Media, Democracy and the Internet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Media, Democracy and the Internet - Essay Example Here the power to rule is vested in the people, which is exercised through elected agents. Abraham Lincoln, calls democracy as a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." Media also shares a similar role in a democratic state. If democracy gives the power, media helps to strengthen it through unrestricted dissemination of information. It gives 'information, knowledge, forums of communication and debate necessary to govern their own lives effectively.'(McChesney 2000) Thus media emerges a true watch dog, constantly monitoring the democratic system for its flaws and giving the necessary feedbacks to 'people in power and people who want to be in power.' (McChesney 2000) Media can fulfill these tasks only it served the democratic system and the people who hold its key with unbiased and uncensored information accessible for every one. Only then it can build a 'self governing society of political equals' (McChesney 2000) strengthening the pillars of democracy and there by building its own credibility. Mass media has been regarded as the champion of public cause and history is replete with examples how it has fought along with the people in changing the public policy in both democratic and authoritarian regimes. With the emergence of the global media, the surveillancei function of the mass media has become more intensive and the watch dog was given a new responsibility to watch the whole world for the possible violations of democratic ideals and human rights. It started with a total support for Corazon Aquino's campaigns in the late seventies in Philippines and still going strong with reports to garner public support against Iran's dubious nuclear programme. Although the global television has changed the perspective of the mass media taking it from the 'locale' to 'global', media still focuses the domestic front, influencing the public policies through agenda setting. Here the media has further responsibilities like providing the citizen the means to understand the substance of policies at any particular time. Secondly they should perform an amplifying function by giving publicity to the actions and views of important individuals. Thirdly they should provide the common fund of information necessary for the formation of public opinion and the conduct of the political process. Further the mass media should attempt to provide standards by which political actions can be judged, the common frame of reference which must unite rulers and the ruled in a democratic political structure. The media therefore could help considerably in public participation in national and regional policies. Internet as a form of political protest The internet pioneered the ICT and spearheaded a revolution just like the invention of the printing press. If printing empowered people with knowledge, the internet gave them digital liberation. 'In the information age, the critical organizational form is networking. The most critical distinction in this organizational logic is to be or not to be -- in the network. Be in the network, and you can share and, over time, increase your chances. Be out of the network, or become switched off, and your chances vanish since everything that counts is organized around a world wide web of interacting networks.' (Manuel Castells 1998) The freedom to interact directly and instantaneously, end to copyright

Fire Facility Tour Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Fire Facility Tour Report - Essay Example They have an engine truck that they use as a backup when necessary. On each of their trucks are printed, â€Å"Dedicated. Professional. Quality. Care. Service.†, which is their theme. In order to properly use this equipment, as well as the self-contained breathing apparatuses, hoses and rescue operations, the fire fighters here undergo a minimum of two years of training. Along with the basic training that they receive, they also undergo aircraft accident response procedures, despite the fact that this fire station is not a first responder to such incidents. However, in the event that an air accident occurs within their jurisdiction, they require training for such responses in their area. Therefore, they have been trained in aircraft accidents, understanding that fires occur in the engines, cabins, wheel well and fuel tanks. They have to understand for their own safety how each material that is used in the building of any aircraft will act in the event of a fire, in order to pr operly evaluate their safety and how to douse the fire quickly and safely. In the last two years, they have responded to two aircraft accidents, which were used as training exercises for the team. They used a single engine Cessna for the training exercise in which the plane was crashed into the ground. There were no injuries, as this was a training exercise that was staged and used only highly trained professionals. This accident happened in a large field about 10 miles from the station. The response time for this fire station to the scene was 20 minutes. It is this type of staged accident that puts the fire fighters’ training to the test. They were sent to the scene of the aircraft accident with three engine trucks, using one from an adjacent fire station, one ladder truck, two rescue ambulances from another jurisdiction and one Battalion Chief. Upon arrival, the men were already in full fire fighting gear. They jumped out of their trucks, grabbed their hoses and ran to the scene of the accident with no hesitation. The fire fighters took a very quick account of the wind direction, where the fire was emanating from within seconds and went to work. The fire was doused within minutes, using a structural fire fighting foam product mixed with the