The Self Psychological Approach to the Life and Theology of Lee Yong Do

Kohut’s theory of the nuclear self and of the two poles of the grandiose self and the idealizing parental imago show clearly the psychological motivations that molded Lee Yong Do’s life and mysticism. Lee’s grandiose and exhibitionistic personality was created by his disturbed family background and reflected the fragmentation in his nuclear self that he attempted to cure by depending on the archaic symbols of power and grandiosity. However, his religious experiences—in particular, his mystical experiences—functioned as a selfobject providing narcissistic balance and altering the structure of his nuclear self. This was possible because of his redefinition of the concepts of strength and power through religious experiences that made him give up a false sense of self-sufficiency.     

Burning With Envy? Dispositional and Situational Influences on Envy in Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissism

Research on narcissism and envy suggests a variable relationship that may reflect differences between how vulnerable and grandiose narcissism relate to precursors of envy. Accordingly, we proposed a model in which dispositional envy and relative deprivation differentially mediate envy's association with narcissistic vulnerability, grandiosity, and entitlement. To test the model, 330 young adults completed dispositional measures of narcissism, entitlement, and envy; one week later, participants reported on deprivation and envy feelings toward a peer who outperformed others on an intelligence test for a cash prize (Study 1) or earned higher monetary payouts in a betting game (Study 2). In both studies, structural equation modeling broadly supported the proposed model. Vulnerable narcissism robustly predicted episodic envy via dispositional envy. Entitlement—a narcissistic facet common to grandiosity and vulnerability—was a significant indirect predictor via relative deprivation. Study 2 also found that (a) the grandiose leadership/authority facet indirectly curbed envy feelings via dispositional envy, and (b) episodic envy contributed to schadenfreude feelings, which promoted efforts to sabotage a successful rival. Whereas vulnerable narcissists appear dispositionally envy‐prone, grandiose narcissists may be dispositionally protected. Both, however, are susceptible to envy through entitlement when relative deprivation is encountered.     

The Cocreation of Fantasy and the Transformation of Psychic Structure

This author argues that therapeutic action in child psychoanalytic psychotherapy rests with the creation and transformation of fantasy through play, which in turn shifts psychic structure. The paper details the treatment of an eight-year-old girl whose mother's inability to playfully participate in the inner world of her child interfered with the child's development of a fantasy life. The author suggests that the introduction of objective reality (i.e., interpretations that link the child's play with the real world) potentially impinges on and interferes with the transformational processes of fantasy. Developing the capacity to distinguish reality from fantasy does not take place through a forced accommodation to reality, but rather through the expansion of fantasy and a widening of the realm of the imagination. The elaboration of fantasy in concert with a parent or analyst is what builds the child's capacity to differentiate reality from fantasy.     

Male and female internal images in a case of frigidity

Abstract

This is the case of a young woman suffering from a narcissistic personality disturbance with Oedipal aspects. The development of the analytic treatment is stressed through the analysis of her dreams. The analytic setting provided an appropriate mirroring Self-object. Thereby the patient has had the opportunity to express her own defective female grandiose Self, which was at the base of her disturbances.     

Facets of grandiose narcissism predict involvement in health-risk behaviors

Why do adolescents and young adults engage in risk-taking behaviors? The present study sought to examine the role of grandiose narcissism, as well as narcissistic traits (entitlement, exploitativeness, grandiosity), in the prediction of involvement in risk-taking behaviors. Participants were 630 undergraduates, split into two subgroups, who completed measures assessing likelihood of and actual involvement in risk-taking behaviors, perceived risks and benefits of the behaviors, delay discounting, grandiose narcissism, and narcissistic traits. Greater levels of grandiose narcissism predicted reported likelihood of risk-taking and risk-taking behaviors in the past 30 days. This relationship appears driven by grandiosity and exploitativeness rather than entitlement. Grandiose narcissism and entitlement were independently associated with a preference for smaller, more immediate gains over larger, temporally distant rewards. Implications for understanding reasons behind risk-taking behaviors and future studies of narcissism are discussed.     

