Meaning Making

Meaninglessness is one of the biggest threats of our era. Meaninglessness is not only one of the possible symptoms of depression; meaninglessness as such is a complex experience which can be identified at a micro-dimensional felt sensed level, as a meaning gap at a meso-dimensional  narrative level, and as groundlessness at a macro-dimensional existential level. Person-centered therapies have explicitly focused on the micro- and meso-dimension of meaning; existential therapies have emphasized the macro-dimensions by helping their clients to face the existential givens such as meaninglessness and meaning. In this article we explore how experiential-existential psychotherapy could help clients in dealing with meaninglessness by addressing this experience with micro-, meso-, and macro-dimensional interventions. A case study reveals how all meaning-dimensions are important, but not at any moment. The client concludes the therapy with discovering what is most essential to him in life. From this experience he finds the courage to engage with life at the fullest, whether it is ultimately meaningful or not.

Making meaning an inquiry and exploration into how we make things by gaining insights into how we buy, use and sell things.
How can we change the things we make by changing the way we make things?
After the industrial revolutions, manufacturing processes have become so efficient that mass-producing things has become faster and cheaper by the day. The technologies we have developed have a way of keeping up with our imaginations. The question then is - what futures do we imagine?
We have systems for mass customisation using automation as well as making machines for markets of one, so how we make things that make sense and add value to the world, is an important part of the exploration.
The systems and patterns of capitalism, consumerism and consumption that have shaped the Great Acceleration are evident not only ​as climate change but also in social and economic equalities, human health​, and relationships with other species.
Our relationship with objects has changed way beyond their intrinsic value and our aspirations attached to owning things. Influenced by the psychoanalytic methods used in advertising and propaganda, this exploitative nature of the systems that we have created are now failing us.
My aim through this research is to deconstruct or reduce the value of a thing to its core and then re-attach a meaning to it in a way that it accounts for the intangible positive as well as negative impact it creates in surrounding spheres.
The first part of the study is about understanding what we have put out there, what it’s like to make our own things, and what it means to live with the minimum. It focuses on the fast moving consumer goods industry, because cleaning products, soaps are used by everybody all over the world, and they are bought again and again.
Learning from the mistakes of the past, progress and growth need to be redefined by how the peripheral conditions have affected our planet and how we have come to build the Anthropocene. Designing and making for the long term must not only balance it’s own systems but also make amends for the past. Natural resources can not be treated as infinite and free anymore. The direct relation between shorter product cycles and
Mitalee Parikh // June 2020
 
increased waste make redesigning not only objects, but systems, cultures, habits for a just future inevitable.
The second part of the study deals with more specialised manufactured objects like electronic parts, and explores the possibilities of being self-sufficient in a market that is majorly dependent on global supply chains.
Finally, adapting to the new constraints created by the pandemic situation the final part is about using the advantages of distributed open source design and the power of distributed local manufacturing to add value to society.
The study concludes with a model/framework to make meaningful interventions in the world and understand what it means to make things that make sense.

This second Volume of the Conceptual Design Notes contains Notes on three matters:
• Notes on Meaning and Architecture
• Notes on Cinema and Architecture
• Sample Exercises.
The first two matters are represented each by two items – one specifically
addressing an aspect of the Topic and one addressing particular approaches to the Topic in question. That is, there is one item of relatively discursive detail and one of a relatively survey nature for each Topic.

Because of the centrality of the issue to the bases of attacks on Modernism, the discussion of Meaning and Architecture occupies the bulk of the ‘theoretical’ texts. The Exercises occupy the most pages.

Originally published as:
Missingham, Greg, 2012, Conceptual Design Notes 2, 2012, Urbanism Reading book series, Vol. 3, Nanjing: Digital Studio for Research in Design, Visualization and Communication [University of Cambridge – Nanjing University Research Centre on Architecture and Urbanism]. ISBN: 978-0-9564568-3-0 [219 pp.]

Since the claim of this journal issue points out a potential relationship between the (theatrical) notion of “performance” and the notion of “semiotic practices”, rather than to the semiotic notion of “performance” as such, an intended side effect of the article is to supply an indirect answer to the reason of such a choice. After having briefly introduced the paradigm shift from theatre studies to performance studies having taken place over the last five decades or so, I attempt to outline the large theoretical framework in which this shift occurred, by adding two cognitive-semiotic layers to the conventional dyad of orality-literacy — that is, “performativity” and “electracy”. In the last section, I focus on cognitive neuroscientist Merlin Donald’s theory of three stages in the evolution of the human mind in order to explain the notion of “action-metaphor” as the “performatic” and non-linguistic source of human meaning-making processes.