water. This required an exceptional amount of teamwork, coordination and trust in one another. They use this training in the event that the local airport notifies their respective communications center that additional assistance is needed, thus dispatching the Osceola County Fire Department for help. Although there are no mutual aid agreements in place, the Osceola County Fire Department is always ready and willing to be dispatched at any time. They run three eight-hour shifts, with five separate crews on each shift. This allows them to be well manned and ready to respond to any fire, at any time. Touring Lieutenant Huskket’s fire station was not only interesting and educational, but fun as well. It allowed me to learn more about the inner workings of a fire department and what exactly the fire fighters have to endure in training as well as reality. I not only learned about the techniques and tenacity of these brave men, but found a new respect for them and their character as

Involvement in the Vietnam War Essay Example for Free

Involvement in the Vietnam War Essay In 1954, the Geneva agreement ended the fighting and declared Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam independent countries. The agreement also split Vietnam into two countries; communists governed North Vietnam and South Vietnam became a democratic country. North Vietnam reneged and the communists tried to take over South Vietnam, so the American military fought the communists in a battle that became known as the Vietnam War (Barr, 2005). The Hmong in Laos experienced tragic, long-term consequences for their wartime allegiance with the United States by secretly fighting in the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the Vietnam War, Laos was an officially neutral country (Mote, 2004). Freedom is important to the Hmong. The word Hmong means â€Å"free man† (Murphy, 1997). However, the Vietnam War spread to Laos when communist leaders decided to use Laos as a route to deliver supplies to their troops fighting in South Vietnam. Fearful that a communist victory in South Vietnam would eventually lead to communist victories throughout Southeast Asia, the United States Department of Defense, State Department, and Central Intelligence Agency â€Å"secretly created and administered a billion-dollar military aid program to Laos. (Castle, 1993). The U. S. military recruited and trained Hmong men and boys who wanted to protect their freedom from the communists. Tens of thousands of Hmong soldiers fought alongside U. S. soldiers to stop the communist’s troops and supplies from reaching South Vietnam. In 1975, the United States lost the Vietnam War and withdrew its soldiers from Vietnam and Laos, leaving behind the secret army of Hmong soldiers (Barr, 2005). Immediately, communists took control of South Vietnam and Laos, and declared war against the Hmong in Laos. Without the protection of American soldiers, Hmong soldiers and their families were hunted down and killed by communist soldiers. From 1975 until 1990, hundreds of thousands of Hmong fled Laos (Barr, 2005) to resettle in Thailand refugee camps. The United States promised to â€Å"find a new place† (Mote, 2004) for Hmong people, if the war against communism was lost. The United States had an agreement with Thailand, a democratic country, to provide safety and refugee camps. For several years, Hmong families struggled to survive in refugee camps until they received official permission from the United States to resettle in America (Murphy, 1997). When the first Hmong families arrived in the United States, they did not speak English and â€Å"lacked written language, formal education, financial saving, and support networks. † (Su, Lee, Vang, 2005). In spite of that, they held tight to their Hmong identity and loyalty. To be a Hmong in the eyes of the Hmong community of parents and elders is to be fluent in Hmong, have respect for elders, participate in family celebrations, help each other when needed, and have the will to succeed while maintaining one’s identity (Moore, 2003). Today, 18 different Hmong clan names are still passed down from generation to generation. Hmong clan names are equivalent to American last names. First names identify people and last names identify clans. The 18 clans provide life-time membership and ongoing material and spiritual support to their members from birth to death. Newborns are given the father’s clan name, which they cannot change. For that reason, Hmong women retain their clan name when they get married (Moua, 1995). The foundation of Hmong life is marriage and family (Millett, 2002). An ancient ritual requires the groom to pay â€Å"a bride-price,† a negotiated sum of money paid to the bride’s parents. Hmong newlyweds live with the husband’s parents until they have two or more children. However, Hmong culture expects the last-born married son, his wife, and children to permanently live with, support, and care for his parents and grandparents until their death. Unfortunately, time-honored Hmong traditions are challenged by American culture. For example, there is conflict between Hmong Christians and Hmong Animists. Animists sacrifice animals to worship spirits; they believe â€Å"that all living things have spirits† (Brittan, 1997). Hmong Christians worship God and condemn animal sacrifice. As a result, Christianity altered traditional Hmong rituals and ceremonies. For instance, Christianity eliminated the payment of a bride price and animal sacrifice. It also, eliminated the reciting of lengthy songs paying attribute to ancestors and natural spirits during funerals. These changes and other social and adaptive conflicts continue to cause disagreement and division among some Hmong families, friends, and clans. Once upheld with high respect and status, the Hmong shaman’s role in America has been downgraded.

