Onde está o sujeito? Reflexões sobre o materialismo e a dialética / Where's the subject? Reflections on materialism and dialectics / ¿Dónde está el sujeto? Reflexiones sobre el materialismo y la dialéctica

Buscamos uma análise acerca dos desdobramentos da questão do sujeito à luz das diversas críticas que a ela se levantaram nos anos pós-estruturalistas e diante da ascensão do neoliberalismo como ideologia dominante em todo o mundo. Relegada como questão metafísica da modernidade, ou como resíduo do cientificismo positivista, a categoria de sujeito tem sido notadamente objeto de desconstrução, ou, quando não, de simples rejeição. Se apoiando sobre um duplo questionamento, de sua possível pertinência para o pensamento psicológico e filosófico atual, como dos possíveis atores da transformação social diante das transformações sofridas que o capitalismo tardio impõe à categoria de proletariado, através do pensamento de Alain Badiou e Slavoj Zizek, tentamos afastar a tendência linguística que hoje pauta grande parte das análises sobre o sujeito e os processos subjetivos para tentar apontar a importância de uma teoria das verdades que renove as bases ontológicas do pensamento e a visão sobre a dialética materialista. Uma teoria do sujeito assentada sobre um conceito de verdade se mostra assim um potencial para repensar o homem enquanto criador. (AU)

We seek an analysis of the developments surrounding the issue of the subject in light of various critiques that have emerged in the post-structuralist years and in the face of the rise of neoliberalism as the dominant ideology worl-dwide. Relegated as a metaphysical question of modernity or as a residue of positivist scientism, the category of the subject has notably been a target of deconstruction, or, when not, outright rejection. Grounded in a dual inquiry into its possible relevance for current psychological and philosophical thought, as well as the potential actors of social transformation in the face of the changes imposed by late capitalism on the proletariat category, through the prospectives of Alain Badiou and Slavoj Zizek, we attempt to move away from the linguistic trend that currently guides a significant portion of analyses on the subject and subjective processes. Our aim is to emphasize the importance of a theory of truths that renews the ontological foundations of thought and the perspective on dialectical materialism. A theory of the subject anchored in a concept of truth thus proves to be a potential avenue for rethinking man as a creator. (AU)

Buscamos un análisis del desarrollo del tema del sujeto a la luz de las diversas críticas que surgieron en los años postestructuralistas y ante el surgimiento del neoliberalismo como ideología dominante a nivel mundial. Relegada como cuestión metafísica de la modernidad, o como residuo del cientificismo positi-vista, la categoría de sujeto ha sido notablemente objeto de deconstrucción o, cuando no, de simple rechazo. Partiendo de un doble cuestionamiento, de su posible relevancia para el pensamiento psicológico y filosófico actual, como de los posibles actores de la transformación social frente a las transforma-ciones que el capitalismo tardío impone a la categoría de proletariado, a través del pensamiento de Alain Badiou y Slavoj Zizek , intentamos quitar la tendencia lingüística que hoy guía la mayoría de los análisis sobre el tema y los procesos subjetivos para intentar señalar la importancia de una teoría de las verdades que renueve las bases ontológicas del pensamiento y la mirada sobre la dialéctica materialista. Una teoría del sujeto basada en un concepto de verdad muestra así un potencial para repensar al hombre como creador. (AU)

Mental Causation and Motivation: The Motivational Congruence Theory's Perspective.

Mental causation is a deep-rooted debate in the philosophy and psychology literature. It relates to the causal role of mind on the physical world and is tightly linked with the Descartes' dualistic approach towards mind-body interaction. While the role of mental properties might seem obvious in our everyday interaction with the world, there are many arguments that make mental causation inefficacious or redundant within the physical world. In the motivation literature, the issue of mental causation is pivotal. It substantiates the causal role of intrinsic motivation on human behavior. However, the main theoretical streams in the motivation literature take a dualistic approach by dichotomizing different types of motivation into extrinsic and intrinsic ones. This creates a fundamental challenge on the possibility of mental causation in the relationship between motivation and behavior. The three main theoretical streams in the motivation literature consider intrinsic and extrinsic motivations as distinct and independent types of motivation and give a higher weight to one type over the other. This approach makes the role of intrinsic motivation as a mental factor on behavior difficult to interpret. Motivational congruence theory resolves this issue by taking a contextualist and dialectical stance on the relationship between intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and the context. In a dynamic interaction with each other and the context, the two distinct yet intertwined types of motivation (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic ones) produce overall motivation which in turn induces behavior. The theory resolves the issue of mental causation both at the surface and deep levels.

