A Principal Reflects on Shame and School Bullying

This article considers the contribution that consideration of the moment-to-moment process in psychoanalysis can make to an understanding of termination. Information on moment-to-moment interactions related to termination is developed from videotape microanalysis of termination discussions—focusing on a child analysis, but including an example from an adult analysis—as viewed through the structure of a developmental model (Tronick's dyadic expansion of consciousness model) that is consistent with dynamic systems theory. The theory emphasizes the co-creation of meaning that occurs in an analysis, as indicated by verbal, as well as nonverbal, interactions that are apparent in the videotape. The insights from this approach can enrich the traditional psychoanalytic views on termination by emphasizing the ongoing developmental process, with termination more of an important step in this process than a specific ending.     

Paul Gray's narrowing scope: a "developmental lag" in his theory and technique

A cental thesis of Paul Gray's work is that a "developmental lag" pervades modern psychoanalysis in its failure to assimilate and apply knowledge gained about the role of the unconscious ego in intrapsychic life. But Gray himself, it is proposed, has become a victim of a new "developmental lag," of his own construction. As he somewhat single-mindedly pursued the ramifications of his "developmental lag" concept, Gray may have foreclosed on some noteworthy ideas developing around him. The most important example is his claim--herein refuted--that proper interpretive technique can avoid being infused with transference. He also seems to have rejected the theoretical importance of the internalization of the analyst and the clinical usefulness of countertransference. While emphasizing defense analysis, he ignores defenses such as splitting, denial, and disavowal as substantive problems for his technique of close-process attention. Gray's "undoing" of the rapprochement between "ego analysis" and "id analysis" by viewing the matter as an either-or proposition undermines the very real value of his contribution to the field.     

小学儿童“互反可逆性“发展的研究

本文运用成分分析法研究经典的皮亚杰有关儿童“互反可逆性”的理论。     

Mahler's concepts of "symbiosis" and separation-individuation: revisited, reevaluated, refined

Mahler's developmental theories are reviewed in the light of subsequent clinical experience and theoretical and empirical critique. Several modifications are proposed, each tending to particularize and focus the nature and scope of developmental events. Particular attention is accorded the "symbiosis" concept, and focus placed on transmission of psychodynamic issues from mother to infant and on the progressive buildup of self-sustaining pathological systems. Overall, an argument is advanced for the continued developmental import of Mahler's "symbiotic" and "separation-individuation" phase formulations, though with recognition of significant individual differences in their role in individual lives. An argument is advanced also for the clinical utility of these ideas, and illustrations presented, though the link between clinical applications and psychoanalytic theories of early development remains problematic.     

"Totem and Taboo" in a latency boy.

Against the background of Freud's "Totem and Taboo" the case of a seven-year-old boy is discusses, focusing on his identification with a cat. Guided by Freud's dialectic thinking and his discussion of the phenomena of patriarchy and matriarchy, one is led to contemplate the totemism of a matriarchally oriented boy. The attempt to understand this child's pathology is based upon the concept of the specificity of a developmental phase. In the light of anthropological data, clinical phenomena are evaluated ontogenetically, in analogy with the recapitulation hypothesis.     

A developmental-contextual model of couples coping with chronic illness across the adult life span

A developmental-contextual model of couples coping with chronic illness is presented that views chronic illness as affecting the adjustment of both the patient and the spouse such that coping strategies enacted by the patient are examined in relation to those enacted by the spouse, and vice versa. The developmental model emphasizes that dyadic coping may be different at various phases of the life span, changing temporally at different stages of dealing with the illness as well as unfolding daily as spouses interact around dyadic stressors. In addition, couples engaged in dyadic coping are affected by broad sociocultural factors (culture and gender) as well as more proximal contextual factors (quality of the marital relationship and the specific demands of the chronic illness). The model provides a framework for understanding how couples coping with chronic illness may together appraise and cope with illness during adulthood and for determining when spousal involvement is beneficial or harmful to both patient and spousal adjustment. The developmental-contextual model to dyadic appraisal and coping has numerous research implications for the field, and the authors conclude with specific recommendations for future research.     

Developmental and dyadic perspectives on commitment in adult romantic relationships

We tested hypotheses concerning the developmental roots of becoming the "weak-link" (less committed) partner in adult romantic relationships and the associations between partners' absolute and relative levels of commitment and dyadic outcomes. We examined 78 target 20- to 21-year-olds who were involved in a romantic relationship and who had been studied since birth. As predicted, people who received lower-quality support from caregivers in toddlerhood or who were less able to resolve conflicts with a best friend in midadolescence were more likely to become the weak-link partner in a romantic relationship at age 20 to 21. Furthermore, lower commitment on the part of the weak-link partner coupled with greater discrepancy in commitment between partners predicted a greater likelihood that the couple would display hostility (rated by observers) during a videotaped conflict-resolution task when they were 20 to 21 years old. These findings are discussed from developmental and dyadic perspectives.     

