Psychic development and the group analytic situation

Psychic development can be viewed as the emergence and establishment of coherency which is an aspect of organization. This paper discusses the concept of coherency and reviews some early developmental processes in the mother/infant interaction that establish coherency. The development of the matrix of the analytic group is viewed as the establishment and development of group coherency. Finally, the link between the development of individual coherency and group coherency is outlined.Dr. Malcolm Pines is a Consultant Psychotherapist at Tavistock Clinic, founder member of the Institute of Group Analysis (London), member of the British Psychoanalytical Society, and Past President of the International Association of Group Psychotherapy.     

Environmental influences on psychological restoration

Research on psychological restoration and restorative environments is a needed complement to work on stress and environmental stressors. Two laboratory experiments tested the utility of two restorative environments theories, one concerned with directed attention capacity renewal and the other with stress reduction and associated changes in emotion. Various strategies were employed to distinguish restorative effects from other effects, to limit the role of arousal reduction in attentional restoration, and to begin mapping the time course for the emergence of outcomes. Both experiments tested for differential emotional and performance effects as a function of photographic environmental simulation (natural or urban environment). Across the experiments the natural environment simulation engendered generally more positive emotional self-reports. That consistent performance effects were not found in either study suggests that attentional restoration as reflected in performance is a more time-intensive process.     

On antithetic and metathetic words in the analytic situation

Freud's view of primal words emphasized their origins in the vocal acquisition of language and their similarity to primary process behavior in young children. Our English vernacular is rich in word play of reversals and antitheses, some words being truly ancient, others originating in the subversions of slang and in the child's penchant for mirror imaging and other primary process play. In the regression of analytic work the uttered word can combine with dream imagery and behavioral enactment to convey the antitheses abounding in the oral, anal, and early phallic concerns of the individuating child acquiring language.     

The analytic situation as a dynamic field. 1969

This paper discusses the consequences of the importance that recent ³ papers assign to the countertransference. When the latter acquires a theoretical and technical value equal to that of the transference, the analytic situation is configured as a dynamic bi‐personal field, and the phenomena occurring in it need to be formulated in bi‐personal terms. First, the field of the analytic situation is described, in its spatial, temporal and functional structure, and its triangular character (the present–absent third party in the bi‐personal field) is underlined. Then, the ambiguity of this field is emphasized, with special weight given to its bodily aspect (the bodily experiences of the analyst and the patient being particularly revealing of the unconscious situation in the field). The different dynamic structures or lines of orientation of the field are examined: the analytic contract, the configuration of the manifest material, the unconscious configuration – the unconscious bi‐personal phantasy manifesting itself in an interpretable point of urgency – that produces the structure of the field and its modifications. The authors describe the characteristics of this unconscious couple phantasy: its mobility and lack of definition, the importance of the phenomena of projective and introjective identification in its structuring. The authors go on to study the functioning of this field, which oscillates between mobilisation and stagnation, integration and splitting. Special reference is made to the concept of the split off unconscious ‘bastion’ as an extremely important technical problem. The analyst’s work is described as allowing oneself to be partially involved in the transference–countertransference micro‐neurosis or micro‐psychosis, and interpretation as a means of simultaneous recovery of parts of the analyst and the patient involved in the field. Finally, the authors describe the bi‐personal aspect of the act of insight that we experience in the analytic process.     

Environmental context influences visually perceived distance

What properties determine visually perceived space? We discovered that the perceived relative distances of familiar objects in natural settings depended in unexpected ways onthe surrounding visual field. Observers bisected egocentric distances in a lobby, in a hallway, and on an open lawn. Three key findings were the following: (1) Perceived midpoints were too far from the observer, which is the opposite of the common foreshortening effect. (2) This antiforeshortening constant error depended on the environmental setting--greatest in the lobby and hall but nonsignificant on the lawn. (3) Context also affected distance discrimination; variability was greater in the hall than in the lobby or on the lawn. A second experiment replicated these findings, using a method of constant stimuli. Evidently, both the accuracy and the precision of perceived distance depend on subtle properties of the surrounding environment.     

