Collected Stories: Play in Four Acts

This article evolved from a group process where members of a psychoanalytic institute were faced with planning workshops for a professional weekend around the theme of “play.” The workshop that evolved consisted of four vignettes of play taking place in the therapeutic sessions of a child, an adolescent, an adult, and an elderly woman. The discussion of these vignettes that began at the conference and then was developed for this article focuses on tracing the development of play from childhood into adulthood (Mayes & Cohen, 1996; Russ, 2004) and on the relationship between play and the development of reflective functioning (Fonagy & Target, 1996). One area of particular interest that was focused upon was the use of play with adults who are described as “concrete,” people who function, at times, at a level of differentiation more typical of a young child. Play is described as being particularly helpful in facilitating a more differentiated and, thus, more reflective mode of psychic functioning for this group of individuals as well as for people at all levels of development.     

From the Story of Jesus to the Faith of the Readers

The author analyzes the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke regarding the stories that tell of the death and resurrection of Jesus to determine how these works attempt to deal with such issues as unmerited suffering and the relationships among faith, knowledge, and experience. The author shows that the Gospels use different literary strategies in their discussions of these issues even as they try to encourage their readers toward faith and the corresponding behavior required by that faith.     

The Craftsman and His Apprentice: A Kohutian Interpretation of the Gospel Narratives of Jesus Christ

Kohutian theory suggests that relationships play a central role in structuring and sustaining the psychological self. In this article, we apply self psychology to the Father-Son dyad found in the Synoptic and Johannine narratives in order to understand the Jesus of the gospels in a new, psychologically informed manner. Conclusions are drawn related to how self psychology can help to elucidate the biblical relationship between God the Father and Son, or the craftsman and his apprentice, as well as how, conversely, the Father-Son dyad described in the gospels can inform self psychology.     

Faith Without Works: Jesus People, Resistance to Temptation, and Altruism

Students in a large introductory psychology class were given an opportunity to cheat on a class examination. Some time later, they were asked to volunteer to participate in a project designed to help mentally retarded children. On the basis of attitudinal and behavioral self-report measures, the subjects were divided into four groups according to religious belief: Jesus people, religious, nonreligious, and atheists. The four groups did not differ in frequency or magnitude of cheating, nor did they differ in committing themselves to performing the altruistic act. Females showed a significantly higher frequency of altruistic behavior than did males. Resistance to temptation and altruism were essentially unrelated to one another, and level of religiousness did not appreciably affect the magnitude of the relationship.     

Aggressive Outcomes and Videogame Play: The Role of Length of Play and the Mechanisms at Work

We conducted three experiments to rectify methodological limitations of prior studies on selective exposure to music and, thereby, clarify the nature of the impact of sad mood on music preference. In all studies, we experimentally manipulated mood (sad vs. neutral in Experiments 1 and 2; sad vs. neutral vs. happy in Experiment 3) and then assessed participants' preferences for expressively happy versus sad musical selections. To further help illuminate the reasons for their music preferences, we also asked participants to indicate how they believed listening to each song would affect their current emotional state as well as how appropriate they felt it would be to select a given song. Results suggested that individuals in sad moods were not reliably inclined to listen to sad songs, but rather, were strongly averse to listening to happy songs, apparently out of concern that choosing such songs would feel inappropriate. We discuss implications of these findings for theories of selective media exposure and emotion regulation.     

The Black Writer and His Role

Carolyn Gerald ascribes a role for Black writers that we as counseling psychologists feel is fitting for the Black counselor or educator. With great perceptiveness, she establishes a cause and effect relationship between image and self-concept. This article will convince readers that it is impossible to be Black in a world of white-controlled imagery without having a zero self-image. Black youth are bombarded with racial and cultural images that usually exalt whiteness and demean Blackness, and it is difficult, if not impossible, for them without wise guidance to exhibit behavior in accord with the beauty of Blackness. Black counselors, teachers, psychologists, and parents must help Black youth and each other to sort through or scrutinize more carefully the images projected on their sensory mechanisms and help effect the positive self-images essential for positive Black behavior.     

The Quest to Digest Jesus: Recent Books on the Historical Jesus

Books reviewed in this article:
Mark Allan Powell, The Jesus Debate: Modern Historians Investigate the Life of Christ
Phillip J. Cunningham, A Believer's Search for the Jesus of History
Clive Marsh and Steve Moyise, Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction
N. T. Wright and Marcus Borg, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions