The power of psychological time in poetry Essay Example for Free

The power of psychological time in poetry Essay Poetry is always connected to various time representations. Poets replace real time with different psychological visions and ideas of past or future events. We frequently find ourselves in a situation, when we cannot completely understand the time implications of a specific poem. Thomas Hardy and T. S. Eliot were well known for their poetic skills in representing various dimensions of time. In their works, time has become a symbol, and their â€Å"instinctive mode as writers was figurative, not analytic; their most habitual method was symbolism, not argument. † In Hardy’s â€Å"Wessex Heights†, and Eliot’s â€Å"Rhapsody on a Windy Night†, time acquires new meaning. It is no longer the clock measurement of our actions; it is a psychological dimension which creates the virtual space in which we live. Our memories signify the power of psychological time; in their poems, Eliot and Hardy underline the significance and power of psychological time and oppose it to the clock or seasonal time, under the impact of which we traditionally live. â€Å"Wessex Heights† and Hardy’s meaning of psychological time Hardy’s â€Å"Wessex Heights† is invariably linked to the way Hardy interprets the meaning of philosophical and psychological notions of time and space. Evidently, temporal subject is central to â€Å"Wessex Heights†, and the poet creates a conjunction of numerous elements, which ultimately form what we call â€Å"psychological time†. There are some heights in Wessex, shaped as if by a kindly hand For thinking, dreaming, dying on, and at crises when I stand, Say, on Ingpen Beacon eastward, or on Wylls-Neck westwardly, I seem where I was before my birth, and after death may be. (Hardy 1989, 23). This trope becomes the beginning of a reader’s journey to Hardy’s representation of psychological time and the continuity of human emotions. It is not surprising that the poet uses the exact geographical names, and seems to determine the exact geographical location for the reader. This â€Å"geographical† character of the poem is initially deceptive. Moreover, Hardy uses these names to oppose the reality to psychology of time, and geography serves the instrument of such opposition. â€Å"It is not surprising that â€Å"Wessex Heights† uses the title of a specific locality only to emphasise dislocation, moving the speaker in and out of abstracted spaces that have, as it turns out, little connection to physical place. † The first stanza actually becomes the start of the reader’s journey into the depth of Hardy’s psychological time. The dislocation, about which Richards writes, is one of the most prominent characteristics to emphasise the power of psychological time, which makes memories and feelings eternal. The first stanza smoothly moves the reader into the clearer representations of the psychological time. It seems that the poet was preparing us to what we would later see after we move to virtual lowlands: â€Å"Down there I seem to be false to myself, my simple self that was, / And is not now, and I see him watching, wondering what crass cause / Can have merged him into such a strange continuator s this†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The reader seems to appear in the center of an action, where the past plays with the present, and where one sees one’s self as a separate being. Hardy evidently opposes reality of time to its psychology, underlining the effects which psychological time may cause on a person. In order to strengthen the effect, Hardy presents the second stanza in a more structured metrical form than the first one. As a result, â€Å"the past self, the chrysalis, encloses the present subject in the same paradoxical way that rhyme enfolds Hardy’s chaotic language, so that these structures play against other as the poem progresses. † Hardy uses the notion of locality, and exact geographical names to emphasise the mixture of the geographical and the aesthetical. In his work, geography loses its meaning when the poet speaks about ghosts in the third stanza: â€Å"There is a ghost at Yell’ham Bottom chiding loud at the fall of the night. † The ghosts represent the circulation of the psychological time. In distinction from the real clock or seasonal time, in psychological time a person has an opportunity to return to the past memories. In this aspect psychological time is evidently stronger than the real one. As the reader retreats from these ghosts in the first stanza, he meets them again in the third passage; â€Å"the conventional ghosts of the lowlands repeat their presence in a form that revises their past forms. This repetition constitutes human temporality in a particular way: time is movement toward a future which will be, but never yet is, the perfected assumption of the past. † The psychological time, in which the reader appears when reading â€Å"Wessex Heights† creates favourable conditions for separating the self and analyzing it through the prism of the past events. In Hardy’s vision, this separation and the absence of a psychological line between the past and the present creates an incredible emotional atmosphere, in which any person can find a key to oneself. â€Å"Rhapsody on a Windy Night†: Eliot and Bergson The first impression from reading Eliot’s â€Å"Rhapsody on a Windy Night† is in that the poet creates a kind of â€Å"coherent imaginative vision