X-rated material and perpetration of sexually aggressive behavior among children and adolescents: is there a link?

Longitudinal linkages between intentional exposure to x-rated material and sexually aggressive behavior were examined among youth 10-15 year olds surveyed nationally in the United States. At Wave 1 in 2006, participants (n = 1,588) were queried about these exposures and outcomes in the preceding 12 months. Wave 2 data (n = 1,206) were collected approximately 12 months after Wave 1 and Wave 3 data (n = 1,159) were collected approximately 24 months after Wave 1. Thus, data for this project represent a 36-month time frame. A marginal model with generalized estimating equations was used to represent the population-average odds of sexually aggressive behavior over the 36 months as a function of exposure to x-rated material over the same time and to account for clustering in the data within person over time. An average of 5% of youth reported perpetrating sexually aggressive behavior and 23% of youth reported intentional exposure to x-rated material. After adjusting for other potentially influential proximal (i.e., sexual aggression victimization) and distal characteristics (e.g., substance use), we found that intentional exposure to violent x-rated material over time predicted an almost 6-fold increase in the odds of self-reported sexually aggressive behavior (aOR: 5.8, 95% CI: 3.2, 10.5), whereas exposure to nonviolent x-rated material was not statistically significantly related (aOR: 1.7, 95% CI: 0.94, 2.9). Associations were similar for boys and girls (boys nonviolent x-rated material aOR = 2.0, 95% CI: 0.8, 4.7; violent x-rated material aOR = 6.5, 95% CI: 2.7, 15.3; girls nonviolent x-rated material aOR = 1.2, 95% CI: 0.5, 3.2; violet x-rated material aOR = 6.1, 95% CI: 2.5, 14.8).     

Opening address by the IPA president to the conference on Parent–Infant Disturbance,Paris, November 13–14, 2015

Abstract

In his opening video address, Dr. Stefano Bolognini elaborates on “the social function of psychoanalysis in the field of psychic suffering in childhood and in adolescence.”     

At the border: reflections on psychoanalytically oriented counselling in an Italian university setting

This paper analyses the ‘border’ position of counselling services in Italian universities. The concept of ‘border’ has great relevance in the work of psychoanalytically oriented university students’ counsellors. Counselling is part of a continuum of interventions, from befriending to psychotherapy. This closeness encompasses the need for identifying specificities and differences among interventions. Moreover, a university counselling service occupies a ‘marginal’ position, continuously confronted with the risks of rejection and/or assimilation. The concept of ‘border’ is also useful to define the developmental phase of university students, crossing the border between late adolescence and young adulthood, as represented by Conrad's novel The shadow line (1917/1999), recently analysed by Green (2008) as the metaphoric demarcation line between youth and adulthood. Finally, most of the students referring to our counselling service come from families that for the first time crossed the border of university education.     

Purposive aspects of the erotic transference

This paper illustrates the erotic transference of a male patient towards his female analyst and the pressures and resistances within the transference and counter-transference to act out sexually. The patient's desire to act out sexually is seen both as a form of repetition compulsion within the transference and, in its purposive aspect, as an expression of the patient's need to find a loving breast and an empathic father. The patient's confused sexual identity is seen as a narcissistic defence against the experience of unbearable frustration in the pre-Oedipal stage. Through internalizing a new primal scene, the patient is able to separate from his past and to work through the Oedipus complex within the transference.     

‘Sleeping beauties’: succession problems of adolescence

The author explores the succession problems of adolescence. She uses the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale Sleeping Beauty to consider various characters and narratives possible in the analytic field during the succession process. Use of the characters in a fairy tale allows an analyst to play with the different roles the patient unconsciously assigns her. The author conceives of the avoidance of adolescent turbulence as a common reaction to adolescence, but one that can also become entrenched, and result in a restriction of emotional growth. The paper explores the psychic isolation of adolescence and the splitting required to manage the conflicting desires of the phase. The persistent absence of passion, including in the analytic process, constitutes a psychic retreat from developmental turbulence. The analyst of such an adolescent may need to allow them to be ‘somnolent’ for some time, but may eventually need to wake them (metaphorically) or even pierce the somnolent, avoidant state. The author uses clinical vignettes of late adolescents to demonstrate such transitions, exploring her countertransference experience as well as the reaction of adults to the succession process of adolescence.     

Analyse de la détresse psychologique de leaders narcissiques organisationnels : une étude de cas comparative

The present article is a comparative case study that explores the manifestations of psychological distress of two types of narcissistic organizational leaders. More specifically, the aim of this case study is to check for possible differences between a grandiose narcissistic leader and a vulnerable narcissistic leader in relation to three main variables associated with the manifestation of psychological distress. These variables are: trigger factors, the modulation of negative emotional reactions, the presence of early maladaptive schemas and the use of dysfunctional coping strategies. The results obtained indicate that the manifestation of psychological distress by the grandiose narcissistic leader varies in certain respects from that of the vulnerable narcissistic leader. Indeed, the psychological distress manifested by the grandiose narcissistic leader is mainly characterized by anxiety and cognitive problems. Moreover, his psychological distress appears to be accompanied by a fear of public achievement failure and the partial use of two types of dysfunctional coping strategies – self-aggrandizement with reference to ostentation and self-softening underpinned by social withdrawal. With regard to the psychological distress of the vulnerable narcissistic leader, it is essentially characterized by a profound sense of depression and irritability. Moreover, it is associated with a fear of public interpersonal rejection; the internalization of negative emotions (feelings of guilt, self-criticism and feelings of worthlessness); and the partial use of two types of dysfunctional coping strategies – self-softening underpinned by social withdrawal and self-aggrandizement with reference to ostentation.     

The embodied self: thinking psychoanalytically in a time of 'science'

Abstract :  In order to be relevant in our 'scientific' times, it is necessary that we psychoanalysts situate our ideas in thoughtful and respectful relationship to neighbouring disciplines such as genetics, cultural studies, and neuro-anatomy. In this paper I suggest that, although psychoanalysis still continues to have valuable contributions to make to the understanding of human sexual experience and behaviour, in order to make these contributions relevant we must tune in with openness to the challenges posed by the unfolding discoveries in the other disciplines that grapple with the arena of human sexuality.
I will suggest ways in which research on sexual desire and gender identity may be assimilated into psychoanalytic thinking and give some examples of its use in analytic practice.