Controversies and Conflicts in the Institution of "Open" Psychoanalysis: Cases from the History of the Therapeia Foundation

The institution of psychoanalysis has included controversies, dissensions and expulsions at both the theoretical-methodological and personal-organizational levels. There have also been several intra- and intergroup conflicts in the history of psychoanalysis, and in constructing and patterning the future of psychoanalytic knowledge. In the context of Finnish psychoanalysis, the Therapeia Foundation (founded in 1958) met from the start with resistance from official psychiatry and also from the IPA. For example, in the mid-1960s, D. W. Winnicott, as the President of the IPA, supported the orthodox Finnish psychoanalytic study group (later to become the Finnish Psychoanalytical Society), and pronounced that the Therapeia group was too loose and was not strictly able to use the IPA-recognized designation "psychoanalytic." The Therapeia Foundation and its Training Seminar combined classical psychoanalysis and its new versions with existentialphenomenological views, anthropological medicine, research on "social pathology" and even modern theological research. On the basis of their Swiss analytic training, three Finnish psychiatrists, Martti Siirala, Kauko Kaila and Allan Johansson, organized Therapeian training to incorporate sciences and arts, and skills involving the therapeutic "carrying" of burdens. The multifacted nature of open psychoanalysis was seen to find its proper organizational expression when the Training Seminar of the Therapeia Foundation became, in 1974, a Member of the IFPS.     

Cross-cultural Psychoanalysis and the Interpersonal Perspective

From its beginning Interpersonal Psychoanalysis was eminently suited to address theoretical and clinically issues when working with patients from different cultures. The open-ended quality of the detailed inquiry was a particularly useful tool to get to know the "stranger," as American social scientists of the fifties and sixties were quick to acknowledge. It therefore comes as a surprise how few interpersonalists have addressed themselves to cross-cultural issues. Particularly lacking has been attention to countertransferential problems in analyzing patients from other cultures. In addition the impact of the cultural climate on the analytic process itself has rarely been explored. As cross-cultural contacts in the consulting room have become more frequent it is important for analysts to consider that developmental sequences, family relationships, interpersonal distance, concepts of time and openness to emotional sharing may differ from what Western psychoanalysis considers to be "normal."     

Governing the grapevine: the study of rumor during World War II

Throughout the early 1940s, a host of rumors relating to the Second World War began to circulate, leading the government to establish various committees and undertake multiple projects intended to counteract rumors that were believed to threaten civilian morale and compromise national security. Simultaneously, social scientists also began taking measures to study and combat rumor. Such efforts included the institution of several community groups, deemed "rumor clinics," that aimed to decrease the prevalence of wartime rumor by educating the general public. This article outlines the rise and fall of rumor clinics, focusing specifically on the shifting boundaries and the mounting tensions between the United States government and social scientists in the study of rumor during World War II.     

Child Care in The Netherlands: Trends in Quality Over the Years 1995-2005

The authors assessed the quality of child care in a representative national sample of 42 child-care centers in the Netherlands and compared it with the quality of care that researchers have found using similar samples in 1995 (M. H. van IJzendoorn, L. W. C. Tavecchio, G. J. J. M. Stams, M. J. E. Verhoeven, & E. J. Reiling, 1998) and 2001 (M. J. J. M. Gevers Deynoot-Schaub & J. M. A. Riksen-Walraven, 2005). In the present study, results showed a low level of overall process quality for the 2005 sample, measured by the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised (T. Harms, D. Cryer, & R. M. Clifford, 2003) and the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (T. Harms, R. M. Clifford, & D. Cryer, 1998). The present authors found a significant decline in process quality in comparison with the 1995 and 2001 findings. They concluded that, from an international perspective, the Netherlands has lost its leading position in child-care quality compared with that from 10 years ago.     

Childhood IQ and in-service mortality in Scottish Army personnel during World War II

The Scottish Mental Survey of 1932 (SMS1932) provides a record of intelligence test scores for almost a complete year-of-birth group of children born in 1921. By linking UK Army personnel records, the Scottish National War Memorial data, and the SMS1932 dataset it was possible to examine the effect of childhood intelligence scores on wartime military service mortality in males. There were 491 matches between World War II (WWII) Scottish Army fatalities and the SMS1932 database; 470 (96%) had an age 11 mental ability score recorded. The mean (S.D.) age 11 IQ score of those who died on active service in WWII was 100.78 (15.56), compared with 97.42 (14.87) for male Army survivors (p < 0.0001; Cohen's d = 0.22). Men who took part in the SMS1932 and who were not found in the Army database had a higher mean score (100.45, S.D. =14.97) than those men who had been in the Army, regardless of whether they died or survived (mean IQ = 97.66, S.D. = 14.94; p < 0.0001; Cohen's d = 0.19). Male soldiers with a higher childhood IQ had a slightly increased risk of dying during active service in WWII. Men who did not join the Army had a higher IQ than men who did. Further research in this area should consider naval and air force personnel records in order to examine more fully the complex relationship between IQ and survival expectancy during active service in WWII.     

