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Old age is a stage of life during which a person must confront the changes that occur both in the reality around them and in themself. Those are changes at the biological, psychological and social levels. Adapting to old age and the roles it brings becomes a difficult and demanding task. One of the most important developmental tasks of an elderly person is developing wisdom that can support and facilitate the process of adaptation to old age. Entering the period of late adulthood is therefore a special opportunity for further development and self-creative action of the individual leading to the creation of a mature identity of an old person. The aim of this text is to provide insight into the meaning and manifestations of this self-creative involvement, with particular emphasis on its importance in the process of adaptation to changing roles in old age and building wisdom.

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This article aims to show Foucault’s adaptation and creative development of Nietzsche's findings on the production of subjects through the interplay of, closely related, knowledge and power. What I am exclusively interested in is the problem of this production, or forming, of individuals. Because both authors have a lot of revealing things to say on it, I would like to analyse their concepts as complementary and, to some extent, mutually explanatory and ... corrective. Showing the specific mechanisms of power in modern society allows Foucault to reveal certain aspects of today's subjectivity that would be difficult to see from the perspective adopted by Nietzsche. His research therefore significantly complements Nietzsche's account of our becoming what we are. But I also believe that the conclusions which Foucault draws from his creative interpretation of Nietzsche's revolutionary insights can be corrected, or significantly supplemented, by some ideas that can be found in Nietzsche's work itself.

This editorial article is a study on the letters numbered as the first and fourth from the collection of engagement correspondence between poet and translator, Felicjan Faleński, and writer, publicist and translator, Maria Trębicka, from 1854–1860, kept in the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków, volume 5780. The set of letters in Polish is composed of 626 pages in 4º format. It comprises 81 letters from Felicjan Medard Faleński (1825–1910) to Maria Trębicka (1821–1896), his wife from 1859, as well as 151 letters from Maria Trębicka to Felicjan Faleński in chronological order (though not free from errors). The article depicts the strategies used by Faleński and Trębicka to establish a bond and build a space of intimacy between the participants of the correspondence in the context of communication and psychological theories. The poet achieves this purpose not only by enchanting the addressee with his erudition and originality (assuming the mask of an eccentric, or Don Quixote) and making references to literary knowledge and outlooks they shared, but also by taking more sophisticated steps. These include the highlighting of a meta-literary character of a letter, or an invitation to transgressing linguistic and social norms (e.g. revealing details of private life, introspecting on his own character, or encouraging to break the world’s conventions together). Trębicka’s letter creates an image of her as an excellent listener, emphatic and well-read, who will allow the interlocutor to show his best side. For both of them, the correspondence space of intimacy builds a ‘second reality’, allowing for a sincere expression of emotions, hopes and fears. Their letters are similar to intimate diaries, in which the necessary contact with the recipient enables both self-knowledge and self-creation.

This article presents a reading of Nalo Hopkinson’s short stories “The Glass Bottle Trick,” “Precious,” and “Greedy Choke Puppy” that considers Caribbean Canadian subjectivity through lenses of (inter)textuality and the material/metaphorical spaces and movements of interruption. It draws from Tiffany Lethabo King’s thinking on shoals to theorize the gathering and accumulation of tales that occurs in Hopkinson’s re/imaginings of “Bluebeard,” “The Kind and the Unkind Girls,” and soucouyant folklore. The article suggests that these shoals interrupt the paths of dominant narratives in ways that force detours to emerge, adapting Rinaldo Walcott’s use of the term to explore the transformative possibilities that occur through the creation of new improvised paths, of otherwise ways of conceptualizing Caribbean Canadian being. Ultimately, it proposes that Hopkinson’s stories acknowledge and yet interrupt colonial narratives of geography, identity, and femininity, providing a framework through which to consider the unstable grounds and the searching detours of Caribbean Canadian subjectivities.