Obsessive-compulsive existential type: a dialectical-phenomenological approach.

The clinical presentation of obsessive-compulsive patients is characterized by unwanted, intrusive, nonsensical, self-related, and recurrent ideas, thoughts, images, or impulses associated with active compulsive compensations. Under the operational diagnostic criteria adopted by the biological- and cognitive-oriented neopositivist medical paradigm, it is known as "obsessive-compulsive disorder." However, this paradigm has been criticized for its controversial assumptions, limited methodologies, theoretic biases, and inconsistency in producing practical outcomes. To bypass some of these issues, we propose a complementary approach that draws on and further develops existing psychopathological studies of the obsessive-compulsive anthropological condition based on dialectical phenomenological psychopathology. As such, we refer to the global clinical configuration as the "obsessive-compulsive existential type." Our theoretical inspiration comes from the classical phenomenological work on obsessions undertaken by Straus and Gebsattel, which identified the negative transformation of the obsessive-compulsive life-world or the endogenous emergence of the anti-eidos (diluting existential force). We then propose to broaden the concept of anti-eidos, especially in its dialectical correlation with eidos (unifying existential force), representing the existential dialectic between transformation and permanence. Next, we detail the dynamics of anthropological disproportions in obsessive-compulsive existential type, essentially the supremacy of the anti-eidos over the eidos. This primary imbalance modifies the obsessive-compulsive existential structure, consisting of polymorphic temporality; weakened intentionality; maladjusted calibration of distance with the world and others; an integral, isolated, besieged self with dwindling self-agency, and tense and over-protecting embodiment. We also analyze compensatory hyperreflexivity and compulsive rituals as expressions of structural counterbalancing designed to contain the primary structural disproportions and derangements. The heterogeneous obsessive-compulsive clinical manifestations are the complex result of the primary structural alteration and subsequent phenomenological compensations. They tend to be variable in temporal span and rarely assume a fixed form, hindering diagnosis. We correlate structural frameworks with multiple clinical examples. Finally, we raise some insights on how our study may contribute to scientific research and therapeutic proposals.

Victimhood and Blame Dialectics in Culturally Diverse Male Students' Discussions About Sexual Assault Policies.

Culture and Perspectives on Sexual Assault Policy was a qualitative, focus-group study conducted at four Canadian universities to gather culturally diverse student perspectives on university sexual violence or sexual assault policies and services. This article highlights two categories of dialectical tension expressed during several male focus groups. The Wrongful Blame Dialectic involved tension between anxieties about wrongful accusations and opposition to victim-blaming. Perceived risk of wrongful accusations was often linked to racism or ethnocentrism. The Male Victim Denial/Recognition Dialectic involved tension between denial and recognition of male sexual victimization. Male participants felt more vulnerable to wrongful accusation than to sexual violence. They felt more likely to be blamed and disbelieved, whether as respondents or complainants.

Jung's Psychoid Monism.

Jung's final psychoid theory of archetypes was an additional attempt to find a solution to the philosophical problem of how to relate mind and matter. In the following essay Jung's solution is summarized by a set of 17 theses, and Jung's philosophy will be called psychoid monism. According to psychoid monism, what ultimately and primarily is, is the psycho-physically neutral domain of instinctual experience. The origin of this view can be traced back to Post-Kantian German Idealism (Schopenhauer, Schelling, Hölderlin), and a systematization of the view requires a dialectic approach and, in particular, contradiction-tolerant dialectic logic.

