Issues relating to the use of forgiveness in counselling and psychotherapy

This paper explores forgiveness, which is a key component of spiritual pastoral care. Encouraging forgiveness is also one of the spiritual interventions most frequently used by psychotherapists. However, although forgiveness has been explored as an element in psychotherapy, the models generated have had little impact on research and practice. Recent research into forgiveness in therapy is considered, including several models put forward for its use. Some of the implications of the use of forgiveness in therapeutic practice are examined and guidelines for the use of forgiveness in psychotherapy are put forward based on the work of the Forgiveness Project at the University of Manchester.     

Spiritual pathology and religious coping as predictors of forgiveness

Spiritual pathology, religious coping, and dispositional forgiveness were investigated in two studies with graduate students at a Christian university-based seminary. Spiritual pathology was operationalised using measures of spiritual instability and spiritual grandiosity. Study 1 (N?=?194) examined patterns of correlation between positive and negative religious coping items, spiritual pathology, and dispositional forgiveness. Spiritual instability correlated with numerous positive and negative religious coping items while spiritual grandiosity did not. Dispositional forgiveness correlated with more positive than negative religious coping items. Study 2 (N?=?214) tested regression models with these variables. Spiritual grandiosity showed a significant quadratic (concave down) effect in predicting dispositional forgiveness while the linear effect was not significant. A hierarchical regression model showed positive religious coping, spiritual instability, and the quadratic effect for spiritual grandiosity each predicted unique variance in dispositional forgiveness after controlling for spiritual impression management. Negative religious coping was not related to dispositional forgiveness when included with these variables.     

Discussing the therapeutic setting in child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy

The aim of this paper is to contribute to a debate on the particular characteristics of the therapeutic setting in child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy and its differences from the setting in adult therapy. In our opinion, there is a fundamental difference between these two, as in child and adolescent psychotherapy two distinct aspects co-exist and in some areas, overlap. In this paper, we attempt to delineate these two aspects, following Green’s division of the analytical setting into the active matrix and the casing. We propose that in child and adolescent psychotherapy the therapeutic contract, the active matrix, concerning the necessary conditions for making a therapy psychoanalytic – namely, the therapist’s free-floating attention and the patient’s free associations – is agreed between the therapist and the child/adolescent. We argue that in contrast, the contract regarding the casing – the timings of sessions, the fees and so on – is agreed primarily with the parents or carers of the child/adolescent. Ruptures and possible modifications in both the matrix and the casing of the setting are discussed through the presentation of clinical material.     

The emerging therapeutic landscape of psychotherapy in the twenty-first century and the contribution of anthroposophic psychotherapy

In recent years the counselling and psychotherapy profession has experienced significant changes. On the one hand there has been the advent of managed care and evidence based practice which in the UK takes the form of the Improved Access to Psychological Therapy scheme. On the other hand there has, during the same period since the 1980s, been a rich and varied process of innovation in the profession. This has included the so-called relational inter subjective turn in the United States. Second, an increased sensitivity to the interface between therapy and social and political phenomena. Third, the revolution in neuroscientific thinking. Finally, the development of therapy as an interdisciplinary intervention in complementary and alternative medicine teams as in the case of the spiritually-orientated anthroposophic psychotherapy in Europe. In this article I will argue that these innovatory developments, which I refer to as the ‘new integration’, are much needed in order to counterbalance the increasing dominance of managed care and evidence based practice.     

Exercise as psychotherapy

The use of exercise as a psychotherapeutic agent is reviewed. The benefits of exercise are considered to impact both physiological processes and psychological factors such as self-esteem and more efficacious self-talk. The possibility of the use of exercise as an adjunct to both pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy is suggested.     

Integration of Leonhard's individual therapeutic approaches in ambulatory psychotherapy

Two methods of outpatient-psychotherapy embodying essential elements of the "Individualtherapy" developed by Leonhard are shown to be efficient treatment alternatives for different forms of neuroses.     

Freedom and forgiveness

In the history of philosophy and political thought freedom has meant a number of different things. The author considers several of these meanings and their relevance to psychoanalytic theory. The general argument against freedom that has been mounted in the history of thought, and echoed by Freud, is the thesis of causal determinism; but it is urged here that this in itself is no threat to freedom in the sense of the word required for moral agency: a free choice is one that is caused to some extent by reasons and that is relatively unconstrained both by 'external' and 'internal' forces. Yet because agents are embedded in a causal nexus that includes both the physical world and other people, agency and freedom can be compromised in innumerable ways. Neither freedom nor agency is a condition which we absolutely have or lack, but a matter of degree. Psychoanalytic therapy works toward expanding the capacity for agency and diminishing the constraints of certain internal forces. In the sense defined here, objectivity is an attitude that accepts our embeddedness in the world. With objectivity may come both forgiveness and self-forgiveness, which in turn promote agency.     