Collateral effects of behavioral parent training on families of children with developmental disabilities and behavior disorders

We evaluated collateral effects of behavioral parent training (BPT) on families with children who have developmental disabilities and behavior disorders. We compared 18 BPT graduates to 18 similar families waiting for service. The BPT graduates reported significantly less (i) child behavior problems, (ii) disruption to child and family quality of life due to child problem behavior, and (iii) stress related to limits on family opportunities and child physical limitations, up to 5 years after discharge. On a self‐efficacy scale, the graduates reported being more effective child behavior change agents in not only stopping child problem behavior, but also in preventing new occurrences and teaching the child appropriate behavior. These results suggest that BPT has persistent beneficial effects on children and parents. The findings reflect the program's focus on teaching parents how to use functional assessment derived positive teaching strategies to replace child problem behavior. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Narcissism, Self-Esteem, and Defensive Self-Enhancement

This study investigates the relationships among narcissism, self-esteem, and defensive self-enhancement in samples of 60, 84, 300, and 57 subjects. Using various self-report indices of these constructs we found that (a) defensive self-enhancement is composed of two orthogonal components: grandiosity and social desirability; (b) grandiosity and social desirability independently predict self-esteem and may represent distinct confounds in the measurement of self-esteem, (c) narcissism is positively related to grandiose self-enhancement (as opposed to social desirability), (d) narcissism is positively associated with both defensive and nondefensive self-esteem, and (e) authority, self-sufficiency, and vanity are the narcissistic elements most indicative of nondefensive self-esteem. The results are consistent with several theories that postulate a two-component model for self-esteem regulation and personality development.     

The drama of the gifted child and the psycho-analyst's narcissistic disturbance.

In order to develop a true self, the child needs, in the first weeks and months of his life, his mother's appropriate emotional response, mirroring and respect. These narcissistic aspects have to be distinguished from the drive wishes. Only the mother's appropriate responses make it possible for the child to experience his feelings as belonging to his own self. If the child does not get the right narcissistic response, he will continue to search for narcissistic supplies for the rest of his life. The most suitable objects for this will be his own children initially, who are completely at his disposal. Specially gifted children who are sensitive, alert and have many 'antennae', will quickly learn to adapt to the narcissistic needs of their parents. Their behaviour will then give the mother all the mirroring, consideration and admiration which she had missed as a child herself. The result will be that, in spite of excellent performance, the child's own true self cannot develop. All this leads to narcissistic vulnerability and to new attempts in the adult to find at last an available 'mother' in his own child, partner, or, if he has become a psycho-analyst, in his patient. In the transference this type of analysand first experiences narcissistic rage before deep mourning is possible. This process of mourning enables him finally to accept his own deprivation as a child, to give up the unconscious idealizations and with them the hope of finding such a 'mother'. This leads regularly to the liberation of the life forces and allows creativity to develop. Only after this has been achieved is the analysis of drive conflicts possible and becomes emotionally effective.     

自恋与心理健康:适应性自恋与病理性自恋的不同作用

目的:探讨适应性自恋与病理性自恋对个体心理健康的不同影响。方法:750名大学生完成了一套由自恋人格问卷(NPI)、病理性自恋量表(PNI)和症状自评量表(SCL-90)组成的测验。利用结构方程模型对变量间的关系进行分析。结果表明:病理性自恋的二阶因子自恋易损性对个体心理健康具有显著的负向预测作用,自恋易损性水平越高,个体心理健康水平越低。自恋夸大性和适应性自恋(自恋人格问卷,NPI)对心理健康的正向预测作用达到边缘显著,自恋夸大性和适应性自恋得分越高,心理健康水平越高。结论:病理性自恋的二阶因子自恋易损性对心理健康具有明显的破坏作用,而自恋夸大性和正常/适应性自恋可能对心理健康存在微弱的保护作用。     

Mothers' and Fathers' Parenting Quality and Toddlers' Interactive Behaviours in Dyadic and Triadic Family Contexts

Based on a family systems perspective, this research examined the role of parental gender and family play context in parent–toddler interactions and how behaviours of family members influence each other. Sixty‐seven mostly White, middle‐class families consisting of a mother, father and toddler were videotaped in three separate sessions: mother–child, father–child and both parents–child at a university laboratory setting. The results indicated that there were significant main effects of both parent gender (mother versus father) and context (dyadic versus triadic) on parents' positive and negative parenting and children's engagement and negativity toward parents. Higher levels of mutual engagement between mothers and toddlers were associated with lower levels of fathers' positive parenting and children's engagement with fathers, when moving from the dyadic to the triadic play context. However, fathers' mutual engagement with toddlers was not associated with mothers' parenting quality and child interactive behaviours with mothers. There were also interaction effects of parent gender and context on parents' negative parenting and children's engagement and negativity toward parents. This study adds unique insights to the differences and similarities of parent–child dyadic and triadic interactions during toddlerhood. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Treating Inner-City Families of Homicide Victims: A Contextually Oriented Approach

