Discussion: Toward a social‐constructivist view of the psychoanalytic situation

The three papers by Modell, Aron, and Greenberg are discussed in terms of their relationship to a new paradigm for understanding the psychoanalytic situation. The paradigm is called social‐construct‐ivist to capture both the idea of the analyst's participation and the idea of construction of meaning. It is argued that these theorists, as well as many of the authors they cite as part of a broad movement in the field, do not consistently meet the criteria for this paradigm, although they seem to be aiming for it. An important source of inconsistency and confusion derives from the confounding of the two axes: drive‐relational and positivist‐constructivist. Many relational theorists who hold fast to the idea that analysts can grasp the truth of both their own experience and that of the patient are no closer to the constructivist point of view than was Freud. The call by Aron and Greenberg for greater attention to the patient's resisted experience of the analyst's subjectivity is discussed in terms of its potential benefits and problems. The ritualized asymmetry of the psychoanalytic situation is said to have important functions, including prevention of excessive involvement and protection of the unobjectionable positive transference and of a degree of idealization. Modell's notion of paradox, which makes the therapeutic relationship seem “real”; and “unreal”; at the same time, is seen as a special instance of the always precarious social construction of reality. It is argued, moreover, that the social and individual aspects of experience are interdependent. Neither is reducible to the other, and both should be understood, like many other issues in the new paradigm, in terms of a dialectical interplay of figure and ground in experience.     

Outcomes of an existential‐humanistic psychotherapy: A tribute to Rollo May

Abstract

Many psychotherapies are formally or informally designated as experiential psychotherapies, and experiencing is increasingly included as one of the common dimensions of psychotherapeutic change. Accordingly, the major purpose is to provide a critical review of the ways in which the term “experiencing” is used in the field of psychotherapy. The provisional conclusion is that there are ten meanings of experiencing, of which only four emerge as defining distinctively experiential processes of psychotherapeutic change. On this basis, it is proposed that a particular group of therapies qualify as distinctively experiential and as comprising the cornerstones of an experiential family of psychotherapies, and it is possible to address the issue of whether or not experiencing qualifies as a common dimension of psychotherapeutic change.     

Higher‐order factors of creativity within Guilford's structure‐of‐intellect model: A re‐analysis of a fifty‐three variable data base

Both exploratory factor analyses (varimax and promax solutions) and confirmatory maximum likelihood factor analyses were used to re‐examine a correlation matrix of 53 tests from a battery administered to a sample of more than 400 Air Force officers. The data base originated in a report from the University of Southern California Aptitudes Research Project (Guilford, Wilson, & Christensen, 1952), which was intended to identify factors of creative thinking. The major objective of this study was to ascertain whether the covariation among the test variables that were conceptualized as first‐order factors within the structure‐of‐intellect model could be explained parsimoniously in terms of a number of higher‐order creative abilities. Application of a relatively objective oblique exploratory factor analytic technique (promax) afforded a replication of four of Guilford's creativity factors—two divergent production constructs of ideational fluency and word fluency, one construct representing sensitivity to problems, and another identified as redefinition or flexibility of closure typically involving transformations. Although substantial support was found for higher‐order factor models which distinguished among five types of psychological operations and three kinds of test content, statistical indicators of closeness‐of‐fit suggested that a mixed model of both first‐order and higher‐order factors was required to describe creativity thinking, perhaps within some form of hierarchical ordering. In addition to recognition of divergent production as a key component of creative endeavor, it appeared that a higher‐order convergent production factor involving primarily semantic and symbolic transformations constituted a dimension of potential importance to the creative thinking of mathematicians, scientists, engineers, and inventors. It was hypothesized that in creative thinking a variety of psychological operations within a dynamic interactive system is employed almost simultaneously in a forward and backward manner.     

The person as an extended field: Querying the ontological binaries and dominant “container” metaphor at the core of psychology

The Western-centricity of psychology means it has inherited some of the key ontological categories and distinctions at the heart of Western cultures. This paper identifies four such distinctions that have been particularly influential in psychology: mind-body; subjective-objective; self-other; and inner-outer. Together, these have created a pervasive view that the mind – and the person more broadly – is metaphorically like a “container.” However, this paper proposes that a better conceptualization, or at least a complementary one, may be a “field,” whereby people's being extends outwards, beyond the apparent boundary of their skin, into the world. Such perspectives have been especially prominent in other cultures and traditions (like Buddhism), but have pedigree in the West too. The paper thus draws on various cultural sources, and numerous disciplines both within psychology and beyond, to make its case. It is hoped the discussion may help psychology reflect on and re-evaluate the ontological assumptions at its core, and to engage with field-based perspectives that may be provide a useful alternative or complement to the standard container metaphor.     

Parent‐infant‐psychotherapy and psychoanalytic treatment: contradiction or mutual inspiration?

Psychoanalysis and parent‐infant‐psychotherapy are compared. Although parent‐infant‐psychotherapy developed from psychoanalysis, it appears at first glance not to be “analytic” with its aim of dealing quickly with the symptoms presented and also with its different setting. The author shows that an analytic approach in understanding the multi‐facetted net of relationships between family members and the infant in its “phantasmic interaction” and a consideration of the implication for analysis of the empirical research carried out in conjunction with parent‐infant‐therapy can lead to a fruitful exchange of ideas. One example of this is research into the correlation between attachment patterns and the processing of conflicts. Furthermore a dialogue between these two disciplines can remind psychoanalysts that a critical discussion of the external circumstances of their methods does not immediately call into question their fundamental approach to therapy: the work in transference on relationship fantasies.     

