Despite decades of effort in developing evidence-based treatments, drug addiction remains one of the most problematic and enduring public health crises. Developing a new generation of theoretically-derived interventions constitutes an important clinical and scientific gap that, if addressed, may open innovative treatment opportunities. Based on the Reinforcer Pathology theory, altering the temporal window over which reinforcers are integrated (i.e., measured by delay discounting) would alter drug valuation and consumption. The first investigation—in 2 separate studies— test the Reinforcer Pathology theory by examining the effect of expanding and constricting the temporal window of integration using two mating narratives (long-term and short-term relationships, respectively) on cigarette valuation among cigarette smokers. The second investigation, test the Reinforcer Pathology theory by assessing the effect of remotely delivered Episodic Future Thinking (EFT) narratives (expands the temporal window) on real-world alcohol consumption among individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Together, these investigations supported the Reinforcer Pathology theory and demonstrated its relevance for understanding and intervening in addiction. The current findings provide scientific justification to further investigate Reinforcer Pathology based interventions that expand the temporal window to change drug valuation and consumption. The construction of multi-component treatments that incorporate Reinforcer Pathology based interventions to systematically alter the temporal window may provide a novel intervention to reduce alcohol consumption. / Doctor of Philosophy / The following studies provide evidence that altering the temporal widow (how far in the future one can imagine and integrate into the present) would alter drug valuation. In the following studies, we used narratives describing long-term or short-term mating relationships (Study 1) and Episodic Future Thinking (EFT; represents one's capability to pre-experience the future; Study 2) to alter the valuation of cigarettes and alcohol, respectively. In the first study, cigarette smokers who read and vividly imagined long-term romance relationship narrative (expands the temporal window) valued cigarettes less than control (imagined looking for a lost key). In contrast, those who read and vividly imagined a short-term sexual encounter (shortens the temporal window) valued cigarettes more than controls. The second study employed EFT (expands the temporal window) as a strategy to reduce alcohol consumption, in real-world settings, over two weeks in individuals with alcohol use disorder. The study found that expanding the temporal window using EFT reduced alcohol consumption. Together, these two studies provide support to employing interventions that extend the temporal window to change drug valuation and consumption. The construction of multi-component treatments that incorporate interventions expanding the temporal window may reduce drug consumption.

The current vast sociocultural shift from Modernism to PostModernism forms the backdrop to this study. Whenever paradigm shifts occur, the metaphors which depict human experience and identity also change. The mechanistic metaphors of Modernism are giving way to metaphors derived from art and literature, in particular narrative theory. Self, as one of the most pivotal notions in philosophy, literature, and psychology, should not be excluded from this process of reconceptualisation. As the point of intersection between the personal and the cultural, the notion of Self now needs to bereformulated to become more coherent with Post-Modernist ideas. Within this framework the Modernist notion of a Self which is unified, substantial, and stable across all contexts, is deconstructed in this study to reveal the linguistic and ideological codes and conventions which are used in its construction. It is proposed that the Self can be viewed as embedded in relationship with others and as inscribed by the prevailing cultural ideologies regarding personhood. As such the Self can be regarded as held together reflexively by narrative codes and conventions. These ideas are demonstrated in an analysis of two written self-narratives and applied to the conventions and practices in psychotherapy. / Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

The current vast sociocultural shift from Modernism to PostModernism forms the backdrop to this study. Whenever paradigm shifts occur, the metaphors which depict human experience and identity also change. The mechanistic metaphors of Modernism are giving way to metaphors derived from art and literature, in particular narrative theory. Self, as one of the most pivotal notions in philosophy, literature, and psychology, should not be excluded from this process of reconceptualisation. As the point of intersection between the personal and the cultural, the notion of Self now needs to bereformulated to become more coherent with Post-Modernist ideas. Within this framework the Modernist notion of a Self which is unified, substantial, and stable across all contexts, is deconstructed in this study to reveal the linguistic and ideological codes and conventions which are used in its construction. It is proposed that the Self can be viewed as embedded in relationship with others and as inscribed by the prevailing cultural ideologies regarding personhood. As such the Self can be regarded as held together reflexively by narrative codes and conventions. These ideas are demonstrated in an analysis of two written self-narratives and applied to the conventions and practices in psychotherapy. / Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

This essay considers the interplay between character narrators, the implied author, and the authorial audience in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Talents. The aim of the study was to investigate how narrators, the implied author, and readers position themselves in relation to each other and in relation to the novel’s ethical dimensions. The theoretical framework is based on James Phelan’s theories on the rhetorical and ethical aspects of fiction. The essay argues that the implied author’s communication to the authorial audience is one of the reasons that the novel, like its prequel Parable of the Sower, often succeeds to function as warnings to the audience of dangers ahead. This is especially true regarding one of the implied author’s most consistent messages to the audience throughout the Parable novels: every choice has consequences, and those consequences need to be considered when we decide how to act and react in different circumstances, both as individuals and as a society.