In a famous passage in “The Death of the Author,” Roland Barthes describes the writing process as embodying the disintegration of the author’s personal identity: “Writing is that neutral, composite, oblique space where our subject slips away, the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writing” (142). This postmodern position is deeply rooted in classical Greek thought, in particular Plato’s harsh critique of poetic inspiration, conceived as “holy madness.” Is this equation valid, however? Does writing necessarily serve as the ultimate act of self-negation? This essay seeks to elucidate Jorge Luis Borges’ and Fernando Pessoa’s alternative views of authorial subjectivity. Borges and Pessoa – arguably two of the greatest writers of the twentieth century – conceive the interplay between writing and self-identity in rather complex fashion. Pessoa’s term “heteronym” relates to the way in which an author’s subjectivity abruptly gives way to an idiosyncratic identity who composes the poem. This recalls the Kabbalistic idea of God’s contraction (tzimzum), the creator preserving his or her passive self-identity while giving birth to other beings from his or her inner void. Discussing Shakespeare and Whitman, Borges proposes that the act of writing is a form of self-creation in which the writer begets a unique narrative identity out of himself or herself that, transfigured, is simultaneously both the same and the other.

This article raises a series of doubts about Chris Voparil's reading of Rorty, particularly the claim that what he calls "Rorty's Pragmatic Maxim" represents what is at the heart of his philosophical vision. Those doubts are tied together with some scattered thoughts about how Voparil describes the affinities between Rorty and William James in chapter 2 of Reconstructing Pragmatism. Voparil is correct to claim that it is James, more than any other figure in the pragmatist tradition, who shares the most with Rorty in "basic philosophical orientation". Yet I also argue that Voparil fails to correctly puts his finger on what that "basic philosophical orientation" really comes to, due in large part to an excessively political reading of James and Rorty that he relies on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a famous passage in "The Death of the Author," Roland Barthes describes the writing process as embodying the disintegration of the author's personal identity: "Writing is that neutral, composite, oblique space where our subject slips away, the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writing" (142).1 This postmodern position is deeply rooted in classical Greek thought, in particular Plato's harsh critique of poetic inspiration, conceived as "holy madness." Is this equation valid, however? Does writing necessarily serve as the ultimate act of self-negation? This essay seeks to elucidate Jorge Luis Borges' and Fernando Pessoa's alternative views of authorial subjectivity. Borges and Pessoa - arguably two of the greatest writers of the twentieth century - conceive the interplay between writing and self-identity in rather complex fashion. Pessoa's term "heteronym" relates to the way in which an author's subjectivity abruptly gives way to an idiosyncratic identity who composes the poem. This recalls the Kabbalistic idea of God's contraction (tzimzum), the creator preserving his or her passive self-identity while giving birth to other beings from his or her inner void. Discussing Shakespeare and Whitman, Borges proposes that the act of writing is a form of self-creation in which the writer begets a unique narrative identity out of himself or herself that, transfigured, is simultaneously both the same and the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role individual responsibility plays in contemporary political theory. It argues that the standard luck egalitarian view—the view according to which distributive justice is ensured by holding people accountable for their exercise of responsibility in the distribution of benefits and burdens—obscures the more fundamental value of being responsible. The paper, then, introduces an account of 'self-creative responsibility' as an alternative to the standard view