Violence, including youth homicide, has assumed near epidemic proportions in US inner cities, with few signs that such violence is abating. Professionals working with families after the murder of a family member, are faced with the task of helping such families achieve a meaningful restoration of functioning. At the same time, there is a need to prevent retaliatory violence by surviving siblings and other family members. A treatment model will be discussed that uses the basic, theoretical principles of Boszormenyi-Nagy's Contextual Therapy (CT) while incorporating White and Epston's technique of “therapeutic certificates” in work with young people coping with loss via homicide. Case examples, drawn from the author's work at a unique, predominantly African American agency in an urban inner city will be used to illustrate applications of CT principles, and to show how therapeutic certificates can provide tools to clinicians working with this deeply troubling problem.     

Predicting Dropout in a Filial Therapy Program for Parents and Young Children

The present study examined child and parent factors that predict dropout from a filial therapy program for mothers and children (ages 2–10). A total of 41 families who had participated in the program during a two-year period were included in this study. The variables mother's perceived social support from family and friends, mother's communication of acceptance in play with her child, mother age, and child age were shown to be predictive of the number of sessions attended. Implications for improving program retention are discussed.     

Mothers who are securely attached in pregnancy show more attuned infant mirroring 7 months postpartum

This study contrasted two forms of mother–infant mirroring: the mother's imitation of the infant's facial, gestural, or vocal behavior (i.e., “direct mirroring”) and the mother's ostensive verbalization of the infant's internal state, marked as distinct from the infant's own experience (i.e., “intention mirroring”). Fifty mothers completed the Adult Attachment Interview (Dynamic Maturational Model) during the third trimester of pregnancy. Mothers returned with their infants 7 months postpartum and completed a modified still-face procedure. While direct mirroring did not distinguish between secure and insecure/dismissing mothers, secure mothers were observed to engage in intention mirroring more than twice as frequently as did insecure/dismissing mothers. Infants of the two mother groups also demonstrated differences, with infants of secure mothers directing their attention toward their mothers at a higher frequency than did infants of insecure/dismissing mothers. The findings underscore marked and ostensive verbalization as a distinguishing feature of secure mothers’ well-attuned, affect-mirroring communication with their infants.     

Children and Parents as Members of the Research Team: Fair Employment Practices Without a Union Contract

In clinical mental health research with children, both child and parent are essential members of the research team. The 3 R's of parent/child team membership are respect, rapport, and recognition. Respect and recognition include fair reimbursement for time, expense, and inconvenience, but the most important compensation for many families is the appreciation of the other team members for their sacrifice and cooperation. Reimbursement, although honoring the principles of justice and respect for persons, raises difficult issues about appropriate amount, particularly in research involving children. The 3 R's are supported by the investigator 5 A's: attitude, adaptability, availability, attachment, and appreciation. Although the principles seem clear in the abstract, implementation encounters many practical problems. Perhaps the most difficult of these is determining the appropriate amount of compensation that avoids undue inducement but not at the expense of the 3 R's and 5 A's.     

RICOEUR'S PHILOSOPHY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR PSYCHOANALYSIS

In differentiation of early and mature shame, the phenomenological content of shame changes with the development of a stable self-state. In this hypothesis, early shame refers to a person's dependence upon mirroring himself and in being mirrored by an outer object, while mature shame refers to introspection and self-reflection. From a developmental psychological point of view, the connection between self-development and mirroring is expounded. Mirroring is defined as a psychic dialectic process between the inner psychic reality and the outer reality. Early shame is connected to dyadic mirroring, which refers to attachment and empathy. Mature shame is connected to triadic mirroring, which refers to separation and reflection. Early shame emerges from discrepancies between the infant's expectations of a complementary affective response and the mother's response, and is defined as an early marker of differences in the mother/infant unit. It is argued that early shame in smaller ‘doses’ has a regulating function on self-development by maintaining the psychic dialectic process, while in larger ‘doses’, it has a disturbing effect on the self-development, resulting in pathological shame. In the therapeutic process, early shame appears as shame scenarios illustrated in the text by a clinical vignette.     

Do maternal power assertive discipline and warmth interact to influence toddlers' emotional reactivity and noncompliance?