This study expands on sociocultural approaches to meaning making in art museums by exploring the physical aspects of interaction with art in traditional gallery spaces, and in the context of technology use. The notion of 'embodied interpretation' is introduced to explore the complexity of embodied interaction in interpreting art, and to contribute to existing vocabularies of gesture. The research is informed by sociocultural perspectives on meaning making as well notions of embodied interaction, and asks the following research questions: "What are the relevant bodily and gestural practices that shape socially situated interactions in art galleries?" and "What insights into meaning making in art museums can be gained through an approach of embodied interpretation?" The study incorporates interaction analysis and design-based research methods to investigate three episodes from a national museum in which groups of adolescents interact with three different kinds of objects: a sculpture, a painting, and an interactive tabletop. Analysis reveals that visitors use gesture, as well as bodily positioning and movement in a variety of ways to coordinate social processes, and to mediate thinking and perception in the interpretation of art.

Meaning in life is generally not considered to be one of the most central
aspects of person-centered and experiential therapies. However, Carl
Rogers described how clients found purpose in life by going through
a process that helped them to connect to their inner experiencing. This
process was evoked by an empathic, accepting, and genuine therapeutic relationship and resulted in positive therapy outcome. Recently,
scholars have also stressed the importance of the therapeutic alliance
to foster meaning-making processes in therapy. Meaning in life is also
related to well-being. Therefore, the aim of this study is to test whether
meaning in life would mediate between therapeutic alliance and therapy outcome in person-centered and experiential psychotherapies.
Our sample consisted of 96 outpatients nested within 23 therapists.
Using multilevel modeling, we found that meaning in life indeed
mediates between the therapeutic relationship and therapy outcome.
This suggests that meaning in life might actually be at the very core of
person-centered and experiential therapies, and therefore deserves the
attention of clinicians as well as theorists. Our results support the idea
that the therapeutic bond might foster meaning(-making processes) in
therapy, leading to better therapy outcome. However, this idea should
be explored further using longitudinal methods.

Based on ethnographic research in a local RCCG congregation, the Jesus House in Midtown, Sweden, this article focuses on the meaning of pastorship to its founding pastor, John, and on the nature of the relationship between John and his congregation. Results show that to John, pastorship means hard work but also an opportunity for social mobility. As he founded the Jesus House, John took on considerable financial risk, realistically turning him into a church-owner. Furthermore, the relationship between pastor and congregation implies a contract where John is expected to protect his congregants from illness and death. As a congregant dies, a crisis hits and the congregation starts to break apart. In order to save his congregation, John first appeals to his own spiritual powers, but then resorts to pleading to the structures of plausibility within the congregation. As the paper argues, this shows the importance of both cognitive and relational aspects of meaning-making.

The article proposes a typology of meaninglessness based on the semiotics of Charles S. Peirce: meaningless as indecipherable; as incomprehensible; and as uncanny. Each type is exemplified with reference to anecdotic semiotic experience gained while riding Japanese buses. Meaninglessness, however, is not insignificance. Insignificance is a much more disquieting anthropological condition, which the article describes with reference to two symmetrical processes: on the one hand, the euphoric passage from significance to insignificance, a passage meant as the “birth of new meaning”; on the other hand, the dysphoric passage from significance to insignificance, a passage which coincides with the alienation of human existence. Through several examples take from present-day societies, the article advocates for an active role of semiotics in warning human communities against the “emergence of insignificance” and its potential of violence and exploitation.

In this paper I will introduce central terms from the Cybersemiotic paradigm (Søren Brier, 2008), and show how they can successfully be applied to interpretational readings of technoetic artworks. I wish to extend the idea that user experience in technoetic artworks is mainly immersive and non-intellectual, and to present new hermeneutical positions that explicitly take ontological and paradigmatic perspectives into account

Hur påverkas vi av massmedia? Hur påverkas du, jag och våra medmänniskor av den information som sprids via massmedia – tidningar, tv, radio, film, annonser på bussar och i tunnelbana, cd-skivor och dvd, internet, etc, etc. – till snart sagt varje vrå av våra livsvärldar?

