Attitudes about psychotherapy: A qualitative study of introductory psychology students who have never been in psychotherapy and the influence of attachment style

Design: Interviews about attitudes about psychotherapy with 12 undergraduate students who had never been in psychotherapy were analysed using consensual qualitative research. Results: Participants believed that the client role is to disclose, be receptive, and be motivated; that the therapist role is to listen, support, and give advice; and that the therapeutic relationship should be close and personal. Participants had ideas about the benefits (a healing therapeutic relationship, personal and interpersonal changes) and the barriers (self‐stigma and public stigma, difficulty revealing, need to solve problems on own, cost) associated with seeking therapy, and they disliked the idea of being diagnosed. In contrast with participants who were securely attached, those who were insecurely attached more often wanted a professional therapeutic relationship, wanted the therapist to ask questions, mentioned fewer benefits to therapy, and thought that they would have difficulty disclosing to a therapist. Discussion: Implications for changing attitudes about psychotherapy and improving training programs for practitioners are discussed.     

The concept of suggestion in the early history of advertising psychology

As early as 1896, experimental psychologists began studying the mental proccesses involved in advertising. The first psychological theory of advertising maintained, in effect, that the consumer was a nonrational, suggestible creature under the hypnotic influence of the advertising copywriter. Walter Dill Scott was the major proponent of this theory, and it was largely through his writings that advertising men learned about the psychology of suggestion. Scott's theory was consistent with a growing trend in the advertising profession toward viewing consumer behavior as irrational. Scott's efforts might also be viewed as part of the trend in the advertising profession toward seeking a scientific basis for copywriting theory and practice.     

The Object Relations Technique by Herbert Phillipson

AIDS has a unique set of characteristics that makes group psychotherapy more complex than with other populations: (1) the threat of an early death, (2) a highly variable course of illness, and (3) stigma related to the illness and to the preexisting lifestyles of most patients. The specific ways in which the three factors seriously interfere with establishing and maintaining group cohesion are discussed, and clinical guidelines are suggested. In addition, a model for understanding and working with these and other issues in group psychotherapy, based on Erik Erikson's interpersonal theory of development, is presented. Finally, particular countertransferential difficulties are discussed in relation to the heightened emotionality common to AIDS psychotherapy groups.     

Zen meets New Thought: The Erhard Seminars Training and Changing Ideas About Zen

‘Est’ was a human potential movement founded by Werner Erhard in San Francisco. At the height of the movement in the mid-1970s, thousands of trainees in the United States and Japan participated in gruelling 60-hour seminars intended to shock the participant into a more direct experience of reality. Est and derivative seminars became popular in North American business culture and several corporations have required employees to undergo the training. This article locates the est seminars within the context of an going dialogue between Japan and the West. Erhard combined New Thought with Zen ideas about satori and sesshin. This adaptation intensified a movement, already begun by thinkers such as D. T. Suzuki and Yasutani Hakuun, that presented Zen as a ‘technology’ for achieving a particular experience of reality. Est was then successfully exported back to Japan. Examination of the historical relationship of est and Zen explains many of the most controversial aspects of est. It also reveals an important channel through which ‘Zen’ ideas were disseminated into American culture. Finally, the reciprocal exchange of ideas between Japan and the West raises important questions about such categories as ‘traditional’ Zen and ‘Americanized’ Zen.     

J.L. Moreno: An Unrecognized Pioneer of Family Therapy

J.L. Moreno's fundamental and pioneering contributions to the development of group therapy, encounter, transactional analysis, and especially psychodrama are well known. However, most family therapists seem unacquainted with the fact that from his earliest writings in 1923 J.L. Moreno developed an interactional view of psychotherapy that in 1973 already resulted in formulations of a true systems orientation and very concrete ideas about marital therapy, family therapy, and network therapy. He probably is the first (1937!) therapist that actually involved a husband's lover in conjoint marital therapy. His general theoretical formulations about the pathology of interpersonal relations as well as his practical suggestions for the therapy of the interpersonal relations seem to be insufficiently known to workers and researchers in the field of family therapy.     

Creativity: Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Selection of Creative Ideas

Creative idea selection—the selection of the most creative idea(s) from available ideas—is an important yet understudied topic. Creative idea selection can be performed by the idea generator (i.e., intrapersonal selection) or by another person (i.e., interpersonal selection). In the current research, we examined whether these two types of selection lead to different levels of performance. Participants generated six creative ideas to solve a societal problem. Thereafter, two selection tasks—intrapersonal selection and interpersonal selection—were performed. During intrapersonal selection, the idea generator selected the most creative idea from his/her own ideas; during interpersonal selection, another person made the selection from the same ideas. We found no effect of intrapersonal and interpersonal selection on creative idea selection performance: People selected ideas of identical creativity, irrespective of whether that idea was from themselves or from others. Moreover, we replicated the earlier finding that people perform suboptimally at creative idea selection, failing to select ideas that were more creative than an average idea, for both intrapersonal and interpersonal selection.     

