Trends in the Treatment of Men Who Commit Violence against Women

Violence committed by men against women has a long history. At this time its prevalence is being increasingly documented and questioned in our society. Mental health workers have not had sufficient knowledge of the problem and, therefore, have not provided adequate treatment or devised preventive strategies. This article reviews the available literature regarding characteristics and treatment of three types of abusive men (rapists, incest offenders, wife batterers) and discusses the generalizability of common treatment approaches and counselor roles in treating these men.     

Sexual Orientation in Adolescents Who Commit Suicide

It has been suggested that there is a strong relationship between suicidal behavior and homosexuality in adolescence. It has been further suggested that it is due to the stigmatization and feelings of isolation that are experienced by many gay adolescents. Much of the literature that has given support to these hypotheses has been conducted on uncontrolled nonrepresentative samples and its generalizability is open to question. An opportunity to examine the relationship in an unselected sample arose in a case control, psychological autopsy study of 120 of 170 consecutive suicides under age 20 and 147 community age, sex, and ethnic matched controls living in the Greater New York City area. Homosexuality was defined as having had homosexual experiences or having declared a homosexual orientation. Three teenagers and no controls met these criteria. The difference was not significant. The circumstances of death were examined and are described. In no instance did suicide directly follow an episode of stigmatization. All three suicides had evidence of significant psychiatric disorder before death. In spite of opportunities for biased reporting, it is concluded that this study finds no evidence that suicide is a common characteristic of gay youth, or that when suicide does occur among gay teenagers, that it is a direct consequence of stigmatization or lack of support.     

Rorschach Object Relations of Adolescents Who Committed Homicide

We investigated the object relations of adolescents who committed homicide. A clinical sample of 55 adolescents who committed homicide did not differ from a comparison group of nonviolent delinquents on Rorschach measures of object differentiation, mutuality of autonomy, and aggressive content. However, the subgroup of adolescents who committed homicides in the context of another crime (e.g., robbery or burglary) did manifest significantly lower object relations (poorer object differentiation and more victim responses) than the subgroup of adolescents whose homicides were committed in the context of an interpersonal conflict or dispute with the victim. These findings support the need for differentiated classification of violent individuals as urged by Megargee (1970) over 20 years ago.     

The Inter-Domain Among Personality and Cognition Variables in People Who Commit Murder

The inter-domain among personality (MMPI) and cognition (intelligence) variables in a sample of 137 males charged with first degree or capital murder was examined through canonical analysis. Race was included as a control variable. Two significant canonical correlations were found which contribute to an understanding of the relationship between personality and cognition in violent people. These variates were identified as Problem-solving Focus and Introspective Self-focus. Results also suggest that these inter-domain variates explain the relationship between personality and cognition variables to a greater degree for black murderers than for white murderers.     

Women Who Choose Business Administration Versus Women Who Choose Administrative Services: How They Differ

The paper examines a sample of women at a university who have chosen different paths to a business career by electing to enroll in parallel but dissimilar curriculums. Several attributes were selected on which to compare these women and differences between the two samples were noted. The results imply that organizations may need to balance enthusiasm for occupationally upgrading women with a consideration for personal perceptions that women possess about their role in society.     

Women Who Choose a Man's Career: A Study of Women in Ministry

Fifty women who chose to pursue a male-dominated career, the ministry, were interviewed about components of career choice and professional development including sex and function of their role models and educational experiences. Sex-role orientation employing the Bern Sex Role Inventory and family data were also collected. Findings indicate a complex interaction of sex and function of role models with age and sex-role orientation of subjects.     

Barren Rorschachs: A Conceptual Approach

A discussion is presented of five Rorschach protocols that appear to meet the criteria proposed by Exner and Weiner (1982, p. 31) for "brief and barren" Rorschach protocols. The protocols were obtained from a social service agency treating abused, neglected, disturbed, and delinquent youths. An attempt is made to bring to bear a conceptual approach to these Rorschachs, so that they may be seen as clinically valuable and revealing, hence not "invalid" diagnostic protocols. Emphasis is placed on the subjects' approach to the task, the subject-examiner interaction, and the meaning of the subjects' ostensibly peripheral comments. Recommendations are offered regarding ways to maximize the clinical utility of such protocols.     