Som en av medieforskningens ”stora frågor” kan denna undran tyckas meningslös. Problemområdet är allt för stort. Att begränsa frågan till ett exklusivt massmedium—i detta fall den svenska löpsedeln och dess citat—är därför en praktisk nödvändighet.

Tesen i detta arbete är att löpsedlarna påverkar läsarens uppfattning av det normala och att de gör detta genom att läsaren av löpsedelscitaten måste ta till sig det sagda på ett speciellt sätt. Läsaren delar den citerades perspektiv för att förstå vad som sägs och detta innebär att läsaren i någon mån måste acceptera de värderingar som ligger till grund för den citerades handling.

I och med denna detta utgör löpsedlarnas påverkan ett exempel vars relevans sträcker sig utanför såväl det svenska som det rent journalistiska medielandskapet.

Transcendence in Resilient American POWs: A Narrative Analysis

Cabrini Pak, Ph.D.
Director: Dr. William Barbieri, Ph.D.

What is it about some American service members that enable them to bounce back from something like a POW experience, which may include daily conditions like filth, disease, starvation, torture, murder, and unscrupulous behavior among fellow prisoners and guards? Is it possible to transcend those experiences and make meaning of them in ways that allows one to heal and move on?  How does one survive these stressors and manage to do things well, like get married, have a family, and live a productive life for decades after the traumatic experience? This study explores these questions.
Transcendence is an under-appreciated aspect of human experience with potentially significant positive contributions to the study of “spiritual fitness” and resilience in the military,  two factors attributed to successful navigation of the military life cycle. Transcendence, as a possible influencer of resilience, can be tracked in various forms, including narrative. I propose that resilient American service members who survived and bounced back from something like a POW experience, and who wrote about it later, left traces of transcendence in their stories, which can be studied.
I also propose that transcendence is an experiential meaning-making process, rather than an event or state of being. In my model of transcendence there are at least two possible outcomes. The first outcome, stabilization of one’s sense of self, enables the person to more firmly root him or herself in a response to the question, “What am I?” The second outcome, extraordinary connections within and beyond the self, in space-time, gives the person coordinates in moral space and allows the person to draw from those coordinates in future situations, particularly those that might be morally hazardous.
Eight memoirs of American POWs from two time periods were analyzed: World War II and the Vietnam War. The memoirs were selected based on public availability and known resilience of POW survivors (no known attempt to commit suicide within five years of discharge). Evidence was found for transcendence as meaning-making process and for the outcomes proposed.

Driven by our individual need for contextual-meaning and by our societal need for a shared meaning system, every culture has its own worldview. This article presents a succinct introduction to the nature and function of worldviews and the meta-narratives in which they are passed from one generation to another. Recognising that no worldview can legitimately claim to have a monopoly on the truth, and that every worldview is a work-in-process that evolves over time as the society adapts to its changing circumstances, the main body of this article identifies and discusses the seven “core metaphors” that have given shape to our worldviews over the course of human history

See the link for a "widget" supplied by Bloomsbury, which will give you access to the first chapter.

https://bloomsburycp3.codemantra.com/viewer/6006a9a5e21b8400014cc025

Today, we find ourselves surrounded by numerous reasons to despair, from loneliness, suffering and death at an individual level to societal alienation, oppression, sectarian conflict and war. No honest assessment of life can take place without facing up to these facts and it is not surprising that more and more people are beginning to suspect that the human story will end in tragedy.

However, this focus on despair does not paint a complete and accurate picture of reality, which is also inflected with beauty and goodness. Working with examples from poetry and literature, including Virginia Woolf and Jack Gilbert and the films of Terrence Malick, Melancholic Joy offers an honest assessment of the human condition. It unflinchingly acknowledges the everyday frustrations and extraordinary horrors that generate despair and argues that the appropriate response is to take up joy again, not in an attempt to ignore or dismiss evil, but rather as part of a “melancholic joy” that accepts the mystery of a world both beautiful and brutal.