Freud and Klein, Jung, and Rogers Theories Comparison

Freud and Klein, Jung, and Rogers Theories Comparison Introduction This essay reviews the main beliefs of four psychological thinkers, Freud and Klein, Jung, and Rogers, and one psychological approach, Transpersonal Psychology. In each case I outline the theory, also noting points of agreement and disagreement between them, sometimes drawing on my own experience. Each theory is reviewed under the following headings: Main ideas Work of and with the therapist Similarities and differences with other views Following the discussion of each theory, I offer some concluding remarks. Freud and Klein’s psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud was born in Moravia in 1856, and died in England in 1939. His primary training was medical and scientific, and he consistently maintained that his theory was to be understood as a scientific one. Among the most important scientific influences on his work came from the principle of the conservation of energy in physics. According to Helmholz the total quantity of energy in a system is constant – unless new energy is added, or energy is lost, the existing quantity can only change in form and distribution. Freud’s initial creative insight can be regarded as supposing that human psychology can be understood as an energy system. This enabled him to offer an explanatory account of the behaviour of neurotic people in terms of the causes of their behaviour, instead of supposing that this behaviour was mysterious, random or inexplicable (Brown 1961, p2-3; Thornton 2006). Melanie Klein was born in Vienna in 1882 (making her a generation younger than Freud) and died in London in 1960. Klein was a pioneer in applying psychoanalytic techniques to children, maintaining that play behaviour could provide the same sort of data as free association, and also argued (an idea that Freud came to accept) that people were also driven towards death, or the ending of life, as well as to the preservation of life (Brown 1961, p71f). Freud revised and modified his ideas repeatedly during his long career. It would take more space than this whole essay to review the changes, and I have other thinkers and approaches to discuss. In the following sub-section I outline some of the central commitments of Freud as they remain influential in practice today, making (for reasons of space) only limited reference to Klein. Main ideas Following Brown (1961) the following are the main components of Freud’s views: (1) Psychic determinism: Freud was inspired by the principle of conservation of energy in physics, and maintained that human psychology was an energy system. What this meant specifically was that behaviours that had previously been regarded as accidental or meaningless (including dreams, tics, yawning, paralyses and slips of the tongue) could be seen as possible symptoms: the psychoanalytic observer could seek to interpret them as symptoms on the hypothesis that they represented energy that might not have been ‘allowed’ to itself themselves directly. (2) The role of the unconscious: The symptomatic individual is typically unaware of the causes of her or his symptoms, and this is partly because they are not the sort of things that the subject wants to acknowledge. The thought of a desired outcome or action is ‘repressed’ because it is not acceptable, but the energy associated with it has to go somewhere (see (1) above) and so is substituted for something else with a non-obvious relationship. (If it was obvious, and so obvious to the patient, it wouldn’t successfully be repressed.) Work is required to make the processes apparent, and to determine what to do about them. (3) Goal-oriented nature of behaviour: All behaviour is for something, and repressed wishes cannot generally be released in ways irrelevant to the target desire. This is part of why symptoms can be informative. Freud describes a woman who had been disgusted by a person allowing a dog to drink from a glass, but refused to express the disgust because it would have been rude and had become unable to drink water from glasses herself. This refusal was, he claims, uncovered as a symptom by following up on her muttering about her â€Å"lady friend† during free-association under hypnosis, where the ‘forgotten’ episode was recalled, and after this the symptom disappeared (1962, p 36). (4) The developmental or historical approach: There is a characteristic cycle to human psychological development, closely associated with sexuality. ‘Sex’ here is understood widely, to include the full range of pleasurable sensation over various regions of the body. Freud maintained that ordinarily people went through a series of ‘stages’, the first three broadly associated with a region of the body: oral (first 18 months), then anal (18 months to 3 years), then phallic (ages 3 to 6 years), and a ‘latency’ period during which ‘pregenital desires were largely repressed’ (Prochaska and Norcross 2003, p35). Finally during adolescence a ‘genital’ stage begins. Each of these stages involves various kinds of conflict (over access to the breast, toilet training, etc.) and these formative conflicts are, according to Freud, often the basis of later neurosis. Also we face an ongoing conflict between our instincts (for pleasure an d life, but also for aggressive conflict and death) and the demands of social and institutional living, which begin in the family. This conflict between ‘libido’ and ‘reality’ is a major source of repression, but makes individuals unlikely to know why they are behaving as they are. The ‘normal’ or ‘healthy’ individual is not immune to the conflict (being so, for Freud, would require abandoning civilisation, or lacking the instincts) but is more flexible and fluent at handling the conflict, more aware of what she or he is doing when denying an instinctual urge, and better able to participate in determining how restrained urges can be substituted or managed without repression. Klein (Fordham 1995, p47f), as noted, pioneered the application of analytic techniques with small children, partly by observing their play behaviour, and partly through discussion.