scholarly journals The Drinker with the Writing Problem: Brendan Behan's Anecdotal Alcoholism

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Lynch

Half a century after his death Brendan Behan is, all too frequently, remembered for the addiction which killed him. Throughout the multiple biographical portraits and references in popular culture, Behan's reputation as a bon viveur often outweighs his legacy as a writer. Biographical representations of Behan the alcoholic include the child drinker, the harmless entertainer, and the self-destructive artist best known for his ‘open-necked shirt, his cursing, his drunkenness in public, his contempt for convention’ (O'Connor 1970, p.294). While Behan's reputation as a ‘drinker with a writing problem’ is variously interpreted, the narrative form in which it is recalled is surprisingly constant. This essay is focused around the subject of Behan's drinking and the anecdotes used to document and recall it. Widely discredited as incoherent and self-interested, Brendan Behan's Island (1962) and Brendan Behan's New York (1964) are, with good reason, regularly rejected as aberrations in Behan's oeuvre. Yet, as will be argued here, they are valuable precisely because they narrate the experience of alcoholic demise.

1991 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hubert J. M. Hermans

Recent developments in self‐research show the self to be increasingly conceived as an organized and highly dynamic phenomenon. In combination with the arguments presented in the preceding article, these developments are a good reason for adopting a method in which the psychologist and the subject work together in the study of the self: The self‐confrontation method and the theory on which it is based—valuation theory—are presented as an example of such an approach. This method construes the self as an organized process of valuations, a valuation being any unit of meaning that the person finds of importance in thinking about his or her life. Formulated in the language of the person him‐ or herself; these valuations and how they develop over time are considered in a dialogue between the psychologist and the subject. For the purposes of demonstration, two phenomena that are not easily observedare discussed here: (a) the existence of an imaginal figure not visibly present but functioning as a signifcant other in the person's daily life, and (b) the presence of a character in a recurring dream, which later gets included as an integral part of the self: Finally, the present approach is briefly discussed as representing a constructivist view of personality psychology.


1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-223
Author(s):  
Lillian Taiz

Forty-eight hours after they landed in New York City in 1880, a small contingent of the Salvation Army held their first public meeting at the infamous Harry Hill's Variety Theater. The enterprising Hill, alerted to the group's arrival from Britain by newspaper reports, contacted their leader, Commissioner George Scott Railton, and offered to pay the group to “do a turn” for “an hour or two on … Sunday evening.” In nineteenth-century New York City, Harry Hill's was one of the best known concert saloons, and reformers considered him “among the disreputable classes” of that city. His saloon, they said, was “nothing more than one of the many gates to hell.”


1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 202-214
Author(s):  
Олена Савченко

У статті розглядається рефлексивна компетентність як інтегративне особистісне утворення, що формується в ході набуття суб’єктом рефлексивного досвіду при застосуванні різних форм рефлексивної активності, спрямованих на розв’язання визначених рефлексивних задач. У структурі рефлексивної компетентності оцінно-мотиваційний компонент виконує наступні функції: оцінку форм рефлексивної активності та її результатів, прогнозування можливих змін у процесі розв’язування проблемно-конфліктних ситуацій, визначення пріоритетних завдань подальшого розвитку себе як суб’єкта рефлексивної активності. На когнітивному рівні функціонує система критеріїв оцінювання власних форм рефлексивної активності, яка характеризується ступенем когнітивної складності, що відображає рівень диференціації та інтеграції системи. Функціонування оцінно-мотиваційного компонента на метакогнітивному рівні забезпечує система здібностей до прогнозування власної активності. Особистісний рівень представлений системою життєвих задач на саморозвиток, які стимулюють суб’єкта докладати зусилля щодо розвитку в себе певних якостей, формування певних вмінь та знань. Розрізненість елементів компонента є індикатором незавершеності процесу формування його внутрішньої структури, низький рівень інтеграції окремих складових не дозволяє системі ефективно компенсувати недорозвинені елементи. Найбільшу вагу у внутрішній структурі оцінно-мотиваційного компонента має показник сформованості системи здібностей до прогнозування власної активності, що підтверджує системотвірну функцію структур метакогнітивного рівня. In the article the reflective competence is seen as an integrative personal formation which develops in the process of acquiring of the reflective experience, when the subject is using various forms of the reflective activity for the solving of specific reflective tasks. In the structure of the reflective competence the value-motivational component performs such functions: an evaluation of forms of the reflective activity and its results, a prediction of the possible changes in the process of solving of the problem-conflict situations, a determining of the priorities for further development of himself as a subject of the reflective activity. The system of the criteria of an evaluating of the reflective activity`s forms functions on the cognitive level of the reflective competence. The level of the cognitive complexity is the basic feature of this system. The predictive abilities` system, that allows to form the expectations of the activity`s results, presents the value-motivational component on the metacognitive level. The system of the life tasks for the self-development, which stimulates the subject to make efforts to develop his own qualities, to form specific skills and knowledge, functions on the personal level. The fragmentation of the elements is an indicator of the incompleteness of the formation of the internal structure of the value-motivational component. The low level of integration of the separate elements does not allow effectively to compensate the functioning of the unformed elements of the system. The index of the formation of the abilities to predict his own activity has the greatest meaning in the internal structure of the value-motivational component. These data confirm the hypothesis about the system-forming function of the metacognitive structures that unite other structures. Thus the development of the predictive abilities will promote the increase of the abilities to the prediction of the others` behavior. An adequate assessment of other people significantly reduces the inconsistency of his own expectations and estimations of others. The development of the predictive abilities creates favorable conditions for the formation of the life tasks for the self-development to increase their value in the system of other tasks