and shows how central elements on which this account is founded has been prominently defended in the history of Western political thought but are comparatively neglected in contemporary political theory. Relying on this account, the paper argues that society should hold persons responsible when, and only when, doing so enables them to lead responsible lives, and only on the condition that doing so does not infringe other persons' equivalently valuable ability to lead responsible lives. The account of self-creative responsibility, the paper concludes, plausibly captures the intuitive attraction of holding responsible while respecting the value of being responsible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the story of the successful analysis of an experienced analyst being analyzed by an even more experienced analyst, told by means of prose, poetry and drawings. It is replete with attempts to be humorous, dramatic and ironic. It mixes up observations and commentary. Some have called it "transgressive," which is a bit of a surprise to me, because I didn't even realize it was irreverent while I was composing it. I didn't have a conscious intention for it to take the form it has. The desire, content and style flowed from the liberation and cultivation of my natural self-expression freed from painful inhibitions by my analysis. I am very grateful to my analyst Mel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper divides the question of "What is analysis?" into two questions: What are the commonalities among different types of analysis that makes each of them fit under the rubric "psychoanalysis"? This question is answered by the intent of the field, what it aspires to accomplish. The second asks "What is psychoanalysis, anyway?" That is, given this definition, what is the most theoretically cogent and clinically effective way to practice the craft? What, after all, does psychoanalysis do? The second question is answered by reference to the analysis between Bornstein and Frank by using the data they provided to show the importance of both understanding and creation in the analytic process. It is argued that the analysis reported demonstrated the cardinal importance of opening a potential space in analysis for the creation of new psychic capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents and analyses the results of focus group studies conducted with students at an international university in Lithuania, interpreting the results in light of the extant literature on social media’s impact on the creation and performance of the self. The authors reveal a mixed picture whereby the respondents seem to demonstrate an unexpectedly casual and cynical attitude towards social media while, upon closer inspection, still remaining part of social media’s productive exchanges, contributing their data and attention in return for satisfaction. Hence, while by no means rejecting the standard interpretation provided in mainstream literature, the authors are able to present a more complex and nuanced picture of young people’s attitudes towards and interaction with social media and the self-creation affordances thereof, ultimately a close, constitutive, and creative interrelationship between humans and code. Santrauka Šiame straipsnyje pristatomi ir analizuojami rezultatai, gauti iš tikslinių grupių interviu su Lietuvoje esančio tarptautinio universiteto studentais. Šie rezultatai interpretuojami literatūros, aptariančios socialinių medijų poveikį savęs kūrimui ir raiškai, kontekste. Autoriai atskleidžia prieštaringą paveikslą – respondentai demonstruoja netikėtai atsainų ir net cinišką požiūrį į socialines medijas, tačiau, pažvelgus giliau, vis vien išlieka socialinių medijų produkcijos santykių dalimi, atiduodami savo duomenis mainais į pasitenkinimą. Tad, nors ir neatmesdami literatūroje dominuojančio požiūrio, autoriai pristato sudėtingesnį ir labiau niuansuotą požiūrį į jaunų žmonių nuomonę apie socialines medijas bei jų poveikį savęs kūrimui. Tokiu būdu parodomas atviras ir kūrybiškas santykis tarp žmogiškųjų aktorių ir programinio kodo. Reikšminiai žodžiai: savastys, aglomeracija, algoritmas, dėmesys, duomenys, savikūra, socialinės medijos