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In this thesis the animated tv series She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and the representation and the character development within it is researched and analyzed.  In television and media, representation has a history of being narrow. But in 2018 the animated tv series She-Ra and the Princesses of Power came and showed how broad representation could be done, and how it can be done by creating characters who are allowed to develop. Our aim with the study was to study the character development and the representation, with a focus on queer identities and themes.  With the series She-Ra and the Princesses of Power as a case, and through visual analysis and character analysis we approached our study and this subject. Our study resulted with the conclusion that queer representation does not have to be direct or in your face. With focus on the characters own developments, and letting them exist in a non-heteronormative world, they got to emerge as their own persons with complex identities which are not relying on their sexual orientation or gender identity. The show instead shows that it's possible to provide broad representation where everyone can exist in a world that does not abide by the norms that are found in real society. It also became clear that the series real aim was on the importance of friendship, love and acceptance, rather than the storyline which was a mere entertaining excuse for this deeper meaning.

This dissertation has three aims: 1. To evaluate several ethical theories about responsibility towards future generations. 2. To construct a theory about responsibility towards future generations. 3. To carry out an ethical evaluation of different nuclear waste management methods. Five theories are evaluated with the help of evaluative criteria, primarily: A theory must provide future generations with some independent moral status. A theory should acknowledge moral pluralism. A theory should provide some normative claims about real-world problems. Derek Parfit’s theory provides future generations with full moral status. But it is incompatible with moral pluralism, and does not provide reasonable normative claims about real-world problems. Brian Barry’s theory provides such claims and a useful idea about risk management, but it does not provide an argument why future generations ought to exist. Avner de-Shalit’s theory explains why they ought to exist; however, his theory can not easily explain why we ought to care for other people than those in our own community. Emmanuel Agius’ theory gives an ontological explanation for mankind’s unity, but reduces conflicts of interests to a common good. Finally, Hans Jonas’ theory shifts the focus from the situation of future generations to the preconditions of human life generally. However, his theory presupposes a specific ontology, which might be unable to motivate people to act. The concluding chapters describe a narrative theory of responsibility. It claims that we should comprehend ourselves as parts of the common story of mankind and that we ought to provide future generations with equal opportunities. This implies that we should avoid transferring risks and focus on reducing the long-term risks associated with the nuclear waste.

This thesis explores the role played by narrative desire within two modernist experimentations with novel form: Willa Cather's 1918 novel My Antonia and William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! (1936). In it, I argue that Cather and Faulkner utilize framing narratives in order to present the main plot of each novel as a product of multiple narrators' desire for a story to emerge. In My Antonia, it is the expressed wish of Jim Burden's nameless writer friend that compels him to finish writing his account of Antonia, which constitutes the main plot of the novel. Meanwhile, in Absalom, Absalom! it is Quentin's perception that Rosa "wants it told" which inspires him to investigate and reconstruct her ex-fiancee Thomas Sutpen's life story with the help of two other character-narrators: his father and college roommate Shreve. Calling on narrative theory and psychoanalysis, I argue that Cather's and Faulkner's novels depict characters' desire for both storytelling and each other to be enigmatic and intersubjective. Indeed the impulse to generate narrative on the part of the tellers in both texts--notably Jim and Quentin--is seen to arise out of a partial, but not entirely clear, sense that another wants them to do so. In other words, the narrative desire conveyed by the nameless writer and Rosa appears to have no clear object. While it is understood by Jim and Quentin that a story is desired of them, the full extent of what this story might come to be about is never fully explicated by their interlocutors. Theoretically, the intervention this project wagers by way of Cather and Faulkner is a rethinking of two influential attempts to bring together narrative theory and psychoanalysis: Peter Brooks' Reading for the Plot (1984) and Judith Roof's Come As You Are (1996). While the claims regarding narrative advanced by both Brooks and Roof rely primarily on Freud's work (notably his theories of the death drive and of sexual development), I attempt to demonstrate how Lacan's thinking allows us to understand narrative as issuing from a desire that is at once intersubjective and objectless--as appears to be the case in My Antonia and Absalom, Absalom!. Lacan's dynamic conceptualization of desire, I suggest, is not only essential to understanding these two works; it is also very much implicit within the interplay of desire and narrative form they establish.

In more than two decades of research and practical experiments in interactive digital narrative (IDN), much insight about the relationship of narrative and digital media has been gained and many successful experiments have been undertaken, as a survey of the field illustrates. However, current approaches also limit the scope of experimentation and constrain theory in interactive narrative forms original to digital media. After reviewing the "interactivisation" of legacy theory (neo-Aristotelian poetics for interactive drama, poststructuralism for hyperfiction, 20th century narratology for interactive fiction and as a general theory for IDN), the thesis introduces a theoretical framework that changes the focus from the product-centered view of legacy media towards system and the process of instantiation. The terms protostory describing the overall space of potential narratives in an IDN system, narrative design for the concrete assemblage of elements and narrative vectors as substructures that enable authorial control are introduced to supersede legacy terms like story and plot. On the practical side, the thesis identifies limitations of existing approaches (e.g. legacy metaphors like the timeline, and authoring tools that support only particular traditions) To overcome these limitations a software toolset built on the principles of robustness, modularity, and extensibility is introduced and some early results are evaluated. Finally, the thesis proposes an inclusive, open-ended iterative process as a structure for future IDN research in which practical implementations and research co-exist in a tightly coupled mutual relationship that allows changes on one side to be integrated on the other.