Receptivity is not passivity: A comparison between psychoanalysis and phenomenology concerning experience, judgement and the analytic attitude

Starting from Edmund Husserl's last book Experience and Judgement, this paper explores the notions of "passivity" and "receptivity" in phenomenology and psychoanalysis. Both sciences agree that receptivity differs from passivity, but they have developed different conceptualizations about the very nature of the rudimentary "ego-activity" which is the source of receptivity. In phenomenological terms, "pre-predicative" experience roots in a primary presence and openness of the ego towards the world, whilst psychoanalysis has emphasized the role of projective and introjective processes which are close to bodily experiences and unconscious phantasy. The second part of the paper draws some conclusions concerning the analytic situation, in particular the shift among receptivity, empathy, curiosity and creative imagination as central features of the analytic attitude from a mainly Kleinian point of view. The paper argues that receptivity is a field where phenomenological and psychoanalytic approaches can mutually enrich and learn from each other.

Passivity and Gender: Psychical inertia and maternal stillness

Who is afraid of passivity? Historically, women and minoritized people have had good reason to be, given that passivity has been a way to keep them out of the world of "reason." Freud's move from the activity/passivity binary as the principle of all instinct, to its gendering as femininity/passivity and masculinity/activity, leads him to assert the "repudiation of femininity" as the bedrock of psychic life (Freud, S. 1937. "Analysis Terminable and Interminable." In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, 23, 209-254. London: Hogarth Press). This has led to a generative history of feminist, queer and Black psychoanalytic scholarship that constantly re-opens the question of female subjectivity and sexuality, and what we mean by psychic femininity and masculinity. However, what does remains as "bedrock," even in this theorizing, is the figure of the mother in the internal world of the infant - supposedly castrated yet all-powerful, and requiring that the infant defend itself against what is stirred up as a result of dependency on her. After reviewing some of the psychoanalytic debates about femininity, I turn to "stillness" rather than passivity to suggest that we can identify a maternal element that is on the side of development, a figuration of psychical inertia that holds the capacity for waiting, stopping, ceasing and withdrawing in a world in which these mental functions are sorely missing.

Tracking control design for fractional order systems: A passivity-based port-Hamiltonian framework

This article focuses on the design of tracking control for chaotic fractional order systems subjected to perturbations in a port-Hamiltonian framework. The fractional order systems of general form are modeled into port-controlled Hamiltonian form. Then, the extended results on the dissipativity, energy balance, and passivity of the fractional order systems are proved and presented in this paper. The port-controlled Hamiltonian form of the fractional order systems are proved to be asymptotically stable via energy balancing concept. Furthermore, a tracking controller is designed for the fractional order port-controlled Hamiltonian form by utilizing the matching conditions of the port-Hamiltonian systems. Stability of the system is established and analyzed explicitly for the closed-loop system with the help of direct Lyapunov method. Finally, an application example is solved with simulation results and discussions to prove the effectiveness of the propounded control design approach.

Passivity and passification of fractional-order memristive neural networks with time delays

A class of fractional-order memristive neural networks (FMNNs) with time delays is studied. At first, the original network system is converted to fractional-order uncertain one to simplify the analysis by a variable transformation. Successively, some new LMIs-based passivity criteria are derived by differential inclusions, set-valued maps, inequality techniques and linear matrix inequality approach. Furthermore, a feedback control protocol is designed to solve the passification problem for the considered system, whose feedback control effect on different neurons can be changed artificially, which can be better applied to neural networks. The obtained results include some existing ones as special cases. A numerical example is proposed to illustrate the theoretical results.

Passivity-based coupling control for underactuated three-dimensional overhead cranes

This paper develops a novel Lyapunov function candidate for control of the three-dimensional (3-D) overhead crane, which yields a nonlinear controller to inject active damping. Different from the existing passivity-based controls that employ either the angular displacement or its integral as passive elements, the proposed controller incorporates both of them in a new coupled-dissipation signal, thus significantly enhancing the closed-loop passivity. Owing to the improved passivity, the proposed controller ensures the effective suppression of payload oscillations and robustness. Moreover, the control design is extended with the hyperbolic tangent function to prevent overdriving the trolley. The asymptotic stability is guaranteed by LaSalle's invariance principle. The transit performance of the closed-loop system, including robustness, is validated by numerical simulations.