of time. † Eliot has brilliantly incorporated Bergson’s understanding of time into his poetic work . As with Hardy’s â€Å"Wessex Heights†, Eliot underlines the impossibility to measure time in traditional clock or seasonal terms. The poet clearly keeps to the idea of time being more psychological than seasonal. As a result, the reader acquires additional opportunities to return to the past, and to analyze the future actions through the prism of the past events. The major difference between â€Å"Wessex Heights† and â€Å"Rhapsody on a Windy Night† is in that Hardy creates a vision of unlimited time through the use of geographical names and localities. In his turn, Eliot emphasises the opposition between the clock time and psychological time. His poem takes the reader away from traditional clock measurements which do not give any space for the analysis of the self and the continuity of time: Twelve o’clock. Along the reaches of the street Held in a lunar synthesis, Whispering lunar incantations Dissolve the floors of memory And all its clear relations Its divisions and precisions, Every street lamp that I pass Beats like a fatalistic drum†¦ (Eliot 1991, 16) Eliot starts each stanza in a similar way: the passing of the clock time symbolises its irrelevance and insignificance towards the relations, divisions, and precisions of the psychological time. It is not a secret, that Eliot’s creative work was dramatically influenced by the works of Henri Bergson in terms of time concept. In his works, Bergson distinguished the two different types of time: real and mathematical. In Bergson’s view, real time was indivisible and continuous, while mathematical time could be measured. In Eliot’s poem, the reader faces the challenge of distinguishing real time from mathematical time measurements. Real time in Eliot’s view stands in the form of indivisible psychological continuum, which is broken by mathematical measurements in the form of clock time at certain regular intervals. There is a persistent impression that Eliot’s â€Å"Rhapsody†¦Ã¢â‚¬  continues the logical time line of Hardy’s â€Å"Wessex Heights† by mixing past with present, and recognising the insignificance of â€Å"mathematical† measurable time: â€Å"The past exists in the present, which contains the future. The concrete and ever present instance of duration is life, for each of us living in his own time. † Eliot speaks about memories, which do not change with time. He speaks of time as psychological notion, which cannot be measured. â€Å"Half-past three. / The lamp sputtered, / The lamp muttered in the dark. / The lamp hummed: / â€Å"Regard the moon†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The moon, and not the clock is the sign of the reality of time, but even the moon can lose memory: â€Å"The moon has lost her memory. † Through the whole poem, Eliot seems to seek the means of time measurability: he tries to use lamps, moon, and clock to divide his time into separate passages. Yet, these measures only confirm the continuity of psychological time, and the continuity of memories which actually constitute this psychological time. In his â€Å"Rhapsody†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , Eliot â€Å"adds the influence of time and its inescapable nature. Memory and the past bring into focus relationships and lack of personal fulfillment. † As psychological time cannot be measured, it serves a measure in itself: the measure of Eliot’s passion, emotiveness, and the memory which is the key to eternity. Conclusion Poetry is inherently separated from any traditional measurements of time. In their works, Hardy and Eliot were trying to create a border between the clock (seasonal) and psychological time. Both were striving to mix past with future, and to show the futility of traditional time measurements against the power of memories and psychological time. Both have incorporated either geographical names or traditional measures of time to emphasise their irrelevance towards people’s emotions. Bergson says that â€Å"reality has extension as well as duration. However, space is not a void or vacuum which is filled by reality. Things are not in space, space is in things. † As a result, psychological time is not an objective reality: it is extremely subjective and stems from the personal memories and interpretations. Subjective notions cannot be measured, and both poets were trying to deliver this essence to the reader. Ultimately, after reading the two poems, the reader finds oneself in a new environment, which breaks traditional limits of time and produces a completely new vision of the self. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bergson, H. The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics. New York: Kensington Publishing Group, 1946. Eliot, T. S. â€Å"Rhapsody on a Windy Night. † In Collected Poems, 1909-1962, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991, p. 16. Hardy, Thomas. â€Å"Wessex Heights. † In Thomas Hardy: Wessex Heights, ed. N. Philip, London: Bloomsbury Pub Ltd, 1989. , p. 23. Maxwell, D. E. S. The Poetry of T. S. Eliot. Routledge Kegan, 1960. Richards, J. â€Å"The History of Error: Hardy’s Critics and the Self Unseen. † Victorian Poetry 45 (2007): 24-29. Siebenschuh, William R. â€Å"Hardy and the Imagery of Place. † Studies in English Literature 39 (1999): 101-103. Thomson, E. T. S. Eliot: The Metaphysical Perspective. Southern Illinois University Press, 1963.

