirit. Oneirism in Beckett, when it is not the simplerepresentation of its phenomenality, can be part of an articulatory strategy ofsimulacra of deep experiences of the psyche, most of the time in connection withexistential questions which are neatly brought into the spectatorʼs field ofconsciousness, so that, with the guard down or in no way forced to “connect” to the genre of discourse, (s)he finally lets her/ himself be experientially inhabited by it.In the opening of this article, I will present a brief overview of the formal, aspectualdiversity of oneirism in a few short pieces by Samuel Beckett: …but the clouds…,Nacht und Träume, What Where and Ghost Trio. Then, most of the development isdedicated to the descriptive analysis of Samuel Beckett’s Film, which will highlightthe richness of dreamlike forms and contents from his uniquely non-verbaldiscourse. Its aspectual diversity ranges from philosophy with phenomenologicaland existential tints, to the anthropology of rites and popular beliefs, and even topsychoanalysis, for the sharpness of the figures of the work of the dream which relate to it, as surprised in the field of manifestations of this unique cinematographic work.

Psychopoetic Encounters: Figurations of Difficulty

Author(s): Mieke Bal / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

While going through some cultural expressions in texts and images, this article proposes reflections on ways in which the practice of poetics, in the sense of creative making, needs to encounter, address, and overcome difficulty in order to facilitate the contribution of the imagination and the acts of “imaging” it allows, to the figuration of the new. Encounter is the key word, indicating plurality and process. Nothing is fixed; hence, not “identity” as something permanent, but instead, in the encounter, identification with others, other fields, other ideas, other images becomes appealing and possible.In the painstaking attempts to think up new ideas, one encounters difficulty, which needs to be overcome. Only through encounters this becomes thinkable, and that makes imaging something so far unheard of, possible. The ‘poetic’ side of psychopoetics, making through (as traversing) and with (as its material) the reflections emanating from the unconscious as they appear at the edge of consciousness, is what binds together the different disciplines as we know them, in a knot of creativity, imagining, and thinking what we did not know.

The Biological Unconscious, Memory and Identity in Charles Fernyhough’s A Box of Birds

Author(s): Maria Margaroni / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

This essay proposes to critically engage with dominant materialist and narrative models of human identity, addressing the old, ‘tired’ question of subjectivity from a twenty-first century perspective. Drawing on contemporary neuroscientific theory and Lacanian psychoanalysis, I aim to read Charles Fernyhough’s A Box of Birds (2012) as a creative reflection on the nature of memory, consciousness and the unconscious. As I shall demonstrate, what lies at the heart of Fernyhough’s reflection is the Platonic allegory of the mind as an aviary. Taken up and re-interpreted by different characters in the novel, this allegory permits Fernyhough to experiment with contemporary discourses of neuro-subjectivity, tracing a richer, more dynamic relation among mind, brain and body.

Pnin’s Unforgettable Digressions: Towards a Nabokovian Approach to the Unconscious

Author(s): Zihao Liu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Defining the unconscious in a Husserlian manner as that which appears through reproductive acts of consciousness, this article attempts to investigate how Vladimir Nabokov tackles this theme in Pnin both as a stylist and as a storyteller. Nabokov understands literature as the art of language that imposes lived experiences on readers, and he achieves literary representations of the unconscious in Pnin by juxtaposing experiences containing tacit expectations that are incongruent with one another. Tracking the scenes where Pnin performs reproductive acts throughout the novel, it is found that the unconscious functions as a thematic pattern in Pnin and mirrors the protagonist’s progress in his quixotic war against cruelty and callousness in the world.

A PERSONALITY JOURNEY – HISTORY, DEFINITIONS AND THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

Author(s): Camelia Ioana Ienciu (Popa) / Language(s): English Issue: 36/2024

The article brings into discussion the history, several definitions and distinct theories of personality, all presented and described in a nutshell. Personality psychology belongs to the category of one of the most comprehensive and integrative branches of the psychological sciences. Defining personality is not an easy assignment, and the different answers given by people, theorists or psychologists have found expression throughout history in distinct fields such as philosophy, religion, law, art, politics or science. Each person understands the term ‘personality’ in different manners and, perhaps, this is the main reason why there can be found so many personality theories. One of the most important aspects of each personality theory has to deal with the image of human nature. Therefore, theorists express their personal conception of human nature, which concentrates on the fundamental issues of what it truly means to be human. Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, Alfred Adler and Erik Erikson are only several names that belong to the psychodynamic theories which emphasize the unconscious. People’s consciousness can hardly embrace various significant characteristics of personality held beyond awareness. Sigmund Freud is the theorist who elaborated the first theory of personality, entitled psychoanalysis. He explains that the most part of our personality is unconscious and that the individuals’ instincts are merely sexual and aggressive. Carl Jung is well-known for the theory named analytical psychology. He considered the unconscious as being notably important, but in many other aspects he disagreed with Freud. For instance, in Jung’s opinion, there are many other valuable instincts besides sexuality and aggressiveness. Alfred Adler is another famous name who invented another theory of personality, the individual psychology. Unlike Freud or Jung, Alfred believed that the unconscious is meaningless and that personality is not shaped by instincts at all.