"Ο στόχος του συγκεκριμένου βιβλίου –το οποίο αποτελεί μια συλλογική προσπάθεια, και είναι το προϊόν ενός ετήσιου σχεδίου ομαδικής εργασίας (project) με μεταπτυχιακούς φοιτητές και μεταπτυχιακές φοιτήτριες από το Α.Π.Θ και το Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας– είναι η οριοθέτηση της συζήτησης σχετικά με το ρόλο του κριτικού στοχασμού στη μάθηση και την εκπαίδευση των ενηλίκων, καθώς και του πλαισίου μέσα στο οποίο οργανώνεται η σχετική θεωρία που αφορά κυρίως στον τρόπο με τον οποίο ο κριτικός στοχασμός συνδέεται με την απόδοση νοήματος στην ανθρώπινη εμπειρία (νοηματοδότηση) και τη δημιουργία νέας γνώσης (μετασχηματισμός της εμπειρίας), με στόχο την ενδυνάμωση για την ανάληψη δράσης (αρχικά επικοινωνιακής αλλά στη συνέχεια και χειραφετητικής) που θα επιφέρει την ανάπτυξη και την αλλαγή τόσο σε ατομικό όσο και σε κοινωνικό επίπεδο. Το βιβλίο αποτελείται από δύο μέρη.  Το πρώτο μέρος επικεντρώνεται στην παρουσίαση και ανάλυση των σημαντικότερων θεωρητικών προσεγγίσεων στην ερμηνεία του κριτικού στοχασμού, ως ex-post facto (δια)νοητική διαδικασία, δίνοντας ιδιαίτερη έμφαση στη έννοια της νοηματοδότησης (αποκωδικοποίησης κατά τον Freire), ως έννοια «κλειδί» για την οριοθέτηση αυτής της διαδικασίας. Το δεύτερο μέρος επικεντρώνεται στις πρακτικές προεκτάσεις αυτής της (δια)νοητικής διαδικασίας, δίνοντας έμφαση στη άλλη έννοια «κλειδί», αυτή της ενδυνάμωσης, και στη σημασία ανάπτυξης μίας εκπαίδευσης ενηλίκων η οποία θα στοχεύει στη χειραφέτηση. Για την ολοκλήρωση του συγκεκριμένου βιβλίου, συνεργάστηκαν: Γ. Κ. Ζαρίφης (πρόλογος & συνολική συγγραφική επιμέλεια, κεφ. 1 & 5), Μ. Παρθένη & Γ. Κ. Ζαρίφης (κεφ. 2), Α. Δολιώτη & Γ. Κ. Ζαρίφης (κεφ. 3), Ν. Κιουπέλογλου & Γ. Κ. Ζαρίφης (κεφ. 4), Α. Στρίκου & Γ. Κ. Ζαρίφης (κεφ. 6), Λ. Μωυσιάδης (κεφ. 7),  Α. Κανέλλου (κεφ. 8)
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ΠΕΡΙΕΧΟΜΕΝΑ

ΜΕΡΟΣ ΠΡΩΤΟ: ΘΕΩΡΗΤΙΚΕΣ ΠΡΟΣΕΓΓΙΣΕΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΝΝΟΙΑΣ ΤΟΥ ΚΡΙΤΙΚΟΥ ΣΤΟΧΑΣΜΟΥ ΣΤΗ ΜΑΘΗΣΗ ΚΑΙ ΑΝΑΠΤΥΞΗ ΤΩΝ ΕΝΗΛΙΚΩΝ
ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟ 1
Ο κριτικός στοχασμός ως ‘ex-post facto’ συνθήκη μάθησης και ανάπτυξης στους ενηλίκους.
ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟ 2
Αποτίμηση της σχέσης μεταξύ νοηματοδότησης και κριτικού στοχασμού στη μάθηση των ενηλίκων.
ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟ 3
Ο κριτικός στοχασμός ως προϋπόθεση μετασχηματισμού της ανθρώπινης εμπειρίας και ο ρόλος των συναισθημάτων.
ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟ 4
Κριτικός στοχασμός και ο κύκλος της ‘conscientização’: ζητήματα κατανόησης του πλαισίου δράσης με στόχο τη χειραφέτηση και την κοινωνική αλλαγή.

ΜΕΡΟΣ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΟ: ΠΡΑΚΤΙΚΕΣ ΠΡΟΕΚΤΑΣΕΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΝΝΟΙΑΣ ΤΟΥ ΚΡΙΤΙΚΟΥ ΣΤΟΧΑΣΜΟΥ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΚΠΑΙΔΕΥΣΗ ΕΝΗΛΙΚΩΝ
ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟ 5
Από την ενδυνάμωση στη χειραφέτηση: προϋποθέσεις οργάνωσης του ρολού του εκπαιδευτή στο πλαίσιο μιας κριτικοστοχαστικής πρακτικής.
ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟ 6
Ζητήματα προσέγγισης των αναγκών των ενηλίκων εκπαιδευομένων μέσω της ανάλυσης της εμπειρίας τους, στο πλαίσιο μιας κριτικοστοχαστικής εκπαιδευτικής πρακτικής.
ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟ 7
Ο κριτικοστοχαστικής εκπαιδευτής και η κοινωνικο-πολιτικη διάσταση του ρόλου του.
ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟ 8
Ο ρόλος του κριτικού στοχασμού στο πλαίσιο του σύγχρονου οργανισμού μάθησης. "

6 κεφάλαια αναρτημένα.