Barren Rorschachs: a conceptual approach.

A discussion is presented of five Rorschach protocols that appear to meet the criteria proposed by Exner and Weiner (1982, p. 31) for "brief and barren" Rorschach protocols. The protocols were obtained from a social service agency treating abused, neglected, disturbed, and delinquent youths. An attempt is made to bring to bear a conceptual approach to these Rorschachs, so that they may be seen as clinically valuable and revealing, hence not "invalid" diagnostic protocols. Emphasis is placed on the subjects' approach to the task, the subject-examiner interaction, and the meaning of the subjects' ostensibly peripheral comments. Recommendations are offered regarding ways to maximize the clinical utility of such protocols.     

The Stories and Strengths of Women Who Leave Battering Relationships

SUMMARY

With the dearth of research on reasons battered women leave abusive relationships, the authors felt urgency in addressing this side of battered women's issues, which has traditionally focused on why women stay. The authors directly studied 10 battered women, who had been out of the relationship for at least six months. This qualitative study was composed of open-ended questions and a Self-Control Schedule to determine learned resourcefulness. Significant sources of strength, other than parental support, were found in the lives of these women, which included siblings, close friends, and in childhood, relationships with other adults. Ninety percent of the participants attribute their ability to cope with stress, as well as leave the abusive relationship, to having a sense of spirituality.     

Fetal Homicide

Summary

Under common law, a crime resulting in the death of a fetus that was viable but not “born alive” was viewed as a transgression less serious than murder. Accordingly, courts did not allow parents to bring wrongful death suits for the death of a fetus. In the past decade, however, several states have amended their criminal or civil statutes to include the specific crime of “feticide” or “fetal homicide,” and the Federal government is considering similar legislation. This paper examines the history and current status of criminal and civil law regarding the third-party killing of a fetus.     

Borderline manifestations in the Rorschachs of male transsexuals

It was hypothesized that male transsexuals manifest a character structure consistent with Kernberg's criteria for borderline personality organization. Exploring this hypothesis, Kernberg's criteria for borderline personality organization were operationalized using Rorschach measures. The following variables were examined: aggression (Holt System Aggressive Content Section), object relations (Urist's Mutuality of Autonomy Scale), reality testing (Exner System X + %), and self/object differentiation (Exner System Special Scorings). A group of male college students, a group of male borderlines, and a group of male transsexuals were compared on the above variables. Compared to the normals, the transsexuals and borderlines displayed significantly more intense levels of aggression, a lower level of object relations, poorer reality testing, and impaired boundary differentiation. The transsexuals and borderlines did not differ significantly. The results were taken as suggesting that male gender dysphorics may be a sub-group of the wider borderline diagnostic category.     

Analysis of Group Rorschachs of Psychologists and Anthropologists

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) IQs and clinical ratings of 10 ego functions in a diagnostically heterogeneous sample of 60 adult psychiatric inpatients were correlated. With severity of pathology statistically controlled, higher intelligence was associated with more adequate ego functioning in several spheres: primary autonomous functions, thought processes, object relations, and masterycompetence. There were also some clinically meaningful differences between the Verbal and Performance IQs in the pattern of correlations. Extending Hartmann's original views, the authors employ an ethological framework to conceptualize intelligence in relation to the ego's role in adaptation, emphasizing that intelligence is an important — albeit neglected — aspect of ego functioning.     

The development of primary process in children's Rorschachs

Three cohorts of normal Italian schoolchildren, 55 boys and 47 girls, were given Rorschachs at ages 6, 7, and 8; 9, 10, and 11; and 12 and 13. Regardless of sex or score, primary process (scored by Holt's method) tends to diminish with age; but significantly among the boys only for the sums of all primary process, of Level 2 responses, and of content. Measures of control showed similar developmental trends, mean form level advancing significantly in the total sample and among girls. Even stronger trends within cohorts were confounded by retest effects.     

Benefit-Finding Improves Well-Being among Women Who Have Experienced Gender Discrimination

Sex Roles - Women experience gender discrimination in numerous important life domains, which can harm psychological well-being. Benefit-finding—identifying the positive implications of having...