The Educational Value of Platos Early Socratic Dialogues Essay

The Educational Value of Plato's Early Socratic Dialogues ABSTRACT: When contemplating the origins of philosophical paideia one is tempted to think of Socrates, perhaps because we feel that Socrates has been a philosophical educator to us all. But it is Plato and his literary genius that we have to thank as his dialogues preserve not just Socratic philosophy, but also the Socratic educational experience. Educators would do well to better understand Plato's pedagogical objectives in the Socratic dialogues so that we may appreciate and utilize them in our own educational endeavors, and so that we may adapt the Socratic experience to new interactive educational technologies. Plato designed his Socratic dialogues to arm students for real world challenges and temptations. First, in both form and function the dialogues attempt to replicate the Socratic experience for their audience. They demand from their readers what Socrates demanded from his students: active learning, self-examination, and an appreciation for the complexity and importance of w isdom. Second, the dialogues challenge the conflation of professional and personal excellence, best exemplified by sophists such as Hippias, and exhort their reader to pursue personal aretà ª separately from and alongside practical and professional skills or technai. Third, they aim not to transmit some prepackaged formula for success, but to teach students to learn for themselves; that is to love and pursue wisdom. The Socratic dialogues, and philosophic dialogue itself, are educationally important in that they teach us to be philosophers in the literal sense. It is instructively ironic that scholars look immediately to the Republic when considering Plato's theory of education, yet most of... ...oral sense from being good at a particular skill . (3) I am here reminded of one of my own student's reaction to Socrates. A meek Vietnamese woman who said barely anything in class wrote, "Socrates gives me the courage to stand up for my belief and not to be afraid of others who tell me I'm wrong." (4) For this description I am indebted to Prof. Kostas Michaelides of the University of Cyprus. (5) This image is expressed eloquently in Socrates' elenchos of Agathon in Symposium [199c-201c] and of Menexenus in Lysis [216c-221d] (6) See, for example, Laches 192e ff. and Charmides 164bc. (7) I am indebted for this eloquent distinction to Prof. Gerhard A. Rauche, Professor Emeritus of the University of Durban-Westivile, South Africa. (8) These characteristics of the Platonic telos are advocated by Prof. Apostolos Pierris of the University of Patras, Greece

