In this article, I point Arendtian scholarship to important elements in the history of psychoanalysis that are relevant to explain Hannah Arendt’s known aversion to the discipline. I show how the political theorist relied on psychoanalytically-relevant concepts from her intellectual heritage—from Aristotle and St. Augustine to Hegel and Nietzsche. Afterward, I argue that Hannah Arendt’s critique of Adolf Eichmann was simultaneously a critique of his narcissism, or lack thereof. I show how her critique was truer to Freud’s original understanding of (...) the concept than that of psychoanalysts writing in postwar America; a time in which the term narcissism itself became misused. I finally marry Freudian and Arendtian concepts together to think about the banality of narcissism. (shrink)

This abstract presents a novel brain-computer interface (BCI) framework to control a prosthetic leg, for the rehabilitation of patients suffering from locomotive disorders, using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). fNIRS signals corresponding to walking intention and rest are used to initiate and stop the gait cycle and a nonlinear proportional derivative computed torque controller (PD-CTC) with gravity compensation is used to control torques of hip and knee joints for minimization of position error. The brain signals of walking intention and rest tasks (...) are acquired from primary motor cortex in the left hemisphere for nine subjects. After acquiring brain signals, in order to remove motion artifacts and physiological noises, the performance of six different filters i.e. Kalman, Wiener, Gaussian, hemodynamic response filter (hrf), Band-pass and finite impulse response, is evaluated. Afterwards, six different features are extracted from oxygenated hemoglobin signals and their different combinations were used for classification. The classification performance of five different classifiers i.e. artificial neural network, quadratic discriminant analysis, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), Naïve Bayes and support vector machine (SVM) is used. The classification accuracies obtained from SVM using hrf filter are significantly higher (p < 0.005) than the other combinations of classifier and filters. These accuracies are 77.5%, 72.5%, 68.3%, 74.2%, 73.3%, 80.8%, 65%, 76.7%, and 86.7% for all nine subjects. The control commands generated using classifier initiate and stop the gait cycle of the prosthetic leg whose knee and hip torques are controlled using PD-CTC to minimize position error. The proposed scheme can be effectively used for neurofeedback training and rehabilitation of lower limb amputation of paralyzed patients. (shrink)

Tolerance, equality, and universal love are all strategies that veil the reality of the relationship between the Self and the Other. Whether in the writings of Slavoj Žižek, Arthur Miller, or Jacques Lacan, the definition of "reality", as they explain, is something hidden with all sorts of false claims about the "real". The real is ugly, and reality is just an illusion that conceals the ugly truth. Each of these writers establishes that the self is living in an illusion that (...) does not transcend the nature of itself in order to find out that the ugliness of what is really there. To Žižek, the concept of the "real" Other includes all his/her traumatic vulnerability, weakness, and imperfection. He argues in "Love Thy Neighbor, No Thanks!" that the access to the Real is possible, but threatening. By answering the question of "Who is the neighbor", Žižek refers to Lacan by stating that "the neighbor is the real". Loving the Other or the "neighbor", thus, is an experience of aggression and trauma. With the same line of thought, Arthur Miller deals with the paradox of the real in Death of a Salesman by portraying the life of Willy as having an illusion of himself as a successful business man that everybody respects but he's actually not that successful. Understanding Willy's background and life portrays the truth of what is the "real", for the reader understands that Willy is not what he claims to be. His "real" life is ugly, and he's just hallucinating that he's successful. This paper suggests that the concept of reality and illusion in the texts are explained by the use of dialogue which gave the characters a distinctive voice that acted as a persuasive force. I will explore how conversation is used effectively by the main characters in Death of a Salesman to suggest that the "real" is the "ugly". Also, I will illustrate the concept of reality vs. illusion in Death of a Salesman by drawing on Slavoj Žižek's "Love Thy Neighbor, No Thanks!" where he explains the "real" through the use of several examples. My aim is to acknowledge the persuasive force that lies behind the conversations illustrated by both authors in their texts, and to examine how this force is powerfully used in order to convince the reader of the reality of an object. This persuasive force was used as a key to communicate knowledge of certain concepts through certain techniques the authors used in their texts, which had an impact on the different definitions and notions. (shrink)

Aims To examine the understanding of the ethical dilemmas associated with Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI) among Jordanian medical students, physicians in training, and senior practitioners. Methods We implemented a literature-validated questionnaire to examine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the target population during the period between April and August 2023. Themes of ethical debate included privacy breaches, consent, ownership, augmented biases, epistemology, and accountability. Participants’ responses were showcased using descriptive statistics and compared between groups using t-test or ANOVA. (...) Results We included 466 participants. The greater majority of respondents were interns and residents (50.2%), followed by medical students (38.0%). Most participants were affiliated with university institutions (62.4%). In terms of privacy, participants acknowledged that Big Data and AI were susceptible to privacy breaches (39.3%); however, 59.0% found such breaches justifiable under certain conditions. For ethical debacles involving informed consent, 41.6% and 44.6% were aware that obtaining informed consent posed an ethical limitation in Big Data and AI applications and denounced the concept of “broad consent”, respectively. In terms of ownership, 49.6% acknowledged that data cannot be owned yet accepted that institutions could hold a quasi-control of such data (59.0%). Less than 50% of participants were aware of Big Data and AI’s abilities to augment or create new biases in healthcare. Furthermore, participants agreed that researchers, institutions, and legislative bodies were responsible for ensuring the ethical implementation of Big Data and AI. Finally, while demonstrating limited experience with using such technology, participants generally had positive views of the role of Big Data and AI in complementing healthcare. Conclusion Jordanian medical students, physicians in training and senior practitioners have limited awareness of the ethical risks associated with Big Data and AI. Institutions are responsible for raising awareness, especially with the upsurge of such technology. (shrink)

Sociocultural norms against women can contribute to promoting intimate partner violence (IPV) and shape women's decision to disclose IPV. A cross‐cultural analysis of the existing literature is needed to present an overview of the influences of sociocultural norms on women's decisions regarding the disclosure of IPV across different cultural contexts. The purpose of the review was to synthesize published quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods (MMs) studies to identify known sociocultural norms across different cultures that may influence women's decision to disclose (...) IPV. The Whittemore and Knafl framework, Rayyan software, and PRISMA flow diagram were used. Databases included APA PsycInfo, CINAHL, PubMed, SocINDEX, and Women's Studies International. The quality of studies was assessed by the MMs appraisal tool. A total of 15 research articles written in English and published in peer‐reviewed journals were included. Main categories emerged: (1) stigma surrounding IPV disclosure, victimization, and divorce; (2) gender roles; (3) preserving family honor; and (4) Children's well‐being and future. A one‐size‐fits‐all approach is not adequate for women who are considering disclosing IPV. Findings underscore that regardless of residing in individualistic countries, those sociocultural norms related to traditional gender roles and gender inequality are still important barriers to the disclosure of IPV among women with collectivist roots. (shrink)