Toward the Formation of a “Cultural Mosaic”: A Case Study

This study describes an intervention designed to promote integration between Ethiopian and Israeli students (N = 93) in Grades 2 to 5 and adaptation of these immigrants to school norms of behavior and to discipline. The metaphor of cultural mosaic was used for describing the goal state. To achieve a comprehensive school reform, the curriculum was enacted on four levels: individual student, school and classroom, staff, and community (parents and local council). The intervention effects were evaluated in three domains via questionnaires, interviews, and observations – the domains being the academic, behavioral, and personal-social realms. Four stages were identified in the process: an opening stage, the euphoria stage, the setback stage, and the final stage of a new equilibrium. Results suggest that both the natives' and the immigrants' needs and difficulties have to be attended to in each of the stages. The social domain was found to be the most salient in the integration process, although integration within it may take less time and be more feasible than academic accommodation.     

At the Point of Death—A Case Study

In 1979 Pastoral Psychology published my first autobiographical case study: the story of a near-fatal automobile accident, collateral damage of a high speed police chase in downtown Chicago. Providence was evident in my survival of that collision, as well as in the present case study: a massive heart attack during a psychotherapy session in 2001. By comparing these two crises, I find that I must call into focus a psychological propensity: if a near-fatal experience occurs from the “outside in” (e.g. automobile accident), guilt may well surface as the emotion of conflict; but if a near-fatal experience occurs from the “inside out” (e.g. heart attack), the emotion of conflict may emerge as shame. In the former the body is assaulted; in the latter it revolts.     

From Persecution to Depression: A Case of Chronic Depression—Associating the Rorschach,the TAT,and Winnicott

In this article, I discuss a case study of a patient with depression, paranoid ideation, and other psychiatric difficulties who presented in a state of acute crisis. I review the Swiss Lausanne model of Rorschach and Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) interpretation, focusing on a psychoanalytic understanding of special contents and verbalizations. I then present a review of Comprehensive System (Exner, 2003) Structural Summary variables based on a modified Rorschach administration, while qualifying the meanings of these variables in light of the modified procedure. I conclude with a review of Winnicott's (1969) ideas on the paranoid potential, tie it to the main points of the case, and offer a 5-year follow-up of the patient's treatment. The case offers an approach to personality assessment that is informed by an international theory built on psychology and philosophy, and offers support for the use of an alternative theory-based, psychoanalytic method of data analysis.     

Toxic Handshake—A Case Study of the Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan represents a virulent belief system that continues to spawn hatred toward non-Whites, especially African Americans and Jews. This non-risk-free research or autobiographical case study consists of three exposures to the Klan during a time span of fifty years. Part I takes place during a small town parade in Missouri, 1954. Nearly forty years later Part II begins in Stone Mountain, Georgia, and develops in four other locations, including Freud's London and Vienna homes. Part III occurs at a recent gun show in North Georgia. Collectively, these experiences of hatred illustrate a social cancer that is metastasizing in our country. White supremacy is an insidious psychosocial pathology that faces the pastoral counselor of today, particularly in rural communities scattered throughout the southern and midwestern United States.     

Bayes Factors Have Frequency Properties—This Should Not Be Ignored: A Rejoinder to Morey,Wagenmakers, and Rouder

Hoijtink, van Kooten, and Hulsker (2016 Hoijtink, H., van Kooten, P., &; Hulsker, K. (2016). Why Bayesian psychologists should change the way they used the Bayes factor. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 51, 1--9. doi: 10.1080/00273171.2014.969364.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) outline a research agenda for Bayesian psychologists: evaluate and use the frequency properties of Bayes factors. Morey, Wagenmakers, and Rouder (2016 Morey, R. D., Wagenmakers, E. -J., &; Rouder, J. N. (2016). Calibrated Bayes factors should not be used: A reply to Hoijtink, van Kooten, and Hulsker. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 51, 10--17. doi: 10.1080/00273171.2015.1052710.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) respond that Bayes factors calibrated using frequency properties should not be used. This paper contains the response of Hoijtink, van Kooten, and Hulsker to the criticism of Morey, Wagenmakers, and Rouder (2016 Morey, R. D., Wagenmakers, E. -J., &; Rouder, J. N. (2016). Calibrated Bayes factors should not be used: A reply to Hoijtink, van Kooten, and Hulsker. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 51, 10--17. doi: 10.1080/00273171.2015.1052710.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]).     

“You're a Whole Lot of Person”—Understanding the Journey Through Anorexia to Recovery: A Qualitative Study

Using the grounded theory method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967 Glaser, B. and Strauss, A. L. 1967. The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research., Chicago: Aldine.  [Google Scholar]), this study examined the subjective experience of anorexia nervosa in interviews with 5 women who have experienced symptoms of the disorder. Under the category Relational Anorexia, 2 themes emerged. The first involved the pervasiveness of anorexia among peer groups, and the second involved the continuum along which anorexia exists. The second category, Self Worth, had 3 themes. The first involved thinness as achievement and a means of establishing self worth. The second dealt with both positive and negative male influences in the development and healing of anorexia. The third is related to recovery. Taken together, these responses reveal that anorexia may be largely a relational process that involves a maladaptive desire for self-worth mediated through control of eating and weight, and that the role of the media in promoting an ideal of thinness for women may be only a background factor in the disorder.     

