Phenomenological Psychopathology: From Spatial Disorder to the Problem of Disembodied Desire

Abstract: This study presents a phenomenological analysis of a case of schizotypal personality disorder used as a concrete starting point to formulate a basic phenomenological theory of embodied and disembodied desire. After describing the core symptoms of the patient (i.e. mainly his spatial disorder) from a first-person per-spective, the problem of disembodied desire is introduced in relation to patient’s imaginary that is lived as an isolated experience condemned to remaining unrealized. The case analysis refers to Blankenburg’s concept of the loss of natural self-experience and to its contemporary development, i.e., the psychopathology of common sense, conceiving schizophrenia, and schizotypal personality disorder, as a syndrome rooted in ipseity disturbance and in disembodiment of the self. Disembodied desire is then qualified as a disorder due not to neurotic defense mechanisms, but rather to more pervasive self-disorders. In the final part, the problem of disembodied desire is addressed starting from a basic phenomenological theory of desire, dealing both with drive intentionality, as the transcendental condition of the ego-constitution, and with imagination, as the distanced self-representation of drive and as a structural possibility of distancing the immediacy of bodily experience. Keywords: Phenomenological Psychopathology; Schizotypal Personality Disorder; Disembodied Desire; Loss of Natural Self-evidence; Self-affection. La psicopatologia fenomenologica: dal disturbo dell'esperienza spaziale al problema del desiderio disincarnatoRiassunto: Questo studio presenta un’analisi fenomenologica di un caso di disturbo schizotipico di personalità, sulla cui base si avanza una teoria fenomenologica essenziale sul desiderio incarnato e disincarnato. Alla descrizione dei sintomi fondamentali del paziente (in primis il disturbo dell’esperienza spaziale) da una prospettiva in prima persona segue la trattazione del desiderio disincarnato in relazione all’immaginario del paziente, vissuto come esperienza isolata, condannata a rimanere irrealizzata. L’analisi del caso fa uso della nozione di Blankenburg di perdita dell’evidenza naturale e della sua ripresa contemporanea nella psicopatologia del senso comune, che considera schizofrenia e disturbo schizotipico di personalità come sindromi radicate nel disturbo dell’ipseità e nel cosiddetto sé “disincarnato”. Il desiderio disincarnato è quindi presentato non come disturbo dovuto a meccanismi difensivi di tipo nevrotico, ma a disturbi del sé più pervasivi. Nella parte conclusiva, il desiderio disincarnato è esaminato a partire da una teoria fenomenologica essenziale del desiderio, che tratta l’intenzionalità pulsionale come condizione trascendentale della costituzione dell’io, e l’immaginazione come rappresentazione distanziante della pulsione e come possibilità strutturale di distanziarsi dall’immediatezza dell’esperienza corporea. Parole chiave: Psicopatologia fenomenologica; Disturbo schizotipico; Desiderio Disincarnato; Perdita dell’evidenza naturale; Affezione

New Challenges in HCI: Ambient Intelligence for Human Performance Improvement

Ambient Intelligence is new multidisciplinary paradigm that is going to change the relation between humans, technology and the environment they live in. This paradigm has its roots in the ideas Ubiquitous and Pervasive computing. In this vision, that nowadays is almost reality, technology becomes pervasive in everyday lives but, despite its increasing importance, it (should) becomes “invisible”, so deeply intertwined in our day-to-day activities to disappear into the fabric of our lives. The new environment should become “intelligent” and “smart”, able to actively and adaptively react to the presence, actions and needs of humans (not only users but complex human being), in order to support daily activities and improve the quality of life. Ambient Intelligence represents a trend able to profoundly affect every aspect of our life. It is not a problem regarding only technology but is about a new way to be “human”, to inhabit our environment, and to dialogue with technology. But what makes an environment smart and intelligent is the way it understands and reacts to changing conditions. As a well-designed tool can help us carry out our activities more quickly and easily, a poorly designed one could be an obstacle. Ambient Intelligence paradigm tends to change some human’s activities by automating certain task. However is not always simple to decide what automate and when and how much the user needs to have control. In this thesis we analyse the different levels composing the Ambient Intelligence paradigm, from its theoretical roots, through technology until the issues related the Human Factors and the Human Computer Interaction, to better understand how this paradigm is able to change the performance and the behaviour of the user. After a general analysis, we decided to focus on the problem of smart surveillance analysing how is possible to automate certain tasks through a context capture system, based on the fusion of different sources and inspired to the paradigm of Ambient Intelligence. Particularly we decide to investigate, from a Human Factors point of view, how different levels of automation (LOAs) may result in a change of user’s behaviour and performances. Moreover this investigation was aimed to find the criteria that may help to design a smart surveillance system. After the design of a general framework for fusion of different sensor in a real time locating system, an hybrid people tracking system, based on the combined use of RFID UWB and computer vision techniques was developed and tested to explore the possibilities of a smart context capture system. Taking this system as an example we developed 3 simulators of a smart surveillance system implementing 3 different LOAs: manual, low system assistance, high system assistance. We performed tests (using quali-quantitative measures) to see changes in performances, Situation Awareness and workload in relation to different LOAs. Based on the results obtained, is proposed a new interaction paradigm for control rooms based on the HCI concepts related to Ambient Intelligence paradigm and especially related to Ambient Display’s concept, highlighting its usability advantages in a control room scenario. The assessments made through test showed that if from a technological perspective is possible to achieve very high levels of automation, from a Human Factors point of view this doesn’t necessarily reflect in an improvement of human performances. The latter is rather related to a particular balance that is not fixed but changes according to specific context. Thus every Ambient Intelligence system may be designed in a human centric perspective considering that, sometimes less can be more and vice-versa

