Commentary: Further Thoughts About Assimilative Integration

The models for assimilative integration presented in this issue are considered. It is concluded that some grounding theories may be too structured, or one's interpretation of them too rigid, stifling psychotherapeutic flexibility and creativity by excluding potentially useful interventions. Alternatively, models may be too unstructured, or one's interpretation of them too loose, leading to treatment forms lacking specificity, direction, and coherence. As noted originally by Messer, assimilative integration operates most beneficially when practitioners address the limitations of their therapeutic models, or tap their models' progressive implications in ways that respect the fundamentals of their shared clinical theories. Practiced in this balanced way, assimilative integration can offer a useful, flexible way of navigating a creative yet disciplined psychotherapeutic course between unbridled technical eclecticism and technical and theoretical rigidity. The author also examines and extends some of the integrative ideas put forth in this issue, from a two-person or intersubjective perspective based on a relational psychodynamic treatment model.     

A Relational Psychodynamic Perspective on Assimilative Integration

In this paper we discuss recent advances in relational psychoanalytic thinking, and demonstrate how an assimilative approach to integration can be based on this theoretical and clinical model. We describe 3 instances in which active interventions may be used to enhance relationally oriented, psychoanalytic work: by impacting on relationships outside of therapy that maintain pathological patterns, by filling in intrapsychic deficits, and by supporting the patient's active efforts at change. We provide clinical examples to illustrate each of these points.     

The responsive order: A new empiricism

The uniqueness of logic is upheld and contrasted with twenty roles of a wider responsive order that includes us and our procedures. Empirical responses are precise, but different in different approaches. Procedures and findings are independent of (not separable from) their concepts. Two-way feedback obviates a top-down derivation of findings from assumptions, hypotheses, history, or language. The postmodern problems of interpretation, conditions of appearances and relativism involve the ancient error of making perception the model-instance of experience. Instead, bodily interaction functions in language and precedes perception and interpretation. Logic, space time locations and individuated referents involve positional relations derived from comparing. Beyond Kuhn, Feyerabend, Newton and Einstein, if we can give interaction priority over comparing, the responsive objectivity of both can be upheld. A new empiricism, neither naive nor constructivist, uses the words order, explication, truth, and exactly to build on Wittgenstein and on Dilthey's hermeneutic. Natural language is metaphor-like, originally crossed. Logic must ignore its assumptions. It must render everything as a machine and drop humans and animals out. A new discipline is proposed, to move between the logical and the responsive orders, to deal with the machine/human interface and the social uses of science such as bioengineering.     

The Deep Structure of Group Life: Unconscious Dimensions

There is a reconsideration and renaissance of interest in expanded conceptions of unconscious processes as they affect individuals and groups (Grotstein, 1999). Recent focus on social unconscious (Hopper, 1996) and cultural unconscious processes (Henderson, 1988) and the nature of intersubjectivity (Harwood and Pines, 1998) raise questions about the location of group analysis. This paper considers the deep structure of group life by examining four functions of the unconscious: repressive, conservative, creative, and mythopoetic (Ellenberger, 1970). On an individual level of analysis, these functions are equated respectively with formative ideas about the: personal–subjective, social–political, intersubjective–cultural and collective–objective unconscious. Group level analogs, as they develop and affect groups and their members, are explored as synthetic, shared, symbolicy and synchronous unconscious processes.     

From I: A/M to “Who am I?”—Aggregation/Massification and Trauma-Based Affects and Object Relations in Groups: A Response to Earl Hopper

Hopper's portrayal of the fourth basic assumption of Incohesion: Aggregation/Massification has two components: (1) a revision of Turquet's theory of BA Oneness to incorporate the polarity of aggregation and massification stemming from annihilation anxiety; and (2) a conception of the difficult patient as having an encapsulated psychosis. Hopper's theory of the encapsulated psychosis offers an important but incomplete perspective in explaining borderline and narcissistic pathology, as well as psychological trauma. In this response to Hopper, I suggest that the fourth assumption is in fact a still more primitive state of boundary opening and closing. I also see a need to differentiate trauma as such from borderline pathology, and further hold that the relationship between Hopper's British Independent theory and trauma theories based on dissociation needs to be clarified.     

Some aspects of eloquence in Descartes's works

In Descartes's philosophy, communicating scientific and philosophical truth does not represent a problem that can be traced back to humanistic rhetoric, meant as the art of persuasion. Descartes states his belief in the eloquence of reason: a clear, precise, and adequately expressed thought cannot fail to convince the listener. This is the measure of the distance between the level of truth and the level of opinion. However, the moment of confrontation with the public is also the very moment when the truth of the new knowledge enters into conflict with other, different conceptions. Education and history influence communication with the result that the distinction between intellectual conviction and persuasion becomes less straightforward. Rational eloquence, as Descartes is well aware, must be articulated in such a way as to avoid any possible language equivocation and to adopt exposition strategies ensuring effective access to readers. The aim of this paper is to illustrate some aspects of this tension as expressed by the writer Descartes with reference to a number of texts (from the Regulae to the Meditationes) that were essential for the elaboration and dissemination of his philosophy.     

