Reflections on Psychosynergy: A Model for Integrating Science,Theory, Classification,Assessment, and Therapy

The goal of resynthesizing that which has been disconnected in our field is what I have designated as psychosynergy. In addition to commenting on the previous articles, this article seeks to advance our shared interest in the subject matter of personology. Particularly noted in this article are efforts that have been made to reconnect the separate realms that comprise our field today, namely its undergirding scientific principles, its theoretically deduced personality styles and disorders, its classification model of psychic pathology, its empirically grounded assessment instruments, and its integration of diverse therapeutic modalities. This overall goal stems from my belief that a synthesis of these components is not only possible, but is one that will strengthen progress through mutual reinforcement and reciprocal enhancements.     

Acceptance in behavior therapy: Understanding the process of change

Acceptance is integral to several cutting-edge behavior therapies. However, several questions about acceptance remain to be clearly answered. First, what does acceptance look like, and can it be observed and measured? Second, what are the behavioral principles involved in the promotion of acceptance? Third, when is acceptance indicated or contraindicated as a therapeutic goal? The current paper attempts to clarify answers to these questions. The goal is to provide a conceptualization of the what, how, and when of acceptance that is accessible to behavior analysts, both to promote our understanding of acceptance as a behavioral phenomenon and to facilitate its empirical study and therapeutic utility.     

The Soul: An Existentialist Point of View

The debate in relation to the soul suffers nowadays from a great lack of clarity. At least part of this cloudiness stems from a confusion among three different viewpoints that are not always reconcilable or mutually intelligible: the scientific point of view (natural sciences and empirical psychology), the therapeutic point of view (especially psychoanalysis) and the philosophical point of view. The goal of this paper is to blow away a little this cloudiness, and to introduce into the discussion a view that has not yet received its proper place in it: existentialism. The scientific approach investigates the soul as if it were an object in the world, a fact. This approach gives priority to objective observations over subjective ones, and steps in the direction of materialization of the soul (the soul becomes the mind and the mind becomes the brain). Transcendental philosophy and psychological therapies explain the relation between the subject and its objects, and by this reveal the subjective dimension of our reality as the ground not only for our objective knowledge but for our ethical life as well. Existentialism, I suggest, makes a further and important step in this direction by focusing on individualistic aspects of human existence, which science could not know and general theories of the subject do not see.     

The roots of empathy and aggression in analysis

Empathy and interpretation have complementary roles in analysis. Empathy diminishes psychological arousal, ego-defences, and promotes the therapeutic relationship. Interpretation, when adopted in the service of character analysis and the uncovering of unconscious conflict, represents one element of a larger set of interventions termed analytic aggression, whose primary goal is to promote insight. Psychoanalysis has been increasingly influenced by derivative theories that promote the therapeutic relationship. Clinical observations suggest that the application of analytic aggression has diminished and that many modern treatments may have become overly skewed towards empathic approaches. This paper explores ethical humanism, Jamesian typology, and feminine psychology, as factors that have contributed to the diminished emphasis on analytic aggression in practice. Eastern myth and Buddhist psychology are used to explicate the core features of narcissistic mental structuring and to support the continued importance of analytic aggression in its treatment. Case material is examined to elucidate the benefits and limits of analytic aggression.     

Kant and the Discipline of Reason

Kant's notion of ‘discipline’ has received considerable attention from scholars of his philosophy of education, but its role in his theoretical philosophy has been largely ignored. This omission is surprising since his discussion of discipline in the first Critique is not only more extensive and expansive in scope than his other discussions but also predates them. The goal of this essay is to provide a comprehensive reading of the Discipline that emphasizes its systematic importance in the first Critique. I argue that its goal is to establish a set of rules for the use of pure reason that, if followed, will mitigate and perhaps even eliminate our tendency to make judgments about supersensible objects. Since Kant's justification for these rules relies crucially on claims he has defended in the Doctrine of Elements, I argue further that, far from being a dispensable part of the Critique as commentators have tended to claim, the Discipline is, in fact, the culmination of Kant's critique of metaphysics.     

Trait impressions from faces depend on the goals of the perceiver

Trait impressions from faces formed in the real world likely depend on the circumstances in which a face is seen, in particular, on the goal of the perceiver in that circumstance. This goal dependency is typically not incorporated into laboratory studies, an omission that has limited our understanding of trait impressions from faces.     

A family-oriented psychiatric inpatient unit.

This article presents the structure and policies of a psychiatric inpatient unit that was developed with the goal of fully integrating family-oriented treatment approaches into its therapeutic program. There is an explanation of different methods to involve families in the hospital treatment process and delineation of a variety of treatment techniques specific for families of inpatients. The role of the nursing staff is described as well as some of the contradictions and paradoxes that are inherent in this type of inpatient unit.     