The article focuses on the self-creation dimension of the autobiographic narrative by Jan Tomasz Gross contained in his book …Long, Long Time Ago, More or Less Last Friday… (an example of talk literature). In his analysis, Kopczyk brings out the biographic models into which the authorprotagonist inscribes his life, paying attention to their relation with the Polish patriotic tradition, and romantic tradition in particular. In the fate of the protagonist, he perceives elements of “a typical romantic biography,” including the motif of mission and pilgrimage (for one’s homeland). The conclusion of the article suggests a relationship between Gross’s self-creation project and his work as a historian revealing the truth about the fates of Polish Jews during World War 2 and afterwards. Inscribing his own biography into “good models” alleviates what Gross perceives as personal consequences of disturbing the social taboo related to Polish people’s participation in the extermination of the Jewish minority.

This article presents and analyses the results of focus group studies conducted with students at an international university in Lithuania, interpreting the results in light of the extant literature on social media's impact on the creation and performance of the self. The authors reveal a mixed picture whereby the respondents seem to demonstrate an unexpectedly casual and cynical attitude towards social media while, upon closer inspection, still remaining part of social media's productive exchanges, contributing their data and attention in return for satisfaction. Hence, while by no means rejecting the standard interpretation provided in mainstream literature, the authors are able to present a more complex and nuanced picture of young people's attitudes towards and interaction with social media and the self-creation affordances thereof, ultimately a close, constitutive, and creative interrelationship between humans and code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes a unique approach to information transfer affecting the perceived value of this information and related impact on smoker behavior. Data were collected via survey, sampling approximately 120 participants. An online survey tool was used for the survey creation, data collection and monitoring. Another online tool was used by participants to create short animation videos as a means of increasing their engagement with information in an experiential fashion. Study findings included that the process experienced by the test group was influential and facilitated participants' change of mind regarding enrollment in a smoking cessation workshop. This was partly attributable to the IKEA effect. The study provides evidence that a change in habits crucial to improve health and enhance positive lifestyle choices can be stimulated through active engagement with artifact creation in a technology-mediated environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analysed different types of manipulation of human identity and development, the so-called anthropotechnics. This manipulation is described and analysed as material - the creation of soulless robots, as well as spiritual - the creation of fictional and fragmentary identity of John Carver (Howland), which originated between the multiple layers of narrative and under the influence of the constant monitoring by the Atlanteans. The starting point of the analysis is the idea of a human park by Peter Sloterdijk. The human park is a result of anthropotechnics as well as a reference to the zoological park, in which the taming occurs. The purpose of the paper is to seek the answer to the question on the nature of the relation between humans and their creations which Pekić presents in his novel.

This text analyses the self-creation strategy of Jerzy Ficowski, a Polish Romologist, who studied the Roma community in Poland from the end of World War II, publishing his findings in two texts Cyganie polscy (Polish Gypsies; published in 1953 and reprinted, in changed forms and under different titles in 1965, 1985 and 1989) and in a memoir titled Demony cudzego strachu (Demons of others’ fears; published in 1986). This strategy stretches between the poles of the extreme reduction of the speaker’s “I”, limiting itself to the coverage of sources, and the autobiographical narrative which maintains an intimate tone. The subject that emerges is a modernist ethnographer who uses the language of discursive domination and orientalising clichés. This is particularly evident in the passages devoted to the poetic genius of Bronisława Wajs-Papusza, which reproduces the classical concepts of tragedy and the sublime.

“I am aware of the difficulties and I do not get disheartened”: Wanda Dynowska’s Papers about India Collected in Tadeusz Pobożniak’s Archive The aim of the present paper is to discuss the process of self-creation discernible in hitherto unpublished letters written by Wanda Dynowska-Umadevi to Tadeusz Szukiewicz, her literary representative in Poland, acting on her behalf in 1938–1939. Besides discussing the documentary value of the letters, which, for instance, shed some light on Dynowska’s relationship with Tadeusz Pobożniak and her other eminent contemporaries, or contextualize the origin of selected volumes published afterwards with Biblioteka Polsko-Indyjska (Polish-Indian Library), I also try to show that the manner of Dynowska’s self-creation in the personal documents that predominantly concern the efforts to publish her articles intended to popularize India in Poland could have been shaped by the particular addressee of her letters, and thus culminated in Dynowska projecting herself in her own writings.

