Author: John Willinsky File Type: pdf What is the meaning of a word? Most readers turn to the dictionary for authoritative meanings and correct usage. But what is the source of authority in dictionaries? Some dictionaries employ panels of experts to fix meaning and prescribe usage, others rely on derivation through etymology. But perhaps no other dictionary has done more to standardize the English language than the formidable twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary in its 1989 second edition. Yet this most Victorian of modern dictionaries derives its meaning by citing the earliest known usage of words and by demonstrating shades of meaning through an awesome database of over five million examples of usage in context. In this fascinating study, John Willinsky challenges the authority of this imperial dictionary, revealing many of its inherent prejudices and questioning the assumptions of its ongoing revision. Clearly, the OED is no simple record of the language `as she is spoke, Willinsky writes. It is a selective representation reflecting certain elusive ideas about the nature of the English language and people. Empire of Words reveals, by statistic and table, incident and anecdote, how serendipitous, judgmental, and telling a task editing a dictionary such as the OED can be.Willinsky analyzes the favored citation records from the three editorial periods of the OEDs compilation the Victorian, imperial first edition the modern supplement and the contemporary second edition composed on an electronic database. He reveals shifts in linguistic authority the original edition relied on English literature and, surprisingly, on translations, reference works, and journalism the modern editions have shifted emphasis to American sources and periodicals while continuing to neglect women, workers, and other English-speaking countries.Willinskys dissection of dictionary entries exposes contradictions and ambiguities in the move from citation to definition. He points out that Shakespeare, the most frequently cited authority in the OED, often confounds the dictionarys simple sense of meaning with his wit and artfulness. He shows us how the most famous four-letter words in the language found their way through a belabored editorial process, sweating and grunting, into the supplement to the OED. Willinsky sheds considerable light on how the OED continues to shape the English language through the sometimes idiosyncratic, often biased selection of citations by hired readers and impassioned friends of the language. Anyone who is fascinated with words and language will find Willinskys tour through the OED a delightful and stimulating experience. No one who reads this book will ever feel quite the same about Murrays web of words.From Library JournalWillinsky, a teacher and writer on literacy and the teaching of English, here takes us on a critical tour of the most authoritative of all English dictionaries, the formidable Oxford English Dictionary (OED). He focuses on the source of the OEDs authority-its imposing database of over five million examples of words used in context. These dated citations form chronological usage histories of nearly 300,000 English words. After two chapters that describe the dictionarys cultural and philosophical background and its development during three editorial periods, Willinsky proceeds to reveal its selectivity and bias. By scrutinizing OED entries, he exposes ambiguity and contradiction between citations and definitions and shows a nearly complete neglect of women and workers. Replete with statistical content analysis as well as engaging anecdotes, this study will have a limited audience. Recommended for large public and academic libraries.Paul DAlessandro, Portland P.L., Maine 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistAt first glance, this appears to update Caught in the Web of Words James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary (1977). Indeed, it does describe how the supplements to and the second edition of the OED were compiled and the ongoing work on the database today. But it is really a scholarly study of the more than two million citations in the dictionary that are used to show shades of meanings of words. Willinsky questions the authority of the OED by demonstrating how idiosyncratic the choice of citations often has been. He describes the shift in citations over time from English literature to American sources. Tables show the leading sources for citations in various editions of the dictionary--it was Shakespeare in the first edition, Shaw in the supplements. Sandy Whiteley

