Körperinszenierungen

Zusammenfassung Formen zeitgenössischen Körperagierens in der Adoleszenz, wie besondere Haartracht (Punkfrisuren), Tätowierungen und Piercings, sowie pathologische Körpermanipulationen, wie Selbstverletzung und Essstörungen, haben eine auffallende Ähnlichkeit bzw. gehen parallel mit den Körperritualen der sog. Naturvölker, teilweise auch mit denen unseres eigenen Kulturkreises. Bei aller Ähnlichkeit sind jedoch drei in ihrem Wesen verschiedene Formen zu unterscheiden: 1. Die gesellschaftskonformen Körperpraktiken, die der Tradition einer sozialen Gruppe entsprechen und öffentlich-rituell Identitätsschritte in der menschlichen Entwicklung markieren (insbesondere Initiation in der Adoleszenz), wie wir es bei den Naturvölkern und in Rudimenten in unserer Kultur finden. 2. Die Benutzung des eigenen Körpers, um sich als Adoleszenter meist in Peer-Groups provozierend und rebellierend gegen überkommene Traditionen abzugrenzen; hier wird am Körper eine passagere Gegenidentifikation markiert, die gerade nicht den überkommenen Traditionen entspricht, jedoch wieder verlassen wird und in eine reife Erwachsenenidentität übergeht. 3. Die pathologischen Formen des Körperagierens dagegen bedeuten Entwicklungsstillstand und Arretierung der Identitätsentwicklung; sie müssen (wie eine Sucht) ständig wiederholt werden, um eine prekäre Ersatzidentität aufrechtzuerhalten, weil die Entwicklung einer autonomen Identität mit psychosenaher Trennungsangst verbunden wäre. Nur Menschen manipulieren derart ihren Körper, und zwar seit Menschengedenken, als ob der Mensch ständig symbolisch die Natur beherrschen müsste, wie auch sonst die natürliche Umwelt, in mehr oder weniger harmloser bzw. destruktiver Form, und der Körper ist der ihm nächste Teil der Natur.

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Body enactmentsOn parallels between body acting of primitive cultures, contemporary adolescents and pathologic forms

There are obvious parallels between contemporary body acting of adolescents such as the manner of wearing ones hair, using tattoos and piercings, as well as some kinds of pathologic body manipulation (like self-inflicting or eating disorders), and ritual body performances of the so-called primitive or savage cultures. But in part there are also parallels with ubiquituous body activities in our culture. In this paper three groups of body-acting are distinguished: 1. In conformity to social rules traditional body practices are marking steps of identity development, for example rites of initiation in primitive cultures and rudimentary ceremonies in our culture. 2. Ones own body is used to define oneself in adolescence rebelliously against social traditions. Such unconventional body-acting occurs in peer-groups and is seen as a passagère phenomenon in average identity development. 3. Pathologic forms of self destructive body-acting signify a cessation of development. In an addiction-like repetition they build up a precarious identity surrogate, because arriving at an autonomous identity would be connected with psychotic separation anxiety. Only human beings are able to treat their bodies (in normality and pathology), as if humans are constantly compelled to dominate nature symbolically in every moment, and their bodies are the nearest part of nature to them.

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Erweiterte Fassung dreier Vorträge: Psychotherapietage NRW, 1. Nov. 2002, Bad Salzuflen; Symposium der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft Freiberg der Arbeitskreise für Psychoanalyse in Österreich, Salzburg, März 2003; Fachtagung der Vereinigung Ostschweizer Psychotherapeutinnen und Psychotherapeuten, St. Gallen, September 2003.     

Pavlovvs. Köhler

During the 1920s, I. P. Pavlov’s scholarly interests broadened to consider problem-solving. Distrusting Wolfgang Köhler’s Gestalt explanation of the problemsolving process and its interspecies aspects, Pavlov performed, from 1933 to 1936, a number of experiments, including a replication of Köhler’s building experiment, using chimpanzees as subjects. Confirming Köhler’s findings, Pavlov explained the problemsolving process in terms of unconditional reflexes and the establishment, by Pavlovian conditioning and the Thorndikian method of trial and error, of temporary neural connections identical, on the psychological level, to associations. In contrast to Köhler’s “structural” explanation, Pavlov emphasized the processes of analysis and synthesis. According to Pavlov insight is achieved progressively—as the result of the organism’s problem-solving behavior—contradicting Köhler’s thesis of a sudden subjective reorganization of the environmental situation. Pavlov explained interspecies differences among higher organisms in terms of the range of a species behavior, with the second signal system as the main distinguishing characteristic between human and nonhuman species.     

