Randal G. Tonks
Department of Psychology
Simon Fraser University
I'm hoping for brighter future for all who turn on their screens and take a look a Psybernetika. I think that Max Clark has done us all a great service with his commitment to getting Psybernetika up and running. Of course, this could not have happened with out the assistance and long hours of dedicated work by Joan Wolfe in her efforts to make Psybernetika a reality on the internet. At any rate, this journal promises to become something that encourages the enlightenment of dialogue on psychological topics, and provides the possibility of bringing many bright ideas that are being stoked by young psychologists, and the like, to the many screens available through the net.
In spite of the fact that Max is now somewhere around the Gulf of Thailand exploring something other than Virtual Reality, we have managed to get this project together (in part) due to the recognition of the chair of the department of Psychology, Chris Webster.
The ARTICLES in this first issue of Psybernetika, were requested and accepted under the editorship of J. Maxwell Clark, in spite of their preparation for publication having been completed by the current editorial team. This collection of articles begins with Max's exemplary step into psyber-space with his account of VR-addiction. This article might as well have been published in our AT THE MARGINS which currently contains only a plea from the margins for more exploratory works.
Our collection of articles continues with Leslie Morgan's statement on the state of emotions in psychological research. While calling for a more synoptic perspective which recognizes social constructionism in addition to the biological foundations to emotion, her ideas blend with those of Randy Tonks who considers the possibility of developing an Eriksonian synthesis of natural science and the humanities into a representatively Canadian paradigm of psychology. This is followed by Tim Freitas' account of Erikson's stages of identity and intimacy and his critical reflections on their epigenesis against the concept of gender. While Leslie's account of emotions also considers the role of gender to be central to her concerns, Sue Krygsveld has provided us with a very thorough ethnopsychological account of the codependent self. While considerations about the self or identity may be said to run through all of the articles in this issue, the final contribution to this first issue comes from Max Clark again, with his account of St Augustine's concept of the Self.
Additionally, the brief piece in this issue's "margins" might have equally as well have fallen into REVIEWS, our section for journal, book and magazine article reviews of a psychological nature. Finally, TAKING AIM at ourselves, this issue's section for critical evaluation of theories, research, publications, and psychology invites you, its subscribers to become one of its contributors by setting psybernetika in your sights as you provide a critique of our journal, any of its contents, format, or topical style. If you chose to do so you may wish to aim at our apparent lack of standards of referencing while we wrestle with the identity of being interdisciplinary.
By being an interdisciplinary journal directed towards topics related to psychology, we draw from a mosaic of traditions, both intellectual and cultural. Please let us know what you think of us.
Randal G. Tonks
Editor, Psybernetika
tonks@sfu.ca
February 28, 1995