In de vorige drie nummers van deze jaargang van Speling stonden goedheid, schoonheid en waarheid centraal. Maar hebben het werken aan het goede, het streven naar het schone en het zoeken naar het ware ook iets met elkaar te maken? Vallen zij in een zinvol verband samen? Of zijn het op zichzelf staande bezigheden? Zin in vele zinnen Wij gebruiken het woord 'zin' in vele betekenissen. De nieuwe Dikke van Dale noemt er veertien. En van die veertien betekenissen is 'bete-kenis' zelf er één. De zin van iets is de betekenis, de strekking of be-doeling ervan. Maar die betekenis, strekking of bedoeling moeten we doorgaans halen uit de samenhang tussen de onderdelen van datgene wat zin geeft. Woorden ontvangen als het ware hun betekenis uit de ordening waarmee ze in een zin-in de betekenis van volzin-zijn ge-plaatst. Die zin is dan een syntactisch verband dat een gedachte of een mededeling uitdrukt. De plaatsing in de zin geeft meerwaarde aan de woorden: samen krijgen ze betekenis, vormen ze een zinvol geheel. De woorden worden meer dan ze in hun afzonderlijkheid zouden zijn. Zouden we de woorden los na elkaar en in een willekeurige volg-orde uitspreken, dan zou dat betekenisloos gebrabbel lijken, of op zijn best een experimenteel gedicht. De woorden zouden 'zinledig' zijn: leeg van betekenis. Maar door de geordende wijze waarop ze met el-kaar verbonden zijn, kunnen ze ons iets zeggen. Ze krijgen zin. Die zinnen kunnen lang of kort zijn, krom of krachtig, helder of ingewik-keld. Maar ze vertellen wel allemaal iets. 'They make sense', zouden we in het Engels zeggen. Die betekenis kan ook ons gedrag beïnvloeden. Zin heeft immers ook te maken met motivatie, met animo, dus met een innerlijke ge-moedsgesteldheid. 'We hebben er zin in.' Dat wil zeggen: we zijn ge-motiveerd om te doen wat we gaan doen. Die motivatie ontlenen we aan de betekenis die we toekennen aan die activiteit waar we zin in moeten hebben. 'Heb je zin om een artikel voor Speling te schrijven?'

Rae, Murray A. Architecture and Theology: The Art of Place. Waco, TX: Baylor, 2017. 305 pp. Hardback, $49.95. ISBN 978-1481307635. Review by Jessica J. Schroeder Murray Rae's most recent book, Architecture and Theology: The Art of Place, is a storehouse of insight. Though the book's title may seem to suggest an exclusive audience, thoughtful readers from all disciplines would find this work worth their time. For those with artistic sensibilities, Rae's work is an absolute delight. For others, for whom art and architecture are simply curiosities, his work is a warm invitation to look more closely at the world we inhabit as well as a guide for discovering wonders in the woodwork and "angels in the architecture."

In the public administration discipline, there have been a number of important studies on leadership. However, here, scholarly inquiry still lags behind related disciplines such as psychology and business administration. This article contributes by analyzing the role public leaders can play in making work more meaningful for their employees, which in turn positively influences employees’ job outcomes. More specifically, it analyzes the mediating role of work meaningfulness in the relationships between Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) and organizational commitment, work effort, and work-to-family enrichment. Samples from education, healthcare, and local government are used. Results show firstly that leadership strongly influences work meaningfulness, which in turn influences job outcomes. Secondly, it was found that the impact and extent of leadership and work meaningfulness are higher in healthcare and education than in local government. The results emphasize the importance of leadership and meaningful work in the public sector.

Lego Serious Play is a creative, imaginative and story-telling based approach that since 2002 has been successfully adopted by businesses ad organisations all around the world.
LSP has proved to be an effective solution for team building, strategy, co-creation, concept, conflict resolution…
And its efficacy can be tracked back to the key theories that have been included in the development and formalisation of LSP: from management, Psychology of play, Imagination, Embodied cognition, Metaphors, constructionism… They are all perfectly integrated in the Lego Serious Play experience and deliver unexpected results efficiently. This presentation tells who adopted this approach and the whys.

