Journal Reviews

Field , Nathan (London). ‘The Primitive and the Pathological’. British Journal of Psychotherapy Fordham , Michael . (London) ‘Ending psychotherapy’ Zinkin , Louis . (London) ‘All's well that ends well, or is it?’Group Analysis Fosshage , J.L. (New York). ‘Towards reconceptualising transference: theoretical and clinical considerations‘. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis Hillman , James . (Thompson, CT, U.S.A.) ‘Once more into the fray (A response to Wolfgang Giegerich's “Killings”)’. Spring Josey , Alden . (Delaware, U.S.A.) Molecules as mandalas: modern chemistry and the quest for the Self.’Psychological Perspectives Phillips , Adam . ‘Contingency for Beginners’. Winnicott Studies Rigsby , Roberta . (U.S.A.).‘Jungians, archetypalists and fear of feminism’. Continuum Samuels , Andrew . (London). “The professionalization of Carl G. Jung's Analytical Psychology Clubs’. Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences     

Why ‘Nonexistent People’ Do Not Have Zero Wellbeing but No Wellbeing at All

Some believe that the harm or benefit of existence is assessed by comparing a person's actual state of wellbeing with the level of wellbeing they would have had had they never existed. This approach relies on ascribing a state or level of wellbeing to ‘nonexistent people’, which seems a peculiar practice: how can we attribute wellbeing to a ‘nonexistent person'? To explain away this oddity, some have argued that because no properties of wellbeing can be attributed to ‘nonexistent people’ such people may be ascribed a neutral or zero level of wellbeing, setting the baseline for comparatively assessing the harm or benefit of coming into existence. However, this line of argumentation conflates the category of having zero wellbeing with the category of having no wellbeing. No Φ, unlike a zero level of Φ, is not comparable to levels of Φ — neutral, positive, or negative. Considering the nature of wellbeing and the fact that ‘nonexistent people’ cannot (metaphysically or conceptually) have wellbeing determinative properties, it follows that ‘nonexistent people’ have no wellbeing rather than zero wellbeing.     

Is children’s wellbeing different from adults’ wellbeing?

ABSTRACT

Call generalism about children’s and adults’ wellbeing the thesis that the same theory of wellbeing applies to both children and adults. Our goal is to examine whether generalism is true. While this question has not received much attention in the past, it has recently been suggested that generalism is likely to be false and that we need to elaborate different theories of children’s and adults’ wellbeing. In this paper, we defend generalism against the main objections it faces and make a positive case for it.     

Dialoguing Height Psychology into a life of interconnectedness: Response to commentaries by Hwang,Bhawuk, King & Hodgetts,Kashima, and Xie,Su, & Zhong

Liu (Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 000, 000) attempts to articulate an epistemology for the aspirational practice of Height Psychology as a human science informed by Kantian epistemology in dialogue with other philosophies, especially Confucianism and Taoism. Height Psychology is a framework or metatheory for the practice of teaching, research, and service rooted in Kantian epistemology, in dialogue with other philosophies. It provides a holistic philosophy for social scientists responding to wicked problems unfolding over long periods of time. In responding to commentaries, I suggest a corollary to Shweder's (Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 3, p. 207) ‘One mind, many mentalities’: ‘Many indigenous psychologies, interconnected by one epistemology’. Height Psychology is about holding to an invisible moral centre. The practical postulates are foundational to the moral and ethical practices of human societies: they are for doing, their value is ontological. Human agency, proscribed by natural science epistemologies takes centre stage in Height Psychology by facilitating social scientists to act reflexively from multiple positions (from basic to action research) to benefit society. Height Psychology is dedicated to articulating and actioning the moral and ethical basis of a human science that can assist present and future generations of social scientists to meet the grave situational futures facing us in different parts of the world.     