骨髓造血干细胞移植治疗自身免疫性疾病的进展

本土化研究是当前世界人文社会科学发展的必然趋势,也是中国传统心理治疗思想发展的唯一出路。近百年来,随着西学热潮的兴起和现代西方心理治疗方法的涌入,我国心理学工作者和中医学工作者为了保护传统文化中的心理治疗思想,对其开展了广泛的研究,经历了萌芽阶段、曲折发展阶段、活跃阶段和繁荣阶段等四个时期。随着研究队伍的融合,未来的研究将不断凸显其自身特色,自身体系,并逐渐走向临床应用。     

Personalized and not general suggestion produces false autobiographical memories and suggestion-consistent behavior

Suggesting false childhood events produces false autobiographical beliefs, memories and suggestion-consistent behavior. The mechanisms by which suggestion affects behavior are not understood, and whether false beliefs and memories are necessary for suggestions to impact behavior remains unexplored. We examined the relative effects of providing a personalized suggestion (suggesting that an event occurred to the person in the past), and/or a general suggestion (suggesting that an event happened to others in the past). Participants (N=122) received a personalized suggestion, a general suggestion, both or neither, about childhood illness due to spoiled peach yogurt. The personalized suggestion resulted in false beliefs, false memories, and suggestion-consistent behavioral intentions immediately after the suggestion. One week or one month later participants completed a taste test that involved eating varieties of crackers and yogurts. The personalized suggestion led to reduced consumption of only peach yogurt, and those who reported a false memory showed the most eating suppression. This effect on behavior was equally strong after one week and one month, showing a long lived influence of the personalized suggestion. The general suggestion showed no effects. Suggestions that convey personal information about a past event produce false autobiographical memories, which in turn impact behavior.     

The significance of William James' ideas for modern psychotherapy

The functional psychology first developed by William James in 1890 exerts a strong but unrecognized influence on the thinking of most modern psychotherapists. Indeed, in many ways, clinical functionalism is the hidden philosophy which holds together the mainstream of eclectic psychotherapy. This article considers the general impact of James' point of view on modern psychotherapy and the specific relevance of James' ideas about emotions and consciousness.     

Social comparison and the drive upward revisited: Affiliation as a response to marital stress

To test theoretical ideas derived from classic and recent social comparison theory, two studies examined affiliative tendencies as a response to marital problems among individuals varying in marital dissatisfaction. Study 1 (n. = 632) showed that the higher the degree of marital dissatisfaction and the higher the uncertainty about how things are going in one's marriage, the stronger was the desire for affiliation (operationalized as the desire to talk with others about one's marriage). Moreover, among individuals high in marital dissatisfaction, a preference for upward affiliation was found, i.e. for contact with others having better marriages. Individuals with lower levels of dissatisfaction preferred affiliation with similar others. Women experienced more uncertainty and a stronger affiliative tendency than men. In Study 2 (n = 233), these findings were largely replicated. Moreover, it was shown that the desire to affiliate when facing marital stress was particularly strong among individuals high in interpersonal orientation.     

Short-term group psychotherapy: Who succeeds,who fails?

Group psychotherapy literature is unclear about what patient characteristics contribute to better and poorer outcome. This study examined pre-group therapy patient characteristics and their relationship to short-term group therapy outcome. A battery of outcome measurements was administered to 192 short-term group therapy patients before, after, and 4–6 months after their group experience. Three distinct outcome groups are defined: dropouts, low changers and high changers. Characteristics of each group are discussed. Aside from the traditionally important variables such as age and education, this study indicates that interpersonal variables (interpersonal sensitivity, distance/closeness to others, primary involvement with family) may be potentially important areas to pursue in screening and preparing patients for a group.     

A Test of Interpersonal Theory of Depression in Youth Psychiatric Inpatients

Coyne's (1976b) interpersonal theory of depression postulated that the combination of depressive symptoms and excessive reassurance-seeking leads to interpersonal problems (e.g., loneliness, devaluation). The present study is one of the first to test this model among youth, particularly a clinical sample of youth. Sixty-eight youth psychiatric inpatients (35 girls; 33 boys; mean age = 13.34 years, SD = 2.50) completed self-report measures of excessive reassurance-seeking, depressive symptoms, and interpersonal rejection. Results conformed to the hypothesis: The statistical interaction of excessive reassurance-seeking and depressive symptoms predicted interpersonal rejection, such that high-reassurance-seeking youth with depressive symptoms reported the most interpersonal rejection. Implications of the findings for interpersonal theory of depression in youngsters are discussed.     