La dernière théorie psychoïde des archétypes de Jung était une tentative supplémentaire pour trouver une solution au problème philosophique de comment mettre en lien l'esprit et la matière. Dans cet article, la solution de Jung est résumée en une série de 17 thèses, et la philosophie de Jung sera appelée le monisme psychoïde. Selon le monisme psychoïde, ce qui est - de manière ultime et première - c'est le domaine psycho-physique neutre de l'expérience instinctuelle. L'origine de cette perspective trouve son origine dans l'Idéalisme Allemand Postkantien (Schopenhauer, Schelling, Hölderlin). Une systématisation de cette perspective requiert une approche dialectique et tout particulièrement une logique dialectique qui tolère la contradiction.

La teoría final psicoide de Jung sobre los arquetipos fue un intento adicional de encontrar una solución al problema filosófico de cómo relacionar mente y materia. En el siguiente artículo, la solución de Jung se resume en un conjunto de 17 tesis, y la filosofía de Jung se denominará monismo psicoide. Según el monismo psicoide, de lo que principalmente y en última instancia se trata, es del dominio psicofísicamente neutro de la experiencia instintiva. El origen de este punto de vista se remonta al Idealismo alemán postkantiano (Schopenhauer, Schelling, Hölderlin), y su sistematización requiere un enfoque dialéctico y, en particular, una lógica dialéctica tolerante con las contradicciones.

Meeting (the) Pandemic: Videoconferencing Fatigue and Evolving Tensions of Sociality in Enterprise Video Meetings During COVID-19.

When COVID-19 led to mandatory working from home, significant blind spots in supporting the sociality of working life-in the moment and over time-were revealed in enterprise video meetings, and these were a key factor in reports about videoconferencing fatigue. Drawing on a large study (N = 849) of one global technology company's employees' experiences of all-remote video meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic, we use a dialectic method to explore the tensions expressed by employees around effectiveness and sociality, as well as their strategies to cope with these tensions. We argue that videoconferencing fatigue arose partly due to work practices and technologies designed with assumptions of steady states and taken-for-granted balances between task and social dimensions of work relationships. Our analysis offers a social lens on videoconferencing fatigue and suggests the need to reconceptualize ideas around designing technologies and practices to enable both effectiveness and sociality in the context of video meetings.

The Gendered Work/Role of Program Directors in International Graduate Medical Education.

Healthcare organizations offer numerous clinical and academic leadership pathways for physicians, among which the position of program director (PD) is considered to be a prominent educational leadership role. As PDs are instrumental in the recruitment and training of the next generations of physicians, PD gender distribution can affect the present and future of a medical specialty. This study offers a dialectical perspective in understanding how international PDs negotiate gendered understanding of their work/role by using the framework of Relational Dialectics Theory 2.0. Thirty-three interviews of PDs from Qatar, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates were conducted and, using contrapuntal analysis, the competing discourses of meanings of gender in the PD work/role were examined. Competing discourses where structural, cultural, and professional meanings of gender were interrogated revealed inherent multiple meanings of how gender is understood in PD work/roles. In making sense of these meanings of gender, PDs express dilemmas of traditional gender binaries of masculine/feminine work/role meanings to explain the term in different ways in their everyday organizational and cultural struggles. The findings have implications for PD recruitment and retention in teaching hospitals.

Dear Health Promotion Scholar: Letters of Life From, for, and About Black Women in Academia.

Black women are change agents actively working within their power to combat systemic racism in academia, while constantly battling injustices. Understanding lived realities and experiences of racial ethnic minority women as "outsiders within" is crucial for confronting long-standing racism embedded within academic spaces. Institutions may be outwardly addressing racial injustice, and perpetuating injustices internally, whether known or unknown. Using a relational dialectics framework and letter writing style, the purpose of this commentary is to describe the complexities present in experiences of Black women as they navigate academia as change agents, from the perspectives of tenure track and tenured faculty members in predominately White institutions. Black women academics contend with the push and pull of being in relationship with students, colleagues, and predominately White institutions; these tensions illuminate the experience of both/and-ness creating a constant presence of uncertainty/certainty, pushing/pivoting, and conforming/disrupting among others. Black women faculty are actively working to overcome barriers in research and practice and actively recognizing how racism is acting in academic settings. Black women are dealing with their own personal/professional situations, while also advocating interpersonally through mentorship, institutionally through incorporating underrepresented voices in research/practice, and strategically through addressing policies prompting action. This commentary shares the breadth, scope, and uniqueness of Black women experiences in higher education. This article concludes with implications for practice, including utilizing dialectic introspection to illuminate Black women, disrupting the norm by utilizing letters to center Black women, and building collectives to foster connections.