Bodily Experience in Depression: Using Focusing as a New Interview Technique

INTRODUCTION

Research on body aspects in depression primarily focuses on somatic complaints, while phenomenologists emphasize the pre-reflective bodily experience of depression as relevant for the psychopathology of it. Despite this increasing acknowledgement of the subjective body's impact on depression, empirically, it remains rarely studied.

METHODS

Relying on the psychotherapy method of Focusing (Gendlin, 1982), interviews were developed, which enable participants with depression to get in contact with pre-reflective bodily experiences through turning inward, attentively observing all bodily feelings that arise, and finding symbolizations for these feelings.

RESULTS

In 501 codings of the conducted interviews, the theme of passivity emerged on a continuum ranging from inhibition of drive to lack of drive. It can be split into 5 components (heaviness, emptiness, paralysis, blockage, and alienation), which were felt in the head or the whole body. Moreover, participants reported active, pressuring feelings in the chest and stomach areas, which were associated with specific emotions in some participants.

DISCUSSION

In conclusion, through focusing, participants were able to take note of their pre-reflective bodily feelings and described feelings of passivity, active, pressuring feelings, and an ambivalence between these two parts. Results support the notion that depression is associated with specific pre-reflective bodily experiences and lay a foundation for future research.

Computation of the Analytic Center of the Solution Set of the Linear Matrix Inequality Arising in Continuous- and Discrete-Time Passivity Analysis

In this paper formulas are derived for the analytic center of the solution set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) defining passive transfer functions. The algebraic Riccati equations that are usually associated with such systems are related to boundary points of the convex set defined by the solution set of the LMI. It is shown that the analytic center is described by closely related matrix equations, and their properties are analyzed for continuous- and discrete-time systems. Numerical methods are derived to solve these equations via steepest descent and Newton methods. It is also shown that the analytic center has nice robustness properties when it is used to represent passive systems. The results are illustrated by numerical examples.

Event-triggered passivity and synchronization of delayed multiple-weighted coupled reaction-diffusion neural networks with non-identical nodes

This paper solves the event-triggered passivity and synchronization problems for delayed multiple-weighted coupled reaction-diffusion neural networks (DMWCRDNNs) composed of non-identical nodes with and without parameter uncertainties. On one side, by designing appropriate event-triggered controllers, several passivity and synchronization criteria for DMWCRDNNs with certain parameters under the designed event-triggered conditions are derived based on the Lyapunov functional method and some inequality techniques. On the other side, we consider that the external perturbations may lead the parameters in network model to containing uncertainties, robust event-triggered passivity and synchronization for DMWCRDNNs with parameter uncertainties are investigated. Finally, two examples with numerical simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.

Passivity analysis of memristor-based impulsive inertial neural networks with time-varying delays

This paper focuses on delay-dependent passivity analysis for a class of memristive impulsive inertial neural networks with time-varying delays. By choosing proper variable transformation, the memristive inertial neural networks can be rewritten as first-order differential equations. The memristive model presented here is regarded as a switching system rather than employing the theory of differential inclusion and set-value map. Based on matrix inequality and Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional method, several delay-dependent passivity conditions are obtained to ascertain the passivity of the addressed networks. In addition, the results obtained here contain those on the passivity for the addressed networks without impulse effects as special cases and can also be generalized to other neural networks with more complex pulse interference. Finally, one numerical example is presented to show the validity of the obtained results.

Is Affectivity Passive or Active?

In this paper I adopt Aquinas' explanation of passivity and activity by means of acts remaining in the agent and acts passing over into external matter. I use it to propose a divide between immanent-type and transcendent-type acts. I then touch upon a grammatical distinction between three kinds of verbs. To argue for the activity and passivity of affectivity I refer to the group that includes acts of transcendent-type and whose verbs in both voices possess affective meaning. In the end I focus on cases in which an act of affective f-ing is mirrored in its object as being affectively f-ed.

Robust passive control for a class of uncertain neutral systems based on sliding mode observer

The passivity-based sliding mode control (SMC) problem for a class of uncertain neutral systems with unmeasured states is investigated. Firstly, a particular non-fragile state observer is designed to generate the estimations of the system states, based upon which a novel integral-type sliding surface function is established for the control process. Secondly, a new sufficient condition for robust asymptotic stability and passivity of the resultant sliding mode dynamics (SMDs) is obtained in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Thirdly, the finite-time reachability of the predesigned sliding surface is ensured by resorting to a novel adaptive SMC law. Finally, the validity and superiority of the scheme are justified via several examples.

