Response to Mara Sidoli

My paper is a response to the clinical material in Mara Sidoli's paper about two patients who in the course of their treatment create an important symbol – a roaring symbol. In my response I construct a Freudian lion from the material of the first patient, and a Jungian lion from the second one. In both instances the vicissitudes of aggression as discussed are extracted from the therapeutic process.     

Long-term memory for concepts in a California sea lion (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Zalophus californianus</Emphasis>)

An adult California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) with extensive experience in performing discrimination learning tasks was tested to evaluate her long-term memory for two previously learned concepts. An associative concept, that of equivalence classification, was retested after a retention interval of approximately 1 year. The sea lion had originally shown emergent equivalence classification with nonsimilarity-based classes of stimuli in a simple discrimination repeated-reversal procedure as well as in a matching-to-sample procedure. The 1-year memory test revealed no decrement in classification performance in either procedure. A relational concept, that of generalized identity matching, was retested after approximately 10 years. The sea lion had originally received trial-and-error exemplar training with identity matching-to-sample problems prior to transferring the concept to novel stimulus configurations. In the 10-year memory test, the sea lion immediately and reliably applied the previously established identity concept to familiar and novel sets of matching problems. These are the first reports of long-term conceptual memory in a nonprimate species. The experimental findings are consistent with a variety of observations of sea lions in natural settings, which indicate that natal sites, feeding areas, and individuals may be remembered over long periods of time. Electronic Supplementary Material is available if you access this article at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10071-002-0153-8. On that page (frame on the left side), a link takes you directly to the supplementary material. Electronic Publication     

Adult Attachment Interview and Psychoanalytic Perspective: A Single Case Study

In this single case study we present a female patient diagnosed with a narcissistic personality disorder and a borderline organization. The interplay between attachment and psychoanalytic perspective will be focused. The analyst describes his impressions of the initial interview with the patient and essential steps during treatment. The patient was interviewed with the Adult Attachment Interview and classified as “insecure preoccupied” with an “unresolved state of mind” concerning loss and abuse. The analyst was asked to comment the AAI's essential characteristics of this patient. We discuss converging and diverging aspects of clinical and attachment interpretation in this single case.     

Die mitgebrachte Hilfe

Based on three case reports psychotic transfer manifestations will be examined mainly with respect to their concrete quality. In the first case presented the main theme is a situative ??overpresence of concrete external reality??. For the most recent consultation the female patient appeared accompanied by a large dog and in this way initially created an oppressive scenario. During the course of the consultation this could be linked to the internal (emergency) situation of the patient and in this way the Dobermann could be transformed to ??Charly??. In the second case the concretism impressed as a totally dominating modus vivendi. The patient switched off broad areas of her emotionality and exclusively recognized concrete tangible objects and facts as the only valid reality. During the course of the treatment the ??misrepresentation of a useful object?? could be recognized as the center of this concrete world, an object from which the expectation was that it (half-heartedly) predominantly removed concrete deficiencies and therefore from which no emotional help can be expected. It will be presented how the (mental) development of the patient was additionally influenced by the schizophrenia of her father: she developed this ??concretization?? as a central ego function in order to be able to suppress an increasingly ??louder?? madness. In the third case example psychotic clefts and concinnities will be described which appear to damage the verbal thought process in an omnipotent fashion. A detailed examination shows, however, that these ??mad syntheses??, comparable with the astrophysical ??dark matter??, provide stabilizing functions of gravity.     

Cross-modal transitivity in a California sea lion (Zalophus californianus)

The ability of an experimentally experienced female California sea lion to form transitive relations across sensory modalities was tested using a matching-to-sample procedure. The subject was trained by trial-and-error, using differential reinforcement, to relate an acoustic sample stimulus to one member from each of two previously established visual classes. Once the two auditory–visual relations were formed, she was tested to determine whether untrained transitive relations would emerge between each of the acoustic stimuli and the remaining stimuli of each 10-member visual class. During testing, the sea lion demonstrated immediate transfer by responding correctly on 89 % of the 18 novel transfer trials compared to 88 % on familiar baseline trials. We then repeated this training and transfer procedure twice more with new auditory–visual pairings with similar positive results. Finally, the six explicitly trained auditory–visual relations and the 56 derived auditory–visual relations were intermixed in a single session, and the subject’s performance remained stable at high levels. This sea lion’s transfer performance indicates that a nonhuman animal is capable of forming new associations through cross-modal transitivity.     