Family Pictures: The Queer Relationalities of Multigenerational Queer Family.

Combining queer theorizing, autoethnography, and relational dialectics theory (RDT), this essay examines how my lesbian mothers and donor struggle to define family, queer family, and their emerging familial identities as grandparents to my own donor-conceived daughter through the competing discourses of biology and history. I further explore how my parents engage their relational history as queer parents as salient models for understanding their emergent familial identities as queer grandparents, as well as how they talk about an anticipated queer grandparent relationship with my daughter in the future. Ultimately, this essay works to articulate a queer(spawn) relationality-one that possibly exists at the (non-)intersection of multiple liminalities-as a means of building on earlier mappings of queer relationality.

Reconhecimento e política no interior da tradição dialética: Sócrates, o Ateniense, Marx e Lênin / Recognition and politics within the dialectical tradition: Socrates, the Athenian, Marx and Lenin

O objetivo deste artigo é o de chamar atenção para uma série de questionamentos que podem e, a nosso ver, ainda devem ser feitos, acerca de uma suposta, exclusiva e definitiva doutrina política de Platão. Para tanto, inicialmente, é levantada a seguinte pergunta: A República, um dos mais célebres e comentados diálogos escritos por Platão, seria, de fato, o único momento de "sua" obra em que este autor expressaria a "sua" teoria política (comunista)? Amparados na leitura e interpretação imanentista de Hector Benoit a respeito dos diálogos platônicos, partimos da hipótese de que Platão, não sendo Sócrates, expôs ­ através de um personagem denominado Ateniense ­ em seu último diálogo na temporalidade da léxis, As Leis, um projeto de cidade radicalmente distinto daquele d'A República. Tal projeto se baseia na unidade dos contraditórios para a formação educacional dos habitantes de uma cidade composta por amigos que tivessem todas as coisas realmente em comum; cidade que deveria ser realizada na prática, e não apenas na metafísica alma do filósofo, como Sócrates haveria proposto idealisticamente n'A República. Assim, longe de ter abandonado os seus posicionamentos comunistas da juventude, como defendem alguns intérpretes, Platão, ao final da vida, teria, na realidade, os encontrado de modo mais rigorosamente determinado. No final do artigo, Marx e Lênin assumem o protagonismo, o que sugere ser a teoria política um dos fios condutores da milenar tradição dialética

This article aims at drawing attention to a series of inquiries that may and, in our view, still should be asked about a supposed, unique and definitive political doctrine of Plato. Then, initially, the following question is raised: The Re-public, one of the most famous and commented dialogues written by Plato, would be in fact the only moment of "his" work in which this author would express "his" political theory (communist)? Supported by Hector Benoit's immanentist reading and interpretation of the Platonic dialogues, we hypothetize that Plato, not being Socrates, exposed ­ through a character called Athenian ­ in his last dialogue, TheLaws, in the temporality of the lexis, a project of city radically different from that on The Republic. Such a project is based on the unity of contradictories for the educational formation of the inhabitants of a city composed of friends who really had all things in common; city that should be put into practice, and not just in the metaphysical soul of the philosopher, as Socrates idealistically proposed in The Republic. Thus, far from having abandoned, as some interpreters argue, his youthful communist positions, Plato would have in fact found them, at the end of his life, in a more rigorously determined way. At the end of our article, Marx and Lenin take on the leading role, which suggests that political theory is one of the guiding threads of the millennial dialectical tradition

