Ideal Types and the Problem of Reification (Hypostatization)

Eidlin, Fred

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1678628

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Although originally there seems to have been a realisation that the unconscious (mind) was an explanatory concept and not a physical entity, a process of reification soon took place through which the unconscious (mind) came to be treated as if it were a semi-concrete 'thing', a physical storehouse or receptacle. This is a process in which descriptive concepts get treated as if they were entities with particular characteristics (Eidlin, 2006), a process which has been widely criticised in the past by such authorities as Bateson (1972;Charlton, 2008), Dell (1982) and Sarbin and Coe (1972), and more recently by Heap, Aravind, Hartland and Waxman (2002). The British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1927/1970Griffin, 1998) was known for his criticism of reification as the 'fallacy of misplaced concreteness' (Whitehead, 1927(Whitehead, /1970; and Wikipedia (Reification, n.d.) says reification occurs '… when an abstraction is treated as if it were a concrete, real event or physical entity'.…”

Section: The Dichotomy Between Conscious and Unconscious Mindmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Constructionism and the Role of the Unconscious in Hypnotic Responding: A Single Case Experiment

Fourie¹

2011

Behav. change

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There seems to be wide acceptance by both professionals and lay people that hypnotic and especially hypnotherapeutic responding is based on the long-standing but still hypothetical dichotomy between the conscious and unconscious minds. In this simplistic view, hypnotic suggestions are considered to bypass consciousness to reach the unconscious mind, there to have the intended effect. This article reports on a single-case experiment investigating the involvement of the unconscious in hypnotherapeutic responding. In this case the subject responded positively to suggestions that could not have reached the unconscious, indicating that the unconscious was not involved in such responding. An alternative view is proposed, namely that hypnotherapeutic responding involves a cognitive process in which a socially constructed new understanding of the problem behaviour and of hypnosis, based on the client's existing attribution of meaning, is followed by action considered appropriate to the new understanding and which then confirms this understanding, leading to behaviour change.

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Section: The Dichotomy Between Conscious and Unconscious Mindmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Constructionism and the Role of the Unconscious in Hypnotic Responding: A Single Case Experiment

Fourie¹

2011

Behav. change

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“…The work drew criticism instantly from historians, however, for the way in which it imputed causal relationships between the emergence of a mode of religious thought and economics, its loose use of notions such as 'protestant ethic' and 'capitalist spirit', as well as the veracity of its analysis of the religious details of Protestantism (Gannon, 2002-3). Eidin (2005) believes that the concept involves a form of reification that encourages a confusion between the description of the ideal-type and objective reality. Such constructs may provide tools for analysing evidence, but they may also prompt researchers to ignore ostensibly contradictory or aberrant data, contravening Bourdieu's (1990) injunction that any pretension to establishing 'truth' must account for all of the facts in a completely coherent way.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Reporting without fear, or favour’: HMI 2000-2010, and oral history

Moss¹

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Reporting without fear, or favour'; HMI 2000-2010, an oral history Clive R. Moss This thesis contends that the methodological approaches taken in exploring education inspections in the last twenty years are largely unhistorical and result in a particular view that contrasts current school inspections unfavourably with previous approaches, as a result of the particular methodoligical stances adopted, often analysing teachers' experiences of inspections using Foucauldian and performativity theoretical frameworks. Even studies with a more-historical bent tend to present Her Majesty's Inspectors (HMI) as belonging more to a less-destructive golden age of 'professional relationships'. The evidence bases for the hypotheses tend to omit, to treat as incidental, or to dismiss as misguided the views of inspectors, particularly the experiences of HMIs. The literature suggests also that the office of HMI effectively ceased to exist by the year 2000. This research set out to locate previously unavailable evidence about the work of HMIs after 2000 and to consider what that evidence revealed about the nature of the role at that time, using the method of oral history. The research looked at the experiences of a small group of former HMIs, who were active in the period 2000-2010, through semi-structured, recorded interviews, subsequently transcribed and analysed thematically, to see what the HMIs' recollections reveal about the prevailing debates, and to contribute to the growing body of literature about the value of oral history as a distinctive branch of historical method. The study argues that, throughout the period, HMIs operated as independently minded individuals, who sought to transcend their particular circumstances, in order to sustain a sense of the purpose and values which they considered underpinned the office. It demonstrates also that oral history evidence is as valid and useful as any other historical source, notwithstanding some distinctive contigencies and limitations associated with it. ITE-Initial teacher education (or teacher training) JAR-Joint Area Review. A programme of inspectorial reviews, involving inspectors from a range of inspectorates, looking at contributions by a range of services within local authority areas to meeting the five 'outcomes' for young people specified by the Every Child Matters initiative (see above). Juvenile estate-Provision for young offenders, referred to sometimes as the 'secure estate'.

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