The SAPE is first and foremost an aesthetic phenomenon of self-creation. The roots of this post-colonial dandyism trace back to the 1910s, when black houseboys started using their European masters' clothes in order to imitate them. In Bleu-Blanc-Rouge (1998), Alain Mabanckou shows that the SAPE is a dialectic mechanism in which the perception of a material surface gives shape to consciousness, the sapeur poses as a pure surface invested by the senses of whoever perceives it. Indeed, the main character observes with admiration his idol's homecoming from Paris, elegantly dressed, with whitened skin, and speaking "[l]e fameux français de Guy de Maupassant" (Mabanckou 62). The SAPE is both an imitation and a reappropriation of a certain colonial imaginary. The young narrator goes to France to pursue his goal and follow the path of his role model. This creation of the self is achieved through a process that presupposes the externalization of desire: to admire a sapeur is to want to be a sapeur. The sapeur is primarily a work of art, he creates a distance from himself, he objectifies himself in order to better contemplate himself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present paper is to discuss the process of self-creation discernible in hitherto unpublished letters written by Wanda Dynowska-Umadevi to Tadeusz Szukiewicz, her literary representative in Poland, acting on her behalf in 1938-1939. Besides discussing the documentary value of the letters, which, for instance, shed some light on Dynowska's relationship with Tadeusz Pobożniak and her other eminent contemporaries, or contextualize the origin of selected volumes published afterwards with Biblioteka Polsko-Indyjska (Polish-Indian Library), I also try to show that the manner of Dynowska's self-creation in the personal documents that predominantly concern the efforts to publish her articles intended to popularize India in Poland could have been shaped by the particular addressee of her letters, and thus culminated in Dynowska projecting herself in her own writings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I examine Nietzsche's doctrine of self-creation as he develops it from Schopenhauer as Educator through Gay Science (GS). While many scholars have tackled this topic, they have generally focused on a few well-known snippets from Nietzsche's works without putting them in the context of Nietzsche's carefully wrought texts or philosophical development as a whole. Nietzsche's doctrine of self-creation receives its clearest articulation in GS IV, but in order to understand that doctrine fully, I trace its genesis in the writings leading up to GS. Doing so allows me to shed light on long-standing puzzles about Nietzsche's understanding of authenticity, the relationship between self-creation and his so-called fatalism, and the nature and limits of his commitment to the aesthetic model of the self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the article is to emphasize the insufficiency of reductionist interpretation of Descartes’ heritage and to bring into focus the constitutive role of anthropology in Descartes authentic project. Scientific novelty. Substantiation of anthropology in Descartes’ philosophical structure is based upon recognition of key importance of anthropological intention in previous philosophy as well as anthropological one in philosopher’s own works. Therefore, the insufficiency of established de-anthropologised interpretation of essential intention of Descartes’ doctrine becomes evident. Methodology. The use of phenomenology and hermeneutics enables us to comprehend the key philosopher’s ideas as the manifestation of his personality. The concentration on the interpretation of Descartes ideas as the manifestation of determining influence of external factors is the shortcoming of the established reductionist methodology. Conclusions. It was proved that anthropology that should have been the conclusion of Descartes’ philosophy under conditions of domination of reductionist attitude was withdrawn by the de-anthropologised reality image. The comprehension of the authentic image of Descartes’ philosophy provides special attention to the anthropological element in his ontology.

Мета. Мета даної статті – наголосити на недостатності редукціоністських тлумачень спадщини Декарта та акцентувати конститутивну значимість антропології у власному проекті мислителя. Методологія. Звертання до феноменології та герменевтики надає можливість осягнення ключових ідей мислителя як прояву його особистості. Недоліком усталених редукціоністських методологій є зосередженість на тлумаченні ідей Декарта як прояву детермінуючого впливу зовнішніх чинників. Новизна. Актуалізація істотності антропології в структурі філософського вчення Декарта базується на визнанні ключової значимості як антропологічної інтенції в попередній філософії, так і антропологічного проекту у власних текстах мислителя. На основі окреслених ідей оприявнюється недостатність усталених деантропологізованих тлумачень базової інтенції вчення Декарта. Висновки. Доведено, що антропологія, якою мала завершитися філософія Декарта, в умовах домінування редукціоністської настанови була витіснена деантропологізованим образом реальності. Осягнення автентичного образу філософії Декарта передбачає посилену увагу до антропологічної компоненти його онтології.

