Psychologic exploration of neurosis patients as a diagnostic-therapeutic process

A structure of exploration is presented as a hypothetic model of conditions of symptoms. The concept of exploration and difficulties of its realization are illustrated by a practical example.     

Transference neurosis as a waking dream: notes on a clinical enigma

This paper demonstrates clinically that the interactional features of a transference neurosis are the waking equivalents of a manifest dream. Through analytic investigation of the emerging repetitive extraverbal elements of apparent transference resistance behavior, it is discovered that the systematic analysis of the details of such behavior yields a picture of synthetic construction fundamentally the same as that seen in dreams. By using Freud's technique of systematic dream interpretation, the tightly organized, coded, and camouflaged presence of many key compromise formations determining a neurosis are found to be represented in compact, highly condensed clinical interactions, providing an overall picture of dreamwork in action. The four components of dreamwork are found to be the principal means by which the unconscious genetic and dynamic material is represented in the analytic field.     

Harmonic structure as a determinant of melodic organization

Musicians and nonmusicians indicated whether a two-note probe following a tonally structured melody occurred in the melody. The critical probes were taken from one of three locations in the melody: the two notes (1) ending the first phrase, (2) straddling the phrase boundary, and (3) beginning the second phrase. As predicted, the probe that straddled the phrase boundary was more difficult to recognize than either of the within-phrase probes. These findings suggest that knowledge of harmonic structure influences perceptual organization of melodies in ways analogous to the influence of clause relations on the perceptual organization of sentences. They also provide evidence that training plays an important role in refining listeners’ sensitivity to harmonic variables.     

Hierarchical organization as a determinant of sequential learning

Subjects learned a set of permutations of a base sequence of letters. A set of permutations either defined a hierarchical organization for the base sequence or did not. Sets that defined organizations led to more correct responses, and the pattern of interitem sequential dependencies revealed that subjects had learned the organization defined by a response set. Differences in learning could not be explained in terms of the frequency with which items occurred adjacently because that frequency was held constant for both organization-defining and organization-free response sets. The difficulty of learning a particular organization was related to the memory load induced by the organization, and those differences were more consistent with a model of sequential learning proposed by Johnson (1970) than they were with a model proposed by Estes (1972).     

Salkovskis on obsessional-compulsive neurosis: a rejoinder

Salkovskis (Behav Res. Ther. 27, 677–682, 1989) presents a development of his 1985 account, together with empirical findings. A number of criticisms of this work are presented.     

Salkovskis on obsessional-compulsive neurosis: a critique

Salkovskis (Behav. Res. Ther. 23, 571–583. 1985) offers of cognitive-behavioural analysis of obsessional-compulsive disorder and the treatment implications of the analysis are discussed by Salkovskis (1985) and Salkovskis and Warwick (Behav. Psychother. 13, 243–255, 1985). A number of criticisms and objections to this work are set out.     

Numerosity estimation as a function of stimulus organization.

It was proposed that stimulus organization of a set of homogeneous items can best be measured by using the mean distance to nearest neighbours. Patterns of dots were generated that fell on four different positions along the cluster continuum, from highly regular, through random, to clustered. When thirty subjects were asked to judge numerosity, their estimates decreased significantly as cluster measures increased. Four possible interpretations of the effect of organization on numerosity perception are discussed.