The effects of patient's frequency of attendance and etiology of symptoms,on the General Practitioners wellbeing

IntroductionThe presence of Medically Unexplained Symptoms and a high Frequency of Attendance negatively affects the General Practitioners’ (GP) wellbeing. Although, overlapping between both phenomena is partial, with a number of frequent attenders reporting medically unexplained symptoms during consultation, there is no evidence on how GP's well-being it is affected by the specific main effects of these factors and their interaction. Evidence is also scant on the psychological processes explaining the negative impact of attendance and the etiology of symptoms on GP's wellbeing.ObjectiveDrawing on the Job Demand-Control and the Conservation of Resource stress models, this paper tests the moderating effects of the GP’ perception of patient's attendance and etiology of symptoms on the relationship between patient's demands and feedback on the GP's wellbeing.MethodA total of 105 volunteer GPs self-reported on the study variables through an experience sampling methodology after 898 patients’ consultation. Patients attendance and etiology of symptoms were categorized according to the physician self-perception and an external criterion (organizational records).ResultsPerception of Patients Frequent Attendance and Medically Unexplained Symptoms were positively related to physician's Emotional Exhaustion. Contrary to expected the test of the moderation effects of patients characteristics on the relation between patient's demands and feedback and the GP's emotional exhaustion were stronger for normal attenders compared with frequent attenders. An ad hoc study shows this unexplained result is related to the GP's expectations on Frequent vs. normal attenders’ behaviors. No significant results were found when the external criterion of classification was used.ConclusionCombined analysis of Frequency of Attendance and Etiology of Symptoms lead to a better understanding of the GP's decreased wellbeing. Also, the perception of the strain level (demands/positive feedback levels) associated to the consultation with different types of patients contribute to explain the consequences for the GP's wellbeing, especially when GP's expectations on patient's behaviors are violated.     

The use of metaphors in understanding atypical gender identity development and its psychosocial impact

Abstract

Over the years I have found a number of metaphors which have helped me to deal with particular dynamics in therapeutic work or with group and institutional conflicts involving the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock Centre. This nationwide service, which is for young people with atypical gender identity development and their families, was established in 1989. In this paper I describe some of these metaphors in relation to the particular problems or conflicts which had stimulated their appearance in my mind. The emergence of these metaphors links the vicissitudes of atypical gender identity development to issues regarding symbolisation or symbolic thinking. Metaphors such as ‘working at the edge’ or ‘navigating between Scylla and Charybdis’ allow the professional to hold on to multiple perspectives and to maintain a certain degree of ambiguity in situations in which the interpersonal dynamics can be experienced as rigid and deterministic. The emergence of metaphors can then be perceived by the professional with a sense of relief and freedom of thinking. In this paper, metaphors are linked to: the model of care developed; the therapeutic stance; and the aims, risks and pressures experienced by the professional in this area of work. The association between gender dysphoria in some young people and autistic spectrum features is explored. The paper emphasises the importance of responding flexibly to individual differences and of recognising complexity.     

Journal Reviews

Astor , J. (London). ‘A conversation with Dr Michael Fordham.’Journal of Child Psychotherapy Astor , J. (London). ‘Adolescent states of mind found in patients of different ages seen in analysis.’Journal of Child Psychotherapy Blomeyer , R. (Berlin) ‘Der Umgang des Analytikers mit der Analyse’ (The interrelationship between the analyst and the analysis). Analytische Psychologie Blomeyer , Rudolf (Berlin). ‘Analytische Psychologie und Ich-Psychologie’. (Analytical Psychology and Ego-Psychology). Analytical Psychology Rudolf Blomeyer . ‘Anmerkungen zur Typologie’ (Comment on typology). Analytische Psychologie Corbett , L. Kugler , P. ‘The self in Jung and Kohut’ in Progress in self Psychology Dehing , J. ‘Jung aus der Sicht der anderen: anlässlich einiger Kritiken von Seiten der Freudianer.’ (Jung as others see him: some Freudian criticisms.) Analytische Psychologie Erlenmeyer , A. ‘Das kannabalische Phantasma—eine Annäherung’ (Cannibalistic fantasy—an appraisal). Analytische Psychologie Giera -Krapp , Margitta (Berlin). ‘Constellation of the good/bad mother archetype in the treatment of early disturbances.’Analytische Psychologie Lyard , D. (Paris). ‘Le corps et la “redonne” archetypique de l'adolescence.’ (The body and archetypal rebirth in adolescence) in Cahiers jungiens de psychanalyse Noschis , K. (Geneva). ‘La maison du jour et de la nuit’ (The house by day and by night). Le Journal des Psychologues “Le langage de notre intérieur” (The language of our interior). Les Cahiers Médicosociaux Erenest L. Rossi . ‘Mind Body Therapy: methods of ideodynamic healing in hypnosis.’ Norton Professional Books. New York. Samuels , A. (London). ‘Pluralism and the post-Jungians: A reply to Peter Bishop.’ Spring. Samuels , Andrew . (London). ‘A relation called father—Part I: The father in depth psychology.’British Journal of Psychotherapy Steinberg , Warren . (New York). ‘The Fear of Success’. Quadrant Thibaudier , Vivane (Paris). ‘La notion de Grande Mère dans l'optique Jungienne’Cahiers Jungiens de Psychanalyse     