Author: Roberto Losso File Type: pdf Enrique Pichon Riviere was a pioneering psychoanalyst, writing in Spanish in Argentina in the middle of the 20th century. He has never been translated into English, so his ideas are only known indirectly through the work of students and colleagues. His work has inspired not only the succeeding generations of Latin American analysts, but also spawned the fields of analytic family therapy and dynamic group work and organizational consultation. This book presents Pichon-Rivieres groundbreaking work in English for the first time. The main papers represent his theory of psychoanalysis including the link (el vinculo), spiral process, the theory of unifying illness, the action of interpretation, and the role and capacity of working in groups and in the family group. The book has three sections. In the first, Roberto Losso and Lea S. de Setton narrate Pichon Rivieres biography relating elements of his life to his subsequent work. In the second part, the editors present several original texts of Pichon Riviere that demonstrate his multiplicity of interests, covering classic psychiatry, dynamic psychiatry, psychoanalysis, as well as group psychotherapy, family and couple psychotherapy, social psychology, and applied psychoanalysis. These writings testify to Pichon Riviere as an original thinker, years ahead of his time. In the third part, several commentators discuss Pichon Rivieres and clinical practice. These include Roberto Lossos contribution, a panorama of Pichons ideas alongside his personal experience as Pichons student. Rosa Jaitin describes the experience of teaching Pichons ideas in Lyon, and in other French cities Rene Kaes discusses meeting Pichon, and offers his translated introduction to the French version of the complete work of Pichon Rosa Marcone interviews Ana P. de Quiroga, Pichons life partner for many years and subsequently the director of the School of Social Psychology that Pichon founded Alberto Eiguer narrates an experience with Pichon and his influence on Eiguers ideas and writing and Vicente Zito Lema gives his vision of Pichons work from sociological and philosophical perspectives. Finally, David Scharff summarizes Pichons major ideas and offers a comparison between these concepts and object relations theory. The book also includes a glossary by the editors of Pichon-Rivieres major concepts and terms.**ReviewPichon Rivieres important work is finally available to the English-speaking reader. It is, together with the work of Klein, Fairbairn, and Winnicott, a fundamental contribution to contemporary psychoanalytic object relations theory. Pichon Rivieres original concept of link explains the relational linkages between self and object representations, and expands the concept of the link to the description of unconscious intrapsychic group formations. The present collection of his writings describes the relation between these intrapsychic group structures and the individuals unconscious relations to the concentric cycles of family and social dynamics, and provides an integrating frame for the psychoanalytic exploration of groups and social organizations. The complementary chapters by distinguished contemporary authors influenced by Pichon Riviere included in this volume make for an actualized, stimulating overview of this important theoretician. (Otto Kernberg, past president of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA)) It is indeed fortunate that Roberto Losso, Lea S. de Setton, and David E. Scharff have undertaken this project of illuminating the original psychoanalytical productions of Pichon Riviere and of displaying his clinical and theoretical proposals to English-speaking psychoanalysts. At a time when psychoanalysis was focused on the internal world, Pichon Riviere proposed a social psychology for psychoanalysis, emphasizing the necessary links between internal and external worlds. Pichon Rivieres original and multi-causal line of thought is demonstrated both by his own writing and by the contemporary commentaries gathered brilliantly by the editors in this important volume. (Leticia Glocer Fiorini, MD, past president of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association and former Chair of the Publications Committee of the IPA) About the AuthorRoberto Losso is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and a member of the Argentine Psychoanalytical Association and the International Psychoanalytical Association. He is also the Consulting Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Family and Couple at FEPAL (Latin American Psychoanalytic Federation) Clinical Professor of Family and Couple Therapy, John F. Kennedy University and a board member of the International Association of Family and Couple Psychoanalysis. He is also the author of Family Psychoanalysis Theoretical and Technical Considerations, as well as several texts on his personal experience with Pichon Riviere. Lea S. de Setton is a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association faculty member, International Psychotherapy Institute and International Institute for Psychoanalytic Training, Washington, DC former chair of IPI-Panama faculty member, Doctorate Program, Catholic University (USMA), Panama and board member, International Association for Family and Couple Psychoanalysis. She is a psychologist, psychoanalyst and psychotherapist in private practice with individuals, couples and families in Panama. David E. Scharff is Chair of the International Psychoanalytical Associations Committee on Family and Couple Psychoanalysis Chair of the Board, Founder and former Director of the the International Psychotherapy Institute, Washington, DC and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in China, and author and editor of numerous books and articles, including The Sexual Relationship, Object Relations Family Therapy (with Jill Savege Scharff), Object Relations Couple Therapy, The Interpersonal Unconscious, and Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy.