Aortic isthmus stenosis from a neurological viewpoint

The etiology, pathogenesis, and clinical treatment of stenoses of the isthmus aortae are outlined. Following this, the particular case of a 41-year-old patient with typical stenosis of the isthmus of the aorta is reported. The course of disease required the need for a surgical operation, which had not initially been taken into consideration, to be reexamined. The patient, after performance on him of vascular restoration, is now on a part-time job. Using age as the sole circumstance indicating the inadvisability of performing a surgical operation in the case of stenosis of the isthmus aortae cannot any longer be considered justifiable.     

Forensic-psychologic-psychiatric assessment from the viewpoint of perpetrators--data from a survey

In this contribution, various aspects of the expert/culprit-relationship and of the communication behavior styles between the included persons within the scope of forensic-psychological-psychiatric expertise, are discussed. A survey is given on results gained with a questionnaire study (n = 93 culprits; Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Charité Berlin) of the most important expectations, of the social-relevant attitudes towards the assessment and physicians before the forensic investigation as well as of the experiences of own feelings, stress and of the culprit's reflections on the physician/proband relationship after the assessment. A good partnership relation between experts and culprits presupposes that the expert not only possesses a high profession but also the necessary interpersonal-social competence.     

Tests of hypothesis in a repeated measures design from a permutation viewpoint

Repeated measures designs have been widely employed in psychological experimentation, however, such designs have rarely been analyzed by means of permutation procedures. In the present paper certain aspects of hypothesis tests ina particular repeated measures design (one non-repeated factor (A) and one repeated factor (B) withK subjects per level ofA) were investigated by means of permutation rather than sampling processes. The empirical size and power of certain normal theoryF-tests obtained under permutation were compared to their nominal normal theory values. Data sets were established in which various combinations of kurtosis of subject means and intra-subject variance heterogeneity existed in order that their effect upon the agreement of these two models could be ascertained. The results indicated that except in cases of high intra-subject variance heterogeneity, the usualF-tests onB andAB exhibited approximately the same size and power characteristics whether based upon a permutation or normal theory sampling basis.This research prepared under Contract No. 2593 from the Cooperative Research Branch of the U. S. Office of Education.     

Current status of MMPI-2 research: a methodologic overview

MMPI-2 research since 1990 has been reviewed to assess whether Butcher and Tellegen's (1978) concerns and suggestions about MMPI research were being followed. Guidelines are provided for when the MMPI-2 is appropriate to administer, how to describe the sample used, assessing validity of the profile, what scores to analyze, and how to report the results. Suggestions also are presented for research within several current areas of debate in the MMPI-2: codetype comparability between the MMPI and MMPI-2, incremental validity of new or existing scales, obvious and subtle subscales, emphasis on item content, development of new scales, and correcting profiles for specific medical and physical conditions.     

Cognition and emotion from the ret viewpoint

This article discusses the considerable overlap between my own (R. S. Lazarus) and Albert Ellis' cognitive view of emotions. In discussing Ellis' approach, the hallmarks of a cognitive theory of emotion are identified. My own theory concerning the role of cognitive appraisal and coping in emotions is discussed as well as the crucial metatheoretical concepts of transaction and process. It is stretching things to say that Albert Ellis has presented a fully elaborated theory of emotion. Rather, he has achieved the beginnings of a good theory especially as applied to the pathology of emotional life and how to correct it. Most lacking is how the emotion process works from encounter to encounter, moment to moment. Irrational beliefs as structural, static variables do not adequately account for emotional flux nor adequately explain the content and intensities of the full range of positive and negative emotions. The present article is a condensed and updated version of a previously published chapter: Lazarus, R. S. Cognition and emotion from the RET viewpoint. In M.E. Bernard & R. DiGiuseppe (Eds.),Inside rational-emotive therapy (pp. 47–68). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.     

Development of current problems regarding perinatal CNS lesions from a neuropathologic viewpoint]

Perinatal central-nervous-system lesions may be found in as many as one third of all subjects who died before, during, or after the time of birth. Today, hypoxia is considered to be an essential cause of such lesions; in contrast to views held previously, birth trauma, i.e., physical injury to an infant during its delivery, is of minor pathogenetic importance. Neurohistological studies showed that it is especially prolonged hypoxia - in addition to cerebral hemorrhage, damage to the cerebral parenchyma and medullary substance - which can cause lesion of the brain stem. A relatively frequent occurrence are isolated ischemic cerebrospinal nerve cell lesions. Their prognostic dignity in regard to the possible formation of synapses and the problem of damage to the neuroglia are as yet imperfectly understood.     

A response to Maggie Turp's paper from a body psychotherapy perspective

Whilst appreciating the quality of containment in Turp's work as a learning point for the Body Psychotherapy tradition, the author argues that Turp does not represent a psychotherapeutic way of ‘working with the body’. This would require a deconstruction of the body/mind dualism inherent in much psychotherapeutic (and psychodynamic) theory, so that the complexity of the spontaneous and reflective body/mind processes, especially in their polar extremes (body/mind dissociation – body/mind integration / ‘psyche/soma unity’), can be contained. An holistic body/mind formulation of countertransference is approached by which – rather than being used as a gratifying or cathartic therapeutic shortcut which avoids the intensity of the transference – the body can be seen to constitute an avenue into the full experience of the transference/countertransference process and its relational sources in early development.