Editorial

This paper is a response to William Meredith-Owen’s paper presented at the inaugural joint conference on ‘Alchemy, a bridge to Jung’s objective psyche’, for The Society of Analytical Psychology and the West Midlands Institute of Psychotherapy in autumn 2020. The paper presents a way of understanding the collective unconscious through the functioning of the core self, and thus offers a bridge which addresses the indivisibility of the personal and collective psyche/unconscious, referencing Mary Williams’ (1963) classic paper. Specifically, this is applied to Winnicott’s dream of destruction that he had after reviewing Memories, Dreams, Reflections, as well as to parts of the psyche that were dissociated due to significant early deprivation – the primary narcissistic wounds. Alchemical metaphors are shown to relate to the analytic process, which allows the primitive core self (with its identificatory, participatory, connecting nature), when integrated through relationship, to sink back into the unconscious and function as the Self.     

The Anomalous Wellbeing of Disabled People: A Response

Disabled people frequently find themselves in situations where their quality of life and wellbeing is being measured or judged by others, whether in decisions about health care provision or assessments for social supports. Recent debates about wellbeing and how it might be assessed (through subjective and/or objective measures) have prompted a renewed focus on disabled people’s wellbeing because of its seemingly ‘anomalous’ nature; that is, whilst to external (objective) observers the wellbeing of disabled people appears poor, based on subjective assessments, people with disabilities report a good quality of life. In this paper, I examine an article by the philosopher Dan Moller in which he seeks to explain this ‘disability paradox’. Despite agreeing with his analysis that there is more to what people value than happiness, his explanation reflects some of the difficulties presented in philosophical accounts which seek to understand the lives of disabled people: this includes an analysis which fails to problematise definitions of wellbeing and who has the ‘voice’ to do the defining; which negates the multiple identities and subject positions that disabled people occupy; and which lacks recognition of the social contexts which mediate disabled people’s lives. I suggest that there is a need to incorporate disabled people’s voices into research which deepens our empirical knowledge about the relationship between impairment and wellbeing, including the social circumstances that shape disabled people’s agency.     

The construct of the ‘mana personality’ in Jung’s works: a historic-hermeneutic perspective. Part II

This is the second part of an article that tries to provide a framework of understanding of, and a seminal reflection on, a highly interesting yet little explored psychological construct of Jung’s analytical psychology, namely the ‘mana personality’. Here I take into consideration some issues around the ‘saviour complex’, discussed in Jung’s seminar on Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, concerning both the psychological analysis of the individual and the socio-political level related to the collective horizon of the 1930s. Moreover, I consider the continuity of Jung’s analysis of such issues in other works such as ‘Psychology and national problems’ (1936), Symbols of Transformation (1952), and Aion (1950). I finally make some suggestions concerning Jung’s apparent hermeneutic tendency to apply the construct of the mana personality to collective historical phenomena.     

II Spatial metaphors and somatic communication: the embodiment of multigenerational experiences of helplessness and futility in an obese patient

This paper explores the analysis of an obese woman who came to experience her flesh as a bodying forth of personal and multigenerational family and cultural experiences of helplessness. The paper discusses the ideas and images that formed the basis of how I engaged with these themes as they presented countertransferentially. My thesis is that clinical approaches which draw on spatial metaphors for the psyche offer valuable tools for working with people whose inner world expresses itself somatically because such metaphors can be used to engage simultaneously with the personal, cultural, and ancestral dimensions of these unconscious communications. The paper builds on Jung's view of the psyche as comprised of pockets of inner otherness (complexes), on Redfearn's image of psyche as landscape‐like and on Samuels’ thinking on embodied countertransference and on the political psyche. It also draws on Butler's work on the body as a social phenomenon and on the theme of being a helpless non‐person or nobody as explored in Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead which retells Shakespeare's Hamlet from the perspective of two of the play's ‘bit’ characters.     