Author(s):  
Ekaterina Galkina ◽  

The problem of the study is that it is not sufficiently studied what psychological barriers people face at the initial stage of professional activity as self-employed. The aim of the study is to study the features of psychological barriers at the initial stage of professional activity of self-employed people. Research hypothesis: at the initial stage of professional activity as self-employed people face psychological barriers in the organizational and creative areas of entrepreneurial activity. The problem of psychological barriers was considered in their works by S. Rubinstein, N. Podymov, I. Pavlov, R. Shakurov and others. The article formulates particular definitions of the main concepts. Methodology: analysis of an individual case using interviews with processing in the framework of interpretive phenomenology. Respondent: female, 34 years old, self-employed as a psychologist for 1 year. Results: psychological barrier of accepting financial responsibility, barrier of adherence to a certain professional culture, barrier of competence in the profession. Certain psychological barriers can arise in connection with certain underlying medical conditions. The conclusions are that psychological barriers are a complex mental education, can be overcome in stages, and motivation of the subject is important for overcoming barriers.


2012 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-61
Author(s):  
Dariusz Konrad Sikorski

Summary After 1946, ie. after embracing Christianity, Roman Brandstaetter would often point to the Biblical Jonah as a role model for both his life and his artistic endeavour. In the interwar period, when he was a columnist of Nowy Głos, a New York Polish-Jewish periodical, he used the penname Romanus. The ‘Roman’ Jew appears to have treated his columns as a form of an artistic and civic ‘investigation’ into scandalous cases of breaking the law, destruction of cultural values and violation of social norms. Although it his was hardly ‘a new voice’ with the potential to change the course of history, he did become an intransigent defender of free speech. Brought up on the Bible and the best traditions of Polish literature and culture, Brandstaetter, the self-appointed disciple of Adam Mickiewicz, could not but stand up to the challenge of anti-Semitic aggression.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 13-21
Author(s):  
Todd Backes ◽  
Charlene Takacs

There are a wide range of options for individuals to choose from in order to engage in aerobic exercise; from outdoor running to computer controlled and self-propelled treadmills. Recently, self-propelled treadmills have increased in popularity and provide an alternative to a motorized treadmill. Twenty subjects (10 men, 10 women) ranging in age from 19-23 with a mean of 20.4 ± 0.8 SD were participants in this study. The subjects visited the laboratory on three occasions. The purpose of the first visit was to familiarize the subject with the self-propelled treadmill (Woodway Curve 3.0). The second visit, subjects were instructed to run on the self-propelled treadmill for 3km at a self-determined pace. Speed data were collected directly from the self-propelled treadmill. The third visit used speed data collected during the self-propelled treadmill run to create an identically paced 3km run for the subjects to perform on a motorized treadmill (COSMED T150). During both the second and third visit, oxygen consumption (VO2) and respiratory exchange ratio (R) data were collected with COSMED’s Quark cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) metabolic mixing chamber system. The VO2 mean value for the self-propelled treadmill (44.90 ± 1.65 SE ml/kg/min) was significantly greater than the motorized treadmill (34.38 ± 1.39 SE ml/kg/min). The mean R value for the self-propelled treadmill (0.91 ± 0.01 SE) was significantly greater than the motorized treadmill (0.86 ± 0.01 SE). Our study demonstrated that a 3km run on a self-propelled treadmill does elicit a greater physiological response than a 3km run at on a standard motorized treadmill. Self-propelled treadmills provide a mode of exercise that offers increased training loads and should be considered as an alternative to motorized treadmills.


Think India ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 875-879
Author(s):  
M. Thendral ◽  
Dr. G. Parvathy

DeLillo is a well- known American novelist of fifteen novels, who is widely regarded by other critics as an important satirist of modern culture. Throughout his novels, he has picturized the chaos underwent by the society i.e. the effects of media, technology and popular culture on the daily lives of contemporary American society. All of his novels move in and around New York City as a setting. The study attempts to examine the development of New York City and individuals in a post-modernistic perspective.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-97
Author(s):  
Kyle Michael James Shuttleworth ◽  
Nik Farrell Fox
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  

George Pattison and Kate Kirkpatrick, The Mystical Sources of Existentialist Thought: Being, Nothingness, Love (New York: Routledge, 2019) 228 pp., ISBN-13: 978-1138092372 (hardback)Oliver Davis and Colin Davis, eds, Freedom and the Subject of Theory: Essays in Honour of Christina Howells (Cambridge: Legenda, 2019) vii + 216 pp. ISBN: 978-178188-7332 (hardback)


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