Emotional and behavioural self-regulation emerges during infancy and toddlerhood and is heavily influenced by parenting. Parents facilitate toddlers' behavioural regulation (e.g., compliance) by using appropriate control with warmth and managing children's emotional reactivity during situational demands. In contrast, power assertive discipline may strain children's regulatory skills, for example by evoking toddlers' negative affect. However, we have more to learn about how discipline relates to toddlers' self-regulation in the moment and whether concurrent displays of parental warmth may moderate these relations. Mother–toddler dyads (N = 74, M_age = 13.30 months) from low-to-middle income Turkish families participated in a 3-min laboratory task, in which toddlers needed to delay playing with an attractive toy. Maternal discipline, warmth, toddler's emotional reactivity, and noncompliance were coded from observations. Results showed that higher power assertive discipline was associated with more frequent emotional reactivity in toddlers whose mothers' showed warmth during the <84% of the task duration. Maternal warmth was negatively associated with child noncompliance, but warmth did not interact with power assertive discipline in relation to noncompliance. Results suggest that observed power assertive discipline is meaningfully related to toddlers' emotional reactivity and higher levels of expressed maternal warmth attenuates these relations.     

With a little help from my friends: maternal social support,via parenting,promotes willingness to share in preschoolers born to young mothers

Little is known about prosocial behaviours in children of young mothers. This longitudinal study involved 44 young mother (age <20 years at birth of first child) families and 44 older mother families, who were carefully matched for child age and gender, as well as for family structure (number of children, lone‐parent status) and socio‐economic background (maternal education, head‐of‐household unemployment, low family income). At the first time‐point (M child age = 2.45 years), mothers listed family members or friends who provided practical and/or emotional support; videos of mother–child interaction in play and tidy‐up were coded for positive and negative parenting. Two years later (M child age = 4.32 years), children's prosocial behaviours were assessed via (i) an experimental task of willingness to share and (ii) video‐based ratings of sharing and helping during dyadic play with friends. T‐tests showed few group differences in prosocial behaviours. Regression analyses showed that, for young mother families only, reduced negative parenting mediated associations between support from friends and preschoolers' willingness to share. Support from friends, via parenting, may promote willingness to share in children born to young mother families. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parental facilitation of children's preparatory play behavior in a stressful situation

Parental behavior has often been cited as a crucial factor in children's ability to cope with stress. However, there has been little study of ways parents help their children adjust to stressful life events. In the present study, 34 parents and children (ages 4–9) were observed preparing for a stressful life event (elective surgery). Parents were asked to prepare their children for the upcoming stress and were given stress-related hospital equipment to use with their child. Specific hypotheses were selected to study the relationships of five parent helping behaviors to children's active preparatory play with stress-relevant materials. Children's preparatory play alone and with an examiner were also observed to test for effects of children on their parents' helping behavior. As expected, parent helping behaviors were significantly related to children's active preparatory play. With the exception of highly directive behavior, however, the relationship of parent helping behavior to child play was dependent on the child's age. This study suggests the importance of further investigating parental involvement in studying the process of children's coping with stress.     

Parent–adolescent communication in foster,inter‐country adoptive,and biological Italian families: Gender and generational differences

There is a paucity of studies aimed at comparing how parents and children in different family structures cope with the challenges posed by the adolescence transition; in particular, there are few studies aimed at comparing adoptive and foster families. In order to partially fill this gap, the principal aims of the present study were to verify whether there are differences in parent–child communication among foster, intercountry adoptive, and biological families according to the adolescents' gender, and to compare the perceptions of parents and adolescents concerning parent–child communication. Data were elaborated on two levels: a generational level (adolescent's and his/her parents' perceptions among the three family groups) and a dyadic level (mother–child and father–child perceptions). The sample was composed of 276 Italian families with adolescents aged between 11 and 17 (81 foster, 98 international adoptive, and 97 biological families). Subjects (mothers, fathers, and children) filled out a questionnaire including the Parent–Adolescent Communication Scale (Barnes & Olson, 1985 ). Results highlighted that in foster families, parent–child communication showed more difficulties from both the adolescent's and the parents' point of view. Adoptive adolescents, however, reported a more positive communication with both their parents than did their peers living in biological and foster families. At a dyadic level, some differences emerged among the three groups. In biological families, a more pronounced distance emerged between parents and children. In adoptive families, father and adolescent shared more similar perceptions, whereas a significant discrepancy emerged between mother and child. A higher level of perceptual congruence between adolescents and parents was found in foster families. Gender differences were also seen: Mothers experienced a more open communication with their children than did fathers, and adolescents, and above all females, communicated better with their mothers than with their fathers in all three family groups.