Precocious Knowledge of Trees as Antipredator Refuge in Preschool Children: An Examination of Aesthetics,Attributive Judgments,and Relic Sexual Dinichism

In simulations of predator avoidance, 3 experiments examined whether preschool children with virtually no tree-climbing experience exhibit precocious knowledge of what different tree shapes afford as climbable refuge. Sex difference in the choice of arboreal or terrestrial refuge was also evaluated with the aim of detecting evidence of ancestral sexual dinichism, the differential use of trees by hominid males and females thought to have occurred more than 2 million years ago when females were much lighter bodied than males and thus more agile tree climbers. Preschool girls were predicted to seek refuge in a tree to escape a predator; boys were predicted to seek terrestrial refuge. When shown pictures of trees, girls were also predicted to be more cognizant than boys of the safety of seeking refuge near the edge of the crown to evade a heavy bodied predator. In Experiment 1, 4- to 6-year-old Israeli children were shown a series of computer-generated pictures of a boulder outcrop (kopje) in an East African savanna setting. Individual children viewed narrated scenes of entering and leaving a narrow crevice, climbing a large boulder, and climbing an acacia tree. They were then shown a picture of a male lion and randomly ordered views of the lion from each refuge, and asked to point to the best place to feel safe from the lion. In Experiment 2, 3- to 5-year-old Israeli, Japanese, and American children were asked to point to 1 of 4 tree silhouettes (Australian Pine, African Fever Tree, and 2 African Umbrella Thorns). Children were asked to point to the prettiest tree and best tree for various refuge attributes, including feeling safe from a lion. Choice of the prettiest tree was examined because adults from several countries prefer trees with wide crowns, a property that might characterize habitat quality as proffered by the savanna hypothesis. The same silhouettes were used in Experiment 3 to examine 3- to 4-year-old American children, adding questions about the best tree for shade and best location in the canopy of each tree to feel safe from the lion. Results suggestive of relic sexual dinichism were most apparent in the first and third experiments, in which girls selected the acacia tree in a significantly greater proportion than the crevice and top of boulder, and 4-year-old girls selected refuge sites significantly closer to the crown edges than boys did for the widest crowned acacias. About half of the children selected the Australian Pine as the prettiest tree, a finding that does not support the aesthetic component of the savanna hypothesis.     

Travailler l’acceptation de la maladie en éducation thérapeutique : exemple d’une intervention « ateliers théâtre » pour des personnes porteuses d’un lupus

In this article, a reflection concerning the acceptance of chronic illness in patient education (PE) is proposed. The research focuses on a therapeutic theatre intervention, inspired by theatre of lived experience as proposed to people with lupus. The aim of the intervention is to enable a putting into words and a staging of events that are identified by the patient as disabling. The framework and the process of the intervention are being presented. The results of an exploratory analysis followed by a clinical case will shed light on the contribution of these workshops on the improvement of life satisfaction and illness perception as well as the understanding and the acceptance of illness by the patients and their families. The article will be concluded by the interest of this project in proposing optimized support in PE.     

Essential elements of the work of a supervisor

The supervisor’s prime task is to consider from the very beginning the analytic ability of the analyst presenting the case; this can be assessed by observing how the colleague transcribes the clinical material and describes what is meaningful in the session. It is extremely important to understand whether the patient’s suffering is neurotic, or whether he suffers from an initial psychotic disorder. In this latter case, the analyst will know that he cannot employ the same tools that he uses for the neurotic patient. It is fundamental to draw careful attention to the importance of the patient’s personal history. In the process of reconstructing the past, the patient’s difficulties are gradually understood by the analyst, the patient and the supervisor. Given that a memory may be distorted by present emotions and conflicts, the analyst must form meaningful hypotheses that, through reconstructing interaction with the original objects, help to comprehend the precarious equilibrium of the present. Over the course of supervision, I consistently emphasize the construction of the analytic relationship, which is based on the analyst’s mind and of the patient’s ability to communicate emotionally, so as to promote the analysand’s mental growth.