Lästererfahrungen, Körperbild und Körpergewicht bei jungen Erwachsenen

Background

Negative comments (teasing) on weight and body image in adolescence might predict body dissatisfaction, overweight and eating disorders in adulthood. This study investigated 134 nursing students for a relationship between a history of teasing, body image and weight.

Materials and methods

Subjects with a body mass index (BMI)>?25 kg/m² reported more teasing compared with normal subjects whereas those with a BMI<?20 kg/m² showed lower values compared with normal or overweight subjects. Teasing questionnaire values correlated with aspects of negative body image. The BMI was predicted by factors age (p?=?0.001), sex (p?=?0.016) and teasing subscale weight (p?=?0.001).

Conclusions

It is remarkable that low teasing experience was associated with low weight, which might point to underweight as protective factor against teasing; however, the cross-sectional design of this study precludes direct causal inferences.     

Sind Körperpsychotherapeuten anders?

Following the “Generic Model of Psychotherapy” differences of treatment models are relevant with respect to optimal matching with patient's illness experience.Therefore it seems necessary to work out differences and similarities of treatment models.The results of 91 therapists, trained in Concentrative Movement Therapy (KBT), in the “Development of Psychotherapist Common Core Questionnaire (DPCCQ)” are compared to the therapists' results in other DPCCQ-studies, to find out,wether there are differences in therapeutic self concepts (theoretical orientation, therapeutic goals and attitudes). A few special features for KBT-therapists can be found which reflect characteristic aspects of the method.Despite some differences concerning socio-demographic characteristics (sex, age and basic professional education) similarities to other therapists predominate.     

Angriffe auf Körper und Seele

Experiences of abuse and neglect in early childhood generate mostly manifold adverse consequences differing from disturbances due to traumatizations in later developmental phases. They justify the diagnosis of developmental trauma disturbance. They lead to traumatization in the attachment with characteristic relationship configurations repeating the “attachment trauma”. For therapeutic work it is important to recognize these reenactments, otherwise it may come to entanglements at the level of the equivalence mode or because of pseudomentalization, thus preventing therapeutic work. In these cases the space for communication, the ability of symbolization in language and play collapses.     

Dreidimensionales Körperbild in der Psychodiagnostik

The body sculpture technique is a procedure in which patients create a three-dimensional model of their own body with modelling clay. This existing technique has been further developed into the modular body sculpture technique and offers a diagnostic approach to the body image. After an introduction in the conceptual foundations of body self-representation the technique is described. Using a case study, advantages for clinical applications are illustrated. Contributions of this technique to a deeper understanding of the structure of body memory are discussed in the context of current cognitive theories.     

Körperbeschwerden bei niedergelassenen Psychologischen Psychotherapeuten

From June until August 2004 we asked 488 freely practising psychological psychotherapists in selected German federal states for the frequency of somatic complaints using the short version of the Gießener Beschwerdebogen (GBB-)24. It turned out that the psychotherapists suffered most from exhaustion and pain. Their somatic complaints were remarkably less influenced by sociodemographic characteristics like age, gender and location of practising (East/West). In comparison to the overall population the psychotherapists in total reported quantitatively the same frequencies of somatic complaints. Qualitatively the psychotherapists reported less problems concerning gastric and heart complaints but more problems concerning exhaustion than the overall population. Compared with a sample of saxonian general practitioners, the psychotherapists suffered from slightly less somatic complaints.     

Nichtspezifische,funktionelle und somatoforme Körperbeschwerden

In the S3 guidelines on non-specific, functional and somatoform bodily complaints, a broad group of medical and psychological societies as well as patient representatives have for the first time achieved an evidence-based consensus on terminology and care of these patients. This paper summarizes the main background information and recommendations for psychotherapists. For mild courses treatment by the general practitioner with establishment of a biopsychosocial explanatory model and physical as well as social activation is usually sufficient. More severe courses call for cooperative, coordinated management, including regular appointments with the general practitioner, graded activation and psychotherapy, especially cognitive behavioral, in addition to psychodynamic interpersonal or hypnotherapeutic imaginative psychotherapy. In particularly severe courses multimodal and if necessary day clinic or inpatient treatment is needed. Additionally the patient guidelines for affected people and their relatives are presented.     

