Critical Explorations
Asynchronous Session
Featured Krishna’s Leela and Winnicott’s Play: A Correspondence View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Vineet Gairola
It is time for psychology to get in touch with its creative roots. This paper emphasizes psychoanalysis of the highest and the deepest parts of psychology—correspondence between the infantile and the mystical. Both parts carry with them a promise of absorption, which echoes in itself a ground zero for psychology. It is about creatively noticing the fundamentals and witnessing a dependent origination. Krishna was a man of the future. He is beyond post-postmodernism. It is on the grounds that Krishna’s truth is ‘neither this nor that, this also, that also’—a paradoxical site by accepting the totality of existence. Different people saw different facets of who he is. For some he is God, for some, he is a crook, for some, he is a lover, for some, he is an eloquent flute player, for some, he is a truly audacious warrior, the most vibrant embodiment, a yogi of the paramount order, and so on. We see what both the creative analysts—Krishna and Winnicott have to offer in the understanding of the infantile in our time. Both of them allow us to explore the most profound and the most serious aspect of life playfully. If we want to be-in, be-with, and finally be the truth, we will need Leela ‘play.’ At the intersection of psychoanalysis and culture, can Winnicott’s true self dance to the flute of Krishna?
Shedding Catholic Religion in 21st Century Poland: An Interview-based Project View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Magdalena Grabowska
The focus is drawn to shedding Catholic religious identity in Poland and how interviewees represent it, where they find reasons and how this decision has affected their lives. Methodologically I am inspired by biographical research which assume that narration enables one to construct a coherent picture of one’s own identity. Theorists admit that people very often possess more than one identity. Moreover, life-storytelling not only gives insights into this complex identity issue but also endows our life with meaning and integrity. My interviewees underlined that they have entirely lost touch with the Roman Catholic Church. However, almost everyone has admitted that a direct catalyst which pushed them to this decision were events which occurred in Poland in the years 2020-2021, i.e., revealing cases of paedophilia among the clergy and the ruling of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal on abortion law. This turn towards outside factors makes me think the participants seek reasons for their breach with religion in society. Thus, I have decided to seek inspirations in critical discourse analysis methodology. The subject matter of my research is 35 audio recorded conversations with apostates in Poland. These are narratives which tell the story of breaching from family roots, coping with a change, taking responsibility, courage, emancipation and a reflective view on life, culture, and national traditions.
Narrative as an Effective Tool of Persuasion in Protestant Sermons View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Martin Adam
One of the common denominators that underlie Protestant sermons is their narrative character. Storytelling of different genres with different phases and culminations seems to serve the needs of the church for teaching via preaching. The storyline of sermons may include biblical stories (Gospel as well as other stories, such as parables), a story from a different source (lyrics, a poem, a joke, media, fiction, etc.) or a personal story (reminiscences, experiences, and the like), that is a narrative in the broadest sense of the word (cf. Nash, 1985, 26ff; Wierzbicka, 2001). The story as such carries the line of narration and helps point out ideas, illustrate the doctrine and draw conclusions. Moreover, the narrative line in sermons naturally includes all three Aristotelian persuasive appeals. The proposed paper strives to look at narrative as a tool of persuasion; it wants to demonstrate how stories take believers by the hand and lead them to persuasion, conviction and belief. Thus, the narrative line in protestant sermons appears to be a constitutive feature; not only does such a sermon attract the attention of listeners more easily, it enables the preacher to construe the intended structure of the message gradually and to conclude the sermon with a true (typically pathetic) punchline, that is a message that aims directly at the hearts and minds of the audience.
The Parthenon Marbles as Sacred Space: Past, Present and Future View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session John Scott Gray
As part of a larger work on sacred spaces, this paper discusses the Parthenon Marbles, in particular examining whether or not the Parthenon at the Acropolis should be considered a sacred space without the Marbles. In this study, I argue that the obvious answer is yes. I also discuss the degree to which the "Elgin" Marbles themselves, currently housed in the British Museum, constitute a sacred space (again, I argue the answer is still yes, although this is less obvious). I lastly argue that the Parthenon Museum, at the base of the Acropolis, should also be rightly classified as a sacred space, as it contains many fragments from the Parthenon not part of the "Elgin" collection, as well as serve as a prepared space for the rest of the Marbles if and when they are returned. The ongoing debate about the Marbles and whether or not they should be returned to Athens, which they should, serve as the backdrop.
