Couples psychotherapy group: Treatment of the married alcoholic

As part of an intramural research program of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism focused on the psychobiogenetics of familial alcoholism, a psychodynamically oriented married couples psychotherapy group was formed. Its purpose was to determine whether this modality could be utilized as an outpatient treatment approach to identify and modify interpersonal interactions that affect both drinking behavior and the quality of family and marital life. This paper, a clinical case report, presents follow-up data and disusses both themes that emerged in the therapy process and the usefulness of this modality in the treatment of the married alcoholic.She was formerly Chief, Unit of Family Studies, Laboratory of Clinical Studies, National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).At the time this paper was written, she was a Research Social Worker, Laboratory, of Clinical Studies, NIAAA, Bethesda, Maryland.     

sleep complaints,behavioral characteristics and vital exhaustion in myocardial infarction cases

Abstract

Prodromal symptoms of vital exhaustion and sleep complaints are increasingly being recognized as important risk indicators for myocardial infarction (MI). In this study, the relationships between vital exhaustion, behavioral characteristics, and MI, and between several sleep complaints and MI were investigated. The subjects were 133 male cases with first MI, 192 male hospital controls, and 133 male neighborhood controls. The instruments used were the Maastricht Questionnaire (vital exhaustion), the Life Styles Questionnaire (sleep complaints, coffee consumption, and current smoking), and the Structured Interview (Type A behavior). All sleep complaints, vital exhaustion, Type A behavior, excessive coffee consumption, and current smoking occurred significantly more often in MI-cases. After controlling for these potential confounders, and age, most sleep complaints retained significant associations with MI, in particular often taking naps during the day and waking up in the morning feeling tired and exhausted.     

Contextual Pavlovian conditioning in the crab Chasmagnathus

In contextual conditioning, a complex pattern of information is processed to associate the characteristics of a particular place with incentive or aversive reinforcements. This type of learning has been widely studied in mammals, but studies of other taxa are scarce. The context-signal memory (CSM) paradigm of the crab Chasmagnathus has been extensively used as a model of learning and memory. Although initially interpreted as habituation, some characteristics of contextual conditioning have been described. However, no anticipatory response has been detected for animals exposed to the training context. Thus, CSM could be interpreted either as an associative habituation or as contextual conditioning that occurs without a context-evoked anticipatory response. Here, we describe a training protocol developed for contextual Pavlovian conditioning (CPC). For each training trial, the context (conditioned stimulus, CS) was discretely presented and finished together with the unconditioned stimulus (US). In agreement with the CSM paradigm, a robust freezing response was acquired during the 15 training trials, and clear retention was found when tested with the US presentation after short (2 and 4 h) and long (1–4 days) delays. This CPC memory showed forward but not simultaneous presentation conditioning and was context specific and protein synthesis dependent. Additionally, a weak CPC memory was enhanced during consolidation. One day after training, CPC was extinguished by repeated CS presentation, while one presentation induced a memory labilisation–reconsolidation process. Finally, we found an anticipatory conditioned response (CR) during the CS presentation for both short-term (4 h) and long-term memory (24 h). These findings support the conditioning nature of the new paradigm.     

Reciprocal depression in recovering alcoholic couples: The efficacy of psychodynamic group treatment

This single case study describes an outpatient psychodynamic therapy group for recovering alcoholic couples established in the Family Studies Unit, Laboratory of Clinical Studies, National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. While depression in the recovering alcoholic is widely recognized, the authors stress their observation of recurrent depression in the well spouse and note a tendency for depression to alternate between members of a couple. The authors suggest clinicians need sensitivity to this issue and that a psychodynamic therapy group is an effective treatment modality for married alcoholics and their spouses.     

Self-efficacy and its relationship with satisfaction with life and happiness among university students

This study set out to examine the relationship between self-efficacy and satisfaction with life and happiness among university students in South Africa. The sample comprised 334 students (female = 222, male = 112, black = 96%, mean age = 23 years). The students completed a general self-efficacy scale, the satisfaction with life scale and the subjective happiness scale. Data were analysed utilising regression approaches to predict students’ satisfaction with life and happiness from self-efficacy. The results revealed higher self-efficacy scores to predict both higher satisfaction with life and happiness in both males and females. Self-efficacy seems to facilitate both satisfaction with life and happiness in general.     

Talent for Citizenship and the American Dream: the USA as Outlier in the Global Race for Talent

The failed 2007 US Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA) included a “points-based system,” a proposal to shift toward supply-driven, merit-based selection. In an intensely polemic environment, this largely Republican initiative was opposed strongly by Democrats who argued that skill-based selection would weaken the traditional moral foundation of the USA, enshrined in its policy of family reunification. Through critical discourse analysis of policy documents and political rhetoric on the floor of the Senate during the CIRA debate, I explore the complexity of the relationship between neoliberalism, race, and immigration policy in the USA. I argue that the points-based system, which would severely disadvantage immigrants from the global south, became a foil for talk about Latino migration. The CIRA debate demonstrates the conflict in the USA between a need for (unskilled) labor and a nation-building project that excludes Latino migrants.     

联合国教科文组织国际生命伦理学委员会第八届会议报告

2001年9月12～14日,国际生命伦理学委员会(IBC)第八届会议在联合国教科文组织(UNESCO)总部法国巴黎举行。会议讨论了由其工作小组起草的两个规划报告：第一是关于伦理学、知识产权和基因组学。第二是基因资料的收集、处理、贮存和使用。会议还召开了生命伦理学和青年人教育的圆桌会议,并在大会上介绍了蛋白质基因组学的伦理学方面的研究进展;最后,委员们讨论关于个人资料保护的问题,并形成了相关决议。     

VITESSE D'HABITUATION VISUELLE CHEZ DES BÉBÉS IVOIRIENS ET FRANÇAIS

A comparison of the habituation rate of two infant populations was performed: Ivory Coast and French 3-, 5- and 8-month-olds. The same age evolution of the habituation performance was observed, but no differences were found between the two cultures at any age. The African infant's lead in development as shown by infant tests is not observed with the habituation paradigm. If such data are confirmed, they will lead to the conclusion that the difference is more a motor than a cognitive one.     

THE MIGRATIONS OF MOROCCAN JEWS TO MONTREAL: MEMORY, (ORAL) HISTORY AND HISTORICAL NARRATIVE

Among the masses of migrant populations driven to leave their countries against the backdrop of European decolonialization, North African Jews occupy a special place. Within several competing versions of the history of Moroccan Jews, recent historiographical debates reveal the political and memorial importance that this history represents for its various participants. Because the boundaries of memory are unstable, this article aims at understanding the interactions between memory and history. It outlines, first, the historical and historiographical context and presents the results of two oral history surveys, one conducted in the 1980s (N?=?27 in 1984–1986), the other more recently (N?=?15 in 2009–2010), and which draw upon a collection of life stories of men and women who left Morocco and went to Montreal in the 1980s and 1990s. It presents their answers to the questions of the circumstances under which these migrations took place and their memories of them today. These stories could then be transcribed and transmitted within a narrative that embodies both its historical meaning and their memory of it. Within this coping system, which denies the trauma associated with their departure en masse from Morocco, the interviewees hope to be considered as full members of the Sephardi diaspora and as Quebec citizens.