From handicap to handy capable: training systemic therapists in use of self

This article describes and discusses the rationale for an experiential methodology to help trainees expand their repertoire of behaviors in clinical situations. The goal in addressing the trainee's personal, "handicapping" responses is to pay attention to "how" a therapist is perceived, "why" a therapist has certain blindspots, and "what" the therapist does to co-create a therapeutic impasse. In addition, experientially considering the impact of self encourages therapists to "learn to learn" that they are an active, resourceful participant in the evolutionary process of the therapeutic system.     

Action relevance induces an attentional weighting of representations in visual working memory

Information maintained in visual working memory (VWM) can be strategically weighted according to its task-relevance. This is typically studied by presenting cues during the maintenance interval, but under natural conditions, the importance of certain aspects of our visual environment is mostly determined by intended actions. We investigated whether representations in VWM are also weighted with respect to their potential action relevance. In a combined memory and movement task, participants memorized a number of items and performed a pointing movement during the maintenance interval. The test item in the memory task was subsequently presented either at the movement goal or at another location. We found that performance was better for test items presented at a location that corresponded to the movement goal than for test items presented at action-irrelevant locations. This effect was sensitive to the number of maintained items, suggesting that preferential maintenance of action relevant information becomes particularly important when the demand on VWM is high. We argue that weighting according to action relevance is mediated by the deployment of spatial attention to action goals, with representations spatially corresponding to the action goal benefitting from this attentional engagement. Performance was also better at locations next to the action goal than at locations farther away, indicating an attentional gradient spreading out from the action goal. We conclude that our actions continue to influence visual processing at the mnemonic level, ensuring preferential maintenance of information that is relevant for current behavioral goals.     

A goal model of catharsis

Although research in social psychology has repeatedly refuted the idea that aggression reduces subsequent aggression (e.g., Bushman, 2002), we suggest a more fine-grained analysis of catharsis. We will present and discuss a social-cognitive goal model of cathartic effects in aggression that predicts under which conditions aggression increases or reduces subsequent aggression. The model assumes that the accessibility of aggression-related constructs is a function of goal fulfilment: Prior to goal fulfilment constructs related to the goal are highly accessible in order to facilitate goal fulfilment. However, after goal fulfilment this heightened accessibility loses its functionality and aggressive constructs are consequently inhibited. In the present article we will review empirical work testing this model. Moreover, we will extend this model to the effects of violent computer games. Finally we will discuss theoretical challenges and applied relevance of our model for intervention strategies aimed at reducing aggression.     

Goal specificity effects on hypothesis testing in problem solving

Previous research has found that having a nonspecific goal (NSG) leads to better problem solving and transfer than having a specific goal (SG). To distinguish between the various explanations of this effect requires direct evidence showing how a NSG affects a participant's behaviour. Therefore we collected verbal protocols from participants learning to control a linear system consisting of 3 outputs by manipulating 3 inputs. This system was simpler than the one we had used previously, so in Exp. 1 we generalized our earlier goal specificity findings to this system. In Exp. 2 protocol analysis confirmed our prediction (based on dual-space theories of problem solving) that NSG participants focused on hypothesis testing whereas SG participants focused on the goal. However, this difference only emerged over time. We also replicated the goal specificity effect on performance and showed that giving participants a hypothesis to test improved performance.     

Goal Orientation and Feedback Congruence: Effects on Discretionary Effort and Achievement

This study examines the differential effects of outcome feedback for achievement goal orientations' relationship with effort and achievement. In support of our predictions, learning goal orientation had a positive relationship with task achievement in the absence of outcome feedback and a negative relationship in its presence, while performance goal orientation maintained a positive relationship with achievement regardless of whether outcome feedback was provided. We attribute this to a decrease in task interest when initial task purpose, as determined by personal goal orientation, is incongruent with the subsequent task cues provided by outcome feedback. Predictions regarding task effort and combined goal orientation effects were not supported. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Beauty,ugliness and the sublime

Jung and Freud had very different ideas about the nature of analysis. This paper begins by exploring how Jung's gnostic approach, with its goal of individuation, is deeply informed by Buddhist and Taoist principles. His pluralistic, relational model regards truth as subjective and co‐constructed with the patient. In contrast, Freud's secular methodology has objective truth as its goal. His classical psychoanalysis is a form of reality testing where the analyst claims to know the painful, singular, objective reality which the patient tries to evade. The theory of aesthetic development (see Piaget 1951, Baldwin 1975, Parsons 1980, Housen 1992, Harris Williams 2010) proposes that artistic appreciation is linked to human development. The paper looks at how the apperception of beauty, related to both truth and meaning, acts as an indicator and facilitator of individuation in the clinical encounter. This is illustrated by a clinical case study. Through empirical research, support is given to the argument (Bollas 1978, Meltzer 1988) that our early experience of the feminine/maternal plays a central role in developing an aesthetic capacity. The experience of the sublime in analysis is examined and portrayed as a means by which aesthetic development may be reignited and narcissistic isolation shattered.     