Factors in the learning behavior of the albino rat

The table of intercorrelations published by Dr. R. L. Thorndike in theGenetic Psychology Monographs, 1935,17, No. 1, has been reanalyzed into ten factors. Rotation of the reference vectors resulted in a configuration which, for all practical purposes, may be said to show a simple structure and (except for one variable on one factor) a positive manifold. Five of the factors can be interpreted with some confidence, one only with considerable caution; three factors are specific to the apparatus employed, and for the one remaining factor, no interpretation is attempted; it appears to be a residual plane.     

‘In human shape to become the very beast!’ – Henry More on animals

ABSTRACT

Animals – both tame and wild, as metaphors and as real presences – populate many of More’s works. In this essay, I show that, from the early Psychodia Platonica to the Divine Dialogues, animals are at the core of key metaphysical issues that reverberate on the levels of psychology and ethics. In particular I discuss three main aspects: (1) the role of animals in More’s critique of atheism, both as safeguard for the body–soul interaction and as proofs of divine providence in nature; (2) the problem of evil in the universe, and how to justify the existence of ‘evil’ animals in particular; (3) the differentiation between animals and humans, especially on the basis of their respective possibility of attaining happiness. In all three cases, I argue that More attempts to ‘tame’ the nature of animals, and yet that he is aware that ‘animality’ remains partly untamed.     

Mediterranean diet and wellbeing: evidence from a nationwide survey

Objective: Although there is some evidence of the association between specific food groups, such as plant foods, and subjective wellbeing, this is the first study to assess the relationship between adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern and subjective wellbeing. Design: Data were collected in 2014–2015, within the Edad con Salud project, a follow-up study of a multistage clustered survey on a representative sample of the population of Spain. The final sample comprised 2397 individuals with ages ranging from 21 to 101 years. Main outcome measures: Experienced wellbeing (positive and negative affect) was measured using the Day Reconstruction Method, and evaluative wellbeing was assessed with the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale. Results: A higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet showed a small but statistically significant inverse relationship with negative affect (β?=??0.076, p=.001), and direct with evaluative wellbeing (β?=?0.053, p=.015), whereas it was not related to positive affect. Several components of the Mediterranean diet were independently associated with wellbeing. Conclusion: The results suggest that adherence to a dietary pattern such as the Mediterranean diet, and not only the isolated consumption of its components, is associated with a better subjective wellbeing.     

Benefits of belonging: Experimental manipulation of social inclusion to enhance psychological and physiological health parameters

Objective: Acute changes in social belonging are important triggers for alterations in health and well-being, yet research has emphasised the negative effects of ‘exclusion’ at the expense of evaluating the potentially positive effects of ‘inclusion’. This study examined the impact of acute belonging on physiological and psychological outcomes.

Design and main outcome measures: A healthy population (N?=?138) were randomly allocated to ‘included’ or ‘excluded’ conditions. Condition-dependent differences in pre/during-task heart rate and pre/post-task self-reports of negative/positive mood, and social self-esteem, were assessed.

Results: Included participants showed decreased heart rate and negative mood, and increased social self-esteem. No inclusion-related change in positive mood was shown. An increase in heart rate was observed in excluded participants though no changes in negative/positive mood or social self-esteem were shown. Shifts in social self-esteem acted as a mechanism through which inclusion/exclusion impacted upon negative and positive mood alterations. Results remained significant in presence of covariates (sex, global self-esteem, rumination and social anxiety).

Conclusion: Findings suggest that acting to enhance belonging through ‘inclusion’ resulted in adaptive physiological and psychological outcomes. Neutral and potentially protective responses were observed in the immediate aftermath of ‘exclusion’. Self-esteem served as one route through which these effects were transmitted.     