Working at the “Intimate Edge”: Intersubjective Considerations—Comments on “A Case Study of Power and the Eroticized Transference–Countertransference”

Working from the premise that as analysts we are always vulnerable to unconscious collusion and enactment, and that this has radical implications for how we conceive of the analytic process, I try to illustrate how the process of working at the “intimate edge” of the analytic relationship, and explicitly engaging what goes on intersubjectively between patient and analyst expands the analytic process and the analytic possibilities. I especially focus on how deconstructing interactive enactment can help to access unconscious aspects of what might be in play in relation to the issues of power and eroticized transference–countertransference under discussion here, and how this process itself can become the medium of the work and the focus of therapeutic action.     

How the “Not Religious” Experience and Witness Suffering and Death: Case Studies

ABSTRACT

This article is based on a subset of a multi-site (8), multi-year (4) research study that explored the cultural construction of dying and death in long-term care facilities. In open-ended interviews with residents and staff members, we learned how four individuals who describe themselves as “not religious” respond to queries about the meaning of suffering and death while working and living in long-term care.

We present case studies of two residents and two staff members from one of the sites–a secular, for-profit nursing home–who described themselves as not religious. We offer a brief history of their lives and daily activities, and present their responses to our queries about dying and death.

A finding of this article is that the nonreligious residents and staff members discussed here found significance in personal meaning systems developed through past, positive life events and present uncertainty about suffering and death. The self-described “not religious” provide another perspective on facing the end of life.     

From “It's Not Me” to “It Was Me,After All”: A Case Presentation of a Patient Diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder

In cases of extreme childhood trauma associated with abuse and neglect, one's sense of self is seriously compromised. Attachment patterns, symptoms, defensive operations, and character formation will differ depending upon the level of interference and impingement. When repeated trauma occurs in early childhood, the dissociative response may become the first line of defense for the person to rely upon. In its most severe form, patients are diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). This paper addresses the case of a woman diagnosed with DID. It describes the restoration of a cohesive sense of self from the eight parts of a dissociated and fragmented self in the course of therapy. The clinical case material presented is that of the child part of her, known as Lucy. Her treatment resulted in the integration of the “it's not me!” self to the patient's knowledge that “it was me, after all.”     

The “Once and Future” Focus of a Relational Psychoanalysis: Discussion of “Vitalizing Enactment”

In this discussion of Amy Schwartz Cooney’s paper (this issue) I focus on the current interest in relational theorizing on the analyst’s proactive role vis-à-vis her patient, that is, what she actually does for or gives to her patient. I consider the role of the analyst’s own internal “bad” objects in facilitating or inhibiting the therapeutic process. I end with a set of theoretical propositions about the ways in which an intense and deadening shame can lead to dissociation and/or repression of hopeful fantasies about the future.     

Correction to: “Offensiphobia” is a Red Herring: On the Problem of Censorship and Academic Freedom

The Journal of Ethics -     

“Not a Source but a Re-source”: The Ethics of Reading, Teaching, and Interpreting Beyond the Boundaries

Critical interest in Aboriginal and other non-mainstream works challenges established notions of literariness and canonicity, spilling over into the classroom and curriculum development, where instructors of various disciplines must make decisions about what they will teach, and how and why they will teach it. The ramifications of such decisions are multifaceted and often compounded by fear, raising concerns regarding the scope and the ways in which teachers or post-secondary instructors are accountable for the ethical treatment of texts by so-called minority writers and to the broadening demographic of students. Teachers/instructors must themselves construct an ethical framework for inclusion of texts for study, and often do so with only tenuous support. For example, what are the rights of educators to engage with texts that fall outside of their cultural experience? If instructors are not exempt from the ethical considerations facing researchers, how do they become accountable without excluding or appropriating contentious materials in the scope of their work? Liberatory pedagogical practices in the classroom provide the backdrop against which an ethics of inclusion can develop and consequently inform the development of curricula and the creation of syllabi, as well as the facilitation of classroom dynamics in an atmosphere of cultural richness and diversity.     

“We Need a Song of Hope”: Responding to the COVID-19 Informational and Psychospiritual Needs of Residents of a Gated Community in the Philippines

Journal of Religion and Health - The brutal disruptions caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic require dynamic ways of responding, not only to the informational needs of communities,...     

Detecting and (Not) Dealing with Plagiarism in an Engineering Paper: Beyond CrossCheck—A Case Study

In papers in areas such as engineering and the physical sciences, figures, tables and formulae are the basic elements to communicate the authors’ core ideas, workings and results. As a computational text-matching tool, CrossCheck cannot work on these non-textual elements to detect plagiarism. Consequently, when comparing engineering or physical sciences papers, CrossCheck may return a low similarity index even when plagiarism has in fact taken place. A case of demonstrated plagiarism involving engineering papers with a low similarity index is discussed, and editor’s experiences and suggestions are given on how to tackle this problem. The case shows a lack of understanding of plagiarism by some authors or editors, and illustrates the difficulty of getting some editors and publishers to take appropriate action. Consequently, authors, journal editors, and reviewers, as well as research institutions all are duty-bound not only to recognize the differences between ethical and unethical behavior in order to protect a healthy research environment, and also to maintain consistent ethical publishing standards.