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Angela Connolly

Publications and source records attributed to Angela Connolly.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

A proteomic approach to the identification and characterisation of protein composition in wheat germ.

Proteome analyses were carried out on commercial wheat germ of mature grain from the biscuit-making wheat cultivar, Rosella. Wheat germ protein extracts were fractionated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis across two different immobilised pH gradients: pH 4.0-7.0 and 6.0-9.0. A total of 612 individual protein spots were excised from the gels and characterised by peptide mass fingerprinting. From these analyses, 347 individual proteins were identified from protein sequence database interrogation, and 301 different types of protein were catalogued according to protein function. The remaining 265 protein spots gave poor or no matches to proteins in the databases and were not identified in this study. Six different classes of enzymes were identified in the germ, many of them having roles in the mobilisation of energy reserves for germination. Abundantly expressed enzyme classes include the oxidoreductases, transferases and hydrolases. A comparison was also made between the major protein classes expressed in the germ and protein classes expressed in the endosperm from previous proteomic work. This study contributes significantly to our knowledge of protein expression and heterogeneity in the germ of wheat grain and forms the basis for future studies in regard to the characterisation of proteins during the initial stages of germination.

Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel↗

Through the Iron Curtain: analytical space in post-Soviet Russia.

This paper discusses the experience of working as an analyst in post-totalitarian Russia in order to explore some of the general theoretical and clinical issues involved in working in a different cultural and linguistic context, and the particular problems encountered in the Russian cultural context. It describes how the Soviet regime worked actively to create a new totally collective mentality through the destruction of individual differences and the collectivization of private space, and the effects this produced in the individual and collective psyche. It examines the difficulties encountered when working with Russian analysands in creating and maintaining the setting, in preserving boundaries, in creating analytical space, and in working with certain particular transference-countertransference dynamics. It focuses on the contrast between my own Western experience of space and the spatial experience of the analysands, and describes the process of helping them use analytical space to interiorize and create a new experience of psychic space. The paper uses dreams to illustrate some of these dynamics, and the particular psychic problems associated with the traumas created by totalitarian regimes.

Culture↗

Psychoanalytic theory in times of terror.

Recent events have underlined in the most tragic and dramatic way the need for depth psychology to turn its attention to the psychology of terror. The present paper attempts to distinguish between the psychological modes of horror and terror and explores the different theoretical approaches of Burke, Freud, Kristeva and Jung to this problem in order to cast light on the individual and collective functions that horror and terror play. While all these authors stress that terror and horror play a role in structuring the sense of identity and in strengthening community bonds, Freud and Kristeva believe that the experience of horror works to increase the exclusion of otherness through mechanisms of repression or foreclosure while Burke and Jung see in the encounter with the Negative Sublime or with the Shadow the possibility of widening the boundaries of ego consciousness and of integration of 'otherness'. The paper then uses the analysis of two horror movies and of a particular socio-cultural context to illustrate these different functions of horror and terror and to delineate possible solutions to the problems facing society.

Culture↗

To speak in tongues: language, diversity and psychoanalysis.

After reviewing the different psychoanalytical approaches to language of authors such as Freud, Lacan, Kristeva, Jung and Nicolas Abraham, the author examines the problem of 'analytical listening', of the attitude that every analyst must assume towards the words of the analysand, words that must be heard not just in terms of their content but above all in terms of their sound. We live in a culture in which visual images predominate over acoustic images and all too often this cultural trend is repeated in analysis, but it is only when we can hear the 'poetry' of the analysand's discourse that we are able to provide an 'echo', an analytical response that can co-symbolize with, that can offer to the analysand a word or a metaphor that will unlock the symbol hidden behind his or her words. The author then turns to the problem of bilinguism and its role in analysis. In her view, bilingual analysts are facilitated in their task of listening and of translation, because bilinguism facilitates the rapidity and fluidity of the analyst's associations, and at the same time sharpens his or her awareness of how the sound of a word can subtly change its meaning. The paper ends with a clinical vignette which illustrates the role that language can play in hysteria. In hysteria the dissociation between body and psyche is accompanied by a dissociation inside language itself, between verbalization and vocalization. These dissociations can be linked to the traumatic impact of the encounter between the 'language of tenderness' and the 'language of passion', between the child's attachment needs and parental sexuality. In such cases the failure of communication can be resolved principally through the use the analyst makes of the countertransference.

Cultural Diversity↗