The purpose of the article is to single out and comprehend the key points of Heidegger`s vision of the main ideas of Descartes` philosophy while searching «the other beginning» of philosophizing as anthropology. The implementation of the objective assumes the solution of the following tasks: justification of the Heidegger`s idea of the critical relation to the established stereotypes of technomorphism about the basic intention of Descartes` philosophy, the reconstruction of the context of Heidegger`s considering the understanding of the basic intention and main motives of Descartes` philosophizing, the authenticity analysis of the reception of Descartes` doctrine by Heidegger in modern literature. Methodology. The achievements of the anthropologically focused thought of the 20th century, namely existentialism, philosophical anthropology, personalism, communicative philosophy have the essential potential during the constructive judgment and theoretical reconstruction of anthropological intention of philosophizing. Heidegger's heritage takes on a special significance, especially his reflections about the ways of searching and finding a substantial alternative to the technicism in the form of «the other beginning» of philosophizing. Scientific novelty. The analysis of the scientific literature, devoted to the relationship of Heidegger – Descartes, testifies to the domination of the truncated understanding of Descartes`s philosophy deprived of an anthropological component, and, as a result, ignoration of the substantial succession of the Descartes` ideas by Heidegger. Considering Heidegger's corresponding texts devoted to the understanding of the deep transformations of the New time, we find out the anthropology as a cornerstone of science and technology. Understanding the basic part of anthropology in the culture of the New time makes Heidegger devote much attention to the destruction of the established ideas of self-sufficiency of science, technology, thinking and to the detection of those hidden ones from a superficial view of personal nature of philosophical knowledge. Conclusions. Heidegger reasonably decides to pay much attention to Descartes` heritage as one of the fundamental thinkers, whose works are especially important during the simultaneous understanding of both the sources of the European anthropology, and the formation of the bases of the technogenic civilization of the New time. Heidegger's heritage considerably contributes to more authentic interpretation of the basic intention and the main motives of Descartes` philosophy. His opening new prospects to a considerable degree is caused by his own anthropological orientation, critical attitude to the linear concept of the history of philosophy, the rejection of superficial teсhnomorphism interpretation of philosophy.