It's All About "Me" (Behold the Leader)

Abstract The group beholds its leader: a looming figure of fantasy, an emerging figure of reality. Psychic patterns that play out in group cohesion, culture, conflicts, and process are rooted in interaction with this combined object. I describe a two-day conference on relational group psychotherapy. An assemblage had beheld "me," a visitor with gifts of knowledge, initially welcomed with collective expectation. Rivalrous and acquisitive desire (Girard, 2004) set group process in motion, involving scapegoating and open conflict, but also, self discovery and mutual appreciation. Confronted with "me," the representative, messenger, even embodiment of truth, the group had to deal with feelings, fantasies, and thoughts that were "not nice." There were moments of fear for the safety and survival of our group, yet I did not comprehend the extent to which envy, in tooth and nail, with devouring hunger tore into every aspect of our mentalities. Under its catabolic force, I was captured and I could not articulate to myself the sense of what it was, until the group shifted and released me from envy's intersubjective captivity. In group, whatever is being talked about-whoever is reacting to whom or to what-the group's focal conflict, predominating basic assumption, developmental level or stage, its regressions and progressions, dyadic interactions, subgroupings, and so forth, I now assume that on one level, it is all about "me."     

Reading Freud's "the Dynamics of Transference" one hundred years later

Freud's technical papers, "The Dynamics of Transference" in particular, established most of the basis for a century of clinical psychoanalytic work. A contemporary reading of that paper illustrates both the power of the original presentation and how far we have come. Close readings are given of crucial passages, including retranslations where Strachey's English arguably distorts Freud's language or intent. More broadly, Freud's conclusions are examined to reveal correspondences with current thinking or its foreshadowing. Although Freud drove toward unifying conclusions, he at the same time described a disparate array of clinical phenomena. The paper's central points are situated historically, both in Freud's evolution and in the subsequent evolution toward the pluralistic clinical theory of today. Freud encountered many of the challenges we face, noting them in ways both clinically useful and fruitful for other theorists. The use of the paper's central tenets is traced historically, showing how ideas that provide a radical, liberating, and facilitating guide for analysts can over time devolve into hackneyed rules. Finally, it is noted how transference phenomena are increasingly being discussed as a specific type of dyadic human experience. The task in the coming century is to develop theory and vocabulary for comprehending these phenomena and integrating them with Freud's intrapsychic concepts.     

A Developmental Framework for the Analysis of Premarital Dyadic Formation

A developmental framework for the analysis of premarital dyadic formation (PDF) is presented by the time-order interrelating of six pair processes, i.e., the achieving of similarity perception, pair rapport, self-disclosure, role-taking, role-fit, and dyadic crystallization. Empirical linkages between these pair processes are examined as underpinning for a conceptual framework from which developmental hypotheses may be generated and tested for the purpose of establishing construct validity for the PDF Framework.     

Triadic transferences of pathological family images

Traditionally, self-object and psychosexual transferences have been thought of as dyadic processes. This paper emphasizes the importance of seeing the triadic transferences that are contained within the more visible dyadic transferences. Triadic transferences are the partial recreation of replicas of pathological family images that were constructed from experiences with father-motherchild triads during childhood. Detecting them lessens the likelihood of therapeutic impasses occurring which resemble family of origin dyadic alliances. Childhood development and developmental arrest are discussed from a triadic perspective. In a healthy psychological family a triadic heterosexual family image is constructed which contains a triadic self and a resolved Oedipus.Revision of a paper presented at the 12th International Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions, Kyoto, Japan, July 20, 1990. A preliminary version, entitled Triadic Transferences, was presented at the 12th Annual Meeting of the American Family Therapy Association, Philadelphia, PA, June 21, 1990.The masculine gender form is used for convenience, but with the recognition that statements apply to both genders.     

The draughtsman's contract

This commentary on Feldman and Fowler's The Nature(s) of developmental change addresses three issues. First, it discusses the concept of a “portfolio theory” and argues that the authors' nonuniversal developmental theory is such a theory and that it adds relevant insights to the existing conceptualizations of development. Second, it discusses a potential problem in such theories, namely oversimplification of the relationships implied by the available theoretical concepts (irrespective of the issue of whether those concepts are sufficiently clearly defined). The point is illustrated with an analysis of the structure of relationships based on a simple model of development and learning. Third, Feldman and Fowler's notion of equilibration as a mechanism is criticized and replaced by equilibration as a process based on various mechanisms. These mechanisms have an underlying abstract form which has been transformed into a computational dynamic systems model capable of explaining a host of distinct patterns of change, learning and development.     

Down to cases: the ethical value of "non-scientificity" in dyadic psychoanalysis

The efficacy of the dyadic psychoanalytic method cannot be verified empirically, due to the impossibility of counterfactuals, controls, or double-blind experiments, although inventive psychoanalytic researchers have established validation methodologies for analyzing groups of case studies, outcomes, and even theoretical precepts. The unavailability of complete empirical validation for the most basic method of the discipline of psychoanalysis, or of its fundamental "report of findings"--the case study--means that the field's scientific rationale must be supplemented with public reasoning of another sort. Fortunately, the very conditions of uncertainty that make it impossible to falsify the findings of dyadic psychoanalysis lend it its ethical force by compelling its participants to confront the basic human dilemmas of freedom, meaning, and judgment, the ethical horizon of human affairs. One substantial value of psychoanalysis, then, is its capacity for generating "ethical knowledge" of the sort adumbrated by Aristotle's conception of practical knowledge (phronesis). Case studies written for a lay audience to highlight these basic dilemmas can demonstrate that psychoanalysis produces crucial knowledge, specific to individuals, for living a healthy and satisfying life.     