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy in paediatric liaison: a diagnostic and therapeutic tool

Paediatric liaison work requires an appreciation of the interweaving of the different factors involved when a child has physical symptoms. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is usually viewed simply as a potential treatment option. This paper argues that its use is both therapeutic and diagnostic and that it should be valued for this breadth of contribution. The therapeutic process is conducted in a way that can promote an understanding of the child and their context and thus enhance the ability 9 to meet the child's needs by all involved in their care. This can be achieved without sacrificing the degree of privacy that the psychotherapist/patient relationship requires. Material is presented from the psychotherapy of a child who had an hereditary condition which moved unexpectedly into a terminal 2 phase after psychotherapy was started. Examples are given to illustrate the importance of the understanding gained from therapy and how, through an integrative process, it was used to assist the overall 4 care. The material also describes the potential diagnostic use of information from psychotherapy when this is formulated by consideration of conscious and unconscious mechanisms alongside mental state phenomenology. This has implications for the relationships between disciplines and for their training requirements.     

Individual psychotherapy as an adjunct to group psychotherapy

This paper describes a form of combined psychotherapy in which the individual sessions are used as an adjunct to group therapy. Each group member is seen regularly in individual sessions to focus primarily on the member's ongoing group work. The individual sessions are scheduled on a rotating basis. Typically, each group member is seen in an individual session once every four weeks. Additional individual sessions are available only when immediate attention is appropriate and necessary. The group is viewed as the primary therapeutic component. A cost-effective therapeutic approach that uses both individual and group methods, this modality lends itself well to a clinic and to a private practice setting.     

Maximizing the therapeutic effectiveness of small psychotherapy groups

Little attention has been paid in the literature to the ways in which psychotherapy groups of fewer than five members can be led effectively. The conditions leading to small groups are presented, including both dynamic and circumstantial conditions arising in the institution, the group, and the therapist. The dynamics of small groups are described based on social psychology research and clinical observations. The paper concludes by presenting therapist and member characteristics as well as therapeutic techniques which contribute to the maximal effectiveness of groups with fewer than five members.     

Beyond Altruism: Identity-Construction as Moral Motive in Political Explanation

This article explores conceptual issues pertaining to the role of moral motivation in political explanation. Employing data drawn from long interview with political activists from across the spectrum of American politics, I criticize both rational actor models and so-called "dual" motivational theories, that focus on altruism as the primary moral motive in politics, in contrast to the narrow focus on a certain conception of self-interest. Against both of these approaches, I offer an identity-construction approach to moral motives in politics. This model focuses on the complex interweaving of self and moral motives, and in particular focuses on the concerns political activists have for what kind of person they are and what kind of life they are living. These types of concerns are both moral and self-regarding, and therefore defy the dichotomy between self- and other-regarding at the heart of both rational actor and "dual" motivation accounts of moral motives.     

Altruism as Reparation of Mismatch or Disruption in the Self

ABSTRACT

After giving a brief summary of the scientific literature on altruism and empathy—a capacity necessary for altruism—I focus on a scientific paradigm, the face-to-face still face, and what insights it might offer psychoanalysts in their understanding of altruism. The face-to-face still face provides data about the communication of intentions and affect between infant and caregiver and demonstrates the procedure of mutual regulation, the foundation of self-regulation and empathy. Both infant and caregiver are highly motivated to repair mismatches or disruptions in the affective connection between them and this desire to repair disruptions can also be recognized in adulthood—both in relationships between individuals and within an individual in terms of disconnections with the self. The subjective experience of the altruist may derive from this domain of human experience—the repair of disruption. I thus suggest that altruism is not merely sublimation of inner conflict, but it is an adaptive, evolutionarily beneficial, attitude and behavior that is growth enhancing in that it expands the individual’s repertoire for repairing mismatches within the self.     

Altruism and selfishness

Many situations in human life present choices between (a) narrowly preferred particular alternatives and (b) narrowly less preferred (or aversive) particular alternatives that nevertheless form part of highly preferred abstract behavioral patterns. Such alternatives characterize problems of self-control. For example, at any given moment, a person may accept alcoholic drinks yet also prefer being sober to being drunk over the next few days. Other situations present choices between (a) alternatives beneficial to an individual and (b) alternatives that are less beneficial (or harmful) to the individual that would nevertheless be beneficial if chosen by many individuals. Such alternatives characterize problems of social cooperation; choices of the latter alternative are generally considered to be altruistic. Altruism, like self-control, is a valuable temporally-extended pattern of behavior. Like self-control, altruism may be learned and maintained over an individual's lifetime. It needs no special inherited mechanism. Individual acts of altruism, each of which may be of no benefit (or of possible harm) to the actor, may nevertheless be beneficial when repeated over time. However, because each selfish decision is individually preferred to each altruistic decision, people can benefit from altruistic behavior only when they are committed to an altruistic pattern of acts and refuse to make decisions on a case-by-case basis.