Between thought and action: symbolization in depressive position and its external expressions

Aim. The paper will revisit nature of symbolization in depressive position with respect to its realization in external reality. Base for the analysis will be Hanna Segal paper Delusions and artistic creativity: some reflections on reading “The Spire” by William Golding (Segal, 1974/1988), enriched with findings she presented in her later paper Acting on phantasy and acting on desire (Segal, 1992/2007), context for the analysis will be provided by Kleinian psychoanalytic framework. Methods. Psychoanalysis core interest is thinking and thought formation. In the paper I will try to move this emphasis on examining pure thinking into exploration of mixture that thought and action create. I will therefore analyse on what tokens mind content can be put into action, and conversely how action is being incorporated into thought. I will perform the study using Hanna Segal interpretation of The Spire by William Golding, which she issued on 1974. I will also reach out to her other papers to broaden the interpretation, including the paper she wrote almost twenty years later on Festschrift for her colleague, philosopher Richard Wollheim (Segal, 1992/2007), that actually proposes the solid linkage between thinking and its expressions in the world. The study will be performed with reference to Kleinian psychoanalytic framework, it will be centred around object relation and anxieties the object arouses (paranoid schizoid and depressive positions), with respect to their impact on thought formation (symbolization, sublimation). Results and conclusions. Analysis of relationship between symbolisation and action enhances understanding of two main responses to depressive position: sublimation and maniac defences, for it explores the extent to which ego benefits/refuses to benefit from internal and external reality. While the rereading Segal interpretation of The Spire allows to spot how creative act enables capturing most difficult internal and external truths, it also reveals – when put in context of Wollheim’s concept of acting on phantasy and acting on desire- that maniac response is less a form of protection and more a direct attack on receptivity and penetrating exploration for their associations to primary scene. Cognitive value. Studying depressive symbolization as a vehicle for acting on either phantasy or desire reveals, that employment of behavioural component forces to revisit maniac defences in light of their actual aftermath in external world. Such refined view onto depressive defences further contributes to improved differentiation of symbolization in depressive position, for it puts under scrutiny relation between ego and performed action. It allows to recognize that in addition to symbol proper (formed by anxiety for object) and symbolic equation (defined by anxiety of object), there is also partly malformed form of symbol shaped by maniac defences (and so by absence of anxiety for object), which disfiguration is best examinable in changes to external reality it makes.

Język psychozy: Dadaizm a teoria psychoanalityczna Wilfreda Ruprechta Biona

This paper juxtaposes W.R. Bion’s psychoanalytic theory of psychosis with Dadaistic works of art. The aim of this juxtaposition is to enable the reader to better understand Bion’s theory of psychosis and to propose a new approach to Dadaistic work from the perspective of psychoanalytic theory. The works of art will illustrate basic psychotic mechanisms. It is a starting point for further elaboration of Bion’s theory of thinking and his view on subjectivity. At the same time an original approach towards Dadaistic works of art will be presented, based on psychoanalytic concepts of fragmentation and symbolic equation. Essential differences between creativity and madness will be emphasized.

PRE-SERVICE MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE OF MATHEMATICS FOR TEACHING: QUADRATIC FUNCTIONS

Many researchers and education stakeholders in South Africa point to the need to develop teachers' personal knowledge of the mathematics concepts that they teach to their learners. In this research study we explore the understanding of 42 pre-service mathematics teachers of one aspect of school level mathematics, that of quadratic functions. Data were generated from the written responses to an assessment as well as semi-structured interviews. The purpose was to explore the methods used by pre-service mathematics teachers to derive a symbolic equation for a quadratic function expressed in graphical form. Furthermore, we looked at whether the pre-service teachers were able to use different methods to generate the symbolic equation. The results showed that 25 participants were able to determine the equation of a parabola using one method, while 11 of them were able to use two different methods. The most common method used was based on the intercept form of the equation. Some students identified different forms that the equation of a quadratic function could be expressed as but were unable to apply this to derive the equation. These results indicate that these students are not yet ready to teach these school level concepts even though they have studied advanced mathematics topics as part of their pre-service training. The study recommends that pre-service teachers should also be provided with more structured opportunities to help develop pedagogic content knowledge of the school level content as part of their teacher training programme. Keywords: graphical representation, parabola, pre-service mathematics teachers, quadratic functions, symbolic representation.

Symbolic Equation for the Instantaneous Amount of Substance in Linear Compartmental Systems

The symbolic time course equations corresponding to a general model of a linear compartmental system, closed or open, with or without traps and with zero input are presented in this chapter. From here, the steady state equations are obtained easily from the transient phase equations by setting the time towards infinite. Special attention is given to the open systems, for which an exhaustive kinetic analysis has been developed to obtain important properties. Besides, the results are particularized to open systems without traps. The software COEFICOM, easy to use and with a user-friendly format of the input of data and the output of results, allows the user to obtain the symbolic expressions of the coefficients involved in the general symbolic equation and all the information necessary to derive the symbolic time course equations for closed or open systems as well as for the derivation of the mean residence times.

Role of Automated Symbolic Generation of Equations of Motion in Mechanism and Robotics Education

In recent years there has been a significant increase in the variety and complexity of Articulated-Multi-Body-Systems (AMBS) used in various applications. There is also increased interest in the model-based design-refinement and controller-development, which is critically dependent upon availability of underlying plant-models. Kinematic and dynamic plant-models for AMBSs can be formulated by systematic application of physics postulates. This process, in its various variants, forms the basis of various mechanisms/robotics courses. However, the type and complexity of the example systems is often limited by the tractability of first generating and subsequently analyzing complex equations-of-motion. Nevertheless, using simpler examples alone may sometimes fail to capture important physical phenomena (e.g. gyroscopic, coriolis). Hence, we examine the use of some contemporary symbolic- and numeric-computation tools to assist with the automated symbolic equation generation and subsequent analysis. We examine a host of examples beginning with simple pendulum, double pendulum; building up to intermediate examples like the four-bar mechanism and finally examine the implementation of 3-PRR and 3-RRR planar parallel platform mechanisms. The principal underlying philosophy of our effort is to establish linkage between traditional modeling approaches and use of these contemporary tools. We also try to make a case for use of automatic symbolic computation and manipulation as a means for enhancing understanding of both basic and advanced AMBS concepts. Lastly, we document our efforts towards creation of self-paced tutorials and case-studies that serve to showcase the benefits.