[1] Fordham describes one of her case studies, of a child called Richard, during the second world war. Richard was ten years old at the time. Klein interprets his conflicting responses to parents (e.g. a castration anxiety related to being lied to about a circumcision procedure – Fordham 1995, p51) and his construction of an account of the insides of people’s bodies, including his own, and that of his parents, especially that of his mother prior to his birth. Work of and with the therapist The Freudian analyst helps partly by listening, or simply by being there while the patient free-associates and works through the things she or he says during the process. In Freud’s view this process could enable the unconscious to be brought to consciousness, and patients come to understand how it is that they partly resist abandoning their symptoms (because they’re goal-oriented, even if non-optimal). The hope is that the unsymptomatic individual will be better able to satisfy her or his ‘drives’. The analyst does more than simply listen, of course, and her or his questioning and participation uses or facilitates a variety of procedures (Prochaska and Norcross 2003, p39), including ‘confrontation’, ‘clarification’, ‘interpretation’ and ‘working through’, which are intended to help uncover repression (manifest in resistance to free association), and to manage the common ‘transference’ where uncovered drives are directed at the analyst, who is a highly convenient and sympathetic target for them. The healthy individual, for Freud, is one who is flexibly able to navigate the inevitable conflict between ego and reality. As Adam Phillips puts it: â€Å"Freudians believe we are inevitably violated both from within and without: our egos are violated by our desires and what happens to us. So the Freudian cannot imagine a life without defences, but only a life spent trying to protect himself from this life in order to be able to go on living it, with sufficient pleasure† (2000, p161-2). Similarities and differences with other views Freud’s work exerted massive influence on later psychology, and he interacted directly with a number of the figures I’ll consider later. I’m going to use this ‘similarities and differences’ sub-section cumulatively, as I add detail about the different theories, and so have no more to say in this first round. I find one of Freud’s most basic ideas, the psychic determinism, interesting and exciting. If he’s correct, then a skilled observer can find meaning in patterns of behaviour that would otherwise be regarded as random noise. I’ve been given reason to observe patterns in my own behaviour more thoughtfully as a result of this – I’m not generally a tardy person, and now when I ‘forget’ something that I need for some unpleasant task (a piece of paper I need for some boring administrative matter at the bank) or am late more than once for a meeting a particular person, I at least wonder whether these episodes aren’t in some way motivated, and what I’m both remembering and forgetting while I do it. Jung’s analytical psychology Carl Jung was born in Switzerland in 1875, where he died in 1961. He initially collaborated intensely with Freud, but in 1910 resigned as Chairman of the International Psychoanalytical Association. His approach is called ‘analytical psychology’ partly in order to make clear that it involves a departure from Freud’s psycho-analysis. Main ideas Jung shared with Freud the notion that an important part of the psychology of an individual person was the unconscious, and that dreams and other behaviour provides clues about what was going on there. As Fordham (1995, p79f) notes, Jung was dissatisfied with what he took to be the mechanical nature of Freudian explanations, and preferred to think of the process of analysis as one of interpretation, leading to understanding of meaning rather than causal processes. He regarded symbols are much more important than Freud did. In addition he disagreed with Freud about the importance of the libido and sexual drives, maintaining that, especially in later life, people tended towards an additional stage of development, which involved realisation of the self in relation to the ‘collective unconscious’ which is an inherited part of the unconscious, shared with others. This process was, according to Jung, significantly spiritual and even religious. This notion of the collective unconscious was a clear departure from Freud. Jung claimed to find recurring and universal ‘archetypes’ (of key processes such as death and marriage – Brooke 1991, p16) in world mythologies, folklore and religion, and maintained that dreams should be interpreted in the context of this common inheritance, a process that he called ‘amplification’ (Fordham 1995, p87). For Jung, neurosis was often related to a failure to pursue ‘self-knowledge’ which in turn involved achieving a better level of connectedness with what he took to be human universals. Fordham quotes a passage from Jung illustrating his rejection of aspects of Freud’s view: â€Å"The symptoms of a neurosis are not simply the effects of long-past causes, whether ‘infantile sexuality’ or the infantile urge to power; they are also attempts at a new synthesis of life – unsuccessful attempts, let it be added in the same breath, but attempts nevertheless, with a core of value and meaning. They are seeds that fail to sprout owing to the inclement conditions of an inner and outer nature† (Quoted in Fordham 1995, p81). Work of and with the therapist Although some of the tools of the Jungian therapist (free association, dream analysis) are the same as those of the Freudian, there are important differences in the point and intended outcome of the process. Because the Jungian believes in the collective unconscious, dreams and associations are not understood merely as expressions of a constrained energy system, but also as indications