A Career Plundered

Dr. Margaret Bean-Bayog, a Boston psychiatrist, was sued by the Lozano family after a former patient, Paul Lozano, committed suicide. The case was widely and sensationally publicized in the newspapers and other media. A combination of inaccurate reporting, inept proceedings by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine, and the threat of ruinous legal fees led Dr. Bean-Bayog to surrender her license to practice medicine. Facts that were not reported in the press were described in Dr. Maltsberger's address, delivered on April 15, 1992, at the annual AAS meeting in San Francisco. The implications for therapists attempting to treat seriously suicidal patients in the current hostile forensic climate were further discussed. The text of the address is presented here.     

General Newsletter

Low scores often have been ignored in validity research on the MMPI, yet these statistically significant deviations from the norm may be valuable sources of information and occur frequently enough to merit further investigation. The meaning of low scores on the MMPI-2 was examined for 822 male-female partner pairs in the MMPI-2 restandardization sample. Subjects were divided by MMPI-2 scale scores into high-, medium-, and low-score groups. Analyses of variance were performed with score level as the independent variable and partner ratings as dependent variables. Significant differences were found between the low- and medium-score groups with low scorers rated as better adjusted than medium scorers. More significant differences were found between the high-score and medium-score groups than between the low-score and medium-score groups; this suggested that high scores on MMPI-2 clinical scales are associated with poorer adjustment.     

General Newsletter

The dissociative disorder known as multiple personality disorder (MPD) presents a diagnostic challenge to psychological assessment techniques. A case example is presented in which a new self-report, multifactorial measure of ego functioning discriminated distinct profiles for four personalities within one multiple personality organization. Interpretations of characteristics of the primary and secondary personalities based on the Belt Object Relations Reality Testing inventory (BORRTI) are presented. The relationship between these findings and other approaches to psychological testing for dissociation and MPD are discussed. It is suggested that this approach will facilitate the clinical assessment of suspected MPD subjects and contribute to affording appropriate treatment to this population.