A Kleinian view of psychoanalytic couples therapy: Part 1

This paper will investigate the central aspects of the psychoanalytic treatment of couples. The concept of analytic contact is introduced and the importance of each party of the couple being witness to the other party's response to analytic contact is discussed. Emphasis will be placed on issues of thinking, projective identification and the concept of container‐contained. Part 1 of the paper will focus mainly on theoretical issues but will then utilize one clinical case to illustrate some of the theoretical points. Using extensive case reports, Part 2 will continue to provide the reader with an in‐depth view of the important process of a couple's therapy within a psychoanalytic framework.     

God's point of view: A reply to Mander

According to one antitheist argument, God cannot know what it is like to be me because He, who is necessarily unlimited and necessarily incorporeal, cannot have my point of view. In his recent article, William J. Mander tries to demonstrate that God can indeed have His own point of view and my point of view at the same time by providing examples that seem to motivate his claim. I argue that none of his examples succeeds in this task. I introduce a different objection to the antitheist argument that appeals to the Thomistic principle regarding divine attributes.     

Developing a Buddhist approach to pastoral care: a peacemaker's view

As the United States becomes a more multicultural and multireligious society, the ranks of healthcare chaplains are no longer being limited solely to Judeo-Christian clerics. In an effort to increase interfaith understanding and ecumenical awareness, the author presents one model of healthcare chaplaincy that derives itself from a Buddhist perspective and how he uses it in his daily work at a large medical center in the United States.     

Providing therapy to children and families in foster care: a systemic-relational approach

Foster care is a system created to protect children from an unsafe home environment yet multiple foster home placements, conflictual or nonexistent relationships between foster parents and birth parents, long, drawn out court battles, and living in an on-going state of not knowing when or if they will be going home are just some of the challenges many children in care are expected to manage. This paper presents a guide for therapists working with families involved in foster care. Utilizing ideas from the postmodern therapies and structural family therapy, suggestions will be provided about who needs to talk to whom about what, when to have these necessary conversations, and how to talk to people in a way that mobilizes adults to take action for the children, with the goal of minimizing postplacement trauma, strengthening and repairing relational bonds, and moving children out of foster care and into permanent homes as quickly as possible.     

从患者角度看循证医学

循证医学是一门发展中的朝阳学科,其哲学思想正发生着演绎。在临床医学领域中,其定义也在不断拓展、深化。当前,更加强调:循证医学应是一种人性化的医学实践方法,在临床决策中,仅靠证据还远远不够,应有效地融合病人的价值观及意愿选择。从患者的角度来认识循证医学的理念与方法,探讨循证实践中病人的价值观及意愿选择。     

Borderline and psychotic adolescents' relationship to their parents: a therapeutic point of view

This study investigated the parents of 100 psychotic and borderline adolescents, and their relationships with their adolescent children. The incidence of psychiatric disorders among the parents, and the incidence of one-parent homes, as well as the divorce rate of biological parents, are given. A direct assessment of the number of pathological relationships between adolescents and parents, defined from a therapeutic point of view, was also made. Examples are given of parental pathology or marital discord concealed in the adolescents' pathology, or in the parent-adolescent relationship. It was concluded that the assessment of parents and their relationships with the adolescents is important for the treatment of the adolescent.     

A Kleinian view of psychoanalytic couples therapy: Part 2

With extensive case material, Part 2 continues to explore the psychoanalytic treatment of couples. Since most couples enter treatment operating in a more primitive paranoid‐schizoid stance, the author contends that it is best to initially focus on each partner's pathological projections and have the other partner witness their struggle to overcome personal issues that contaminate the couple's unified psychology. With continuous working through, the couple can gradually find a more depressive, integrative footing within themselves and as a couple. Again, the value of ‘witnessing’ and working through individual defensive reactions against thinking, pathological projective identifications and the breakdown of the container‐contained function are all examined in the clinical presentations. All these clinical elements are part of the establishment of analytic contact first with each party as individuals and later as a unified couple.