In search and proof of human beings, not machines

My intentions are twofold in this autobiographical account. On one hand, I hope to present empirical and theoretical evidence for a freely willing human being. On the other, I carefully record the developing stages I lived through to cement my confidence in the image of humanity I would like my readers to accept. I have, in my career development, worked hard to redefine psychological terminology, defend traditional scientific practices, and provide support for all those colleagues who can no longer stand the mechanistic characterization that so many psychology departments insist on. I have spent over 40 years pursuing such goals. It is not likely that I will ever give up my quest for what I take to be a genuine humanity.     

Discontinuities,side steps,and finding a proper place: an autobiographical account

In this invited autobiography, I present an account of some influential events and experiences in my life that led me eventually, after some false starts, to a career in personality assessment psychology. The psychological research and applied areas (self-report personality assessment and cross-cultural research) with which I have been identified for over 40 years can, however, be seen in early interests, although their impact and their direction were not always apparent at the time of occurrence. Several people who were influential in my career development are noted and a number of important collaborators who helped sustain my efforts in personality assessment research and practice over the years are highlighted.     

How I Started Living a Double Life in Psychological Science

My personal history as an applied cognitive psychology researcher is short, dating 15 years back when I became aware of the field of eyewitness psychology, hitherto neglected in Norway. This short paper describes the development of eyewitness psychology in Norway, which, not accidentally, parallels the development of my own interests in this important field of applied cognitive psychology. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using New Interactive Media to Enhance the Teaching of Psychology (and Other Disciplines) in Developing Countries

ABSTRACT— My idea for improving psychology responds to the challenge of teaching psychology in lower income, developing countries. With new Web-based e-books on the horizon, I suggest harnessing the Internet to deliver state-of-the-art, interactive, low-cost, locally adapted content to students who cannot afford books.     

Further validity and normative data for the Malouff and Schutte belief scale

The present study provides further validity and normative data for the Malouff and Schutte (1986) Belief Scale. Belief Scale, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Neuroticism Scale, and Beck Depression Inventory scores of a sample of 197 adults were correlated, and evidence for both construct and discriminant validities and support for the RET model were obtained. The Belief Scale appears to be a promising instrument for clinical research and the assessment of irrational beliefs.Ricks Warren, Ph.D. is the Director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic, Lake Oswego, Oregon, and Associate Clinical Professor at the Oregon Graduate School of Professional Psychology, Pacific University. George D. Zgourides, M.A., is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Pacific University of Forest Grove, Oregon and an associate therapist at the Anxiety Disorders Clinic of Lake Oswego, Oregon.     

Beyond the Mainstreams

My interest in the theory and art of psychoanalysis is traced to some of its sources—my childhood and expulsion from Germany in the late 1930s, my experience as a member of a discriminated-against minority, my nonacceptance as a psychologist by American psychoanalytic societies, my invitation to participate in the development of self psychology, and my fortuitous encounter with personal and professional friends who have contributed to the scope of my psychoanalytic endeavors (e.g., to my abiding interest in research and, in particular, the empirical studies of the early mother–infant dyad). I offer this account as evidence of the varied and creative opportunities that await psychoanalysts not outside but beyond the mainstream of American psychoanalysis.     

Reflecting on self-care practices during clinical psychology training and beyond

In this paper, I will discuss the concept of self-care and its importance for clinical psychologists, both during training and post-qualification. I will review the pertinent literature in this area covering the concept of self-care and its meaning, the personal and professional impact of a lack of self-care for clinical psychologists, and discuss some of the barriers to implementing self-care practices. Throughout the discussion of barriers to self-care, I will intersperse three reflective pieces on my own experiences throughout clinical psychology training, which will allow for a more in-depth exploration of the issues. My conclusion will highlight the personal, professional and systemic barriers to self-care in clinical psychologists, and in other helping professionals, and suggest possible ways of tackling these barriers and promoting greater utilisation of self-care during clinical training and beyond and across different professional groups.     

Individualism and the metaphysics of actions

I examine an intuitive property of folk-psychological explanations I call self-sufficiency. I argue that individualism cannot honor this property and work toward distilling an account of psychological explanation that does honor it, given some fairly standard assumptions. In doing so, my preference for an Externalist individuation of intentional state will emerge unambiguously. The assumptions I rely on are fairly standard but not uncontroversial. Yet not always do I attempt to defend them from objections. My goal is an account of folk psychology consistent with our every-day practices rather than the deduction of an idealized psychology from first principles. I conclude with some applications offered as evidence that the goal was achieved.     

The Psychology and Epistemology of Self-Knowledge

In this paper I argue, first, that the most influential (and perhaps only acceptable) account of the epistemology of self-knowledge, developed and defended at great length in Wright (1989b) and (1989c) (among other places), leaves unanswered a question about the psychology of self-knowledge; second, that without an answer to this question about the psychology of self-knowledge, the epistemic account cannot be considered acceptable; and third, that neither Wright's own answer, nor an interpretation-based answer (based on a proposal from Jacobsen (1997)), will suffice as an acceptable answer to the psychological question. My general ambition is thus to establish that more work is needed if we are to have a full account of self-knowledge in both its epistemological and psychological aspects. I conclude by suggesting how my thesis bears on those who aim to provide an empirical account of the cognition involved in self-knowledge. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

In Search of a More Reliable Truth: Mourning and Donald Capps’s Psychological Portrait of Jesus

This article is an abridged version of a chapter in my dissertation. In my dissertation, I examine the relationship between personal experience and public theory within certain strands of contemporary psychology of religion and pastoral theology. My guiding theory is Peter Homans’s “mourning religion” thesis. In this chapter, I examine the life and work of Donald Capps, who is the most prolific contemporary writer in the fields of psychology of religion and pastoral theology. I argue that Capps addressed various personal losses in a deeply personal way during his fifties, and I believe that the key moment for Capps in overcoming his melancholia occurred after his application of his melancholia theory to Jesus, because there Capps was able to integrate and to sustain in a satisfying way his various selves and, therefore, open himself up to mourn in a non-defensive way—the way of humor.     