     

Artificial language comprehension and size transposition by a California sea lion (Zalophus californianus)

A variation of the conditional discrimination procedure defines relations between stimuli (for example, gestural signs and their referents), and it has been used to study language comprehension in California sea lions. The animals followed instructions given by a trainer's gestures designating properties of size, brightness, and location (adjectives), types of objects (nouns), and actions (verbs). The signs can be combined and recombined according to a conditional sequence or syntax. In this study, we sought to determine whether adjectives for size had an absolute meaning, that is, small and large, as well as a comparative meaning, that is, smaller and larger. A sea lion, Rocky, was given experience with signs designating standard small and large spheres in commands like LARGE BALL MOUTH. On transposition tests, the small ball was removed and the previously designated large ball was paired with an even larger one. The results showed that the adjectives had both an absolute and a relative meaning. Object choices and searching behavior revealed that the sea lion processed information about the relation of size as well as about the specific characteristics of the sizes of spheres that instantiated the relations.     

Relation between food preference and food-elicited vocalizations in golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia).

We report the results of 2 studies on food-elicited vocalizations in golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia). First, we investigated the preferences of 10 golden lion tamarins for 6 foods. Tamarins prefer mealworms and raisins significantly more than apple, egg, carrot, or marmoset diet. Food preference rank was significantly and positively correlated with the rank of latency to choose a particular food. Second, we investigated the relation between food preference and 15 vocal parameters measured from the calls emitted by 5 tamarins to a subset of the foods. Only 1 parameter was significantly correlated with food preference across animals. Within-subjects multivariate analysis of variance showed that the vocalizations to foods are significantly different. Our results support an hypothesis that food-elicited vocalizations vary in ways that correspond to the caller's preference but not in a manner that labels food type.     

AIDS and confidentiality

ABSTRACT AIDS raises the moral problem of confidentiality because those in sexual contact with the patient may contract a life-threatening and incurable disease. Medicine has a tradition in which a patient's condition is regarded as confidential information held by the doctor alone. In this case there is a clear moral inclination to inform those at risk from the disease. In most cases no problem will arise but when it does the moral justification for a violation of confidentiality comes into question. Confidentiality is important because of our respect for certain human values and their importance to our patient. Where that patient acts so as to disregard the welfare of others with whom they are in close relationship, those values are lacking. This lack warrants a departure from our normal canons and provokes a suspension of normal moral privileges. The contention that any transgression, however slight, could be held to justify such a response posits a slope down which we, in fact, have no tendency to slide.     

Authenticity as an aim of Psychoanalysis

This paper will present a series of predominantly clinical observations concerning the lengthy work a patient carries out, with the help of the analyst, in order to achieve greater personal authenticity. When this work is drawing to a close and the patient has gained a degree of authenticity, this authenticity remains within him, almost without his realizing it. The power of authenticity is instead revealed through the patient's most intimate and important relationships. In the long term, the patient's authenticity also alters his perception of himself and of his role in the world. He feels more alive and less overcome by a sense of futility, if earlier this had been the case.     

Developmental Changes in the Consideration of Sample Diversity in Inductive Reasoning

Determining whether a sample provides a good basis for broader generalizations is a basic challenge of inductive reasoning. Adults apply a diversity-based strategy to this challenge, expecting diverse samples to be a better basis for generalization than homogeneous samples. For example, adults expect that a property shared by two diverse mammals (e.g., a lion and a mouse) is more likely to be shared by all mammals than a property that is shared by two more similar mammals (e.g., a lion and a tiger). Across four studies, we document a developmental progression in children's understanding that diverse samples provide a strong basis for generalizations, such that young children (grade 1) consistently failed to consider sample diversity within their inductive reasoning, but older children (grade 5) preferred to create diverse samples on which to base inferences about basic-level categories. These results suggest that recognizing the value of a diverse sample for inductive reasoning emerges slowly across the elementary school years.     

On the therapist's reverie and containing function.

Containment and interpretation are two inseparable aspects of the psychoanalytic technique. This is better understood by Bion's clinical metaphors of "container-contained" relationship and the capacity for reverie. Bion, continuing and expanding Klein's concept of projective identification, has transposed this from what happens to an infant to what happens in the link between mother and infant; until now he laid emphasis on the mother's (or therapist's) ability to contain the primitive anxieties which the infant (or the patient) experiences. He described three types of links--love, hate, and knowledge-- and proposed two metaphors which laid the foundation of a new and efficient frame of reference of the analytic process and technique, namely, the container-contained relationship and the reverie. Two clinical vignettes will illustrate the pivotal function of the therapist's reverie within the therapist-patient interaction. In the first case, a dead (internal) object of the patient was contained in the context of the session, enabling the patient to contain and sustain the psychic pain and her self-destructive tendencies; the second case stresses how the therapist's reverie, during a silence, revealed a bad part of the patient's self, which was lost through projective identification.     