Following Robert C. Solomon's Living with Nietzsche, I defend an interpretation of Nietzsche's views about freedom that are in line with the existentialist notion of self-creation. Given Nietzsche's emphasis on the limitations on human freedom, his critique of the notion of causa sui (self-creation out of nothing), and his critique of morality for relying on the assumption that we have free will, it may be surprising that he could be taken seriously as an existentialist--existentialism characteristically takes freedom and self-creation to be central to the human condition. Nietzsche does not endorse a radical notion of freedom; he is rather emphatically critical of any such notion. However, I argue that he does have room for a certain kind of freedom and self-creation that supports Solomon's characterization of him as an existentialist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws together two lively and provocative radical theorists, Emma Goldman and Friedrich Nietzsche, and suggests that a reading at their intersections can inspire political thought, action, and resistance in particular ways. The argument is framed through and productive of a particular archetype which emerges from a reading of these thinkers, that of The Dancer. Both Goldman and Nietzsche have been noted for their affect-laden reflections on dance, as an image of the subject which evades capture within the frameworks of discipline, morality, andressentimentand which instead commits to a ceaseless and creative insurrection of- and- against the self. Here, I argue that through this image of The Dancer we can conceptualise a form of critical or anarchic subjectivity which can provocatively interpret and inspire radical political action. In the article I look at some of the ways in which dance has formed an important component of radical politics. However I also argue that dance as understood in the terms established through Goldman and Nietzsche moves beyond corporeal performance, indicating a more general ethos of the subject, one of perpetual movement, creativity, and auto-insurrection. I also reflect on the difficulties involved in the idea of ‘self-creation’; as we can see from the more problematic dimensions of Goldman's thought, creation is an ethically and ontologically ambiguous concept which, when affirmed too easily, can serve to mask the subtleties by which relations of domination persist. With this in mind, the article goes on to discuss what it might mean to ‘dance to death’, to negotiate the burden of transvaluation, limitless responsibility, and perpetual struggle which these two thinkers evoke, in the service of a creative and limitless radical political praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper I propose and develop a social account of global autonomy. On this view, a person is autonomous simply to the extent to which it is difficult for others to subject her to their wills. I argue that many properties commonly thought necessary for autonomy are in fact properties that tend to increase an agent's immunity to such interpersonal subjection, and that the proposed account is therefore capable of providing theoretical unity to many of the otherwise heterogeneous requirements of autonomy familiar from recent discussions. Specifically, I discuss three such requirements: (i) possession of legally protected status, (ii) a sense of one's own self-worth, and (iii) a capacity for critical reflection. I argue that the proposed account is not only theoretically satisfying but also yields a rich and attractive conception of autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that Sophie Calle's desire to become her own work of art exists in tension with the fear of becoming a mere product for consumption. Recognising this fear of commodification allows us to view Calle's work from a couple of new angles. Firstly, it tells a compelling story about contemporary emotional life, in particular, the emotional demands made of women. Drawing on sociological perspectives, this article will explore Calle's work in relation to a commercial culture that turns the traditionally 'feminine' emotional domain into a lucrative resource. Secondly, it allows us to see Calle's art-making as a form of defence against this injunction to 'sell oneself'. In a consumer culture in which one's sense of a private self is pushed further and further into a corner, art appears as a refuge in which one's creative singularity may be preserved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Written in the form of a journal, Sakinna Boukhedenna’s novel Journal ‘Nationalité: immigré(e)’ presents the narrative of a young woman’s peregrinations: a journey that leads her from the restricted space of a Mulhouse ‘cité’ to uncharted spaces within and outside French national territory. The protagonist embarks on a transnational adventure, going from the France of her birth to the Algeria of her parents, attempting to counteract the competitive discourses and practices of power that have undermined any easy sense of belonging. But Sakinna’s narrative moves beyond identity politics and restrictive rhetoric of place and belonging. Its importance lies in the manner in which it enacts a new space and temporality of representation that articulate affiliation as transgression. This article examines how the text provides a critical perspective on the control mechanisms of society and furnishes us with a critical perspective of the mechanisms of self-making and self-transformation. The journal form itself conjoins performativity and narrative. It becomes a performative space in which the protagonist creatively reinvents herself and transforms her social environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the practices of folding paper swans by Filipina migrants employed as live-in caregivers for elderly, dying patients in Israel. These practices create a microsystem model of adjustment through precise, small-scale, and repetitive movements. This microsystem synchronizes a tripartite process: the swan's process of construction, the patient's process of decay, and the caregiver's process of self-creation. In the short term, the microsystem is sustained, but in the long term, the microsystem contains within it the seeds of its own self-destruction, as the patient eventually dies, the caregiver is reassigned to another patient or deported, and the swans are gifted. Therefore, the swan folding expands both medical anthropology understanding of caregiving as a ritual and the phenomenology of global caregivers who use immediately accessible materials-paper and glue-as an imaginative tool for ordering their daily experiences as dislocated and marginalized workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atheism, the thesis that God does not exist and Thomism, the thesis that there are 'proofs' for the existence of God based on experience and reason can be juxtaposed to each other as two extremes. On the other hand, the very statement of each implies the need to consider the other, so that the atheist and the Thomist both claim to belong to rational discourse, however much they differ in conclusions. The scriptural tradition has consistently found the one who says there is 'no God' to be 'foolish,' that is, someone with more than just an intellectual error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Cornelius Castsoriadis' clarifications on his ideas on creation from nothing. It says Castoriadis does not argue against the principle that says everything is determined according to laws made by something else, as formulated by Mario Bunge, but the one that says this something else is the external and the internal conditions of the object in question. The philosophy of Parmenides of Elea, who believed that the universe is unchanging, is cited.