There are certain thoughts - intimations - that will seem corny, or laughable, and therefore dismissed - and only seriously absorbed into the changing mind when felt, in the shelter of the quietly moving music of the soul.
It is the function of art, and of love, to make this music heard . . . 

  It is not the music of depression - it is the way through.

Ancient rhetorical tradition discussed the possible semantic discrepancy between the written words (scripta) and writer’s intention (voluntas). In the case of such discrepancy, the intended meaning of an author was usually preferred to the lexical/syntactic meaning of a text. The debate about the hermeneutical importance of authorial intention continues in modern hermeneutics. There are those for whom the meaning of a text is isomorphic with authorial intention, and those for whom the meaning of a text is completely independent from authorial intention. In comparison with these extreme positions, Augustine seems to hold a middle ground. He has both hermeneutical and theological reasons for avoiding the one-sided extremes.
Augustine defends the importance of human authorial intention as an undeniable factor not only in the existence of the signa data (i.e., words/sentences as intentional signs), but partially also in the establishment of their meaning(s). Nevertheless, he postulates certain restrictions to the human authorial intention in determining the meaning(s) of scriptural texts. Accordingly, this paper investigates these restrictions or qualifications that Augustine postulates for the acknowledged hermeneutical role of authorial intention. I will argue that, for Augustine, there were primarily two reasons for defending a limited role of (the human) authorial intention in interpretation of the Scriptures.
1. The Scriptures as a double-authored text (i.e., a text authored by God and humans) prevent the human authorial intention from being the ultimate hermeneutical criterion.
2. To equate the human authorial intention with the meaning of a text would tie the meaning of the canonical texts to the past history and may eliminate the possibility of Christological interpretations of the Old Testament.

During the last few years, the life stories of patients with schizophrenia have received increasing research interest, but a systematic review has not yet been conducted, and many nuances of patients’ life stories have not yet been investigated. This master’s thesis investigates how the life stories of patients with schizophrenia differ from the life stories of healthy controls on a range of variables, and how these variables are related to psychopathology and neurocognition. This is accomplished through a systematic review delineating what is currently known about the life story in schizophrenia, and an empirical article investigating the life stories of a group of patients with schizophrenia and a group of healthy controls. The review concludes that the life stories of patients are significantly different from the life stories of controls; although significant correlations were scarce, findings suggest that this is most likely connected to patients’ negative symptoms and neurocognitive function. This is corroborated by the empirical article, which also found that patients, compared to healthy controls, constructed fewer and more negative meanings from their life stories.

This qualitative study investigated the lived experiences of highly sensitive persons (HSPs) to better understand the way they experience careers.  Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is the underlying personality trait and is present in approximately 20 percent of the population, equally distributed across gender and racial lines.  SPS is considered a non-normative personality trait in some Western societies and subcultures.  Thus, many HSPs experience difficulty finding an appropriate match between innate temperament and career.   
This qualitative research perspective employed semi-structured interviews with 35 participants recruited through social media web sites and snowball sampling.  Participants in the study were primarily from the U.S., but also from five foreign countries.  Participants were chosen based on answers to a recruitment questionnaire and Elaine Aron’s HSP Self-Test.  Major findings reveal a complex, interwoven dynamic interplay between nine major themes: (1) empathy, (2) childhood’s influence, (3) self-care, (4) a rich inner life, (5) creativity, (6) high sensation-seeking, (7) the sociological perspective, (8) the experience of work, and (9) the integral being.  The significance of this study is that it is the first of its kind to investigate this topic in a systematic, scientific manner.

This is my chapter titled "One, two, three... one: The edusemiotic self" (UNCORRECTED PROOF only)-- Ch 4 in JUNG, DELEUZE, AND THE PROBLEMATIC WHOLE (Edited by Roderick Main, Christian McMillan, and David Henderson).