TYRANNY IN RICHARD III. A JUNGIAN PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH TO ITS AETIOLOGY AND PSYCHOGENESIS

Author(s): Emilian Tîrban / Language(s): English Issue: 36/2024

“Richard III” has fascinated the world of theatre and the intellectual endeavour of literary criticism for centuries by displaying Shakespeare's intemperate interest in portraying the tyrant’s psychology. To locate the psychogenesis and aetiological elements that influenced the protagonist's violent ambitions, the present article will focus on psychoanalytic interpretations of Richard III's psyche emphasising the underlying tyrannical propensity of his behaviour and environmental causes. As a result, this article will also look at the collective shortcomings portrayed in the play, such as the family and community's failure to accept responsibility for fostering tyrannical behavioural patterns in Richard. Given Richard's centrality and the play's minute investigations into the workings of a tyrant's mind, this article aims to present an interpretation of Shakespeare's first attempt at portraying the (psycho)genesis and demise of a tyrant concerning his later tragedies. Occasional comparisons might show how Shakespeare's portrayal of the psyche's tortuous development in tragedy has evolved from 1592-3, the years “Richard III” was written and first performed (Bloom “Invention” xv), into the "tragic period" (Bradley 84) of 1600-1606 (with “Hamlet”, “King Lear”, and “Macbeth” especially). Investigating Richard's descent from psychic integrity to psychic atrophy will best demonstrate Shakespeare's early attempt to depict a tyrant’s mental cosmetics by focusing on the Marlovian overabundances of character that make Richard III such a puzzling figure. This article shows how Richard is psychologically different from Shakespeare's later tragic protagonists, whose psyches are partly accessible to them, but are tapped into to an eventually fatal effect.

Literackie sny zwierząt po psychoanalizie. Przypadek psów. Studium porównawcze

Author(s): Piotr Krupiński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 14/2023

The main objective of the paper is to compare two short stories: “Dog’s Dream” by Stefan Flukowski and “Waiting for the Dog to Dream” by Jerzy Ficowski. The element that both narratives have in common, as their titles indicate, is the question of their onirism. This is especially evident in Flukowski’s story, which almost in its entirety is a record of a “literary dream of psychoanalysis” (to use Inga Iwasiów’s phrase). The short story represents a fascination with Sigmund Freud, common to many writers of the interwar period, especially when it comes to his “Interpretation of Dreams.” Yet, an additional difficulty for the author of this article is the fact that the main characters of these stories – those who dream – are animals, i.e. dogs. This type of a narrative experiment demands an interpretative transgression beyond literary studies, towards natural sciences. The study includes many references to such disciplines as neurobiology, aetiology and evolutionary cognitive science.

Socrates at Work: Philosophical Counselling for Leadership Development and Employee Well-Being

Author(s): İhsan Çitli,Ramazan Çarkı / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

In the modern world, the understanding of philosophy as an abstract, speculative and impractical pursuit has led to its dismissal by many people as a useless field of knowledge. However, throughout history, philosophy has consistently addressed fundamental concerns related to human existence and to the world of living. On the other hand, today’s organizations grapple with concerns similar to fundamental philosophical issues. They involve ethical conduct, ethical leadership, and well-being. Thus, philosophizing may pave the way for the solution of problems related to these topics within modern organizations. In this context, philosophical counselling may be a useful perspective that organizations should benefit from. It may be integrated into many management and human resource practices to harness the power of philosophy for dealing with ethical and ontological problems of employees. For this purpose, this study aims to review the literature on philosophical counselling and to explore how leadership development and employee well-being programmes increase the power of philosophical counselling. Based on the review, propositions for integrating philosophical counselling into organizations as an employee assistance service is discussed.

Хиперментално-неосъзнаваното в изобразителното изкуство през втората половина на ХХ–началото на ХХІ век

Author(s): Krasimir Delchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2024

The article analyzes the hypermental unconscious during the latter half of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Interpreting neoliberalism with Foucault and Lacan – fantasy, depression and the entrepreneurial subjectivity

Author(s): Milan A. Urošević / Language(s): English,Serbian Issue: 3/2024

The article is dedicated to the construction of a unique theoretical framework aimed at understanding the phenomenon of neoliberalism. In this regard, we primarily rely on the conceptual framework of the governmentality theory, which originates from the work of Michel Foucault. For a better understanding of how neoliberalism interpellates individuals, we will complement the conceptual framework with Lacanian psychoanalysis. We will demonstrate how such a synthesis allows for overcoming the conceptual gap that exists in the governmentality theory between the rationality of governmental regimes and the subjectivity of individuals. We will apply the theoretical synthesis of the governmentality theory and Lacanian psychoanalysis to understand how the neoliberal regime mobilizes subjects into appropriate forms of action, inducing them to adopt the model of subjectivity that Foucault calls homo economicus. Finally, we will examine the phenomenon of depression and show how our theoretical framework can establish a connection between neoliberalism, neoliberal subjectivity, and depression as a mental disorder.

The Success of Philosophy by Umberto Galimberti

Author(s): Nora Goleshevska / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2024

LINGUISTIC AND COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVES ON MEDITATION: THE ROLE OF ORIENTAL TECHNIQUES IN LANGUAGE PROCESSING AND STRESS REDUCTION

Author(s): Cristina-Dana Popescu,Cristian Opariuc Dan / Language(s): English Issue: 40/2025

This paper examines the impact of Eastern meditation techniques, including mindfulness, yoga, Qigong, transcendental meditation, and breathing exercises, on cognitive functions and stress reduction. The paper focuses on the neuroplastic mechanisms that underlie these effects, exploring how meditation influences brain structure and function. Although numerous studies support the cognitive and psychological benefits of meditation, significant methodological limitations remain, such as small sample sizes, inconsistent assessment tools, and the lack of standardized meditation protocols. The study highlights the most relevant research findings from the past eight years (2016–2024), providing an overview of key theoretical frameworks, assessment methods, and existing gaps in knowledge. Furthermore, it underscores the need for longitudinal studies and cross-cultural research to establish a more comprehensive understanding of meditation’s role in cognitive enhancement and stress management. By synthesizing current evidence, this paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on meditation as a scientifically grounded tool for improving mental well-being.