Raised in the world of psychoanalysis: an interview with Judith Dupont

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis - This interview with Dr. Judith Dupont contains her reminiscences and thoughts about two topics of importance for the historiography of psychoanalysis....     

Importance of School Health Education An Interview with Dean Joyce Hopp

Joyce W. Hopp is Dean of the School of Allied Health Professions at Lorna Linda University. Program development in response to market demands is her forté Dr. Hopp is also a Professor of Health Promotion and Education in the School of Public Health at Loma Linda University, a position she has held for 30 years.

Dr. Hopp began her career in healthcare as a nurse. Her primary interest is health education in Seventh-day Adventist educational institutions. The interview addresses her educational progression to a Ph.D., her experience in training healthcare professionals, and her philosophy of Christian education. Also included are her suggestions for future research in Christian health education.     

Education With Mind,Heart, and Soul: An Interview With Mary Finn Maples

Dr. Mary Finn Maples is a historic figure in the counseling field. She has been president of the American Counseling Association and president of the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVIC). She was one of ASERVIC's earliest members, dating back to when it was known as the National Catholic Guidance Conference. Dr. Maples has had an extensive career, and this article highlights some areas of her career, particularly pertaining to her time and commitment to ASERVIC and religious or spiritual issues in counseling. This interview focuses on her career, philosophy, and dedication to the field.     

An Open Heart,an Open Mind: An Interview With Dr. Cheri Smith

Dr. Cheri Smith has been a distinguished and contributing member of the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVIC) for over 20 years. Dr. Smith's commitment as well as advocacy for ASERVIC and the counseling profession is remarkable. The purpose of this article is to highlight Dr. Smith's contributions to ASERVIC through an interview that focuses on her inspirations and influences; involvement in various leadership roles; and views on ASERVIC's past, present, and future.     

Speaking of fairness in testing

In an article based on her presentation to the 114th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Janet Helms described a concept of test fairness. Helms's approach to fairness appears to be based on the premise that socialization consists of experiences received from one's environment, which are simply internalized as personal attributes. From an ecological perspective, this is incorrect, misleading, and oddly evocative of social-cognitive and psychodynamic notions. Individuals are not passive recipients of culture, and they do not necessarily simply reflect their experiences. Although Helms intended her model to apply to racial and cultural groups, it seems that she has overlooked the potential of applying her concept of fairness to another important level of social organization: the family. R. J. Griffore suggests that it is unfair to avoid using valid tests that are said to be unfair because of racially or culturally based construct-irrelevant variance if those tests can help individuals make decisions that lead to success outcomes. The use of race or culture as a variable that in any way jeopardizes the prediction of success for individuals or groups is unfair for all groups for whom the test is used.     

Interview With Dr. Judith Miranti: A Servant Leader and Advocate for the Association for Spiritual,Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling

Dr. Judith Miranti has contributed over 40 years of service to the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVIC). The purpose of this article is to highlight and recognize a pioneer and influential leader of ASERVIC. The interview discusses Dr. Miranti's (a) historical knowledge and memories of the development of ASERVIC, (b) involvement in ASERVIC in various leadership roles and with others who influenced her, and (c) hope for the future of ASERVIC.     

The Counseling Process as Defined by Relationship Types: A Test of Helms's Interactional Model

Helms (1984) presented a model to explain the influence of Black and White racial identity development on counseling interactions. The purpose of this study was to examine her hypothesis that specific combinations of racial identity attitudes contribute to qualitatively different counseling process and outcome or relationship types.     

Implementing fairness in racial-group assessment requires assessment of individuals

Replies to comments by R. J. Griffore and D. A. Newman et al on the author's original article on test validity and cultural bias in racial-group assessment. Helms notes that, given that within-group variance exceeds between-groups variance, racial groups are probably simulating a psychological construct that is more strongly related to individuals' test scores than to their respective racial group's mean test scores. Therefore, models of individual differences, such as her Helms individual-differences (HID) model, that remove construct-irrelevant racial variance, are needed to make the testing process fair at the level of individual African American, Latino/Latina American, and Native American test takers. Her HID model is intended to focus attention on identifying the factors responsible for the racial-group-level differences and, thereby, assist test users to look beyond presumed physical appearance (e.g., racial-group designations) for explanations of individuals' cognitive abilities, knowledge, or skills test scores.     

Gross overactivity: A study by direct observation

A group of children who were rated as grossly overactive by a clinician was compared with a matched control group on various measurements of their behavior in a clinical interview situation and in a psychological test situation. An observational schedule was developed to discern those behaviors related to the concept of overactivity. These behaviors were operationally defined to enable reliable replication. The experimental group showed an excess in quantity of mechanically recorded movement as well as an increase in a cluster of behaviors including distractibility and disinhibition. Situational effects on those symptoms were noted. The symptoms were best observed in a semistructured clinical interview situation.This project was carried out while S. L. Luk was a research worker at the Institute of Psychiatry, London, supported by the University of Hong Kong. The authors express sincere thanks to Dr. S. Sandberg for her help in the reliability study, to Dr. J. Bacon-Soong for his statistical advice, and to Miss Ivy Wong for secretarial help.The coding scheme is available from the author.     