Review: ‘Jung, Deleuze, and the Problematic Whole is essential reading for those interested in the flourishing area of Jung/Deleuze studies. From a Jungian perspective, Deleuze’s ideas allow an interpretation of Jung’s writing on the unus mundus that both critiques and revitalizes his work. For those who study Deleuze, this is added evidence of the potential for a psychology consonant with the ideas of schizoanalysis. Overall, this book marks an important contribution to the ongoing exploration of Jung’s influence on the philosopher of the rhizome.’
Barbara Jenkins, Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Wilfred Laurier University; author of Eros and Economy: Jung, Deleuze, Sexual Difference (Routledge, 2016)

The Full Hebrew text of my thesis: The Nature of "The Goodness Experience in Nature"; A Phenomenological Inquiry Grounded in Eugene Gendlin’s Ideas

מחקר זה החל בזיהוי שסביבות מסוימות "עושות טוב" להרבה אנשים באופן די דומה, ועוסק בתיאור פנומנולוגי של חווית הטוּב (Well-being) בסביבה, דרך התמקדות בתחושת הטוּב הסובייקטיבית בעת שהות בטבע. חקר החוויה הסובייקטיבית נחשב ל"בעיה הקשה של ההכרה" והמחקר מציע מתודולוגיה חדשנית בתחום זה ע"י שימוש בהתמקדות: שיטה להפניית תשומת הלב לחוויה הגופנית, והמשגתה בדיבור בזמן-אמת. התכנים העיקריים שעלו בניתוח תמטי ומבני של ההתמקדויות היו תאור חווית אחדוּת שלוּבה בתחושת נבדלוּת ועצמיוּת, ותחושת כוונה, ידיעה, ויכולת מוגברת. ההתוודעות לתחושות אלה הופיעה מתוך "רפרוף" תשומת הלב של המתמקדים בין שדות משמעות של פנים / חוץ, ומומשג / לא-מומשג; תוך גילוי משהו חדש, קישורו לעולם המשמעות הפרטי, ופיתוחו להמשגה מכלילה. המחקר מצביע על קשר בין חווית ה"טבילה" במימד הלא מילולי והלא מומשג שבטבע, ליצירת משמעות, ומעלה את האפשרות שהתחדשות-משמעות היא היא החוויה המיטיבה שבטבע.

In comparison to other professions, first responders are at a heightened risk of work-related trauma. Repeated and unpredictable exposure to peri-traumatic distress can cause cumulative negative mental health outcomes, often triggering symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), to which DSM-5 recently added a dissociative subtype (PTSD-DISS). The study of Spiritual Intelligence (SI), as a process that allows a positive confrontation with adversity, initiates hypotheses as to the role of the aforementioned variable the context of crisis intervention, which -according to the existing literature- may either serve as a buffer or an amplifier towards disaster-related trauma. This study compared Spiritual Intelligence as exhibited by first responders scoring high on their frequency of experiencing dissociation (i.e. harbouring liability for PTSD-DISS). SI is defined as the adaptive application of spirituality in everyday life, which includes an array of mental abilities thought to contribute to the awareness, integration, and adaptive application of the nonmaterial and transcendent aspects of one's existence. It encompasses facets of human pondering relating to the nature of purpose, relatioships, death and trancendence, all of which carry heavy connotations in the context of existential concerns initiated by trauma and crisis exposure.

Despite the immense stability of the social structure of schooling, recent social, economic, and technological developments are widening the gap between schools and the surrounding societies so much as to challenge the foundations of public education. Conventional educational practices are hard-pressed to deal with the challenges that contemporary knowledge societies pose for learning and education as lifelong and lifewide processes.