of a relationship with universal sources of human meaning, including spiritual ones. Interpretation is partly a process of ‘amplification’ (Fordham 1995, p87) informed by the therapist’s understanding of the collective unconscious. As Fordham notes, Jung ‘did not enter into details of the analyst-patient relation’ and suggests that Jung may not have been especially ‘interested’ in this, relying ‘rather heavily on the analyst’s native intelligence’ (Fordham 1995, p127). Similarities and differences with other views The main differences I can see between Jung and Freud are the ones I’ve noted: Jung was less impressed by the role of the libido, and more inclined to take seriously the spiritual content of what his subjects said. The healthy subject after Jungian therapy is generically similar to the patient after psycho-analysis, except that for Jung such a person, if an adult, will be willingly involved in the spiritual. Fordham quotes Jung saying that the ‘fascination which psychic life exerts upon modern man’ holds ‘the promise of a far-reaching spiritual change in the Western world’ (Fordham 1995, p91). The dispute with Freud regarding whether analysis produced causal explanations or interpretations seems to me like it could be unnecessary. A symptom could at the same time have a cause (because of being the substituted expression of a desire) and a symbolic meaning (because associations between ideas help determine what gets substituted). It seems right to take somewhat more seriously the spiritual experience of people (I’ll say more about this under transpersonal therapy) but that doesn’t have to mean supposing that what subjects report is true. Freud’s patient (described above) was for a while disgusted by all glasses of water, but not because there was actually anything wrong with them. Rogers’ Person Centred Therapy Carl Rogers was born in the United States of America in 1902, where he also died in 1987. His work, which therefore came after the main contributions of Freud and Jung described above, emphasised the humanistic idea that therapist’s technical skills were less important than their humanity, which he understood to require bringing dispositions such as ‘unconditional positive regard’ and ‘genuineness’ to the therapeutic process. Main ideas According to Rogers people are driven by a single ‘tendency toward actualization’ (Prochaska and Norcross 2003, p142), which is a tendency to develop capacities so as to ‘maintain or enhance the organism’. This tendency needs to be able to tell what maintains or enhances, and accordingly Rogers postulated an ‘organismic valuing process’ that distinguishes between experiences that are good and bad for growth. This tendency leads us to distinguish ourselves from the world (this is roughly similar to some of Freud’s thinking about the formation of infant identity through recognising the independence of the world) and come to need ‘positive regard’ for ourselves. Our main source of regard, not only positive, to begin with is other people, especially parents. We learn that their approval depends to some extent on what we do, and there can be a mis-match between what is actualizing in general (in the sense of good for growth by the lights of the organismic valuation process) and what is actualizing in the sense of leading to positive regard from others. To put one of my own experiences in these terms, we might learn that we get positive regard by not taking the last cup-cake, even though we intensely want it and are bewildered by the fact that nobody else seems to want it at all. This tension creates ‘conditions of worth’ (Prochaska and Norcross 2003, p143) that distort the expression of the tendency to actualise. Work of and with the therapist The aim of therapy according to Rogers is to ‘provide a relationship which [the client/patient] may use for his own personal growth’ (Rogers 1961, p32), which is a matter of freeing up the tendency we all have to actualisation. According to Prochaska and Norcross (2003, p146f) that there are five conditions – besides being in the relationship itself – for ‘therapeutic personality changes’: Vulnerability, Genuineness, Unconditional Positive Regard, Accurate Empathy, Perception of Genuineness. Vulnerability concerns the client’s awareness of her or his own state of ‘incongruence’ and hence vulnerability to anxiety. Genuiness is the required state of the therapist, who should be ‘freely and deeply themselves’ (Prochaska and Norcross 2003, p147) while in the therapeutic process, to be ‘aware of [her or his] own feelings, in so far as possible, rather than presenting an outward faà §ade of one attitude, while actually holding another’ (Rogers 1961, p33). At the same time the therapist must express the ‘unconditional positive regard’ which is the corrective to the conditional positive regard from others that Rogerians take to be the cause of incongruence, a process in turn demanding accurate empathy of the ‘client’s inner world’ (Prochaska and Norcross 2003, p147) which involves not filtering empathy through personal reactions (and so is an additional demand over and above genuineness’. Finally the client must recognise the genuineness of the therapist. In this environment, it is up to the client what to talk about. In this ‘non-directive’ (as in, not directed by the therapist) environment, the client will, according to Rogers, realise a capacity that everyone has to ‘move forward toward maturity’ (Rogers 1961, p35). The result is supposed to be that the client becomes ‘more integrated, more effective’ and to show ‘fewer of the characteristics which are usually termed neurotic or psychotic, and more of the characteristics of the healthy, well-functioning person’ (Rogers 1961, p36). Part of this depends on the unconditional positive regard of the therapist, through which the client can come to reassess her or his incongruence. In a hypothetical monologue from a client in therapy, Rogers writes: â€Å"But now that I’ve shared some of this bad side of me, he