Counseling: the reactionary profession

Traditionally counselors have functioned as agents and apologists for the established system. Current counseling theory and practice place the onus for change on the individual. The existing social order is absolved of responsibility for individual and group problems that exist within the structure of its institutions, and persons and groups who express attitudes or who demonstrate behavior inconsistent with the prevailing norms are labeled “deviant” or “abnormal.” If counselors are to become more responsive to their clients' needs, they must acknowledge the negative effects that society and its institutions can have on individuals and begin to effect changes at the institutional level.     

Assessing Specific Effects of Inpatient Group Psychotherapy

Abstract

This article will examine how the psychoanalytic idea of containing can be used in group therapy to form a conceptual bridge such that the group dynamics are not simplistically reduced to individual dynamics, nor that the individual is lost in the “group–as–a–whole” concept. I take the concept of “containing” as versatile in the sense that Bion (1970) meant it to be—that is, the psychological phenomenon of containment is manifest at various system levels: intrapsychic, interpersonal, group, and societal. This article will explore how far this “bridging concept” can be pursued to understand groups theoretically. The article will review various forms of containing, following Bion’s ideas, and in particular a therapeutic, or flexible, form in contrast to rigid and fragile forms.     

The Institution of Life in Gehlen and Merleau-Ponty: Searching for the Common Ground for the Anthropological Difference

The goal of our article is to review the widespread anthropological figure, according to which we can achieve a better understanding of humans by contrasting them with animals. This originally Herderian approach was elaborated by Arnold Gehlen, who characterized humans as “deficient beings” who become complete through culture. According to Gehlen, humans, who are insufficiently equipped by instincts, indirectly stabilize their existence by creating institutions, i.e., complexes of habitual actions. On the other hand, Maurice Merleau-Ponty shows that corporeal relationship to the world is already indirect because it is based on preestablished and readjusted “standards” or “norms” of interaction with the environment. Merleau-Ponty then calls these norms “institutions” and views culture as readjustment of institutions which operate already on the level of corporeal existence. The anthropological figure of confronting humans and animals thus cannot produce, as in Gehlen, a contrast between an allegedly “direct” relationship to the world in animals and a supposedly “indirect” relationship to the world in humans. The Herderian approach can be meaningfully retained only if interpreted as an invitation to confront the norms of indirect interaction with the world in animals and in people, that is, if viewed as a comparison of their respective institutions.     

Colloquy: Do Interacting Groups Perform Better Than Aggregates of Individuals?

Recent examples of research about group processes melding individual‐cognitive and social communicative factors have resulted in the application of concepts relevant to individual cognition to groups as a whole. Although based on a helpful metaphor, the practice risks resurrecting discredited “group mind” concepts. One particular concept, “transactive memory system,” implies that a group can “know” all of the knowledge of its individual members. Several studies showing that groups remember more information than do its individual members appear on their face to support this notion. However, a reanalysis of the results of these studies using Lorge‐Solomon (1955) Model B reveals that the groups were not successful at pooling their members' knowledge. This conclusion implies that group interaction does not lead to efficient group information exchange.     

The Ethics of Stats

This essay argues for the importance and interest, within and beyond theological ethics, of the ethical questions faced by professionals who are called on to be producers of statistics (herein “stats”) for management purposes. Truth‐telling, in the context of demands for stats, cannot be evaluated at the level of the individual statement or utterance, nor through an ethical framework primarily focused on the correspondence between thought and speech. Reflection on stats production forces us to treat truth‐telling as contextual and political, and to engage with the idea that the capacity to tell the truth is learned or acquired in communities, societies and institutions. I develop this engagement through a rereading of Dietrich Bonhoeffer on “telling the truth” and Michel Foucault on parrhēsia, identifying and exploring the relationship between the responsible use of stats and the “cynical” protest against them.     

PSYKOANALYYSIN URANUURTAJAT SUOMESSA

This article discusses how the individual, on different levels of relating, connects towards the otherness of other persons. In Winnicott's theory, this may be seen as a fundamental issue in child development, psychoanalysis, and in psychoanalytic psychotherapy as well. In “holding”, the otherness and subjectivity of the caretaker is implied, but not recognized by the individual—care is taken as a given. In “mirroring”, the otherness of the other person is implied and dimly recognized by the individual, but only appreciated within an omnipotent frame. The full recognition of otherness comes through the “destruction of the object”, a process that also opens up for a relation to a “third” other, and for oedipal themes. In this article, these different levels of relating to otherness are viewed as a search for a “meaning bearing other”. That is, someone who allows the possibility of meaningful thoughts and feelings, either through his or her actual communicative presence, or as an unconsciously-imagined communication partner. This postulate is discussed and illuminated through a case study of a 6-year-old boy in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.     