“Maleness” Revisited

My response to the preceding commentaries draws on recent events such as the Thomas/Hill hearings to illustrate some of my central arguments in “Feminist Skepticism and the ‘Maleness’ of Philosophy.” I also attempt to clarify frequently misunderstood aspects of my use of gender as an analytical category, and discuss why, in my opinion, we should continue to care about the “maleness” of philosophy.     

One Pilgrim's Progress Toward the Psychoanalytic Citadel

My psychoanalytic odyssey started in my childhood. My parents were avid readers of Freud and discussed his views with their friends. Our family doctor had been analyzed by Freud and spoke to my family about it on many occasions. I renewed my interest in psychoanalysis in college while studying English literature and then even more so in medical school, where we had a very inspiring department of psychiatry. My psychoanalytic training was to cross many frontiers: orthodox Freud, classical Freud, Fairbairn, Winnicott, and then Klein and Bion. I entered the field of psychoanalysis at a time when it was highly respected and virtually dominated the field of psychiatry, especially in medical schools. I have sadly watched its decline from popular favor and was even sadder to encounter its bitter divisiveness, especially in this country. Today psychoanalysis is left divisive and more variegated. Many different schools of thought have emerged that are now accorded legitimacy, fortunately. One might say that I have seen it at its best and at its worst but have not lost faith in its capacity to excite one's imagination and to inspire hope for a more evolved consciousness of self.     

Effects of Theodore Millon's Teaching,Mentorship, Theory,and Scientific Contributions on Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine Research and Practice

This article summarizes the impact of Theodore Millon's work on the disciplines of health psychology and behavioral medicine over the past 5 decades spanning from the late 1960s to present. The article is written from my perspectives as a graduate student mentored by Millon on through my faculty career as a collaborator in test construction and empirical validation research. Several of the most recent entries in this summary reflect projects that were ongoing at the time of his passing, revealing the innovation and visionary spirit that he demonstrated up until the end of his life. Considering that this summary is restricted to Millon's contributions to the disciplines of health psychology and behavioral medicine, this work comprises only a small portion of his larger contribution to the field of psychology and the areas of personality theory and psychological assessment more broadly.     

Psychology: Twentieth century religion? A psychologist's view

Conclusion In conclusion, then, let me ask again the question: Is psychology our century's religion ? My answer is that psychology is not, and can never be, a full-fledged organized religion with comparable characteristics to Judaism, Catholicism, or Protestantism. Psychology is a modern science and has no coherent system of religious attitudes and beliefs, no conception of ultimate values, no dogmas supernatural in character, and no God. At most psychology is, or can be, a religious-like substitute for religion for a certain subgroup of our population, mainly intellectuals.However, both religion and depth psychology are deeply concerned with modern man's predicament. It is my belief that many people may experience religious — like phenomena within a therapeutic relationship and as a consequence of successful psychotherapy. Therefore, the roles of the clergyman and of the therapist overlap in their efforts to help modern man in his suffering and creative growth. But religion will always have its unique function and so will psychology.This article is a revised version of a talk prepared for the symposium during the Campus Conference on Religion at Cornell University, October 23, 1961.     

Conversations in the Gap Between Mind and Soul: Grammatical Reflections ‘In (the) Place(s) of Thinking'

In December 2013, the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture sponsored a conference to celebrate the life and work of James Hillman. My article is an open letter to a colleague and friend that continues conversations we had over the years on the issue of the language of psychology and the logos of soul (ψυχολογ?α). In my letter, I suggest to James that psychology has a monumental problem in its addiction to nouns and, alongside him, I explore the possibility that the soul's speech is a verb the moods, tenses, and voices of which configure psychological life and its style of discourse in ways that offer an alternative to the dominant scientific paradigm and the mode of discourse in psychology today. This letter in memory of James compliments the article I wrote in memory of my mentor, friend, and colleague, J. H. van den Berg, that appeared in these pages last year. Over a period of 35 years, each has been a companion for me in the dialogue between phenomenology and depth psychology.     

An Exodus

Being part of a family, any family, is an emotionally challenging experience. Being the only girl in my family was rife with much emotional turmoil alongside great love and devotion.

In writing this memoir I was able to call into my awareness all of those feelings: grief, sadness, joy, and the deep tenderness for both of the extraordinary parents I had and the home that housed that very rich and impactful upbringing.

My parents' deaths and the anguish of selling my family home all came down in rapid succession. It was a merciless experience. Like Persephone, those events sent me so far down into the underworld and forced me to face my shadow from every direction that I am only now beginning to climb back out into the sunlight and face this second half of my life.

Stories are spirit medicine; taking these sometimes painful yet evocative events and crafting them into art has both soothed the heartache and given me the gift of honoring my childhood and embracing my womanhood.

It is in the remembering where the softness lies. And so I remember it all; but most especially that swim, the very first one with my daddy dear that will always live in my heart...     

A clinician''s perspective: Comments on identification of stuttering, prevention, and early intervention

I am responding to the Hamre article on the identification and prevention o stuttering and to what was said by those who commented in the recent Special Forum Issue. My discussion will be in terms of my understanding and one of my major career objectives, that of translating reported research and clinical experience in a meaningful and useful way for students and professional clinicians.