Das weibliche Körperselbst und die Perversion

Perversion has been traditionally the “domain of men”. The necessity and ability inherent in perversion of sexualizing aggression, of externalization and fetish formation were regarded as specific characteristics of male development. Perversions of women were not recognized, because they were looked for in the wrong place, without taking into account the significance of the particular female body experience for the psychosexual development of the woman. In the perversion of the woman the externalization and fetish formation refers to the whole of the own body and especially to the uterus and the child (as an own “product” or as a part of the own body). The female perversions are presented and interpreted here on the basis of case studies.     

Visumotorische Adaptation bei gestörter visueller Rückkopplung eigener Körperbewegungen

Zusammenfassung Zur weiteren Klärung der Frage nach den Funktionsmechanismen, die den sog. Reorganisationsexperimenten zugrunde liegen, wurde ein visumotorisches Adaptationsexperiment durchgeführt, in welchem verschiedene Rückkopplungswege experimentell verstärkt bzw. weitgehend ausgeschaltet werden. Die Untersuchung wurde an n=42 Vpn durchgeführt. Die Vpn waren Studenten der ersten Semester der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Hamburg. Es ließ sich statistisch gesichert nachweisen, 1. daß passive Armbewegung bei vorher gebotener verbaler Instruktion gleichgroße Adaptationswerte liefert wie aktive Armbewegung, im Gegensatz zu passiver Armbewegung ohne vrherige Instruktion; 2. daß ein zusätzlich gebotener Vergleichsreiz (in der experimentellen Situation visueller Verschiebung) die Adaptationswerte wesentlich steigert; 3. daß ein Grö Benunterschied zwischen der als Nacheffekt gemessenen und der direkt gemessenen Adaptation besteht und 4. daß eine nach 8minutigem Training erzielte Adaptation noch nach ca. 24 Std Pause als Nacheffekt nachweisbar ist.Diese Ergebnisse werden anhand des vorgeschlagenen Funktionsmodells diskutiert, und es wird 1. gefolgert, daß neben der reafferenten eine propriozeptive Rückkopplung möglich ist, 2. wird in der verstärkenden Wirkung eines Vergleichsreizes sowie einer Nachführaufgabe und in der Abrufbarkeit des Korrekturwertes durch einen adäquaten Außenreiz eine Bestätigung von Modellvoraussagen gesehen. Es wird 3. aus dem Vergleich von Direktmessung und Nacheffekt der Schluß gezogen, daß in der Direktmessung eine aus dem Modell zu erwartende Überlagerung zweier Effekte zum Ausdruck kommt. Ferner wird gezeigt, daß sich die z.T. widersprüchlich scheinenden Resultate anderer Autoren aus dem Funktionsmodell folgerichtig ableiten lassen.

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Sensorimotor adaptation to displaced visual feedback from own bodily movement

Summary The predescribed rearrangement experiments were done to analyse the mecanism underlying sensorimotor coordination in man. Different possible feedbackloops were experimentaly strengthened or excluded by means of a mirrorapparatus including a device for a tracking task. 1. The experiments showed that passive movement, in the absence of the opportunity for recognition of error does suffice to produce adaptation if the subject is ordered to pay attention to the felt position of the moving hand (strengthening of the proprioceptiv feedbackloop). The shift is as large as with active armmovement. 2. An additionally presented visual stimulus of comparison (strenthening of the Führungsgröße) during adaptationperiod is able to enlarge the shifts in reaching for the visible target. 3. In the tracking condition a clear cut difference was to be found between the adaptationscores in terms of aftereffect and the adaptationscores measured directly. 4. The course of adaptation under different conditions is measured from 2 to 4 to 8 minutes at the first and at the second day of adaptation. The experiments showed that adaptation of 8 minutes training could still be proved after an intervall of about 24 hours.These results were discussed by means of a proposed model for the Wirkungsgefüge. It is concluded 1. that the reafferent feedback could be substituted by a proprioceptive feedback to gain the same extent of unconscious positiv adaptation. 2. The amplification of the adaptationseffect by means of the additional stimulus as well as the possibility to call off unconsciously the trained shift after a 24 hours intervall is seen to be an approval of the expectations deriving from the model. 3. The progress of the derectly measured adaptation in terms of the model is interpreted to be the result of two different effects. It is demonstrated, at last that the apparently contradictional results of some other authors can be derived from the model without difficulty.