Managerial Stress, Locus of Control, and Job Strain in Taiwan and UK: A Comparative Study

This study investigated managerial stress in Taiwan and UK using the Occupational Stress Indicator-2 (OSI-2) and the Work Locus of Control (WLCS) scale. Results showed that the reliability and validity of the measures used were acceptable and comparable in the two samples. There were similarities as well as differences in managerial stress in the two countries. Recognition and Managerial role were important predictors of strain for the Chinese managers, whereas Relationships, Organizational climate, and Personal responsibility were important predictors of strain for UK managers. There were consistent moderating (vulnerability) effects of internal control for the Taiwanese managers. Results corroborated some previous studies conducted in the West. However, caution was also suggested for generalizing Western-originated concepts and theories across cultural boundaries.     

The artist as transgressor in Mandel'štam's poetry

In Mandel'tam's writing, artistic creativity is described as based on the indispensable yet contradictory modes of compliance and deviation. The artist, by his artistic nature, must be an obedient disciple to the tradition that inspires him, and, at the same time, a violator who renders what inspires him in an individual form. Thus, art implies iterability through novelty. In the totalitarian state, this double nature of art acquires a sinister context and brings the artist to an unavoidable conflict with the state. He has a choice between a servile compliance with the state's command and artistic independence. If the artist complies, he loses his ingenuity; if, on the other hand, he has the courage to break away from the established order, his fate is martyrdom. The criteria of truth and falsehood, the issue of loyalty, of compromise and collaboration or resistance become most relevant. Such words as outcast or non-contemporary acquire the meaning of non-collaborationist or enemy of the people. In the totalitarian state a genuine artist is viewed as a law-breaker, and his art leads him to crime. The notions of compliance and deviation cease being merely aesthetic terms and assume in Mandel'tam's poetry complex, subtle and tragic overtones.I would like to express my gratitude to John Barnstead, Thomas Blakeley, James Doull, Elena Glazov-Corrigan, Gregory Glazov, Leonard Kazdan, Peter Kussmaul, Malcolm Ross, Detlev Steffen, and Ieva Vitins for their valuable criticism, suggestions, and revisions of my English.     

Does Alternating Between Masculine and Feminine Pronouns Eliminate Perceived Gender Bias in Text?

This study explores whether alternating betweenthe pronouns he and she ina text is an effective way to avoid sexist language.Participants were psychology students at a largemidwestern university and were predominately White and frommiddle-class backgrounds. Students read two versions ofan essay, one that alternated between masculine andfeminine pronouns and one that exclusively used paired, he or she-type pronouns. Readersperceived the alternating version to be biased in favorof females and lower in overall quality than the pairedversion. However, the alternating version appeared to be more effective at combating sexism,suggesting an alternating strategy may be desirable forauthors with this goal. If the author is not primarilyconcerned with increasing readers' awareness of gender issues, techniques such as pluralization or thesingular they may be moreappropriate.     

The group member's view of inner and outer reality: The Janus phenomenon applied to the group

This paper surveys some theoretical aspects of psychodynamic group treatment from the vantage point of the Janus phenomenon. This focus may provide some clarification in understanding how group therapy facilitates growth, especially in the relationships between inner realities and the realities of the external world. The paper explores and seeks bridges and connections between the dynamics of the group and intrapsychic dynamics. The inner view may be understood as intimately connected with intrapsychic concerns, whereas the issues for patients in groups do, to a degree, concern interpersonal processes in and projections onto the external world. The paper concludes that, thus far, we must accept less than perfect integration of theory and settle for limited domain reasoning (Scheidlinger, 1982). Erlebnis is the term coined by Paul Federn (1952) to refer to subjective experience of the self.     

Six-year-old children's understanding of sentences adjoined with time adverbs

The adjoining of clauses with temporal links is the basis for many sentences that convey sequence of events. The present study attempts to delineate 6-year-old children's (N=30) understanding of the meaning sequences imparted by sentences adjoined with after, before, and until. Their performance of the meaning sequence for each of 24 carefully constructed sentences is compared to an adult model. Analysis of the results (using a Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Signed Rank Test) indicated that: (1)Ss understood sentences adjoined with after according to an adult model more frequently than before adjoined sentences (P<0.01); (b) Until adjoined sentences with a negative marker in the main clause were understood according to an adult model more often than until adjoined sentences with no such negative element, but the difference was not significant at a=0.01; (3)Ss understood before adjoined sentences according to an adult model more often than until adjoined sentences, but the difference was not significant at a=0.01. In general, the results indicated that 6-year-olds have not yet completed development of an adult grammar with respect to adjoining clauses with temporal links, after, before, and until.     