Developmental regulation before and after a developmental deadline: the sample case of "biological clock" for childbearing

This quasi-experimental research investigates developmental regulation around a critical life-span transition, the "biological clock" for childbearing. The action-phase model of developmental regulation proposes contrasting control orientations in individuals approaching versus those having passed a developmental deadline. Individuals in an urgency phase close to the deadline should be invested in goal pursuit, whereas those who have passed the deadline without attaining the goal should focus on goal disengagement and self-protection. In 2 studies, women at different ages and with or without children were compared with regard to various indicators of primary and secondary control striving for goal attainment versus goal disengagement and self-protection. Findings support the action-phase model of developmental regulation. Patterns of control striving congruent with the participants' status as pre- versus postdeadline were associated with superior psychological well-being.     

Getting over "the problem of other minds": communication in context

Theories of communication often assume that communication has a single, essential form or telos, the culmination of a one-track developmental process where precursors eventually give rise to the real thing. At one time, this essence of communication was identified with linguistic competence, whereas now it is largely defined in terms of "Theory of Mind." But the fundamental problem with "Theory of Mind" is the very problem it pretends to solve: "the problem of other minds."That problem, as formulated, is insoluble, even with the aid of theory or innate modules. In this article, we reject the superficial depth psychology of "Theory of Mind" in favour of a breadth psychology based on context.     

基于门户理论视角下的青少年物质成瘾

青少年物质成瘾行为受到普遍的关注, 成瘾物质滥用的机制一直是学者们探讨和研究的焦点。门户理论提出青少年发展成严重药物滥用者的过程存在顺序和阶段特征, 合法物质的使用会增加发展为非法药物使用的风险, 这种顺序效应得到了实证研究的支持。本研究在综述以往研究的基础上发现, 基于门户理论视角下青少年药物使用存在顺序效应, 但以往研究仍然存在一些不足, 例如药物使用顺序的不固定, 解释范围有限, 内在机制不清楚以及各种影响因素缺乏整合等。未来可以扩展研究对象和范围, 以深入研究顺序效应的内在机制。     

A Teambuilding Model: Appreciating Differences Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator with Developmental Theory

Effective teambuilding is a critical aspect of management. The concept of appreciation of differences through understanding personality types and female/male developmental theory adds previously unexplored dimensions to teambuilding. The authors present a teambuilding model using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and female/male developmental theory. “And in understanding me you might come to prize my differences from you, and, far from seeking to change me, preserve and even nurture those differences.” (Keirsey & Bates, 1984, p. 1)     

The Ecological Self: Metaphor and Developmental Experience?

The term ecological self, used within the fields of deep ecology and ecopsychology, is considered here from the viewpoint of developmental research and theory, within the context of contemporary relational psychoanalysis. Both developmental theory and more specifically our concept of health are explored with the inclusion of relatedness to the nonhuman world and an emphasis on embodiment and interactive experience. Illustrations and examples are drawn from research, clinical work with adults and the literature of natural history.     

Just the two of us: misalignment of theory and methods in examining dyadic phenomena

Many organizational phenomena such as leader-member exchange, mentoring, coaching, interpersonal conflict and cooperation, negotiation, performance appraisal, and the employment interview involve inherently dyadic relationships and interactions. Even when theories explicitly acknowledge the dyadic nature of such phenomena, it is not uncommon to observe a disconnection or misalignment between the level of theory and method. Our purpose in the current paper is to discuss how organizational scholars might better align these components of their research endeavors. We discuss how recent developments involving the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) and reciprocal one-with-many (OWM) models are applicable to studying dyadic phenomena in organizations. The emphasis is on preanalytic considerations associated with collecting and organizing reciprocal dyadic data, types of research questions that APIM and reciprocal OWM models can help answer, and specific analytic techniques involved in testing dyadic hypotheses.     

Children,childhood, and development in evolutionary perspective

We examine children, childhood, and development from an evolutionary perspective. We begin by reviewing major assumptions of evolutionary–developmental psychology, including the integration of “soft” developmental systems theory with ideas from mainstream evolutionary psychology. We then discuss the concept of adaptive developmental plasticity and describe the core evolutionary concept of developmental programming and some of its applications to human development, as instantiated in life history theory and the theory of differential susceptibility to environmental influence. We then discuss the concept of adaptation from an evolutionary–developmental perspective, including ontogenetic and deferred adaptations, and examine the development of some adaptations of infancy and childhood from the domains of folk psychology and folk physics. We conclude that evolutionary theory can serve as a metatheory for developmental science.