despises me. I’m sure of it, but it’s strange I can find little evidence of it. Do you suppose that what I’ve told him isn’t so bad? Is it possible that I need not be ashamed of it as a part of me? I no longer feel that he despises me. It makes me feel that I want to go further, exploring me, perhaps expressing more of myself†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Rogers 1961, p67). When the process works, the subject becomes a ‘fully functioning individual’ (Prochaska and Norcross 2003, p156) who trusts her or his own actual emotional responses to what they experience, and the courses of action that they spontaneously feel are best. Such a person lives fully in the present – not filtering the present through past hurts, or leaving any of the present out. Similarities and differences with other views A Freudian would likely object that the Rogerian approach involving unconditional positive regard provides ‘a transference relationship that has all the elements of an idealized maternal love’ (Prochaska and Norcross 2003, p164), and also think that Rogers’ style of therapy missed out on important tools (free association) that Freud had showed could be useful. That said, the subject at the end of successful Rogerian therapy is similar to that supposed by Freud – aware of his or her own actual emotions, authentically accepting of how they deal with them, not limited by distortions from previous experience. Some of the conflicts Freudians think are important (for example over access to the breast, or toilet training) can be described in terms of conditional positive regard. It also seems to me that Rogers has done a great deal of good by devoting so much attention to thinking about the relationship between client and therapist, and the demands on the therapis t. Freudians would probably also agree with the fact that Rogers apparently didn’t take religion very seriously. A Jungian, on the other hand, might complain that Rogers doesn’t take the spiritual anywhere nearly seriously enough, and that his approach neglects important information about human psychology that are to be found in mythology and folklore. (Earlier in a passage quoted above, Jung notes that ‘modern man’ has become ‘unhistorical’ (Fordham 1995, p91). Finally, Rogers’ concern with self ­actualisation, though, seems to me to make too much of what might be a specifically North American, or middle class, pre-occupation with the individual (Prochaska and Norcross make a similar point – 2003, p164). Transpersonal Psychology Transpersonal psychology is the name for a wide range of different approaches to therapy. Unlike the approaches discussed above, it is not primarily associated with a single influential figure. Lajoie and Shapiro (1992) reviewed some of the literature over the period 1969-1991, and report no less than forty different descriptions of what transpersonal psychology amounts to. Although in some ways the term is new, some argue that the ideas it stands for are not. Kasprow and Scotton, for example, trace the roots of transpersonal psychology at least to William James who had argued that the test of spiritual experience should be its effect on people, rather than pre-emptively supposing with Freud that it was a kind of regressive defence (Kasprow and Scotton 1999, p12, 13, 15). They claim that what distinguishes transpersonal psychology, and gives it its name, is concern with ‘difficulties associated with developmental stages beyond that of the adult ego’, and it is this movem ent beyond the ego that merits the label ‘transpersonal’. As we saw above, Jung too was concerned with psychological development beyond adulthood, and with mystical experience (Fordham 1995, p135). He is often noted as an influence on transpersonal psychology. Another key figure is Abraham Maslow, born in 1908 and who died in 1970, so with a productive life largely overlapping with that of Rogers. Main ideas Like Rogers, Maslow was a kind of humanist Rogers’ whose client centred therapy is a form of humanistic psychology, and he and Maslow agreed that people had innate potential and desire for self-actualisation. Maslow is especially famous for his periodically revised ‘hierarchy of needs’ describing a number of groupings of needs he took to be common to all people, some of which (e.g. for sleep) needed to be satisfied before others. In the original formulations (Maslow 1943, 1954) the top level of needs was for ‘self-actualization’ which included morality and creativity. Later in his life he proposed that the top level included a state that some self-actualised people might achieve, which he called ‘transcendence’ (Maslow 1971). ‘Transcendence’ here is self-transcendence, and so refers to the same phenomenon as the ‘transpersonal’ in transpersonal psychology. As Kasprow and Scotton (1999, p13) put it, â€Å"transpe rsonal approaches are concerned with accessing and integrating developmental stages beyond the adult ego and with fostering higher human development† and this involves dealing with â€Å"matters relating to human values and spiritual experience† including â€Å"altruism †¦ and profound feelings of connectedness†. Work of and with the therapist Because transpersonal psychology is a large collection of approaches, there is more variation in how practitioners work. This makes it very difficult to offer a short summary. In general practice is humanist – very simply put it’s Rogers with a spiritual aspect, or Rogers mixed with some elements of Jung, including focus on symbolic interpretation of imagery. But there are a number of distinctive tools used by some practitioners that are not generally used by proponents of the approaches described above, including use of ‘altered states of consciousness’ besides those of hypnosis and being on the therapist’s couch, including by means of some of the tools used traditionally and in shamanistic and religious practice to achieve altered states, including â€Å"fasting, dancing, prayer, relaxation, sex, ritual and drugs† (Kasprow and Scotton 1999, p18). Given the focus on transcendent experience, it isn’t surprising that a significant fraction of transpersonal practice relates to experiences like bereavement (Golsworthy and Coyle, 2001)[2] or that it has been found generally useful in pastoral counselling (Sutherland, 2001).