How and why psychiatry still needs Karl Jaspers: a dialectical account / Como e por que a psiquiatria ainda necessita de Karl Jaspers: uma leitura dialética / Comment et pourquoi la psychiatrie a encore besoin de Karl Jaspers: une lecture dialectique / Cómo y por qué la psiquiatría sigue necesitando a Karl Jaspers: una lectura dialéctica

In this paper, I analyze General Psychopathology, the seminal psychopathological work of the philosopher and psychiatrist Karl Jaspers, from a dialectical perspective, showing how it can contribute to contemporary psychiatry. Dialectical interpretations of this work are still scarce and generally address the part of the work in which Jaspers makes direct reference to dialectics. Instead, I expose the implicit dialectic by which the overall form of the work is organized. I take the "psychology of meaning" as an example for this dialectical account. I suggest two consequences of this dialectical account of the "psychology of meaning" for psychopathology, which I call intrisec ambiguity and epistemic particularism. Finally, I conclude by pointing out how both notions help shed some epistemological and pragmatic light on the discipline of psychiatry, in a sustained state of crisis.

Neste trabalho, analiso a Psicopatologia Geral, o trabalho psicopatológico seminal do filósofo e psiquiatra Karl Jaspers, por uma perspectiva dialética, mostrando como esta pode contribuir para a psiquiatria contemporânea. As interpretações dialéticas deste trabalho ainda são escassas e geralmente abordam a parte do trabalho na qual Jaspers faz referência direta à dialética. Em vez disso, exponho a dialética implícita pela qual a forma geral do trabalho é organizada. Tomo a "psicologia compreensiva" como um exemplo para este relato dialético. Sugiro duas conseqüências dessa apreensão dialética da "psicologia compreensiva" para a psicopatologia, que denomino ambiguidade intrínseca e particularismo epistêmico. Finalmente, concluo apontando de que modo ambas as noções ajudam a lançar alguma luz epistemológica e pragmática sobre a disciplina da psiquiatria, em contínuo estado de crise.

Dans cet article, j'analyse la Psychopathologie générale, l'ouvrage psychopathologique fondamental du philosophe et psychiatre Karl Jaspers, d'un point de vue dialectique, en montrant comment il peut contribuer à la psychiatrie contemporaine. Les interprétations dialectiques de cet ouvrage sont encore rares et portent généralement sur la partie de l'ouvrage dans laquelle Jaspers fait directement référence à la dialectique. En revanche, j'expose la dialectique implicite par laquelle la forme générale de l'ouvrage est organisée. Je prends la "psychologie compréhensive" comme exemple pour ce compte-rendu dialectique. Je suggère deux conséquences de cette appréhension dialectique de la "psychologie compréhensive" pour la psychopathologie, que je qualifie d'ambiguïté intrinsèque et de particularisme épistémique. Enfin, je conclus en montrant comment ces deux notions permettent d'éclairer d'un point de vue épistémologique et pragmatique la discipline psychiatrique, qui est en état de crise continue.

En este artículo analizo la Psicopatología General, la obra psicopatológica seminal del filósofo y psiquiatra Karl Jaspers, desde una perspectiva dialéctica, mostrando cómo puede contribuir a la psiquiatría contemporánea. Las interpretaciones dialécticas de esta obra son todavía escasas y suelen abordar la parte de la obra en la que Jaspers hace referencia directa a la dialéctica. En cambio, yo expongo la dialéctica implícita mediante la cual se organiza la forma general de la obra. Tomo la "psicología comprensiva" como ejemplo de este relato dialéctico. Sugiero dos consecuencias de esta aprehensión dialéctica de la "psicología comprensiva" para la psicopatología, que denomino ambigüedad intrínseca y particularismo epistémico. Finalmente, concluyo señalando cómo ambas nociones contribuyen a arrojar alguna luz epistemológica y pragmática sobre la disciplina de la psiquiatría, que se encuentra en contínuo estado de crisis.

The dialectics of disaster: Considerations on hazards and vulnerability in the age of climate breakdown, with a brief case study of Khuzestan.