西方四种心理学流派近19年在中国的发展

本文通过对 1 980～ 1 998年间 6种“核心”心理学期刊所发表论文题目的关键词、参考文献引用杂志的分析 ,对认知心理学、行为主义、精神分析和神经科学四种心理学流派在中国的发展做了研究 ,得出以下结果 :(1 )认知心理学研究论文的数量快速增长 ,神经科学领域的研究略有增加 ;(2 )四学派在中国受重视的程度依次为认知心理学、神经科学研究、行为主义、精神分析 ;(3 )精神分析和行为主义的研究极少。     

War stress and late-life mortality in World War II male civilian resistance veterans

The mental and physical health of 146 Dutch males exposed to severe war stress during their young adulthood were examined in 1986-1987 when they were at ages 61 to 66 years. The veterans' data were compared with a randomly selected population-based sample of same-aged males. In 2005, 70% of the war stress veterans had died, and only 35% of the comparison group. The baseline quality of life was significantly poorer in the war stress veterans than in the comparison group. Baseline variables explained 42% of the increased risk of mortality among war stress veterans. Smoking was the largest single contributor to mortality.     

Managing Job Stress in the Netherlands

Compared with other countries, in the Netherlands work pressure and sickness absenteeism and work incapacitation rates due to work-related mental health problems are quite high. About a decade ago a new Working Conditions Act (WCA) was introduced that had far-reaching consequences for the way job stress is dealt with in organizations. The WCA emphasizes the central role to be played by commercially operating Occupational Health and Safety Services (OHSSs), and it defines a new kind of professional—the Work & Organizational Expert—who is primarily responsible for the assessment and prevention of job stress. Recently, a number of instruments have been developed for psychosocial risk assessment that are now widely used on a regular basis in a way prescribed by the WCA. Preventive measures are increasingly taken by organizations in order to reduce job stress and sickness absenteeism. Based on the Dutch approach some lessons may be learned. Recommendations pertain to (1) the role of government, (2) legal recognition of psychosocial work factors, (3) the privatization of the occupational health and safety sector, and (4) evaluation of job stress prevention programs.     

Polish historians and Marxism after World War II

Born 20 September 1928, professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University at Poznan, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His speciality is European History of the early modern period, methodology and theory of history, and history of historical and political thought. He is the author of numerous books of which the most recent is Freedom and Coercion in the Creation of History (in Polish) 1990.     

Psychological reactions to redress: diversity among Japanese Americans interned during World War II

The psychological reactions of 2nd-generation (Nisei) Japanese Americans to receiving redress from the U.S. government for the injustices of their World War II internment were investigated. The respondents, all of whom had been interned during the war, rated the degree to which the receipt of redress nearly 50 years after their incarceration was associated with 8 different areas of personal impact. Results indicated that redress was reported to be most effective in increasing faith in the government and least effective in reducing physical suffering from the internment. Women and older respondents reported more positive redress effects. In addition, lower levels of current income, an attitudinal preference for Japanese Americans, and preredress support for seeking monetary compensation each increased the prediction of positive redress effects. Findings are discussed in relation to theories of social and retributive justice.     

On Being Wanted to Exist: A Spiritual Dimension in Pastoral Counseling and Psychoanalysis

Patients who feel not wanted to exist as persons in their own right require that pastoral counseling or psychoanalysis address their need to be wanted. Drawing on case material, it is argued that the pastoral counselor has a particular responsibility to address adequately patients’ need to have their existence affirmed. Connecting psychoanalytic theory and technique with spiritual exploration of the notion of creation, this paper calls attention in clinical practice to patients’ need to be wanted to exist.     

Beyond Co-Existence to Mutual Influence: An Interdisciplinary Method for Psychoanalysis and Religion

As the disciplines of psychoanalysis and religion find themselves in a heightened cross-disciplinary context, issues of methodology remain at the forefront. This article constructs an interdisciplinary method based on the image of psychoanalysis and religion as neighbors who border along an “intimate edge”—a space of simultaneously overlapping, yet distinct concern. Using what is termed a “hermeneutic of mischievousness,” this method maintains an interpretive location for that which preserves, transgresses, and transcends the disciplinary boundaries. The article concludes with a brief application of the method to the relationship between the “analytic third” and Christian trinitarian theology.

A Story of Losses and the Creation of an Alternate World

The author presents a clinical case to illustrate the consequences of a history of loss, beginning with the early death of the mother. The creation of a complex defensive system based on internal division and manifested through the existence of an alternate world is analyzed. The author stresses the importance for the patient of re-experiencing the sense of emptiness within an analytical setting and learning to tolerate it thanks to dependence on the auxiliary self of the analyst. D. W. Winnicott?s suggestion of a relationship between the experience of emptiness and the fear of breakdown are also discussed.