Passivity, being-with and being-there: care during birth

This paper examines how to best be with women during birth, based on a phenomenological description of the birth experience. The first part of the paper establishes birth as an uncanny experience, that is, an experience that is not only entirely unfamiliar, but even unimaginable. The way in which birth happens under unknowable circumstances (in terms of when, how, with whom…) creates a set of anxieties on top of the fundamental anxiety that emerges from the existential paradox by which it does not seem possible for a body to give birth to another body. Would homebirth provide a remedy to the uncanniness? The result yielded by medical studies is confirmed by the phenomenological perspective taken here: homebirth might be reassuring for some, but not for everybody; choice of birth place is important. Once the birth process starts happening, another layer of strangeness is added: it turns out to be an experience of radical passivity and waiting, normally. The question thus becomes how to best care for somebody who is exposed to uncanniness, passivity, and waiting. Martin Heidegger's concepts of care and discourse prove useful in examining how to facilitate rather than interrupt this process. It becomes necessary to think beyond verbal communication towards a wider concept of communication that involves silence and intercorporeality. Birth requires a special kind of being-with as being-there.

Passivity-based control of an omnidirectional mobile robot

This paper studies passivity-based trajectory tracking control of an omnidirectional mobile robot. The proposed control design is simple to be implemented in practice, because of an effective exploitation of the structure of robot dynamics. First, the passivity property of the prototype robot is analyzed. Then the control system is designed based on the energy shaping plus damping approach. We find that the prototype robot itself has enough damping forces. As a result, only energy shaping is needed in our proposed controller, while the damping injection is unnecessary for our robot. In other words, the disadvantages of differential feedback, such as amplifying the measurement noise, can be avoided. Globally asymptotic stability is guaranteed. Both simulations and experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed control design.

Passivity of memristor-based BAM neural networks with different memductance and uncertain delays

This paper addresses the passivity problem for a class of memristor-based bidirectional associate memory (BAM) neural networks with uncertain time-varying delays. In particular, the proposed memristive BAM neural networks is formulated with two different types of memductance functions. By constructing proper Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and using differential inclusions theory, a new set of sufficient condition is obtained in terms of linear matrix inequalities which guarantee the passivity criteria for the considered neural networks. Finally, two numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical results.

The role of passive potential in ultrasonic cavitation erosion of titanium in 1 M HCl solution

The influence of the applied passive potential on the ultrasonic cavitation erosion of Ti specimen in 1 M HCl solution was investigated by mass loss experiment, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) and Mott-Schottky plot. The results showed that Ti was in the passive state within the potential region from -0.3 VSCE to 1.5 VSCE under ultrasonic cavitation erosion. The applied passive potential can obviously decrease the mass loss of Ti caused by ultrasonic cavitation erosion in 1 M HCl solution. The resistance of the passive film increased, the flat band potential moved to positive direction, and the donor density of the passive film decreased with increasing the passive potential. Finally, a physical model was provided to explain the experimental results based on energy band and semi-conductive theories.

New passivity criteria for memristive uncertain neural networks with leakage and time-varying delays

In this paper, the problem of passivity analysis is studied for memristor-based uncertain neural networks with leakage and time-varying delays. By combining differential inclusions with set-valued maps, the system of memristive neural networks is changed into the conventional one. By adding a triple quadratic integral and relaxing the requirement for the positive definiteness of some matrices, a proper Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional is constructed. Based on the establishment of the novel Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, the new passivity criteria are derived by mainly applying Wirtinger-based double integral inequality, S-procedure and so on. Moreover, the conservatism of passivity conditions can be reduced. Finally, four numerical examples are given to show the effectiveness and less conservatism of the proposed criteria.

Passivity-based sliding mode control for a polytopic stochastic differential inclusion system

Passivity-based sliding mode control for a polytopic stochastic differential inclusion (PSDI) system is considered. A control law is designed such that the reachability of sliding motion is guaranteed. Moreover, sufficient conditions for mean square asymptotic stability and passivity of sliding mode dynamics are obtained by linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Finally, two examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.