FROM THE BACK COVER: What is the essential nature of meaning? . . . . . This book answers by examining interpretive theories from the past and present. It finds that an historical struggle with meaning has been underway since the Reformation, a struggle that reaches crisis proportions in the 20th century. On the one hand, this crisis is mollified by Heidegger's hermeneutical phenomenology, which argues that we are always already in a meaningful relationship to the objects of the world. On the other hand, this crisis is exacerbated when phenomenology, structuralism, and aesthetic theory directly make meaning into an object of study. . . . . . . . . These historical developments culminate with the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, whose non-hermeneutical phenomenology delimits a cause of meaning said to be closely linked to the core of subjectivity. Intriguingly, Lacan's work reveals meaning to be sexual in nature. By integrating his notion of sexual difference with his work in discourse theory and topology, this book demonstrates how the subject's struggle with meaning can be suspended.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GENERAL DESCRIPTION: Broadly speaking, the majority of books on Jacques Lacan focus on the earlier periods of his career. They also tend to target the psychoanalytic clinical community, or else discuss his work in various political, social, and cultural contexts. But in almost all cases these books refrain from a detailed exegesis of his actual texts. They instead prefer to comment on his theoretical apparatus as a whole before turning to its practical implications. . . . . . This book positions itself against this grain. Firstly, it closely analyzes some half-dozen key Lacanian texts. This analysis is organized under a single thematic – the question of meaning – in order to advance the reader's understanding of the trajectory of Lacan's thought across his entire career, as well as to promote the book's thesis that the field of meaning can be suspended. Accordingly, an initial chapter takes up the hermeneutical tradition from Flacius onward. This is then supplemented by a chapter which surveys phenomenological, structuralist and aesthetic theories of meaning and their differing methods of textual analysis. Together these two chapters provide a unique context for the sustained analysis of Lacan's texts which begins in the third chapter, an analysis that forms the bulk of the book's content. This contextualization potentially widens the book's appeal to any scholar wishing to explore his relationship to those textual objects he interacts with on a daily basis. And because this book assumes the reader has little to no familiarity with Lacan, the reader will find patient explanations of the basics of his theories before slowly being led up to the more difficult theories of his late years. Again the argument is that Lacan has something to offer all scholars. His work is not just reserved for psychoanalysts. . . . . . It is with his late theories that the serious student of Lacan will find the book's most original contribution. For in the fourth chapter a detailed account is provided of how Lacan derived his infamous formulae of sexuation from Aristotelian logic. These formulae are then extensively discussed against the backdrop of interpretive theory and textual analysis, showing how these formulae capture much more than just the difference between the sexes. Strikingly, this difference is also found to run through meaning itself, something the final chapter aims to demonstrate. It does this by amalgamating three key components of late-Lacan: sexuation, discourse theory and his use of topological spaces. This amalgamation is a first in the literature. But this amalgamation is not just useful in demonstrating the book's thesis. It further suggests how seemingly divergent aspects of late-Lacanian theory can be made to work together.

'Spiritual but not religious' (SBNR) has come to be accepted as a personal label without there being clarity about the difference between 'spiritual' and 'religious'. In other contexts, in sociology and psychology of religion and in health care studies, 'spirituality' has been accepted as a useful term or rejected as meaningless. Much of the research into spirituality has been done in North America but the findings do not cross the Atlantic. A different approach is need in Europe, especially in Northern Europe.

In this paper, after considering the content of the SBNR self-defrinition, I compare and contrast the methods and positions of American and European scholars, reviewing the contributions to the spirituality debate of, among others, Ammerman, Bender, Hood, Hvidt, La Cour, Motak, Salander, Streib, Walter and Woodhead, and I reach ten significant conclusions.

The chapter reviews the growing field of multimodality in relation to the study of language, text and society. It introduces the concept of multimodality as an increasingly visible phenomenon of communication and it traces the developments of multimodality as a field of research, along with the extant theoretical approaches to multimodal analysis. The chapter further discusses and exemplifies key notions of a social semiotic perspective to multimodal analysis and mentions potentials and limitations, pointing to future directions of research in the field. Rather than a comprehensive review of extant studies in multimodality, the chapter discusses selected key assumptions, topics and analytical developments in multimodal research that are relevant to its relation with language and society.
Keywords: multimodality, social semiotics, sign-making, text, multimodal analysis

Every culture and sub-culture has its own worldview. Composed of scientific and mythic accounts of what’s happening in the cosmic drama of which we are a part, it is passed on as a meta-narrative from one generation to the next and functions for members of the society as a shared meaning system that shapes and makes sense of their experience. An analysis of worldviews, as they have evolved over time and vary from one culture to another, reveals that each rests on a key assumption regarding the relationship between mind and matter, between consciousness and the physical realm. This paper explores each of these philosophical assumptions.

Institutions of higher education often promise to graduate individuals capable not only of excelling in their area of expertise but also qualified as exceptional leaders and citizens. Yet, what are the competencies needed from leaders in order to address the most challenging issues facing society? How would higher education cultivate the next generation of leaders for a world of problems we currently cannot solve, and how would it be determined if some graduates were “more prepared ” than others to face these challenges? This dissertation seeks to answer these questions through the work of two distinct manuscripts. The first argues that human processes for meaning-making play critical formative roles in the setting and solving of our most complex problems. In essence, that problem-solving can be considered as embodied acts of meaning-making. This link is made through analysis of Bruner’s concept of narrative and highlights the importance played by naming and framing through one’s un...