Five Ethical Principles for Research Essay

There are five general principles in the 2002 APA ethics code designed to â€Å"guide and inspire psychologists toward the very highest ethical ideals of the profession.† These principles include beneficence and nonmaleficence (i.e., benefit people and do no harm); fidelity and responsibility; and integrity, justice, and respect for people’s rights and dignity. The Belmont Report identified three basic ethical principles when conducting research: respect for persons, justice, and beneficence. The following are five basic ethical principles presented in the order of the general principles in the APA code that apply specifically to conducting biomedical and behavioral research with human participants. Principle 1: Beneficence and NonmaleficenceRepresenting the utilitarian tradition, this principle requires that researchers, using considerations such as those described above, strive to maximize potential benefits while minimizing risks of their research. Although the cost-benefit mandate seems straightforward, it is rarely unambiguous in practice because costs to participants and benefits to the profession and to society are difficult to accurately estimate in advance and no universally agreed-upon method or criteria exist for optimally balancing the two. Where questions arise related to the degree of risk, researchers are responsible for seeking ethical advice and implementing safeguards to protect participants. Risks that are identified in advance must be communicated to prospective research participants or their legal equivalent, and informed consent must be obtained (except in special cases approved by the IRB, such as research involving a placebo control, in which fully informed consent compromises a scientifically required research design). Sometimes research presents risks to groups of people or social institutions. No consensus exists for whether a representative can provide consent on behalf of a collective entity, but full compliance to Principle 1 requires sensitivity to this issue. Principle 2: Fidelity, Responsibility, and TrustThis principle requires researchers to establish and maintain a relationship of trust with research participants. For example, before individuals agree to participate in research, investigators must be clear and explicit in describing to prospective participants what they will experience and what consequences may  result from participation. Researchers also are obligated to honor all promises and commitments that are made as part of the agreement to participate. When full disclosure is not made prior to obtaining informed consent (e.g., information germane to the purpose of the study would compromise its validity), safeguards must be implemented to protect the welfare and dignity of participants. In general, procedures that involve concealment or deception in a research design can be implemented only after rigorous criteria for the necessity of such procedures are met and the study is approved by the IRB. (Such instances also require a thorough debriefing of participants at the conclusion of their participation.) When children or adults with limited understanding serve as participants, researchers must implement special protective safeguards. When unintended negative consequences of research participation occur, researchers are obligated to detect, remove, and/or correct these consequences and ensure that they do not persist over time. Understandably, past ethical breaches have resulted in what some describe as widespread mistrust of biomedical and behavioral research in contemporary society. Principle 2 requires researchers to make every effort to foster trust and avoid causing further public mistrust. Principle 3: IntegrityThis principle requires researchers to â€Å"do good science,† to truthfully report their results, to take reasonable steps to correct errors that are discovered, to present work that is their own (or to otherwise make appropriate citations), to take responsibility and credit only for work that is their own, to avoid â€Å"piecemeal publication† (i.e., submitting redundant analyses of a single data set for multiple publications), to share data on which results are published with other qualified professionals provided they seek only to verify substantive claims and do not use the data for other any other purpose, and to respect the proprietary rights of others engaged in the scientific enterprise. Principle 4: JusticeIn following this principle, researchers strive for two forms of justice. The first, distributive justice, requires psychologists to entitle all persons equal access to the benefits of research, as well as to ensure that the risks for harm from research are not disproportionately greater for a particular group or category of persons within society. The  second, procedural justice, refers to the adequacy of research procedures to ensure fairness, such as when easily accessible mechanisms are made available to participants to address any concerns they may have related to their participation in research. Researchers also are promoting Principle 3 when they attend to the special concerns of underrepresented groups in developing programs of research, so as to avoid continued underinclusion and lack of representation in the knowledge base. Principle 5: Respect for the Dignity and Autonomy of PersonsRepresenting the deontological tradition, this principle asserts that researchers respect research participants as human beings with intrinsic worth, whose participation is a result of their autonomous choices. The implications of this principle are far-reaching and relate to matters of obtaining informed consent, avoiding coercive and deceptive practices, upholding confidentiality and privacy, and preserving the selfdetermination of participants. In abiding by this principle, psychologists are also aware of and respect individual differences, including those influenced by gender, age, culture, role, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious identity, disability, linguistic background, economic status, or any other characteristic related to group membership. Ethical Conflicts and Decision MakingThe potential for ethical conflict is ubiquitous in biomedical and behavioral research. When making ethical decisions about research, it may be prudent to develop a systematic approach to reviewing all relevant sources of ethical responsibility, including one’s own moral principles and personal values; cultural factors; professional ethics codes, such as the APA code; agency or employer policies; federal and state rules and regulations; and even case law or legal precedent. A process-oriented approach to ethical decision making may involve some variation of the following: (1) writing a description of the ethically relevant parameters of the situation; (2) defining the apparent dilemma; (3) progressing through the relevant sources of ethical responsibility; (4) generating alternative courses of action; (5) enumerating potential benefits  and consequences of each alternative; (6) consulting with the IRB, relevant colleagues, and/or legal professionals; (7) documenting the previous six steps in the process; and (8) evaluating and taking responsibility for the results of the course of action selected. As previously mentioned, all research studies must be approved by the relevant IRB. However, approval of a research proposal by an IRB does not remove the mandate of ethical responsibility from the researcher. In making ethical decisions, researchers should consider the likelihood of self-serving bias that can lead to overestimation of the scientific value o f a proposed study and underestimation of its risks. ConclusionScientific research with human participants is an inherently ethical enterprise, and ethical conflicts in research are virtually inevitable. Researchers who exercise the privilege to conduct research with human participants bear the responsibility of being familiar with and abiding by the ethical principles and relevant rules and regulations established by their professional organizations and by federal and state governments. However, rigid application of rules is not a substitute for well-reasoned, responsible ethical decision making. bibliography American Psychological Association. Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychologist vol. 57 pp. 1060-1073 (2002). Bersoff, D. N. (Ed.). (2003). Ethical conflicts in psychology (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Miller, C. (2003). Ethical guidelines in research. In J. C. Thomas, ed. & M. Herson (Eds.), Understanding research in clinical and counseling psychology (pp. 271-293). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Office for Protection from Research Risks, Protection of Human Subjects. National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. (1979). The Belmont Report: Ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects of research (GPO 887-809). Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office. Sales, B. D., ed. , & Folkman, S. (Eds.). (2000). Ethics in research with human participants. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Sieber, J. E. Empirical research on research ethics. Ethics and Behavior vol. 14 pp. 397-412 (2004).

Essay about Oedipus the King and Oedipus Complex - 612 Words

Oedipus Rex, is a Sophocles play, that according to Freud exemplifies a formative stage in a individuals psychosexual development. The psychosexual stages are the age related developmental periods in which sexual impulses are exerted through different bodily zones and then activities are associated with those areas in the bodily zones. These is when a young child will transfer his love object from the breast to the mother. When the child gives up the breast and moves to the mother it is known as the oral phase. The child then has the sexual desire for the opposite sex parent and will usually have hostility towards the same sex parent. During this time, the child will have a secret desire to†¦show more content†¦The boy then feels hostility and jealously towards his father, but then will come to realize that his father is much more powerful then he is. Freud says, â€Å" the boy will then experience castration anxiety which is the fear that his father will punish him by cas tration (Freud, 1993) .† Fixation at a particular stage may result If the developmental conflicts are not successfully resolved. He figured if this feelings were not successfully resolved then they would contribute to neuroses in later life. The only way anyone could resolve the Oedipus Complex and the anxieties from the complex , the boy ultimately will join force with the enemy by resorting to the defense mechanism of identification. Identification is a psychoanalytic theory that involves the ability to reduce the anxiety by imitating the behavior and characteristics of one individual. For instance, he would most likely imitate his fathers values, attitude and mannerisms. Girls are another way in which the Oedipus Complex could be resolved because girls usually identify with the same sex parent and then they develop a strong superego against urges. 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