Relationship between the unconscious and motivation in establishing a therapeutic program

The need for complex psychotherapy is reified by using the combination of group psychotherapy with methods of individual and behavioral therapy as an example. The fact that certain forms of maldevelopment cannot be satisfactorily checked by dynamic group psychotherapy alone is considered to be due not only to the conditioning of, and automatism associated with, neurotic malbehavior. It is especially in the case of inordinate dread and fear of disease, which is generally referred to as nosophobia, that the patient's great difficulty in accepting the possibility of a mental origin or causation of his ailment stands in the way of making effective use of such a therapy. The authors are of the opinion that acceptance by the patient of a mental origin or causation is made difficult especially by the fact that in the case of neurotic maldevelopments the kind and degree of neurotic conflictiveness are lore or less unconscious. This fact, which has not so far received much attention, should be taken into consideration in future research into the unconscious.     

Reply to Fudin and Lembessis's critique of Malik and Paraherakis's commentary regarding the capacity of the unconscious

In an earlier paper, we had suggested that the research examining the capacity of the unconscious cannot be interpreted unambiguously to make the claim that the unconscious is limited in scope. Fudin and Lembessis challenged our conclusion, and we address their concerns.     

Substantive unconscious and adjective unconscious: the contribution of Wilfred Bion

The author first provides her readers with a brief summary of some of Freud's ideas, as found throughout his work, on the notion of 'unconscious'. The notion of unconscious as noun is contrasted to the idea of unconscious as adjective, this latter being proposed as a quality, or a state, ever temporary, dynamic, and subject to the constant changes going on in the individual's internal psychic world, as well as to external conditions. After presenting some considerations, the author then contrasts the Kleinian model of the mind to the Freudian, and Wilfred Bion's contribution is discussed at some length. Within Bion's conception of psychic functioning, the model of 'dream' is highlighted and, in this regard, clarifications are sought regarding Bion's view of the unconscious. To conclude, a brief and superficial approximation to the work of Carl Jung is touched upon, although the author admits to knowing little of Jung's positions.     

William James and the unconscious: redressing a century-old misunderstanding

Contrary to received wisdom in psychology, William James did not oppose postulating unconscious processes. This mistaken belief stems from a misreading of a passage in his Principles concerned with disproving the metaphysical notion that mental states are composed of elementary mental units. The term unconscious had been co-opted by individuals who supported this position. Unconscious did not mean then what it means now. Analysis of the rest of the Principles , his later works, and his reactions to the works of others reveals that James actually supported what we would now term unconscious processes. He even contributed to their study with his notions of the "fringe,""habit," and "subconscious incubation." Causes and effects of this misunderstanding are discussed.     

Psychological interventions and the immune system: a meta-analytic review and critique.

This article reviews evidence for the hypothesis that psychological interventions can modulate the immune response in humans and presents a series of models depicting the psychobiological pathways through which this might occur. Although more than 85 trials have been conducted, meta-analyses reveal only modest evidence that interventions can reliably alter immune parameters. The most consistent evidence emerges from hypnosis and conditioning trials. Disclosure and stress management show scattered evidence of success. Relaxation demonstrates little capacity to elicit immune change. Although these data provide only modest evidence of successful immune modulation, it would be premature to conclude that the immune system is unresponsive to psychological interventions. This literature has important conceptual and methodological issues that need to be resolved before any definitive conclusions can be reached.     

The unconscious in France before Freud: premises of a discovery.

The influence of German culture on Freud has long been acknowledged, while his indebtedness to French psychological and medical tradtion has often been overlooked. The author presents a study of the emergence and evolution of the concept of the unconscious in nineteenth century French scientific discourse and its influence on Freud.     

Behaviorism and the unconscious

It is argued that the behaviorist's rejection of mind as irrelevant to a functional account of behavior does not necessitate his rejection of unconscious phenomena, and that the behaviorist can account for behavior normally attributed to the workings of an unconscious mind by reference to historical rather than to contemporary factors controlling behavior, and to the independent acquisition of verbal and motor behavior.     

Meditation and the unconscious

This paper begins by describing the practice of meditation. It goes on to discuss George Kelly's view of the unconscious and uses meditation to illustrate this view. Some similarities between meditation and psychotherapy are also described within their mainly Kellian perspective. It is concluded, inter alia, that meditation practice sensitizes the world within, which includes subverbal and unconscious material. With increased adeptness its practice may lead to the temporary suspension of our habitual, dualistic, cognitive construing, and thus facilitate the experience of no-thought, tranquility and a sense of oneness or unity. In the long-term, meditation practice may elaborate both subverbal and transverbal construing.     

The Imagination of Images and Images of Imagination: How the Imagination Relates to Aging,Health, and Spirituality

ABSTRACT

Psychological literature suggests that religion and spirituality increase in late adulthood. Yet, operational definitions of spirituality and religiosity remain widely debated and inadequate for the concepts they are designed to measure. The empirical studies of religion and spirituality as one ages are of poor design and often measure only limited aspects of religion or spirituality. Few empirical studies exist which have been conceived to only study religiosity and spirituality in late adulthood. The purpose of this study was to determine the defining aspects of religiosity and spirituality using the Allport, Ross Intrinsic, Extrinsic Religiosity Scale, Ellison's Spiritual Well-Being Scale, and Neugarten's Life Satisfaction Instrument. Using a principal component factor analysis, the study examined the factor structure using an older adult sample of 320 individuals 65 years of age and older. Having a purpose in life combines with intrinsic religious questions for the first factor. Life satisfaction questions group together on two factors and extrinsic religiosity is clearly one factor. The scales used hold together well when combined. A new, shortened scale to measure aspects of religiosity and spirituality is proposed.