Janet E. Helms: award for distinguished contributions to education and training in psychology

Presents a citation for Janet E. Helms, who received the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training in Psychology "for her remarkable contribution to a conceptual and reiterative empirical base that has transformed the study of racism in our time." Accompanying the citation are a brief profile and a selected bibliography, as well as Helms' award address, entitled Fairness Is Not Validity or Cultural Bias in Racial-Group Assessment: A Quantitative Perspective. ((c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).     

Pioneers of Multicultural Counseling: A Conversation With Clemmont E. Vontress

This article presents an interview conducted with Dr. Clemmont E. Vontress, a pioneering scholar in the field of multicultural counseling. In this interview. Dr. Vontress reflects on his long and distinguished career and the evolution of multicultural counseling as professional discipline.     

Why Is There Still No Study of Cultural Equivalence in Standardized Cognitive Ability Tests?

To investigate how the culturalist perspective on investigating racial group differences in standardized cognitive ability tests has advanced, a content analysis of 28 studies citing J. E. Helms (1992) identified 7 general themes. Overall, researchers cited J. E. Helms (1992) as support for their own hypotheses but did not directly test the culturalist perspective. Para investigar cómo ha avanzado la perspectiva culturalista sobre la investigación de las diferencias entre grupos raciales en los tests estandarizados de abilidades cognitivas, un análisis de contenido de 28 estudios que citan a J. E. Helms (1992) identificó 7 temas generales. En conjunto, los investigadores citaron a J. E. Helms (1992) para apoyar sus propias hipótesis, pero no comprobaron la perspectiva culturalista directamente.     

Therapeutic Action in the Work of a Playful Clinician: A Reflection on Dr. Silber’s Reimagining of Humpty Dumpty

ABSTRACT

In my discussion of Dr. Silber’s paper, Reimagining Humpty Dumpty: The Therapeutic Action of Play, I mirror Dr. Silber’s playful posture in her use of the Humpty Dumpty fable to talk about children and their care by society. My reflections on Dr. Silber’s therapeutic work with her two young patients focus on her co-creating meaning with each child’s parents as well as with the child. I discuss that by holding in her mind both the subjectivities of the child and his parents, Dr. Silber is able to practice a fundamentally relational therapy. I would have liked to have heard more about her emotional reactions in her work with both cases as another important dimension of her work. Finally, I emphasize through my play with Humpty Dumpty several ways that society can support children and families that are essential for their development: parental leave, developmentally approptiate expectations for children in school, and the facilitation and protection children’s open ended time and ability to play.     

Cognitive support for the career choices of college women

The career aspirations of 50 female college seniors of lower- and middle-class backgrounds was assessed by a questionnaire and tape-recorded interview. Using a fourfold classification contrasting career choice with career commitment, the women were classified as innovative career oriented, innovative noncareer oriented, traditional career oriented, and traditional noncareer oriented. The career aspirations of these women, however, were not related to maternal employment patterns as previous studies have indicated. Rather, the perceived attitudes and direction of the parents was found to be a significant correlate of career choice and career commitment. It was concluded that maternal employment as a modeling variable may be unimportant for women of lower- and middle-class backgrounds.This article is based on a dissertation which was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree in the Graduate Center, City University of New York. The author expresses appreciation to Dr. Florence Denmark for her continuous support throughout the entire study and also thanks Dr. Bernard Seidenberg for his valuable suggestions on earlier drafts of this article.     

Emotions and White Racial Identity Status Attitudes

Relationships between emotional states and White racial identity status attitudes (Helms, 1984 , 1990) were tested on a sample of 286 White students. The stimulus was a vignette in which one condition involved explicit racial information and one did not. Participants rated baseline and posttest emotions and completed the White Racial Identity Attitude Scale (Helms & Carter, 1990 ). In the race condition, levels of posttest fear decreased as levels of autonomy status attitudes increased. Se realizó un test sobre las relaciones entre los estados emocionales y las actitudes de estado de identidad racial blanca (Helms, 1984 , 1990) en una muestra de 286 estudiantes blancos. El estímulo fue una viñeta en la cual una de las condiciones incluía información racial explícita y otra no. Los participantes evaluaron las emociones de referencia y con posterioridad al test, y completaron la Escala de Actitudes de Identidad Racial Blanca (Helms & Carter, 1990 ). En la condición de raza explícita, los niveles de miedo con posterioridad al test disminuyeron, mientras que los niveles de actitudes de estado de autonomía aumentaron.     