Late nineteenth century artists were echoing novelists, biographers, and historians in attempting to "hide, reveal, or at least understand the secret life of the self." Many Victorian's relied on the visual, performing, and literary arts to act as mirrors reflecting their inner selves. James McNeill Whistler's self-portrait, The Artist in his Studio, both reveals and conceals the artist's fashioning of himself. I demonstrate that the inclusion of a mirror and Whistler's attire are pivotal to the painting's meaning. The mirror discloses that Whistler made formal and symbolic references to Diego Velázquez' Las Meninas. Whistler's mirror, however, obscures visual cues, including his use of mirror imaging. Just as Velázquez' clothing conveys meaning; Whistler's signifies his chosen persona of the dandy. The work of another dandy, Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, provides a means of elucidating the tension between revelation and concealment in Whistler's painting since Wilde's character of the artist is based on Whistler. In the book, a painting takes on the reflective characteristics of a mirror, but through the artist's perceptual genius, exposes Dorian's hidden interior versus his exterior visage. Whistler's self-portrait, like the creations of Velázquez and Wilde, communicates meaning through the rejection of conventional visual mirroring properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper makes a case for the new paradigm of freedom which has been elaborated by thinkers such as Cornelius Castoriadis and Michel Foucault. In response to the critique of the subject, freedom is construed now as limited and agonistic, calling for an ongoing struggle against various constraints. But this idea is coupled with a heightened appreciation of contingency and creativity. Individuals can bring new possibilities into existence, which go beyond any predefined alternatives. The paper argues that this is a tenable and empowering figure of freedom which overcomes the deficiencies of earlier modern views. Essentialist notions, which can be found in Kant and Marx, contract freedom by tying it down to unchanging universal laws and definite conditions of realization, while alternative accounts of negative liberty fail to address the constrained nature of human agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we have investigated plane symmetric cosmological models with negative constant deceleration parameter in Barber’s (Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 14:117, ) second self-creation theory in presence of perfect fluid source. For this we use a special law of variation for Hubble parameter proposed by Bermann (Nuovo Cim. B 74:182, ) that yields a constant deceleration parameter model of the universe. Some physical properties of the models and entropy are discussed and studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his inaugural lecture at the Collège de France, Barthes introduced the fantasy as an important epistemological tool for the reading strategy he would try to develop in his lecture courses. The notion of fantasy oscillates between two important, but apparently irreconcilable intertexts: Lacanian psychoanalysis and Nietzschean philosophy. True to his desire for the Neutral, Barthes refused to choose between them and instead searched for a third term which would outplay the opposition. I argue that Barthes finally found this term in a revaluation of the imaginary and a plea for a return of the repressed ‘ego’ in literary theory, a ‘romanesque’ ego, which ‘writes’ itself in the search for a readable oeuvre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about the clinical strategy for patients who attempts an illusion of "oneness" with the therapist is presented. The strategy uses the "romantic" approach, as well as go beyond such approach. The author suggests using the patient-therapist bond to pinpoint inchoate psychic states. To create new ways of being and relating, the therapist must facilitate the therapist-patient bond to bring the merged relationship to realization.

This article discusses the issue of social and cultural 'autotranscendence' — self-production, creativity — in the debates on self-organization. The point of departure is Cornelius Castoriadis's idea of 'self-creation'. First, a schisma between mechanical and ontological modeling is indicated and used to introduce the idea of a 'creative organization'. This is further discussed in relation to Jean-Pierre Dupuy's concept of social 'autotranscendence' by 'complex methodological individualism', with particular respect to the incomprehension of the social. Following Johann P. Arnason's treatment of the question of cultural articulation in Castoriadis, the article argues that the problem of autotranscendence presents a further problem of self-creation discernible in Castoriadis's notions of phusis/nomos, living being/human, and constraint/ magma. The article closes with a consideration of Duncan Watts, Alberto-László Barabási and Bernardo Huberman's sketch of a network sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the essay "Meditations on Oedipus," by Ed Mendelowitz which is the culmination of the author's reflection on psychophilosopher Ernest Becker. Becker's notion of Oedipus and other Oedipal project around which the article revolves. The essay is a homage to the depth-humanistic reformation of psychologist Sigmund Freud.