California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Latest update: January 27, 2000
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In what way can "cheating" be explained as "acting out" transference behavior?

Cheating can be explained as a kind of magical invocation to protect the universe a student understands.
Good Choice!

Congratulations!This answer reflects your understanding of the Preparatory Reading for this Seminar. If the student respects academic knowledge, and engages in positive transference to the object of academic discourse, then the student may be "acting out" her admiration and respect (love) of learning by trying to capture the magic potion of academic discourse, without actually understanding such discourse. This could lead to the student's copying academic language from an academic source, almost out of a kind of reverence. When we accuse such a student of plagiarism we are making the unstated assumptin that the copying of answers is a rational behavior, when in fact it may be a magical potion kind of "acting out," which is not rational, and is not amenable to rational argument because for the student, the behavior is not rationally based.

Back to Question 1 on Love, Learning, and Structural Violence

Escape to Love Class Page
Escape to Dear Habermas Home

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