Reflections on trauma,symbolization and psychic pain in a case of neurosis and a case of psychosis

This paper seeks to advance some considerations on trauma, historical reality, its symbolization and the psychic pain generated by the investigation of unconscious processes in psychoanalytic treatment. These themes will be explored by demonstrating the differences arising between traumatic experiences and their expression in phantasy, as they occurred in a case of neurosis and another of psychosis. In each case, the differences in the features of the symbolization and the processes of working through shall also be taken into consideration. Particular attention shall be paid to the specific difficulties encountered by the analyst in the interpretative treatment of the trauma resulting from the amount of psychic pain induced in the patient, which at times proves to be an insurmountable barrier and a destructive distortion of the process.     

Countertransference envy toward the religious patient

Four illustrations have been presented which demonstrate the uses and interpretations of envy in countertransference reactions to religious patients. To be sure, envy reactions to any patient are significant, whether they simply distort the therapist's perception or contribute to a deeper understanding of the patient. In the case of the religious patient, envy reactions in the therapist may serve as an additional instrumentality for under-standing the ways in which the dynamic determinants of religious behavior and metaphor become enmeshed in and also transform the pathology of the patient as well as the therapeutic process itself. Both the constructive and destructive object relational implications of envy must be borne in mind by the therapist in order to adequately explore the range of reciprocating forces between therapist and patient. Primitive mechanisms such as projective identification and psychotic transference are particularly prone to evoke envy reactions of surprising intensities, yet an empathic attitude will usually enable the therapist to differentiate the true source of his envy as he more carefully comprehends the quality of object relational and dynamic needs such envy serves.     

A History Which Began to Be Told: A Clinical Case

This article aims to reflect on the possible contributions of psychoanalysis in relation to severely disturbed patients by means of the presentation of a clinical case. Beginning with the family history, the evolutionary process of the symptoms and identification movements of the patient are analysed. The observation of the transference dynamics is emphasised, showing how the desire of the analyst and his privileged listening will allow the patient some level of possible subjective structure.     

Rhythmic entrainment: Why humans want to,fireflies can’t help it,pet birds try,and sea lions have to be bribed

Until recently, the literature on rhythmic ability took for granted that only humans are able to synchronize body movements to an external beat—to entrain. This assumption has been undercut by findings of beat-matching in various species of parrots and, more recently, in a sea lion, several species of primates, and possibly horses. This throws open the question of how widespread beat-matching ability is in the animal kingdom. Here we reassess the arguments and evidence for an absence of beat-matching in animals, and conclude that in fact no convincing case against beat-matching in animals has been made. Instead, such evidence as there is suggests that this capacity could be quite widespread. Furthermore, mutual entrainment of oscillations is a general principle of physical systems, both biological and nonbiological, suggesting that entrainment of motor systems by sensory systems may be a default rather than an oddity. The question then becomes, not why a few privileged species are able to beat-match, but why species do not always do so—why they vary in both spontaneous and learned beat-matching. We propose that when entrainment is not driven by fixed, mandatory connections between input and output (as in the case of, e.g., fireflies entraining to each others’ flashes), it depends on voluntary control over, and voluntary or learned coupling of, sensory and motor systems, which can paradoxically lead to apparent failures of entrainment. Among the factors that affect whether an animal will entrain are sufficient control over the motor behavior to be entrained, sufficient perceptual sophistication to extract the entraining beat from the overall sensory environment, and the current cognitive state of the animal, including attention and motivation. The extent of entrainment in the animal kingdom potentially has widespread implications, not only for understanding the roots of human dance, but also for understanding the neural and cognitive architectures of animals.     

Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality

Summary

This article discusses the confidentiality of communications between therapist and patient and the scope of, and exceptions to, the privilege preventing such communications from being disclosed. Ethical principles, statutes, and case law will be explored.