[3] Similarities and differences with other views Now that all four approaches have been described, it is possible to say something more general about relationships between them. Freud and Rogers are both relatively secular in orientation. Jung and Transpersonal psychology both take spiritual and transcendent experience more seriously. Rogers and at least some transpersonal psychologists (including Maslow) are clearly humanist. Despite their differences, they have in some ways similar conceptions of the healthy human being, who is free from some forms of conflict, and able to cope flexibly with life. They differ on what the world is like, in particular over the status of transcendent experience, and over the degree of individualism to be aimed for (with Rogers seeming the most individualistic). References Brooke, R. 1991. Jung and Phenomenology, London: Routledge. Brown, J.A.C. 1961. Freud and the Post-Freudians, London: Pelican. Fordham, M. 1995. Freud, Jung, Klein: The fenceless field, London: Routledge. Freud, S. 1962. Two Short Accounts of Psychoanalysis (translated and edited by James Strachey), London: Penguin. Golsworthy, R. and Coyle, A. 2001. Practitioners’ accounts of religious and spiritual dimensions in bereavement therapy, Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 14(3), pp 183–202. Kasprow, M.C. and Scotton, B.W. 1999. A Review of Transpersonal Theory and Its application to the Practice of Psychotherapy. Journal ofPsychotherapy Practiceand Research, 8(1), pp 12-23. Lajoie, D. H. Shapiro, S. I. (1992).Definitions of transpersonal psychology: The first twenty-three years. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 24(1), pp 79-98.. Maslow, A.H. 1943. A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review, 50 pp 370-96. Maslow, A.H 1954. Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper. Maslow, A.H. 1971. The farther reaches of human nature. New York: Penguin. Phillips, A. 2000. Promises, Promises. London: Faber and Faber. Prochaska, J.O. and Norcross, J.C. 2003. Systems of Psychotherapy: A Transtheoretical Analysis, Pacific Grove: Thomson. Rogers, C.R. 1961. On Becoming a Person: A therapist’s view of psychotherapy, London: Constable. Sutherland, M. 2001. Developing a transpersonal approach to pastoral counselling, British Journal of Guidance Counselling, 29(4), pp 381-390. Thornton, S.P. 2006. Sigmund Freud [Internet Enclycopedia of Philosophy], URL: http://www.iep.utm.edu/f/freud.htm (Accessed 8 September 2008). 1 Footnotes [1] Fordham notes that the earliest application of analysis to a child of which he is aware was to a child aged 13 months, a process that was ‘hardly at all verbal’ (Fordham 1995, p145). [2] This paper also reports a common frustration that much mainstream therapy ignores or underplays religious experience, which is likely part of the appeal of transpersonal psychology. [3] This paper reports the same frustration as described in the previous footnote, from the specific perspective of clerics who may have received training in secular forms of psychological counselling.

Essay on Identity in Song of Solomon -- Song Solomon essays

Searching for Identity in Song of Solomon      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Abstract: Whether Africans really fly or just escape a monumental burden, perhaps only through death, is a decision Toni Morrison has apparently left to her readers. Never the less, no matter what you believe, within Song of Solomon, the suggestion is, that in order to "fly" you must go back to the beginning, back to your roots. You must learn the "art" from the old messages.    O Sugarman done fly away Sugarman done gone Sugarman cut across the sky Sugarman gone home... (6)1    Milkman was born to fly. Perhaps not! Maybe, he was just doomed to a life of flight. Toni Morrison seemingly presents her readers a choice. Milkman is born under a paradoxical cloud. His life seems to be destined for controversy. Toni Morrison eventually leaves the reader with a "choose your own ending" configuration. As in Beloved, Morrison's unique style of ending a novel with no finalization, only enhances the content and tickles the imagination. Evidence of the influence of Zora Neale Hurston is sprinkled liberally throughout the story. In addition to folklore and mythology, Song of Solomon is also rife with the cold, hard facts of reality. Did Milkman actually become airborne or was he merely a man, consistently trying to escape reality?    Toni Morrison's, Song of Solomon, was inspired in part, by All God's Chillun Had Wings (Andrews et al 103). According to this folk tale, at one time all Africans could fly. Through transgressions, they lost the ability of flight. On occasion, someone would shake off the weight of their burdens and be able to fly. Only a select few held onto remnants of the memory of flight. According to a legend in Hurston, the transgression, ... ...to converge in the distance. Soon they begin to twine and twist together. At the core, is a solid rope, with each strand braided neatly with the others to form a tightly woven story. With its many parts, but only one beginning, Song of Solomon is absolutely, the "perfect soft-boiled egg" (40).    Works Cited Andrews, William L., et al. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1997. 103 Barnhart, C.L., et al. The American College Dictionary. New York: Random House, 1970. 919 Heinze, Denise. The Dilemma of "Double-Consciousness": Toni Morrison's Novels. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1993. 14 Hurston, Zora Neale. Hurston: Folklore, Memoirs, & other Writings. Ed. Cheryl A. Wall. New York: Penguin Books,1995. 315, 581, 597, 618 Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.

