An Independent Theory of Clinical Technique Viewed Through a Relational Lens: Commentary on Paper by Michael Parsons

This discussion of Michael Parsons's exposition of the Independent Tradition's clinical theory of technique compares and contrasts the British Independent and American Relational perspectives in regard to their approach to technique. In this discussion I will consider the question whether, given strong object relational influences on relational psychoanalytic theory, we are able to locate systematic differences in the way that Independent and Relational analysts attempt to work, to be with, and to relate to their patients in the psychoanalytic situation. Overlapping historical roots of the two traditions are considered, along with apparent differences in the ways in which the contributions of common ancestors, such as Ferenzci, are applied. I suggest that the integration of American Interpersonal School ideas with Object Relations theory in American Relational Psychoanalysis led to a different therapeutic sensibility, different ways of thinking about and participating in the analytic process from those that are reflected in the Independent Tradition as Dr. Parsons describes it. The discussion includes an imaginative reconsideration of clinical process along relational lines, in an attempt to clarify different emphases in technique between the two schools.     

Retracted: The Three-Step Theory of Suicide: An Independent Replication and Conceptual Extension

Retraction: Christopher R. Hagan PhD, Jennifer J. Muehlenkamp PhD, “The Three-Step Theory of Suicide: An Independent Replication and Conceptual Extension,” Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, Wiley, © American Association of Suicidology The above article, published online on 30 September 2019 in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ), has been retracted by agreement between the authors, the journal Editor in Chief, Thomas Joiner, PhD, and John Wiley and Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed due to errors in variable calculation and a post-publication reviewer's concerns that some analyses did not accurately test the theoretical model. An updated version of this article will soon undergo review for publication at Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, and if accepted for publication, will be accompanied by an editorial from the Editor-in-Chief.     

Mother-Blaming and Clinical Theory

No abstract available for this article.     

Clinical Implications of Attachment Theory

Among the clinical implications of attachment theory are the ideas of the therapist as a secure base, internalization of a secure base, and feeling understood as an aspect of secure attachment. I also discuss some issues that need to be integrated into attachment theory, namely, survivor guilt and loyalty to early objects, and the relation between attachment pattern and oedipal conflicts. Finally, attachment theory is related to the nature of therapeutic change. Clinical case material is presented in the context of discussing the above issues.     

An Axiomatic Theory of Law

This paper presents in outline Luigi Ferrajoli’s axiomatic and general theory of law, as developed in his lifelong work Principia Iuris. The first section focuses on the three main aspects of the theory: the methodological, the theoretical and the pragmatic, which respectively represent the theory’s syntax, semantics and its pragmatics. Ferrajoli identifies three deontic gaps of norms: firstly, the one between their validity and efficacy; secondly, the one between their justice and validity; and finally, and most importantly, the one between validity and existence (i.e. normative force). The presence of such gaps is, according to Ferrajoli, the extraordinary innovation that entrenched constitutions have brought into modern legal systems, by establishing norms that are superior to statutes and case law. In this sense, all normative phenomena (except for the constitution itself) can be conceived both as norms and as facts. In the second section the role of juridical science is briefly discussed.     

An Eliminativist Theory of Religion

A philosophical theory of religion ought to meet four criteria: it should be extensionally accurate, neutral, phenomenological, and non-circular. I argue that none of the popular theories of religion meet all these criteria, and that, in particular, the extensional accuracy criterion and the non-circularity criterion can’t be met without sacrificing extensional accuracy. I conclude that, therefore, religions do not form a kind, and so, there is no such thing as religion.

An Identity Theory of Truth

Book Information An Identity Theory of Truth. By Dodd Julian. Macmillan. Basingstoke. 2000. Pp. ix + 199. Hardback, £42.50.     

An Examination of the Lost-letter Technique1

The results of three investigations of the validity and economics of the lost-letter technique are reported. Although the return rate of the lost-letter technique was higher than in the case of more obtrusive survey techniques involving hand-distributed postcard questionnaires and mail surveys, the more obtrusive survey techniques were more economical to carry out, were more accurate in their predictions of election outcomes, and gave results more highly consistent among themselves than with the results obtained by the lost-letter technique. Furthermore, the results indicated that the act of returning a lost letter may not be strongly affected by the identity of the sender or addressee indicated on the letter.     

An Experimental Variation of the Draw-A-Person Technique

This study uses Bandura's Multidimensional Scales of Perceived Self-Efficacy (MSPSE; Bandura, 1990) and Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents (SPPA; Harter, 1988) to examine the extent to which self-efficacy and competency-related elements of the self-concept are independent constructs. Factor analysis of data provided by 778 high school students revealed that when measured using domain-general measures such as the MSPSE and SPPA, self-efficacy and competency self-concept do not represent totally separate, distinct constructs. Overlap of dimensions occurs at both the first- and second-order levels of analysis. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

An Intensional Theory of Truth: An Informal Report

Saul Kripke’s theory of truth suffers from expressive limitations – in particular, there are no extensional operators within that framework that allow one to characterize those sentences that fail to receive a truth value within the framework. Especially worrisome is the fact that there is no operator that outputs true on exactly the paradoxical sentences. In this paper I extend Kripke’s approach via the addition of extensional operators, which allows us to characterize many (but not all) such sentences, including the paradoxical ones.     

An Observational Technique for Preschool Children

Summary

A method for direct observational study of early peer-social and objectdirect behavior for human subjects was designed to be articulated with techniques widely used in studies of social behavior in infrahuman primates.

Occurrence of behavior fitting the definitions of each of six categories of object behavior and nine categories of social behavior is noted once during each 15-second interval. The number of recorded intervals in a 15-minute session provides the basic scoring unit.

Observer reliabilities were estimated from paired data and four observers. Thirty-eight Negro and white children ages three through five years were observed in three child play groups. Median reliabilities of .95 (range .63 to .98) and .81 (range .69 to .94) were obtained for object and social behavior categories respectively.     

An Intergenerational Test of Integrated Theory

The integrated theory proposed by Elliott et al. (1979), combining strain, social control, and social learning theories, has been tested and supported for individuals who were adolescents in the mid-1970s. The present research tests this theory in parallel models for a first generation consisting of a national sample of adolescents in 1976–1978, and a second generation, the adolescent children of the first generation, in 2002–2004. There is evidence that relationships among the variables in the model have changed over time, but the core of the integrated theory continues to be supported for the second generation.     

信任论纲

<正>在任何形式的社会合作中,信任都是不可或缺的。中国古代文明将 "诚"和 "信"作为重要的德目,乃至作为做人和进入社会以及为政和构建社会秩序的根本准则来看待。在欧洲,自罗马帝国始,"遵守承诺和信守契约"被看作是公正的基础 ( 西塞罗,第 13 页) ,成为普遍的商业乃至司法原则,并形成悠久的文化传统。现代性制度在本质上与信任相关。20 世纪下半叶,全球化的发展和现代化的深化特别是 "风险社会"的出现,使信任问题极大地凸显出来,成为全球性问题和社会矛盾