A review of processing and analysing visual metaphors in psychology

IntroductionA visual metaphor is an image depicting an incongruity in the spatial distribution of visual elements, which is not consistent with reality. In this paper, we present an overview of theoretical and empirical studies on visual metaphor processing.ObjectiveFirstly, attention is given to the spatial distribution of visual elements, which defines the type of visual metaphors as well as the meaning operations required to understand the communicative message. The paper then reviews several empirical studies that collect behavioural measures for assessing visual metaphor processing using questionnaires and exploring the role played by cognitive abilities. In line with the contemporary literature, we then present three semiotic dimensions for visual metaphor processing, namely the expression, conceptualisation, and communication. We then present a pilot study that focusses on these three dimensions. Few research studies have collected behavioural data for visual metaphors processing. This may be due to the lack of theoretical framework in the corresponding field of research. These three semiotic dimensions highlight the value of pursuing research on visual metaphors in the scope of psychology. The presented pilot study could be a starting point for the investigation of visual metaphors in the framework of psychology.ConclusionWe propose future avenues of research that consider the visual structure of metaphors and meaning operations while assessing the influence of cognitive abilities in visual metaphor processing.     

Eighteenth-century French materialism clockwise and anticlockwise

ABSTRACT

Because of their reliance on mechanistic metaphors and analogies referring to machines, the eighteenth-century materialists La Mettrie and Diderot have sometimes been described as ‘mechanistic materialists’. However, if one pays close attention to the ways in which mechanical analogies and metaphors were used in eighteenth-century French materialism, one sees that the recourse to these metaphors and comparisons in no way implies mechanism in the sense of physicalist reductionism. Instead, early instances of these comparisons appear in arguments pointing out that technological artefacts have functional properties which are not reducible to their physical properties. When La Mettrie compares man to a machine in his L'homme machine, he insists at the same time on the fact that, just like a machine, man is a cultural artefact. According to La Mettrie, man's very existence depends on language and culture, and it is precisely this dependence on culture which distinguishes him from other animals. However, La Mettrie's sceptical stance renders his position towards physicalistic reductionism ambiguous. Diderot, who by contrast was interested in the distinction between the living and non-living, distances himself from the ambiguous use of mechanistic metaphors and insists on the irreducibility of physiological and biological phenomena to the physical.     

Heavy-heartedness biases your weight perception

ABSTRACT

Heavy-heartedness (light-heartedness), among more than two hundred metaphors related to the heart, indicates negative (positive) affects. Although these metaphors are generally understood rhetorically, this study explores whether there is any literal connection between either of these two states and one’s perception of weight. Participants who recalled a heavy-heartening (vs. light-heartening) past event estimated more weight of an object (Study 1). While watching weightlifting and pole-vaulting competition clips, people in heavy-hearted (vs. light-hearted) states predicted that players’ success is less likely (Study 2). However, this result was not observed while people in both states watched non-weight-related games, such as golf-putting and pool. The findings are congruous with embodied cognition theory and the role of metaphors in our life.     

Identifying mediators of training effects on performance-related psychobiosocial states: A single-case observational study in an elite female triathlete

ObjectivesRelationships between training load, psychobiosocial (PBS) states and performance are dynamic and individual-specific. The nature of these relationships can be investigated using a combination of dynamic linear models (DLMs) and mediating variable analysis, potentially assisting applied sports psychologists in planning and monitoring of individual elite athletes’ intervention programmes.DesignWe illustrate this approach by examining the relationships of training loads with a performance-related state (‘self-efficacy’) and the role of potential mediating PBS variables (‘fatigue/lack of energy’ and ‘being in shape’) in explaining these relationships in an elite triathlete across time.MethodSelf-reports of PBS states (twice weekly) and training data were collected over 137 days. Using DLMs and mediating variable analysis, direct (unmediated) and indirect (mediated) short-term associations of training load with ‘self-efficacy’ were examined.ResultsIn this triathlete, we found evidence for positive effects of training on ‘self-efficacy’, which were partly explained by feelings of ‘being in shape’ and suppressed by feelings of ‘fatigue/lack of energy’. Changes in the relationship between lagged training load and ‘fatigue/lack of energy’ were observed across time and were particularly pronounced in temporal proximity of an injury.ConclusionStrengths of the presented approach are its dynamic nature enabling the observation of changes occurring over time, use of statistical inference rather than visual data interpretation, and quantification of mediating effects to identify potential pathways of intervention. Additionally, the DLM method can identify complex nonlinear associations by examining correspondence between changes in levels of predictors and changes in magnitude and direction of predictor-outcome associations.