Essay --

The Canada-China relationship has been through many fluctuations since China’s establishment in 1949. The Canadian Cabinet decided to give its recognition in the same year as China’s establishment on 16 November. However, the diplomatic relations with China was not formed until 1970, two decades from Canada’s primary consideration. Though there were many factors influencing the Sino-Canadian relations since 1949, due to the limitation in length, this essay will focus on three main reasons, how the political consideration, the attention on human rights problems and Canada’s economic interests influenced its relations with China from 1949 to the 1990s. From 1949 to the 1960s, the relationship between China and Canada was strongly influenced by Canada’s political consideration. With Canada’s gradually pursuing of independent foreign policy together with the change in international climate eventually left the room for Canada’s recogniti on to China. Since then, the Canadian economic interest started to dominate any other factors in this bilateral relationship, even if Canada paid attention to China’s human rights problem. Thus, the Sino-Canadian relationship after the 1970s is a balance between Canada’s economic interests and human rights issues in China. This essay will examine the three factors thematically, and in each factor, it will follow a chronology order. In the first part of the essay, it will discuss Canada’s political consideration in recognition China when taking the U.S. influence and the change of international atmosphere into account. Canada’s willingness in achieving an independent foreign policy led to its formal relations establishment with China in the early 1970s. Then it will discuss how the Chinese human rig... ... China dominated the human rights problems, and enabled Canada-China to be an economic partnership of each other. From 1949 to the early 1960s, the American pressure that Canada received was the fundamental reason for the delay of recognition China. As Canada’s desire of pursuing an independent foreign policy grew stronger, the impact of the U.S. government on the normalizing relationship between Canada and China was less and less. After the establishment of relations in 1970, the bilateral relationship remained steady besides the human rights issue in China. When China dominated on the economic terms in the world, Canada preferred to cooperate with China. The economic trade between China and Canada brought positive influence to both economies, and the Sino-Canadian relationship should maintain at a peaceful and beneficial level if both states worked together.

Statistics Exercise 36 Answers

Exercise 36 Answers 1. Since the F value is significant, based on the p-value of 0. 005 which is less than 0. 05 which is sufficient to reject the null hypothesis. This suggests that there is a difference in the control and treatment groups. 2. Since the p- value is less than 0. 05 and therefor the null hypothesis can be rejected. This presents that the mean, difficulty and mobility scores, must be different 3. The result was statistically significant with a probability score of p < 0. 001. 4. Yes, because 0. 001 < 0. 01 and would still be significant. . The 0. 04 > 0. 01 would indicate that there is no statistical significance and except the null and conclude that there is no difference between the groups. 6. NOVA cannot be used to test proposed relationships or predicted correlations between variables in a single group. This is because ANOVA is tests relationships within various groups and among the groups. 7. The study had 149 subjects and 2 groups 8. The strength of the study whe re that they include a control group to test the dependent variable to examine the differences over time.The weakness of the study comes from the low number of subjects in the study. More subjects would have made the study more creditable. 9. The study results indicated a significant improvement in the pain scores of women with OA who received the treatment of guided imagery (F(1, 26) =4. 406, p = 0. 046). Thus, the null hypothesis was rejected. But in my opinion I would have liked to have seen a larger number of subjects. Also, including the standard deviations for the treatment and control groups also are needed to calculate the effect size in the study.The effect size is needed to conduct a power analysis to predict the sample size needed for future studies. 10. Possible problems and limitation with the study is that the pain that leads to limited mobility and may lead to disability which can hinder them form taking the treatments. Also, with it being over such a long time span y ou have to worry about subjects stopping the treatment and with a low number of subjects this could alter the data drastically.