The compulsion to confess and the compulsion to judge in the analytic situation

In this paper the author shows that human beings have two quasi‐instinctual primitive tendencies – namely, the compulsion to confess and the compulsion to judge (to condemn or to absolve). These compulsions are originally unconscious and become conscious during the course of the analytic process. The compulsion to judge is a natural consequence of the compulsion to confess. These two tendencies are intensified by the analytic situation. The patient has a compulsion to confess to the analyst and to himself, and likewise the analyst has a compulsion to confess to himself and to the patient. The patient therefore has a compulsion to judge himself as good or bad and to judge the analyst as good or bad while, on the other hand, the analyst has a compulsion to judge himself as good or bad and to judge the patient as good or bad. The task of analysis is to make both patient and analyst conscious of their compulsions to confess and to judge (to condemn or to absolve). The compulsion to judge in the analyst, particularly if unconscious, may give rise to mistakes in diagnosis, technique, treatment, and the assessment of analysability. The requirement of analytic neutrality in the analyst constantly conflicts with his compulsion to judge. If we are profoundly involved in our patient's dramatic conflict, we are bound to pass a judgement (condemnation or absolution); however, when we judge, we are not neutral and therefore become incapable of intellectual consciousness of the patient's conflict. Conversely, if we do not judge, we are neutral, but are then relatively uninvolved in the patient's conflict and are hence virtually unable to achieve emotional consciousness. The author attempts to show that neutrality cannot and must not be a preconstituted attitude in the analyst, but can and must be a point of arrival following a profound, intensely felt existential experience based on an attitude of non‐condemnation and non‐absolution.     

Peer review, third-party payment, and the analytic situation: a case report

The complexities of insurance coverage and peer review as they intrude into the analytic situation were discussed. The basic question was raised of whether becoming acceptable to major health providers through the peer-review program is truly a compromise of the analytic pact and a threat to the future of psychoanalysis. Practical as well as technical considerations facing the analyst when he is confronted with having to write a report to the patient's insurance company were elucidated. Countertransference feelings were emphasized. A detailed case illustration was presented to demonstrate that peer review, as it relates to third-party payment, need not compromise an analysis.     

Environmental influences on risk taking among Hong Kong young dance partygoers

This study investigates risk-taking behavior and its associated factors among young Hong Kong partygoers at rave parties or discos. Based on a survey of 300 14 to 28-year-old dance partygoers recruited by outreaching social workers, the study provides data on risks in terms of the likelihood of drug abuse, coitus, unprotected coitus, fighting, and high-speed driving among the young people. Furthermore, it examines factors related to the dance party, together with a set of background factors on the partygoer's report of the chance of engaging in risky behavior as expected in the coming six months. Factors related to the dance party include the location (Hong Kong and Mainland China), fees, number of partners, dancers, police inspection, drug supply, drug sales, injuries, coitus, fighting, drug abuse, and environmental factors. The environmental factors are the availability of first aid, fire extinguishing, and drinking water facilities, light and audio effects, ventilation, drug circulation, underage admission, sex partners, fighting, and low-price beer. Implications of present findings for social policy and future research are discussed.     

Dynamic frequency change influences loudness perception: a central, analytic process.

Three experiments showed that dynamic frequency change influenced loudness. Listeners heard tones that had concurrent frequency and intensity change and tracked loudness while ignoring pitch. Dynamic frequency change significantly influenced loudness. A control experiment showed that the effect depended on dynamic change and was opposite that predicted by static equal loudness contours. In a 3rd experiment, listeners heard white noise intensity change in one ear and harmonic frequency change in the other and tracked the loudness of the noise while ignoring the harmonic tone. Findings suggest that the dynamic interaction of pitch and loudness occurs centrally in the auditory system; is an analytic process; has evolved to take advantage of naturally occurring covariation of frequency and intensity; and reflects a shortcoming of traditional static models of loudness perception in a dynamic natural setting.     

Environmental influences on reading‐related outcomes: an adoption study

Evidence from intervention studies, quantitative genetic and molecular genetic studies suggests that genetic, and to a lesser extent, shared environmental influences are important to the development of reading and related cognitive skills. The Northeast‐Northwest Collaborative Adoption Projects (N2CAP) is a sample of 241 adoptive families, containing 354 children and their adoptive parents. Negative parent outcome × child age interactions significantly predicted child outcomes, suggesting that shared environmental influences related to parent–offspring resemblance, although modest, are most salient in younger children. Additional analyses suggested that identified measures of the family environment largely accounted for these parent–offspring correlations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Environmental and individual influences on Australian students' likelihood of staying in school

In this longitudinal study, the author examined environmental and individual influences on the likelihood of Australian adolescents staying in school. Participants were 6,778 Anglo Australian, 350 Asian, and 472 European students (mean age = 14.7 years) who were in Year 9 when the study began. The analyses indicated that adolescents from middle social status backgrounds and Asian families were more likely to stay in school than were those from lower social status backgrounds and Anglo Australian families; academic self-concept, achievement, perceptions of environments, and aspirations had a large independent association with staying in school; and there were significant differences in relationships among the aforementioned variables for adolescents from different ethnic groups and among those who decided to stay in or drop out of school.