In a historical moment inundated by disasters, understanding and conceptualising the phenomenon is a matter of some importance. No framework for doing so has been more productive than that developed by Wisner and his colleagues. But their so-called 'Progression of Vulnerability' (pressure and release [PAR] model) framework was conceived before the onset of the climate crisis. And that crisis, as the saying goes, changes everything. Contribution: What follows is an immanent critique of the framework, with an eye towards shifting some of its parameters in order to account for the process of climate breakdown now multiplying disasters across the globe.

Digital transformation during a pandemic: Stretching the organizational elasticity.

How can firms turn their COVID-19 pandemic-driven digitalization efforts into sustainable digital transformation? Firms accelerated their digitalization efforts during the global pandemic to an emergency speed. This speed of implementation of digital technologies left organizations with little time to adapt their structures, processes, and culture to the new environment. We argue that firms currently remain in a stretched operations mode that will either bounce back to normal after the pandemic or ultimately lead to organizational failure. Seven in-depth case studies based on 11 interviews of top management support our argument and show that, during this crisis, firms have been operating in a state of exception. We take an organizational elasticity perspective to investigate this status and develop an agenda for firms to facilitate sustainable digital transformation. Our study provides important insights into organizational elasticity as a framework to manage the long-term organizational impact of the current pandemic.

Fake cells and the aura of life: A philosophical diagnostic of synthetic life.

Synthetic biology is often seen as the engineering turn in biology. Philosophically speaking, entities created by synthetic biology, from synthetic cells to xenobots, challenge the ontological divide between the organic and inorganic, as well as between the natural and the artificial. Entities such as synthetic cells can be seen as hybrid or transitory objects, or neo-things. However, what has remained philosophically underexplored so far is the impact these hybrid neo-things will have on (our phenomenological experience of) the living world. By extrapolating from Walter Benjamin's account of how technological reproducibility affects the aura of art, we embark upon an exploratory inquiry that seeks to fathom how the technological reproducibility of life itself may influence our experience and understanding of the living. We conclude that, much as technologies that enabled reproduction corroded the aura of original artworks (as Benjamin argued), so too will the aura of life be under siege in the era of synthetic lifeforms. This article zooms in on a specific case study, namely the research project Building a Synthetic Cell (BaSyC) and its mission to create a synthetic cell-like entity, as autonomous as possible, focusing on the properties that differentiate organic from synthetic cells.

Perceptions of Risk for Dating Violence Among Rural Adolescent Males: An Interpretive Analysis.

About one in eight U.S. high school students in Grades 9 to 12 report experiencing teen dating violence (TDV) in the form of physical, sexual, or psychological dating violence in the past year in person, on school grounds, and online. Compared with their urban counterparts, rural teens face nearly double the rate of physical dating abuse and an elevated risk of experiencing multiple forms of violence. Rural young males are exposed to regional masculinities and gender norms that may simultaneously promote female subordination (a prelude to dating violence) while impeding help-seeking intentions. We used an interpretive and dialectical approach grounded in Relational Dialectics Theory to explore how rural young males perceive and describe their own risk of experiencing and perpetrating dating violence and the factors contributing to their help-seeking intentions and behaviors. Data from three focus groups and individual interviews with 27 rural young males (ages 15-24) were collated. We identified two central dialectical themes described as (a) Social Tension Dialectics (subthemes include: Abusive vs. Unhealthy Relationships: A Dialectic of Language; #MeToo vs. #WeToo: A Dialectic of Victimhood; "It's All Country Boys": A Dialectic of Masculinity) and (b) Help-Seeking Dialectics demonstrating the dual roles Religion, School Guidance Counselors, Peer Mentors, and Social Cohesion play in promoting or preventing dating violence. Overall, we found dialectic tensions in rural youth risk perceptions about dating violence. These findings bear implications for advocates and practitioners working with rural youth in planning developmentally and culturally appropriate TDV prevention programs, offering policy and research-relevant insight.

"Love is a microbe too": Microbiome dialectics.