Understanding dieting: A social cognitive analysis of hedonic processes in self-regulation

The present paper introduces a novel approach to understanding failures of self-regulation in chronic dieters. Traditional approaches to this problem have focused on consciously controlled processes of eating regulation, such as the realisation that one has overeaten, or the experience of food cravings. We argue, however, that dieters' problem might rather lie in their sensitivity to the hedonic aspects of food and the resulting inhibition of their dieting goal. We present a goal-conflict model that integrates recent findings on hedonic sensitivity in eating regulation with social cognition research on nonconscious goal pursuit. We show that the perception of attractive food triggers hedonic thoughts about food in chronic dieters and leads to the inhibition of their dieting goal. These processes make subsequent overeating more likely, while bypassing dieters' conscious awareness. We discuss how our model can accommodate earlier research findings in this area, and we consider its implications for dieting behaviour and for our attempts to resist temptations more generally.     

Compromise Formation Theory: An Intersubjective Dimension

This paper has two purposes. The first is to elaborate compromise formation theory from an intersubjective perspective. The second is to explore the implications of this vantage point for our understanding of the modes of therapeutic action of psychoanalysis.

I pursue the goals of this paper by outlining the essentials of compromise formation theory and by elaborating what I mean by its intersubjective dimension. Then I present and discuss analytic data to demonstrate the value of the theory for understanding aspects of mode of therapeutic action. Finally, I contrast this perspective with competing theoretical points of view.     

Unconscious goal activation and the hijacking of the executive function

Building on research on unconscious human goal pursuit and the dynamic nature of our mental and physical world, this study examined the idea that an unconsciously activated goal hijacks executive control for its own attainment. This "hijacking" of the executive function by an unconscious goal should be evidenced by impaired performance on an unrelated task relying on executive control. The results of 6 experiments show that subliminal activation of a socializing goal, or an idiosyncratic personal goal, or an academic goal, harmed participants' performance on an executive function task, such as inhibition of prepotent responses and detection of text errors during reading. These effects were unique to executive control, were similar when the goal was activated consciously, and were independent of task motivation and perceived inter-goal relatedness between the primed goal and task goal. Furthermore, an unconscious goal occupied executive control to advance itself more strongly when the goal had personal value. Implications for theory and research on unconscious goal pursuit and the executive function are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Alief and Explanation

This article critiques the much‐discussed notion of alief recently introduced by Tamar Gendler. The narrow goal is to show that the notion is explanatorily unnecessary; the broader goal is to demonstrate the importance of making explicit one's explanatory framework when offering a philosophical account of the mind. After introducing the concept of alief and the examples Gendler characterizes in terms of it, the article examines the explanatory framework within which appeal to such a concept can seem necessary. This framework, it argues, is a generalization of the belief‐desire account of action. Although Gendler introduces the notion of alief in an attempt to move beyond the belief‐desire account, it argues that she nevertheless works within a generalized version of its explanatory structure. Once the framework is made explicit, we find no explanatory need that requires introducing the notion of alief into our account of the mind.     

Relational ecologies of psychotherapy: The influence of administrative attachment on therapeutic alliance

There is now vast and multi-faceted empirical literature on the impact of relational dynamics in psychotherapy, and relationality is a central theme within contemporary psychoanalytic theories. Yet, there is virtually no literature addressing the relational dynamics around outpatient psychotherapy that influence the wider therapeutic alliance, that is the relational dynamics that unfold between clients and administrative office staff in making initial contacts and appointments, completing paperwork, negotiating payment, discussing insurance coverage, working through crisis calls, and the myriad of other forms of interaction which serve to form the relational ecology of psychotherapy. Milieu therapy or the use of supportive and structured therapeutic environments has been given significant attention in inpatient settings; however, administrative relational factors or administrative staff characteristics have seemingly been ignored in outpatient psychotherapy and psychoanalysis literatures. Many outpatient clinical practice settings involve multiple levels and dimensions of relationality between clients, administrative personnel, and therapists which shape the potential for secure continuous containment and various forms of attachment to psychotherapeutic space. In this paper, we describe several clinical illustrations of relational dynamics between clients and office staff which influence therapeutic alliance and outline the contours of our emerging idea of administrative hospitality based on relational psychoanalysis, attachment theory, symbolic anthropology, and stigma research. In doing so, we draw on our collective experience working in several outpatient clinics and insights from our current context in an urban outpatient training clinic which emphasises psychodynamic practice. Our goal is not a comprehensive analysis of the relational ecology of psychotherapy but to offer an initial exploratory account of some of the administrative relational dynamics in and around outpatient psychotherapy which go beyond the therapist-client dyad. The anthropological concept of liminality is connected to relational psychoanalytic theories to describe the important dynamics of transitional space in an overall process of relational transformation.