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Die Arbeit wurde vor dem Kolloquium der Max-Planck-Institute in Seewiesen vorgetragen. Für eine gründliche Diskussion des Experimentes sowie eine weiterführende Klärung der systemtheoretischen Überlegungen möchte ich vor allem Dr. N. Bischof und Dr. H. Mittelstaedt, Seewiesen, meinen herzlichen Dank ausprechen.     

Psychological mechanisms underlying the Köhler motivation gain

Sometimes group work conditions lead to motivation gains rather than to social loafing. Two theoretical explanations for the K?hler motivation gain effect are identified, one stressing social comparison and a second stressing the indispensability of one's effort to the group. The results of three new experiments are reported. Experiment 1 suggested that both explanations are valid and contribute to the K?hler effect. Prior studies suggested that there might be gender differences in the relative importance of these two explanatory processes. Experiment 2 confirmed this suggestion. In Experiment 3, the gender difference was eliminated by priming women with a goal (viz., competition) presumed to be chronically more important to men. It is argued that the relative importance of these two motivational processes will depend on the immediate and chronic importance attached to more personal (viz., to achieve a favorable social comparison) versus collective (viz., to contribute to one's group) goals.     

König's Infinity Lemma and Beth's Tree Theorem

König, D. [1926. ‘Sur les correspondances multivoques des ensembles’, Fundamenta Mathematica, 8, 114–34] includes a result subsequently called König's Infinity Lemma. Konig, D. [1927. ‘Über eine Schlussweise aus dem Endlichen ins Unendliche’, Acta Litterarum ac Scientiarum, Szeged, 3, 121–30] includes a graph theoretic formulation: an infinite, locally finite and connected (undirected) graph includes an infinite path. Contemporary applications of the infinity lemma in logic frequently refer to a consequence of the infinity lemma: an infinite, locally finite (undirected) tree with a root has a infinite branch. This tree lemma can be traced to [Beth, E. W. 1955. ‘Semantic entailment and formal derivability’, Mededelingen der Kon. Ned. Akad. v. Wet., new series 18, 13, 309–42]. It is argued that Beth independently discovered the tree lemma in the early 1950s and that it was later recognized among logicians that Beth's result was a consequence of the infinity lemma. The equivalence of these lemmas is an easy consequence of a well known result in graph theory: every connected, locally finite graph has among its partial subgraphs a spanning tree.     

Revisiting Wittgenstein on Köhler and Gestalt psychology

In an article in this journal, Nicholas Pastore rejected Ludwig Wittgenstein's critique of Wolfgang K?hler and Gestalt psychology. Pastore appears not to have appreciated Wittgenstein's argument that K?hler mistook conceptual questions for factual ones. A simi-lar confusion seems to underlie at least some aspects of contemporary neuroscience. Be that as it may, Wittgenstein has had minimal influence on the research practices of psychologists while K?hler remains influential. This outcome would not have surprised Wittgenstein, who predicted that scientists would not see his work as relevant to theirs.     

Wolfgang Köhler and Gestalt theory: an English translation of Köhler's Introduction to die physischen Gestalten for Philosophers and Biologists

This article presents an English translation (from the German) of one of gestalt psychology's most significant documents, first published in 1920 in Wolfgang Kohler's Die physischen Gestalten in Ruhe und im stationdren Zustand (The Physical Gestalten at Rest and in a Stationary State). The book it introduces both embodies Kohler's extension of gestalt theory into new domains and did much to ensure the broad impact of these ideas and approaches. This introduction itself well illustrates Kohler's own thought processes both as his ideas emerged and as he sought to convince his readers of their value. Despite the fact that they are more than 70 years old, Kohler's words have many implications for late 20th century discussions of the relationships among psychology, physiology, and physics.