Whereas the Human Genome Project was an anthropocentric research endeavour, microbiome research entails a much more interactive and symbiotic view of human existence, seeing human beings as holobionts, a term coined by Lynn Margulis to emphasise the interconnectedness and multiplicity of organisms. In this paper, building on previous authors, a dialectical perspective on microbiome research will be adopted, striving to supersede the ontological divide between self and other, humans and microbes, and to incorporate the microbiome as a crucial dimension of human existence, not only corporally, but also in terms of mood and cognition. On the practical level, microbiome insights promise to offer opportunities for self-care and self-management, allowing us to consciously interact with our microbiome to foster wellness and health. How to distinguish realistic scenarios from hype? Here again, an interactive (dialectical) approach is adopted, arguing that practices of the self should result from mutual learning between laboratory research and life-world experience.

The Dialectics of Altered Experience: How to Validly Construct a Phenomenologically Based Diagnosis in Psychiatry.

In this paper, we present how a dialectical perspective on phenomenological psychopathology, called Dialectical Phenomenology (DPh), can contribute to current needs of psychiatric diagnosis. We propose a three-stage diagnostic methodology: first- and second-person stages, and synthetic hermeneutics stage. The first two stages are divided into a pre-dialectical and a dialectical phase. The diagnostic process progresses in a trajectory of increasing complexity, in which knowledge obtained at one level is dialectically absorbed and intertwined into the next levels. Throughout the article, we offer some examples of each step. In overall, the method starts off from the patient's own narrative, proceeds to two stages of phenomenological reduction designed to guarantee the scientific validity of the object, and concludes with a hermeneutical narrative synthesis that is dialectically composed of the patient's and psychopathologist's shared narratives. At the end of this process, the initial first-person narrative is transformed into a specific scientific object, a full dialectical phenomenological psychiatric diagnosis. This form of diagnosis constitutes a comprehensive alternative for an integral assessment of the complexities of human psychological alteration, bringing together both the interpretation of the suffering person and the scientific categories of psychiatry.

Novelty Experience in Prolonged Interaction: A Qualitative Study of Socially-Isolated College Students' In-Home Use of a Robot Companion Animal.

Social distancing policies such as limits on public gatherings and contact with others were utilized around the world to slow the spread of COVID-19. Yet, decreased social interactions may also threaten people's well-being. In this project, we sought to understand novelty-relevant experiences surrounding in-home companion robot pets for adults that were living in some degree of social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After 6-weeks of participants living with the robot companion, we conducted semi-structured interviews (N = 9) and six themes emerged from our iterative analysis (expectations versus reality, ontological comparisons, interactions, third-party influence, identity, and comfort). Findings suggest that novelty is a complex phenomenon consisting of various elements (i.e., imagined novelty, technology novelty, and relational novelty). Each component influences the user's experience. Our findings also suggest that our understanding of novelty as a nonlinear resource may hold important implications for how we view human-robot relationships beyond initial encounters.

Resistance as a Cultural Universal of Human Psyche: a Dialectical View.

In its overall intent, the paper aims to instantiate the Valsinerian (2018) proposal of resistance as a fundamental process of human psyche. It attempts to use the concept of resistance to challenge the dualistic axiomatic basis of traditional psychology and argues for the benefits of dialectical metatheory in which theory of resistance is grounded. As a fundamental attribute of human functioning, resistance arises out of the tension of contradictions between opposites within the same whole. To grasp its nature and operation, the dialectical metatheory is needed rather than a dualistic metatheory which is endemic in traditional Psychology. The paper contrasts the two metatheories with each other and outlines the basic premises of dialectical metatheory. It also further elaborates the theory of resistance by addressing the three significant questions about the nature of resistance: Is resistance present in all encounters between persons and between persons and culture? Is resistance limited to negation or is it generative? Is resistance central to making development possible and bringing about transformational change? Through the application of dialectical framework in conceptualizing individual and collective relations, the dualistic thinking in cultural psychology about individualism and collectivism as mutually exclusive categories is questioned. Also, it opens out the space for finding the hidden transcripts of resistance in collectivist culture.