Settling on what we are: The central place of the sense‐of‐self in education,and the implication of the concepts of the teleon and telentropy for the development of the sense‐of‐self

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the centrality of the development of a person's sense‐of‐self in his or her personal growth, and so to justify why educators should deliberately focus the attention of learners on the development of their own senses‐of‐self.

We describe the sense‐of‐self as a person's working hypothesis of what he or she is, as a functioning being. (This is in contrast to the notion of self‐concept, which is composed of the beliefs and evaluations that one has about oneself as a person in a social context.)

To illustrate the centrality of the sense‐of‐self we introduce two associated concepts—the teleon and telentropy. Teleons are “purposeful action patterns,” which may be regarded as the defining characteristic of any living system, including human beings.

Telentropy is similar to entropy (encountered in physics and chemistry), but instead of dealing with the level of disorder in externally described systems, it represents the level of informational confusion existing within an organism regarding its own true nature.

We discuss the implications of the concepts “teleon” and “telentropy” for a person's educability, using examples from daily life and educational institutions.

We provide a number of suggestions for the revising of educational practice to foster the development of the sense‐of‐self in learners. This we demonstrate to have potentially beneficial effects of the general stress levels of society.     

Toward an Evolution of Mind: Implications for the Faithful?

Ever since its inception, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection has challenged assumptions about the nature of humankind and human institutions. It did not escape the notice of Darwin, sympathetic allies, or hostile contemporaries that his theory had profound implications for ethics and theology. In this paper I review some current sociobiological hypotheses about the mind that are based on the theory that the human mind is primarily a social tool. Many researchers now believe that both complex human within-group cooperation and between-group competition are the anvils that may have shaped the modules of the mind. Given this evolutionary theory of the mind, the Darwinian challenge to theism, ethics, and faith is now being relaunched with a vengeance. However, I suggest that modern physics, evolutionary biology, and cognitive science all seem to fit nicely into the atheistic and phenomenological niche defined by Buddhism.     

Beyond the politics of reception: Jacques Rancière and the politics of art

Jacques Rancière’s work has become a major reference point for discussions of art and politics. However, while Rancière’s negative theses (about what “political art” is not) are becoming widespread and well understood, his positive thesis is still poorly understood, owing partly to Rancière’s own formulation of the issue. I first clarify Rancière’s account of the links between politics and art. I then explore a gap in this account; Rancière has stuck too closely to a politics of art’s reception. I argue for a politics of art production, which would expand the possible engagement between politics and art.     

A meditation on the nature of self‐healing and personality change in psychotherapy based on Gendlin's theory of experiencing

Abstract

From a humanistic point of view psychotherapy is a creative transformational process in which therapists assist clients’ intrinsic self‐healing tendencies. However the nature of the self‐healing process is poorly understood. I briefly consider two theories of self‐healing, Rogers’ self‐actualization theory and dialectical theory, but focus on Gendlin's theory of experiencing as providing a more complete explanation. I consider the fundamentally implicational nature of change and portray personal change as “paradigm evolution” rather than paradigm revolution. I conclude with an examination of the self‐healing process in therapies that provide minimal prosthetic assistance to the client: client‐centered therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, and focusing‐oriented therapy. I conclude that the self‐healing/self‐change process occurs when intellectual, “top‐down” cognitive and self‐critical activity is interrupted, and when clients adopt a receptive, listening attitude towards inner experience.     

Of pharisees and snark‐hunters: Afro‐Cuban religion as an object of knowledge

Examining some recent publications on Afro‐Cuban religions in the US, this essay argues that some of the evident shortcomings of the literature on this subject may hold important epistemological and methodological lessons for the anthropology of religion in general. These concern the pervasive lack of critical attention to the criteria by which formations of religious knowledge and practice are constituted as objects of study; a failure to acknowledge the historical interaction between theoretical models and public demand structures for authenticated cultural difference; the tendency to treat the relation between observer‐ and insider‐discourses as unproblematic and transparent; and a similarly widespread trend towards over‐systematising and homogenising internally heterogeneous and unbounded aggregates of knowledge and practice. What is suggested instead is an ethnographically informed and actor‐centred sociology of knowledge focussed on mutually articulated universes of meaning, and capable of transcending artificial conceptual boundaries between ‘the religious’ and the sphere of ‘everyday life’.     

A review of: “Constructing the self,constructing america: A cultural history of psychotherapy”

P. Cushman (1995) Constructing the Self, Constructing America: A Cultural History of Psychotherapy, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, pp. 430, $23.99     

A review of: “Handbook of psychotherapy supervision”

C. Edward Watkins, Jr (ed.) (1997) Handbook of Psychotherapy Supervision, New York: Wiley, $50     

A healing relationship: Clients’ experiences of the long-term relational significance of the horse in horse assisted psychotherapy

Horse assisted psychotherapy is a type of treatment for mental ill-health in which the client forms a relationship with a horse. Research suggests that the relationship to a horse is very helpful to clients, but how the horse is experienced many years after the end of treatment has not been investigated. The aim of the present study was thus to investigate how former clients from horse assisted psychotherapy experienced the horse several years after treatment was completed. Former clients (n = 5; all females) from one and the same treatment center were interviewed and the data was analyzed with an inductive thematic approach. The analysis showed that many years after completion of treatment, the horses were still remembered as the most important individuals in the informants’ lives during the time of treatment. This was captured by the core category ‘A healing relationship’. These findings are in line with previous research that found that patients in horse assisted psychotherapy and their family members attributed improvements from treatment to the patients’ relationship to the horses, but adds that the clients also keep these views at follow-up several years after termination of treatment.