In the final issue of this volume, we visit some features of contemporary culture: reflections on conspiracy theories, a dive into the often secret and hidden world of gamers, a fresh look at Dionysus and his unexpected relationship to Alcoholics Anonymous, and a courageous telling of an analyst’s personal tale of “having no skin” after the death of her husband. Yet although each of these papers has a contemporary orientation, they also have a historical and archetypal context. Our issue starts with the poems of David Kirby. He remarked during an interview in 2007, “I want to portray the mind as it actually works” (poetryfoundation.org). As our poetry editor, Paul Watsky, tells it: “Consider yourself lucky, reader, if your mind operates like his: enriched by ‘the gaiety of language,’ the comic joy of the pivot, of the calculatedly transgressive non sequitur, your kin and psychotherapy clients will delight, your more plodding colleagues burn with envy.” In “Dark Religion and Conspiracy Theories: An Analytical Viewpoint,” Vladislav Šolc provides relief from the one-sidedness of our current cultural polarization. Initially, I was resistant to the idea of thinking psychologically about my own contempt, rage, and disgust with our political, social, and environmental conundrums. Yet, with a long arm plunged into a barrel of snakes, Šolc reached into my mind and pulled out a more reasoned self. To immerse ourselves in the world of conspiracy theories, we don’t have to revisit the distant passions of the Sacco and Vanzetti drama, the Rosenberg story, or the John F. Kennedy assassination. A more contemporary view evokes the Gore-Bush Supreme Court decision giving the presidency to George W, the false evidence justifying the start of the second Iraq War, or many of our current daily politically dark and shocking moments that evoke conspiratorial thinking. According to Joseph Epstein, most of us arrive at our conspiracy theories through the biases inherent in our politics. In his 1977 Harper’s Magazine article “A Conspiracy of Silence,” Epstein notes, “How much more comforting to believe in conspiracies entered into by establishments than to believe in that greatest of all conspiracies—the conspiracy of human ineptitude and fallibility.” I usually prefer membership in the “adversary” culture of conspiracy. Lionel Trilling first identified the phenomenon of “adversary culture” in Beyond Culture, his 1965 collection of essays. The function of the adversary culture, says Trilling, was, through art and thought “to liberate the individual from the tyranny of his culture in the environmental sense and to stand beyond it in an autonomy of perception and judgement.” The idea was to “condemn tradition in favor of a golden day in the future, be on the side of the individual against the state, the minority against the majority, private freedoms against public responsibilities.” Although many

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致我们的读者

在本卷的最后一期中，我们将探讨当代文化的一些特征：对阴谋论的反思、潜入游戏玩家通常秘密和隐藏的世界、重新审视狄俄尼索斯以及他与匿名戒酒者的意外关系以及勇敢的讲述一位分析师在丈夫死后“没有皮肤”的个人故事。然而，尽管这些论文中的每一篇都有当代倾向，但它们也有历史和原型背景。我们的问题从大卫柯比的诗开始。他在 2007 年的一次采访中评论道，“我想描绘心灵的实际运作方式”（poetryfoundation.org）。正如我们的诗歌编辑保罗·沃茨基 (Paul Watsky) 所说：“读者，如果您的思想像他一样运作，那么请认为自己很幸运：因‘语言的欢乐’、支点的喜剧乐趣而丰富，在经过精心策划的违规行为中，您的亲属和心理治疗客户会感到高兴，而您更加沉闷的同事会嫉妒得要命。” 在“黑暗宗教和阴谋论：分析观点”中，弗拉迪斯拉夫·索尔克（Vladislav Šolc）从我们当前文化两极分化的片面性中解脱出来。最初，我拒绝从心理上思考自己对政治、社会和环境难题的蔑视、愤怒和厌恶。然而，长臂伸入蛇桶中，Šolc 进入我的脑海，拉出一个更理性的自我。为了让自己沉浸在阴谋论的世界中，我们不必重新审视萨科和万泽蒂戏剧、罗森伯格故事或约翰肯尼迪暗杀事件中遥远的激情。更现代的观点让人联想到戈尔-布什最高法院将总统职位交给乔治 W 的决定、证明第二次伊拉克战争开始的虚假证据，或者我们目前许多日常政治黑暗和令人震惊的时刻，这些时刻唤起了阴谋思维。根据约瑟夫·爱泼斯坦的说法，我们大多数人都是通过政治中固有的偏见得出我们的阴谋论的。爱泼斯坦在他 1977 年哈珀杂志的文章“沉默的阴谋”中指出，“相信机构参与的阴谋比相信所有阴谋中最伟大的阴谋——人类无能和易犯错的阴谋——更令人欣慰。” 我通常更喜欢在阴谋的“对手”文化中加入。莱昂内尔·特里林 (Lionel Trilling) 在 1965 年的散文集《超越文化》(Beyond Culture) 中首先确定了“敌对文化”现象。特里林说，敌对文化的功能是通过艺术和思想“将个人从环境意义上的文化暴政中解放出来，并在感知和判断的自主性方面超越它。” 这个想法是“谴责传统以支持未来的黄金日子，站在个人一边反对国家，少数人反对多数人，个人自由反对公共责任。” 虽然很多 反对公共责任的私人自由。” 虽然很多 反对公共责任的私人自由。” 虽然很多