Forging Connections
Asynchronous Session
Mental Gorging and the Spectacle: Digital Spaces and Psychological Habits View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session David Goodman, Matthew Clemente
At the midpoint of the Republic, Plato offers a vivid depiction of the desire for spectacle, the lust for sights which Freud claims can manifest itself as a “passive” perversion linked with “the instinct for cruelty.” Leontius, Plato tells us, desired to look at the “corpses lying by the public executioner.” At first, his shame prevented him from doing so. But, “overpowered by desire, he opened his eyes wide, ran toward the corpses,” and indulged his vicious longing. In this paper, coauthored by a philosopher and a psychologist, recent developments in the psychological sciences are brought to bear on insights garnered from engagement with philosophical texts and seminal thinkers in order to consider anew how concupiscentia oculorum—the lust of the eyes, as Augustine famously calls it—manifests itself in our digital age. In what ways does the screen—which allows users to see without being seen—override shame and encourage the kind of voyeurism Plato feared? How do technologically mediated relations increase the desire for spectacle, affecting attentional processes and habituating users to addictive and self-referential behaviors? In particular, this paper is concerned with the chaotic, gorging fascination that virtual scopophilia induces. It raises ethical concerns about the impact of digital technology on human subjectivity and considers how such capacities affect mental health.
The Scopes Program: Understanding the Role of the Visual Arts in Medical Education View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mason Seely
Medical education in the United States (US) often promotes algorithmic learning in the pursuit of clinical efficiency. However, the shift to competency-based graduation metrics that include inter- and intra-personal skills requires educational programing that extends beyond the traditional biomedical approach. The purpose of this work is to analyze the impact of an art creation program for pre-clinical medical students at a single US institution. In this report, we first provide a brief narrative review of art creation programs at US medical schools. Next, we distinguish the Scopes Program from other curriculum offerings as a visual art creation program that integrates a student’s artistic interests with a patient’s longitudinal illness experiences. We conclude with a qualitative analysis of survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with past participants to identify key professional and personal competencies enhanced by the program. We demonstrate that art creation can be (1) a conduit for understanding human experience with disease, and (2) an educational intervention that promotes professional and personal development. Despite our small sample size, this report demonstrates that early visual art engagement encourages a more holistic understanding of disease and promotes multifaceted professional development.
Instructional Relevance and Authentic Assessment in the Second Language Classroom View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Marie-Anne Visoi
This paper first looks at the importance of effective instructional planning for teaching French as a second language in the digital age, with particular attention to learners’ individual characteristics and communicative language competence involving reception, production, and interaction. From this perspective, we examine curricular decisions regarding pedagogical approaches and types of assessments that foster engagement and connect learning to students’ experiences and interests. In addition, guidelines for contextualizing teaching practice and the use of relevant content and authentic materials in classroom tests and quizzes, supported by carefully selected multi-media resources, are discussed. Creative ideas for language activities and formats incorporating Universal Design and high-quality digital resources will include group discussions, collaborative writing, panel presentations and online media analysis. Finally, the role of technology in helping students self-correct and track their progression across different types of online oral and written work (e.g., video profiles, essays, commentary from peers, self-assessments) is highlighted.
Reading Club in English as an Interdisciplinary Course in University: A Didactic Proposal View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Elena Navrotskaya
There is no doubt that reading is one on the crucial elements for raising self-awareness, developing critical thinking and improving communication skills and empathy. Nevertheless, promotion of reading among teenagers and young adults is an increasingly challenging tasks in the context of contemporary digitalized world. Moreover, proficiency in English or another foreign language is also a key factor of the harmonious development of an open-minded, educated person. The author argues that having a reading club is an effective way to promote reading among University students, making them engage with art, literature and social issues, while fostering their English proficiency. One of the biggest challenges for the successful functioning of that course is the prejudices that many students have against reading. The author proposes an innovative method that was applied in the interdisciplinary course "Reading Club" in Spanish University Nebrija. A detailed description of the methodology, academic results and perception of the students are exposed, and recommendations for successful implementation of this course in other institutions are given.
The Therapist as a Collaborative Pianist: Preforming Music as A Way to New Knowledge in Psychology View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ephrat Havron
In this study I examine what we might learn about the therapist’s function as selfobject by closely examining the relationship between the vocal persona and the instrumental persona in the art song. The comparison was born out of my own life experience as a therapist currently training as a Psychoanalyst, whose underlying philosophy stresses the presence of the therapist as selfobject, with a collaborative pianist who, following his passion for the art song, instructs singers and performs with them onstage. Over the years, as our respective professional identities have crystalized, the concept of the selfobject has offered a compelling and fruitful analogy, while exchanging knowledge from the field of humanities to the field of social sciences, in a surprising and fruitful way. The selfobject and the instrumental persona have in common the willingness to suspend selfhood in order to stand by another – a patient or a vocal persona – so that the latter might take root and flourish. They do so by satisfying the other's needs of mirroring and idealization, enabling both to dissolve into something bigger which transcends their boundaries, offering either meaningful aesthetic experiences or an ameliorating, therapeutic process. Thus, I have observed the similarities and differences between the professions, but mainly found ourselves learning from each other’s practices and fine-tuning our sense of what it means to be an accompanist or a therapist. I do this in the paper as well, describing the learning process from art to psychology.
Forms of Knowledge in Psychoanalytic Listening View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anna Aragno
Psychoanalytic situations create special dialogues designed to bring into relief what is unconscious. From this interpretive frame they establish semantic fields that expand the narrow range of referents of ordinary linguistic communication to include unspoken, expressive, projective, and transmissive modes as well. The referential range in this semantic space encompasses transmissive forms that can only be accessed through a combination of observation, listening and introspective awareness. Of the various levels and emergent forms that convey unconscious meanings many are received organically by induction, evocation, even physical states. Sensory input, pre-semiotic and symbolic meanings, infuse contextual experiences with information that is referred to and interpreted in this discourse alone. These indicative and iconic modes themselves become forms of reference where nonverbal enactive signifiers are recognized and taken as indices of meaning. When we say that the psychoanalytic process is “experiential,” this is what is meant. Words in our interpretive dialogues are acts — acts that are both organic and symbolic. This presentation lists ten referential perspectives pertaining to the psychoanalytic situation and the semantic scope of the analyst’s interpretive range.
