Visions of the Future: The Analyst's Expectations and their Impact on the Analytic Process

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

The Analyst's Theoretical Persuasion and the Construction of a Conscientious Analysis: Commentary on Paper by Meira Likierman

Likierman's paper is an exemplary demonstration of the exquisite attention to the patient's unconscious that is typical of many of the finest analysts, and of British object relationalists in particular. This attention facilitates the analyst's containment and eventually, interpretation, of the disturbing psychic elements, in the classic Kleinian sequence.

Likierman's use of the term intersubjectivity in relation to this process is contrasted with its use in relational theory, where the analyst's active participation is affirmatively stressed along with her more absorbent receptivity. Likierman's own use of Kleinian clinical theory is regarded ambivalently: On one hand, it supports the rigorous pursuit of reflection that is featured in her account; on the other, it carries a tone of severity and unacknowledged self-reproach.     

The Analyst's Uses of Theory and the Theory the Analyst Uses: Reply to Commentary

Where Slochower focuses her discussion on the analyst's multiform uses of theory, I focus my response on how the theory we each use informs a quite different way of understanding what is at issue for my patient in the apparent disengagement that marks her quest for help. More broadly, I consider how the theoretical perspective Slochower brings to her rendering of my clinical understanding and position makes for a reading that diverges significantly from my own view of what transpired in the treatment process I present.     

Visions of the Future: The Analyst's Expectations and Their Impact on the Analytic Process

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Voice of the Analyst: The Body/Mind Dialectic Within the Psychoanalytic Subject: Finding the Analyst's Voice

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

From Ego Psychology to Psychoanalysis in the Year 2000: One Analyst's Journey

Challenged by clinical findings and necessity, psychoanalysts proceed on a lifelong professional journey of exploring, deleting, adding, and integrating from various theoretical and technical paradigms. This article briefly depicts one analyst's journey from ego psychology in the early 1970s to the year 2000. The emphasis on retaining early valuable tenets and adding new theoretical and technical concepts. As an example, conflicts involving problems of the self and ego ideal, brought to the fore through work with patients having significant self-esteem, shame, and envy difficulties, are singled out. These conflicts are found in cases such as those with anorexia, body image disturbance, gender identity and negative gender message problems, and cases having early denigrating environments. Shame dynamics are addressed. The presenting pictures for problems involving shame are usually new compromise formations prompted by signal shame. A case is reported to depict the use of modern conflict theory in analyzing such problems.     

Becoming an Individual: Technically Subversive Thoughts on the Role of the Analyst's Influence

One of the most controversial issues in discussions of how psychoanalytic treatment “works” has been understanding the place and proper influence of the analyst's unique individuality on the process, and, in the terms framed in this paper, on the actual shaping of the patient's mind. This paper suggests that one reason this problem has endured is the absence of a framework for understanding how the analyst, as a unique individual with an inextricable personal mind, is key to the repair of the patient's impaired sense of agency and, as a consequence, the actual reconfiguration of the patient's mind. The paper argues that this personal process is not an unfortunate inevitability, but, like the developmental impact of the unique individuality of parents, represents an essential element, perhaps the core, of what enables real change and growth.     

The Creativity Crisis: The Decrease in Creative Thinking Scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking

The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) was developed in 1966 and renormed five times: in 1974, 1984, 1990, 1998, and 2008. The total sample for all six normative samples included 272,599 kindergarten through 12th grade students and adults. Analysis of the normative data showed that creative thinking scores remained static or decreased, starting at sixth grade. Results also indicated that since 1990, even as IQ scores have risen, creative thinking scores have significantly decreased. The decrease for kindergartners through third graders was the most significant.     

The Creative Identity: Creative Behavior From The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

This paper outlines a framework for understanding the motivation of certain creative behaviors from the perspective of symbolic interactionism. The fundamental tenets of symbolic interactionism are described, followed by a discussion of the mechanics of symbolic interactionist-based role-identity theory, and how the theory can be applied to the motivation of creative behavior. The paper also addresses directions for practical application and future research in this area.     

The Theoretical Aspect of Psychology

Abstract

Arlitt, A. S. Psychology of Infancy and Early Childhood. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1928. Pp. 228. $2.00.

Gesell, A. Infancy and Human Growth. New York: Macmillan, 1928, Pp. 418. $3.50.

Watson, J. B. Psychological Care of Infant and Child. New York: Norton, 1928. Pp. 195. $2.00. Reviewed by C. J. Warden

Taylor, W. S. Morton Prince and Abnormal Psychology. New York: Appleton, 1928. Pp. xi + 137. Reviewed by Edmund S. Conklin

De Sanctis, S. Religious Conversion: A Bio-psychological Study. Translated by Helen Augur. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1927. Pp. 324. Reviewed by Edmund S. Conklin

Freud, S. The Ego and the Id. Translation by Joan Riviere. London: Hogarth Press, 1927. Pp. 88. Reviewed by Edmund S. Conklin

Burrow, T. The Social Basis of Consciousness. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1927. Pp. xviii + 256. $4.00. Reviewed by Edmund S. Conklin

Brousseau, K., &; Brainerd, H. G. Mongolism: A Study of the Physical and Mental Characteristics of Mongolian Imbeciles. Baltimore: Williams &; Wilkins, 1928. Pp. 210. $4.50. Reviewed by Myra W. Kuenzel     

The Problem-Solving Aspect of Suicide

G. B. Gottsegen, and M. G. Gottsegen, Professional School Psychology, Vol. 3. New York: Grune &; Stratton, 1969, 407 pages, $17.75. Reviewed by Gilbert R. Gredler     

The Order Matters: Asking About Creative Activity Calibrates Creative Self-Concept

People tend to perceive and assess their own creativity in a positive, yet not always accurate, way. This study explores whether differences in self-ratings of the creative self-concept (creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity) are related to the sequence in which self-report measures are applied: the order effect. A randomly chosen half of a representative sample of Poles, contacted via a telephone interview, answered the items related to their creative self-concept first, followed by the items related to their previous creative activity. Another half of the sample completed these measures in a reversed order: The creative activity scale was completed first and then creative self-concept items were asked. The results demonstrated that people who were first asked about their previous creative activities reported a lower level of creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity than those asked about their creative self-concept first. Further analyses demonstrated that creative activity moderated this pattern: Participants without previous creative activity and those who engaged solely in everyday creative activities in the past, were susceptible to the order effect, but this effect was not observed among the participants with previous experience in art or science.