Finding Sandra: Dr. Beebe’s Second as Analytic Third: A Discussion of “A Patient Who Does Not Look: A Collaborative Treatment with Video Feedback”

Larry Sandberg and Beatrice Beebe (this issue) offer a moving account of their work with Sandra, a gaze-averse woman with a painful and traumatic childhood history. Drs. Sandberg and Beebe describe their work together in the context of an innovative conjoint treatment model including psychotherapy, video feedback consultation, and dance movement therapy. Dr. Beebe’s Interventions at the sensorial, bodily, and affective register facilitated Sandra’s movements from being in the grips of a terrifying object world, to an experience of companioning with Dr. Beebe, giving her a greater sense of holding and emotional security. Further, “Dr. Beebe’s Second,” an image from Dr. Beebe’s own reverie offered Sandra an “emotional third”; a new found internal experience of herself-with-others that helped her lift her gaze to the future.     

Case presentation: Jean

This symposium was devoted to the consideration of Dr. Mary Libbey's treatment of a 22-year-old woman. The unfolding of the analysand's symbiotic attachment to her mother, the devastating sequelae of her having been the stable center of a pathological family that devoted itself to the care of a severely handicapped sibling, and her immersion in unresolved mourning form the center of this richly detailed and carefully reported case study. In addition, four verbatim sessions are reported, one from each year of the first two years of treatment, and two from the third year of treatment. Dr. Epstein's discussion, praising Dr. Libbey's therapeutic skill, makes note of the issues in the patient's family of origin that served to prepare her to feel endangered in the treatment. Dr. Epstein's view is that the analyst has created an analytic situation that, because it is minimally impinging, allows the patient to become increasingly aware of her unmet needs in a way that is tolerable and minimally "destabilizing to the symbiotically based organization of her internal self and object world." In the climate of safety created in the treatment, the patient can begin to complete the work of mourning for her sister, friend, and aunt, a process of mourning that would be impossible in the context of her nuclear family, centered as it is on a mother who cannot tolerate separation. Limit-setting in the treatment is seen to be reassuring to the patient, facilitating as it does the analyst's commitment to maintaining the integrity of the analytic situation. Dr. Schafer's discussion, while in agreement with Dr. Epstein in recognizing the excellence of the presentation and the sensitivity and hard work that had gone into both the treatment and the clinical presentation, included some specific and focused observations about the transference and countertransference situations prevailing in this treatment and also some suggestions for creating a more consistently safe analytic atmosphere for this particular patient and others like her. Dr. Schafer proposes that the therapist acknowledge to herself and accept as well as possible the inevitable feeling of helplessness such patients provoke. In a more concrete vein, he advocates talking in the first person declarative as much as possible, preferring "I don't understand" to the more standard "What do you mean?" or "Why?" The therapist is encouraged to eschew interpreting what the patient says about the therapeutic relationship for a long time, and, further, he suggests not quickly connecting or easily reducing the therapeutic relationship to childhood prototypes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Feminist Therapy Pioneer: E. Kitch Childs

ABSTRACT

This article will focus on the life of the late Dr. E. Kitch Childs and her impact on Feminist Therapy. It seeks to celebrate and pay homage to her as one of the pioneers who helped pave the way for women in therapy. Dr. Childs was an African American lesbian woman who stood in the gap for social justice with her intellect, tenacity, and bravery and took the lead as a radical visionary.     

Feminist Pioneer: Annette Brodsky Paving the Way

ABSTRACT

Even when the culture imposed stringent limitations on women’s roles, Dr. Annette Brodsky refused to succumb to these restrictions. As one of only a few women in her graduate school cohort, she broke new ground during her pre-doctoral internship, her post-internship military placement, and in her faculty position at the University of Alabama. Her renowned work advocating for and studying the effect of consciousness-raising groups engendered critical scholarship that revealed the harm of therapists’ sexual abuse and facilitated improved ethics and guidelines for psychologists in their work with clients. Dr. Brodsky has served as a pioneering feminist psychologist for several generations of women.     

Do “Womanist” Identity Attitudes Influence College Women's Self-Esteem and Perceptions of Environmental Bias?

Helms (1990) proposed a four-stage model of womanist identity in which she hypothesized that development of healthy identity in women involves movement from external standards of gender identity to internal standards. Attitudes derived from her model were used to predict undergraduate women's self-esteem and perceptions of sex bias in the campus environment. Female undergraduates (N = 659), freshmen through seniors, were surveyed in classes at a large eastern university. Results indicated that Encounter (characterized by questioning of previously held stereotypical views about gender and dawning awareness of alternative perspectives) and Immersion-Emersion (characterized by an active rejection of male supremacist values and beliefs and the search for a positive self-affirming definition of womanhood) attitudes were inversely related to perceptions of environmental gender bias and positively related to self-esteem. Implications for counseling and future research are discussed.