High Energy Physics Program at the University of Alabama

This report discusses the following topics: study of Z{sup 0} decays; QCD; new particles; Higgs bosons; and forward hadron calorimeter system

Внедрение и принцип работы системы сейсмического мониторинга горного массива для работы в условиях ООО "Шахта "Усковская"

The status of the Silicon Microvertex Detector (SMD) and its installation into the LEP-L3 experiment are presented, highlighting novel features and sophisticated techniques. Preliminary results based on 1993 data are given and compared with Monte Carlo predictions, to understand the detector performances and its tracking capabilities

Determination of the number of light neutrino species from single photon production at LEP

A determination of the number of light neutrino families performed by measuring the cross section of single photon production in \ee\ collision near the \Zo\ resonance is reported. From an integrated luminosity of $100~\mathrm{pb^{-1}}$, collected during the years 1991--94, we have observed 2091 single photon candidates with an energy above 1~\GeV\ in the polar angular region $45^\circ < \theta_\gamma < 135^\circ$. From a maximum likelihood fit to the single photon cross section, the \Zo\ decay width into invisible particles is measured to be \Ginv = 498 \pm 12 \mathrm{(stat)} \pm 12 \mathrm{(sys)~MeV}. Using the Standard Model couplings of neutrinos to the \Zo, the number of light neutrino species is determined to be $N_\nu = 2.98 \pm 0.07 (\mathrm{stat}) \pm 0.07 (\mathrm{sys}).

Search for R-Parity Breaking Sneutrino Exchange at LEP

We report on a search for R--parity breaking effects due to supersymmetric tau--sneutrino exchange in the reactions e+e- to e+e- and e+e- to mu+mu- at centre--of--mass energies from 91~{\GeV} to 172~{\GeV}, using the L3 detector at LEP. No evidence for deviations from the Standard Model expectations of the measured cross sections and forward--backward asymmetries for these reactions is found. Upper limits for the couplings $\lambda_{131}$ and $\lambda_{232}$ for sneutrino masses up to m_{\SNT} \leq 190~\GeV are determined from an analysis of the expected effects due to tau sneutrino exchange

Production of Single W Bosons at LEP

We report on the observation of single W boson production in a data sample collected by the L3 detector at LEP2. The signal consists of large missing energy final states with a single energetic lepton or two hadronic jets. The cross-section is measured to be $0.61^{+0.43}_{-0.33} \pm 0.05 \; \rm{pb}$ at the centre of mass energy \sqrt{s}=172 \GeV{}, consistent with the Standard Model expectation. From this measurement the following limits on the anomalous $\gamma$WW gauge couplings are derived at 95\% CL: $\rm -3.6 \Delta \kappa_\gamma 1.5$ and $\rm -3.6 \lambda_\gamma 3.6$

Measurement of the Average Lifetime of b-Hadrons in Z Decays

We present a measurement of the average b-hadron lifetime ${\rm \tau_b}$ at the $\mathrm{e^+e^-} \,$ collider LEP. Using hadronic Z decays collected in the period from 1991 to 1994, two independent analyses have been performed. In the first one, the b-decay position is reconstructed as a secondary vertex of hadronic b-decay particles. The second analysis is an updated measurement of ${\rm \tau_b}$ using the impact parameter of leptons with high momentum and high transverse momentum. The combined result is \begin{center} ${\rm \tau_b= [ 1549 \pm 9 \, (stat) \, \pm 15 \, (syst) ] \; fs \,}$ . \end{center} In addition, we measure the average charged b-decay multiplicity ${\rm \langle n_{\rm b}} \rangle$ and the normalized average b-energy ${\rm \langle x_E \rangle_{\rm b}}$ at LEP to be \begin{center} ${\rm \langle n_{\rm b} \rangle = 4.90 \pm 0.04 \ (stat) \pm 0.11 \, (syst)}$ , \end{center} \begin{center} ${\rm \langle x_E \rangle_{\rm b} = 0.709 \pm 0.004 \, (stat + syst).}$ \end{center