Commentary on Boharts “The Client is the Most Important Common Factor”

The cliché Treatment operates on patient to produce effects is reversed by Bohart into Client operates on treatments and procedures to produce effects. Although this formula has the advantage of underscoring the patient's responsibility and competence, it may also overemphasize his or her role. A more balanced formula could be Process operates on both patient and client to produce effects, as it means that neither the therapist nor the client, but the process is the operator. There seems to be not much to earn, if the old hero (the therapist) is replaced by the new one (the client). A more promising perspective opens if both give up their pretence to be the operator, or the one who knows what is to be done, and listen and submit to the logic of the process that goes beyond both.     

Quantitative Versuche über die Prägnanz von Punktmustern

Summary The intention of the paper is to describe Prägnanz-phenomena in terms of information theory. Two different concepts for the application of informational variables to perceptual processes are discriminated. For several reasons, Attneave's concept (1951) is preferred: In the sense of information theory single figures can be treated as signal structures; thus the degree of regularity in them should be specifiable in terms of informational variables.Two quasi-informational parameters are used to describe the degree of regularity in simple dot patterns.It was expected that perceived figural quality of dot patterns would increase with the redundancy of spatially distributed messages. At a constant word-length (= constant number of dots), the quality perceived should be the better the lower the entropy (or uncertainty) of the figure.In several experiments the information measures used turned out to be closely related to different operationally defined response-variables for figural quality, e.g. figural goodness-ratings and exactness of the reproduction of dot-positions. Besides, an inverse relationship is observed between interestingness-ratings and redundancy measures.The results are discussed in terms of information theory and psychological concepts. It is shown, that it has important implications on the psychological theory of perception to regard the human perceiver as an information-decoding-system. Apparently there must be some dynamically active system which enables the perceiver to utilize the redundancy of spatial brightness-distributions for sure and quick recognition.     

A Critical Evaluation of Hal Childs' The Myth of the Historical Jesus and the Evolution of Consciousness

The purpose of Childs' book an is integration of historical criticism and analytical psychology. I share Childs' interest in analytical psychology and his concern about the way historical criticism is practiced within the Jesus Seminar. However, I consider his proposed integration to be neither necessary nor desirable, particularly if integration really means amalgamation. Rather than adopting the concerns of analytical psychology, the historical critic would do well to emulate the procedures and rules of evidence of the secular historian.     

John Nash's Postdelusional Period: A Case of Transformed Narcissism

This article concludes the psychoanalytic study of mathematical genius John Nash begun in previous articles (Capps 2003a, 2003b) by focusing on his recovery from paranoid schizophrenia after more than a decade of being under control of his delusions. I develop the idea that Nash was a highly narcissistic personality, the primary focus of which was his beautiful mind, in the years preceding his mental breakdown. I attribute his recovery primarily to the transformation of his narcissistic personality and support this attribution by means of Heinz Kohut's identification of five major expressions of transformed narcissism in his classic essay on the forms and transformations of narcissism.     

Computer content analysis of sex differences in the language of children

This study presents empirical procedures for the collection and content analysis of the oral language of kindergarten children. The analysis technique used material and machines available to most researchers. The results of the analysis of language samples of 144 randomly selected children from the entire kindergarten class of the Ithaca, New York, school system showed that boys produced significantly more language than did the girls as well as significantly more references to aggression, self, time, space, quantity, fears, good, act of oral communication, negation, and affirmation, and asked more questions of the examiner than did the girls. The girls made significantly more female references than did the boys. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Sets and Classes as Many

In this paper the view is developed that classes should not be understood as individuals, but, rather, as classes as many of individuals. To correlate classes with individuals labelling and colabelling functions are introduced and sets identified with a certain subdomain of the classes on which the labelling and colabelling functions are mutually inverse. A minimal axiomatization of the resulting system is formulated and some of its extensions are related to various systems of set theory, including nonwellfounded set theories.     

Toward a model for spirituality and alcoholism

Spirituality is a significant factor in recovery from alcoholism, whatever definition of this condition one may use. One aspect of alcohol abuse is its apparent relationship to the balance between brain hemispheres. Excessive use of alcohol anesthetizes the object-based, language-oriented functions of the left hemisphere, associated with an action mode of consciousness. This allows greater engagement of the right-hemisphere receptive mode, which is also associated with religious experience. A model of spirituality based on achieving a balance between hemisphere functions and modes of consciousness could provide a non-chemical alternative to excessive use of alcohol.     

The family as portrayed on prime-time television, 1947–1990: Structure and characteristics

Successful family series across four decades of American prime-time television were examined. Family portrayals were defined as either conventional or nonconventional. Conventional families were categorized as couples without children and couples with children. Nonconventional families were categorized as single parent or contrived. Additional family characteristics were also recorded including sex of single parent, reason for singleness, social class status, females employed outside the home, live-ins, race, and whether the presentation was dramatic or comedic. The data show a trend toward more equal presentation of conventional and nonconventional families, few divorced or female single parents, and few minority families. Implications of findings are discussed and future research questions suggested.