The Constructive Use of Power and the Philosophy of the Self in the Training of Family Therapists

Abstract

This article presents findings from an exploratory qualitative study, which used individual interviews and a focus group to investigate how women in Black-White interracial heterosexual partner relationships retrospectively described their racial identity development and the influence of gender identity development on this process. Social consrructionist, feminist, and racial identity development theories guided the grounded theory methodology. Participants described both constraining and empowering racial identities. Salient constraining racial identities were being a “sell-out” or “traitor,” being a “rule-breaker,” having a masked reference group orientation, needing to prove reference group orientation, and having minority family status. Empowering racial identities included refusing to take sides, being “not racial,” being neutral, identifying by respect rather than by race, having a multiple reference group orientation, being strong, and being an educator and mediator.

Gender identity themes of strength and resiliency emerged as significant influences in racial identity development. Suggested questions for use within a narrative therapy context provide a clinical application of findings from the study.     

Like a phoenix from the ashes – or “sack cloth and ashes”?:1 The reconstitution of psychoanalytic institutions in Germany since 1945 and its consequences

Abstract

Here, I attempt to formulate some thoughts about the past, present, and future of psychoanalysis and its institutions in Germany. To do this, I have employed my varied experience as a supervisor and consultant to many such psychoanalytic institutes over the past several years. Themes discussed include the history of psychoanalysis in postwar Germany, the organizational structure of German psychoanalytic institutes, and their cultures in regard to group and organizational dynamics, and political and economic aspects. Finally, I add brief thoughts about the future, taking into account recent developments relating to planned changes in laws governing psychotherapy in Germany. Further, I attempt to analyze and comment on: coming to terms with the past; how to begin after the “Zero Hour”; the form of organization of psychoanalytic institutes in Germany; missing patients and missing candidates; constructive debate and hurting people’s feelings; the lack of “detoxification” and “recycling” of the poisonous remains of psychoanalytic processes; and the future of psychoanalytic institutions in Germany. I end with an example of a typical primary task used in conducting large groups in the institutes in which I worked, and include an anonymized table listing individual interventions, their duration, and frequency. These should provide an idea of my way of working, and an overview of the dimensions of the task.     

Plural self-awareness

It has been claimed in the literature that collective intentionality and group attitudes presuppose some “sense of ‘us’” among the participants (other labels sometimes used are “sense of community,” “communal awareness,” “shared point of view,” or “we-perspective”). While this seems plausible enough on an intuitive level, little attention has been paid so far to the question of what the nature and role of this mysterious “sense of ‘us’” might be. This paper states (and argues for) the following five claims: (1) it is neither the case that the sense in question has the community (or “us”) in its content or as its object nor does the attitude in question presuppose a preexistent community (or “us”) as its subject. (2) The “sense of ‘us’” is plural pre-reflective self-awareness. (3) Plural pre-reflective self-awareness plays the same role in the constitution of a common mind that singular pre-reflective self-awareness plays in the individual mind. (4) The most important conceptions of plural subjects, collective persons, or group agents in the current literature fail to recognize the nature and role of plural self-awareness, and therefore fall short in important respects. (5) In spite of the striking similarities between the plural and the singular mind, there are important differences to consider. The authority of the singular first person point of view has no equivalent in the plural case.     

On appropriate procedures for combining probability distributions within the same family

This article considers procedures for combining individual probability distributions that belong to some “family” into a “group” probability distribution that belongs to the same family. The procedures considered are Vincentizing, in which quantiles are averaged across distributions; generalized Vincentizing, in which the quantiles are transformed before averaging; and pooling based on the distribution function or the probability density function. Some of these results are applied to models of reaction time in psychological experiments.     

Disciplined Litigation,Vigilant Litigation,and Deformation: Dramatic Organization Change in Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses' long‐term development presents an interesting case of evolution in line with the “deformation thesis,” an attempt at explaining dramatic shifts in organizational forms, activities, and even beliefs in controversial religious minorities. Derived from resource mobilization tradition, this thesis assumes that radical transformations result from major defensive resource allocation mandated by negative reactions of societal institutions. This is especially the case with reference to the adoption by Jehovah's Witnesses, a millenarian group, of a “disciplined litigation”strategy in the 1940s, a pattern later to be incorporated in religious activities and beliefs of the organization. Today, disciplined litigation and its successor, “vigilant litigation,” seem legitimate ways to adapt to the prevailing religious climate and structure. As such, it can be conceived as a model for defensive moves taken by “younger” controversial religious minorities and reflects the enormous influence of the law and legal systems in shaping minority religions.     

Mental Health and Mental Disorder: A Sociological Approach,edited by Arnold M. Rose

This paper presents a model of group analysis based on Aristotle's causal notions. Aristotle's concept of man as a social animal provides a philosophical rationale for an interpersonal treatment forum. His causal theory supplies an encompassing atheoretical model for examining, understanding, and changing “things which have in themselves the source of their changing or staying unchanged.”

