The Romantic Unconscious: Conflict and Compromise in the Research of Romantic Love

Social scientists continue empirically researching the psychology of romantic love. However, there is little attention spent evaluating the direction and nature of this work. In this theoretical study, the author argues that the research literature presents a limited view of romantic relationships. A contributing factor is the relative inattention to the interplay of conscious and unconscious mental processes in empirical models. The author examines the prevalent model of studying relationships for its assumptions about the accessibility of psychological states and the accuracy of participant reports. To support his case, the author reviews research that explores the limits of a psychology based on primarily conscious processes. The argument is made that a more comprehensive investigation of romantic love would involve an integration of conscious and unconscious processing and an expanded notion of rationality (as it pertains to romantic relationships). In the second part of this study, the author suggests that psychoanalytic thinking can help inform psychological research into romantic love. Psychoanalytic theorizing is described as having a long tradition of exploring the subjective rationality and meaning that underlies the full range of romantic relationship motivations and experiences. The author presents the usefulness of psychoanalytic ideas, including a dynamic unconscious and object relations, to construct a framework to study love relationships. The study concludes with four guiding recommendations points (conceptual and methodological) for a future direction of romantic relationship research. These suggestions offer a way of understanding how people seek psychological compromise solutions to all their (at times conflictual) motivational aims in their romantic lives. The author\u27s framework allows for investigating how this process not only occurs, consciously and unconsciously, but also intrapsychically, interpersonally and culturally

Just a game? Sport and psychoanalytic theory

Sport poses a number of important and no less significant questions, which, on the face of it, may not necessarily seem very important or significant to begin with – a peculiarity that we believe to be integral to sport itself. This article introduces, explores and outlines the psychoanalytic significance of this peculiarity. It explores how the emotions stirred by sport are intertwined with a realm of fiction and fantasy. Despite its lack of practical utility, sport carries an undeniable gravity, encapsulating the aspirations of communities, nations and continents. As a result, psychoanalysis can be used to critically reflect on the purpose and meaning of sport: that is, why do we need sport, and why, for large sections of the world’s population, do we rely on it? Ultimately, while psychoanalysis maintains a unique relation to a variety of unexpected fields of study – including art, culture and neuroscience – we seek to add to this expanding list of inquiry by including sport in this critical domain. By utilising sport as a platform to elucidate psychoanalytic concepts, it is recognised that sport can also prompt questions for psychoanalysis. In so doing, theoretical discussions on the social, cultural and political dimensions of sport through psychoanalytic theory are introduced and applied

Just a game? Sport and psychoanalytic theory

Sport poses a number of important and no less significant questions, which, on the face of it, may not necessarily seem very important or significant to begin with – a peculiarity that we believe to be integral to sport itself. This article introduces, explores and outlines the psychoanalytic significance of this peculiarity. It explores how the emotions stirred by sport are intertwined with a realm of fiction and fantasy. Despite its lack of practical utility, sport carries an undeniable gravity, encapsulating the aspirations of communities, nations and continents. As a result, psychoanalysis can be used to critically reflect on the purpose and meaning of sport: that is, why do we need sport, and why, for large sections of the world’s population, do we rely on it? Ultimately, while psychoanalysis maintains a unique relation to a variety of unexpected fields of study – including art, culture and neuroscience – we seek to add to this expanding list of inquiry by including sport in this critical domain. By utilising sport as a platform to elucidate psychoanalytic concepts, it is recognised that sport can also prompt questions for psychoanalysis. In so doing, theoretical discussions on the social, cultural and political dimensions of sport through psychoanalytic theory are introduced and applied

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of Parkinson?s disease

Although over 90 independent risk variants have been identified for Parkinson’s disease using genome-wide association studies, most studies have been performed in just one population at a time. Here we performed a large-scale multi-ancestry meta-analysis of Parkinson’s disease with 49,049 cases, 18,785 proxy cases and 2,458,063 controls including individuals of European, East Asian, Latin American and African ancestry. In a meta-analysis, we identified 78 independent genome-wide significant loci, including 12 potentially novel loci (MTF2, PIK3CA, ADD1, SYBU, IRS2, USP8, PIGL, FASN, MYLK2, USP25, EP300 and PPP6R2) and fine-mapped 6 putative causal variants at 6 known PD loci. By combining our results with publicly available eQTL data, we identified 25 putative risk genes in these novel loci whose expression is associated with PD risk. This work lays the groundwork for future efforts aimed at identifying PD loci in non-European populations

Möbius strip microlasers

International audienc

Möbius Strip Microlasers: A Testbed for Non-Euclidean Photonics

International audienceWe report on experiments with Möbius strip microlasers, which were fabricated with high optical quality by direct laser writing. A Möbius strip, i.e., a band with a half twist, exhibits the fascinating property that it has a single nonorientable surface and a single boundary. We provide evidence that, in contrast to conventional ring or disk resonators, a Möbius strip cavity cannot sustain whispering gallery modes (WGM). Comparison between experiments and 3D finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations reveals that the resonances are localized on periodic geodesics

Möbius strip microlasers

International audienc