团体心理治疗中凝聚力的概念及测量研究述评

团体心理治疗中的凝聚力最初多被定义为人际信任、吸引和卷入,随着研究的深入,凝聚力的概念逐渐向多维的方向发展。对凝聚力的测量主要有MacKenzie的团体氛围量表、Lese等的治疗因素-凝聚力分量表及Piper的凝聚力量表等。目前团体心理治疗领域的研究对凝聚力的认识缺乏一致性。从凝聚力的概念建构着手,探索团体心理治疗过程,开发评估工具,构建系统的理论和模型,是值得国内研究者关注的方向。     

The Future of Psychotherapy: Visions and Recommendations

Using a roundtable discussion format, the editor and new members of the editorial board for the Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy exchange ideas about how they envision the future of psychotherapy, anticipate likely positive and negative outcomes, identify key issues to be confronted today in order to maximize future success, and clarify the role of the individual psychotherapist in protecting psychotherapy as a viable field of study and practice. The discussion closes with recommendations for the next generation of psychotherapists and general conclusions about the future of psychotherapy.     

Differentiating Two Kinds of Neutrality

Neutrality is a most important concept, yet a controversial one. Theorists of different analytic schools have defined it in their own terms, leaving behind them a legacy of disparate and often contradictory formulations. In this paper, the author reviews briefly some of these ideas about neutrality. Then, from a contemporary interpersonal/relational perspective, the author takes a new look at the idea of neutrality. The author points out how unacknowledged discrepancies among these ideas get in the way of understanding and so complicate analytic discourse, and argues that useful work with this concept requires that analysts differentiate between two aspects of neutrality, specifically operational neutrality and intentional neutrality. The theoretical discussion is followed by a case vignette illustrating the clinical usefulness of this differentiation.     

Psychiatry,Cultural Competency,and the Care of Ultra-Orthodox Jews: Achieving Secular and Theocentric Convergence Through Introspection

Several socio-cultural factors complicate mental health care in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish population. These include societal stigma, fear of the influence of secular ideas, the need for rabbinic approval of the method and provider, and the notion that excessive concern with the self is counter-productive to religious growth. Little is known about how the religious beliefs of this population might be employed in therapeutic contexts. One potential point of convergence is the Jewish philosophical tradition of introspection as a means toward personal, interpersonal, and spiritual growth. We reviewed Jewish religious-philosophical writings on introspection from antiquity (the Babylonian Talmud) to the Middle Ages (Duties of the Heart), the eighteenth century (Path of the Just), the early Hasidic movement (the Tanya), and modernity (Alei Shur, Halakhic Man). Analysis of these texts indicates that: (1) introspection can be a religiously acceptable reaction to existential distress; (2) introspection might promote alignment of religious beliefs with emotions, intellect and behavior; (3) some religious philosophers were concerned about the demotivating effects of excessive introspection and self-critique on religious devotion and emotional well-being; (4) certain religious forms of introspection are remarkably analogous to modern methods of psychiatry and psychology, particularly psychodynamic psychotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. We conclude that homology between religious philosophy of emotion and secular methods of psychiatry and psychotherapy may inform the choice and method of mental health care, foster the therapist-patient relationship, and thereby enable therapeutic convergence.     

My Perspective on Psychotherapy Integration: An Outsider Who's Out of It

My rejoinder is a response to two commentaries on my SEPI keynote in 1997: commentaries written by Goldfried and Cullari. Instead of grappling with the ideas I presented, both respondents were distracted by my satirical beginning. In my talk I proposed a method for studying psychotherapy integration. I am not pessimistic about the potential for integration, nor am I pessimistic about psychotherapy. But I am a skeptic, and science is driven—and indeed advance—by skepticism. In fact, psychotherapy integration requires that its advocates be skeptics. I still do not know what psychotherapy integration is, and remain confused. I can only conclude that I am not only an outsider, but out of it.     

AGAINST RECORDING SESSIONS FOR SUPERVISION

The American Psychological Association’s (APA) 2014 injunction that supervisors must listen to recorded sessions of their supervisees’ work is based on a rich and thorough body of research, and yet it entails a narrative of psychotherapy as a discipline of Science. If psychotherapy is understood as an endeavor also of the Humanities, recording sessions may be anathematic to supervision and training. Developing ideas from Greenberg’s (2015) theory of “controlling fiction,” the writer presents a narrative of psychotherapy in which it is not wise to review recorded sessions in supervision.

     

The Value of Research Methods in Psychotherapy Research: A Reply to the Commentary of Dr Norton

Norton's commentary on our article has prompted us to think further about the purpose of psychotherapy research. We agree with his suggestion that researchers have much work to do to understand when and for whom interventions are most efficacious. We hope that our field will make progress in this regard. In this reply, we further describe why we believe careful attention to research methods, such as those highlighted in our article, is key to making progress in psychotherapy research.     

Assimilation from the East and the Spectrum of Consciousness

Beginning with an eastern concept of human beings rooted in the Buddhist and Yogic traditions, this paper describes a theoretical assimilation of western models and therapies into the eastern paradigm. It traces the beginning of the east–west psychotherapy dialogue in the United States, citing early examples of Buddhist and yogic practices in the west. Ken Wilber's spectrum of consciousness model is presented and its unifying value for psychotherapy is explored. An integrative model of wholistic therapy, developed by a group of eastern and western practitioners, is then described. The paper concludes with an exploration of the issues and implications for psychotherapy integration raised by this model.