Attention to the four causal foci is suggested as the basis for a full-ranging group analysis. Material cause examines: “what” makes a thing what it is. Efficient cause investigates “how” various behaviors and emotions are set in motion. Final cause searches out “where” behavior is aimed. Formal cause traces “why” behaviors take particular forms.

It is suggested that a “cause for pause,” in the ongoing group process, is the emergence of a powerful and specifiable trend, whether a transference, poignant interaction, or groupwide conflict. The “pause to cause” is examined in detail, as each causal foci is elaborated. A sequential analysis moving from “what > how > where > why” is suggested at three levels of possible intervention: individual, interpersonal, and group as a whole. In conclusion, the timing, advantages, and restrictions of such a causal approach are considered.     

ArduiPod Box: A low-cost and open-source Skinner box using an iPod Touch and an Arduino microcontroller

This article introduces the ArduiPod Box, an open-source device built using two main components (i.e., an iPod Touch and an Arduino microcontroller), developed as a low-cost alternative to the standard operant conditioning chamber, or “Skinner box.” Because of its affordability, the ArduiPod Box provides an opportunity for educational institutions with small budgets seeking to set up animal laboratories for research and instructional purposes. A pilot experiment is also presented, which shows that the ArduiPod Box, in spite of its extraordinary simplicity, can be effectively used to study animal learning and behavior.     

Integrating Individual and Organizational Perspectives for Career Development and Change

This article illustrates how traditional concepts of person-environment fit and transition can be adapted to deal with change, and highlights the advantages of an integrated organizational and individual perspective on career development. Using an adapted version of the Minnesota Theory of Work Adjustment and a “Me Incorporated” metaphor, the article illustrates the need for both the individual and an organization to consider immediate and future demand and supply factors in relation to the other. In addition to placing a change overlay on training, selection and career development, the article illustrates how recommendations for dealing with organizational change can be adapted for use by “Me Incorporated”.     

Self as a second-order object: Reinterpreting the Jamesian “Me”

Existing definitions of the self can be lumped into three groups: self as self-reflectivity, self as self-concept, and self as the individual. This article traces current disagreements over the definition of the self to a crucial ambiguity in William James's original delineation of the “Me.” Implicit in James's delineation was a distinction between first-order objects and second-order objects: while first-order objects are things as they are, independent of the perception of a knowing subject, second-order objects are things as perceived by a knowing subject. This article makes this distinction explicit and argues that the self is a second-order object associated with the first-person or “emic” perspective. Defined as the empirical existence of the individual (first order) perceived by the individual as “me” or “mine” (second order), the self is distinguished from the “I” which is the mental capacity for self-reflection; the self-concept which is the mental representation of the individual's existence; and the individual which is the empirical referent of the self-concept. As a second-order object, the “Me,” i.e., the self, is the unity of the existence and perception of the individual.     

Group Dynamics—Boon or Bane?

In our society an increasingly greater emphasis is being placed on group interaction and decision-making. Persons participating in such a process often use the term “group dynamics” to describe what is thought to be a social-psychological phenomenon. This article discusses some of the elements of “true” group characteristics and effects, and their possible existence in “group dynamic” situations. The article also deals with the implications of the effects of these elements in “group dynamic” environments on educational and administrative leadership and decision-making.     

Adapting Group Therapy to Address Real World Problems: Insights from Groups Offered in the Bahamas

This article presents a cultural adaptation of a group therapeutic approach that is being offered in the Bahamas. “The Family: People Helping People” project was designed as an intervention to improve socialization in New Providence, the Bahamian capital and its most heavily populated city. “The Family” group model offers support and training to improve communication in relationships and to encourage constructive emotional expression. This article will provide an overview of “The Family,” address key elements of this approach that are culturally tailored, and offer clinical examples and note implications for group therapy training. This cultural adaptation offers helpful insights for addressing community problems, such as violence and societal fragmentation, and may inform the development of community-based group interventions in other settings.     

“Too Asian?” or the Invisible Citizen on the Other Side of the Nation?

In November 2010, Maclean’s magazine published a provocative article “Too Asian?” which aroused hot debate and critique from various social groups. However, its racist nature and the role of media in reinforcing racial stereotypes, manufacturing consent, and naturalizing unequal power relations has not been examined in a systematic way. Using critical discourse analysis, this paper aims to reveal its ideological and hegemonic function in constructing unequal social identities and social relations which consequently prevents racialized minorities from accessing post-secondary educational opportunities. Four themes are identified and discussed here. First, the “Too Asian?” article reinforces an Us/Them division and a “forever foreigner” identity of racialized minorities. Second, it essentializes ethnic culture and identifies culture rather than structural constraints as an explanation for individual social behaviors. Third, it represents “Asian” students as self-segregationists who should be blamed for their own exclusion. Last, but most important, it aims to justify white privilege in the field of post-secondary education by questioning the idea of meritocracy as university admission criteria and suggests maintaining “WASP Credentials.”