Outcome of psychoanalytically oriented group psychotherapy

A study of 100 consecutive persons who terminated, once a week, psychoanalytically oriented group psychotherapy shows that it is an effective treatment for neurotic persons with good ego strength who remain in therapy a year or longer. Analytically oriented group therapy was less effective in treating severely ego-impaired persons, and group members of all levels of ego strength often required augmentation of their group therapy by individual sessions and psychotropic medications. Early dropouts (less than 30 sessions) seemed related to lack of motivation and poor fit with the group. Later dropouts (sessions 30–60) seemed related to low ego strength.     

Attachment,temperament, and ego development in young adulthood

Attachment and temperament have each been thought to contribute to personality development; however, few empirical studies have examined the relations between the two. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate, in young adulthood, the relations among attachment, temperament, and two aspects of ego development, namely,overall ego development and ego development with respect tointimacy. One hundred and seven college students served as participants. Sixty one percent classified themselves as securely attached and 39% as insecurely attached. A factor analysis of the Emotionality-Activity-Sociability (EAS) Temperament Survey for Adults yielded a primary factor (labeled negative emotionality) that accounted for 41% of the variance. A regression analysis then revealed that both attachment status and temperament predicted overall ego development; however, only attachment status predicted ego development with respect to intimacy. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Group Psychotherapy With Ego Impaired Children: The Significance of Peer Group Culture in the Evolution of a Holding Environment

In this paper, we will attempt to delineate the process by which peer group culture emerges and develops among groups of ego impaired children. The process of culture building in groups, as will be illustrated in a detailed case presentation, is critical for the child's development of skills for structuring and ordering the internal and external worlds. By definition, ego impaired children lack the ability to organize their internal experience. The challenge of group treatment with these children is to provide a situation in which their maladaptive efforts to organize volatile affects and impulses can be tolerated and structured. If they are provided with an adequate holding environment, the children learn to create cultural structures (i.e., therapeutic group culture), for the representation of salient aspects of their emotional lives creates the basis for internal organization. Their growing capacity to build integrating structures, at first collectively within the group, (Pfeifer and Weinstock-Savoy, 1984), which previously could only be provided by the therapist functioning as an auxiliary ego.     

An integrated model for intervention with infants,preschool children,and their maltreating parents

Service delivery systems for maltreating parents need to be comprehensive, integrated, and coordinated in order to address the ecological, developmental, and psychotherapeutic needs of maltreating families. This article presents a center-based, intensive model of intervention for multiproblem, maltreating families. The program described addresses the needs of the entire family; incorporates the evaluation and treatment of the child's, as well as the parent's, development; and provides services in a multifamily group milieu. The following interventions are integrated in the treatment approach: (1) family milieu approach, (2) assistance with functioning of the “parental ego,” (3) traditional therapies, and (4) developmental-structuralist approach to parent-child interaction. Challenges encountered and solutions employed in working with maltreating families are discussed. A detailed case study is presented to illustrate the types of interventions used.     

Freud's Views and the Contemporary Application of Hypnosis: Enhancing Therapy Within a Psychoanalytic Framework

Freud's theoretical writings on hypnosis are reviewed and reasons for his abandoning of this clinical tool are suggested. Clinical hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness which has its own felt reality and does not bypass the ego. In fact, many of the essential characteristics of hypnosis are ego functions. Functions such as focused or free-floating attention, deep absorption, enhanced memory, imagery, ego-receptivity, ego-activity, defenses, and the capacity for self-observation all remain intact in hypnosis. This view is contrasted with Freud's early uses of hypnosis which were not informed by his later psychoanalytic discoveries. Clinical material is presented which illustrates how the conversion from a psychoanalytic psychotherapy to a hypnoanalysis resolved a therapeutic impasse and allowed for a productive treatment. Fromm's view of hypnosis, as a special form of adaptive regression in the service of the ego is clinically illustrated. It is postulated that the altered state of hypnosis facilitates an increased ego mobility. It is the psychic mobility of hypnosis which facilitates the vacillation between primary and secondary process thinking; the experiencing ego and the observing ego, and conscious and unconscious experience. It is largely the ego-mobility and available memory in hypnosis that account for its advantages as compared to non-hypnotic treatment. Relational and self-psychological components of hypnosis are also proposed.     

The use of group history as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of the severely mentally disabled

This paper deals with the integration of individual, group, milieu,behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy. Group history is a record of the episodes or events in a therapeutic group culture. The group history is used as a confrontational screen in the treatment of individuals with fragile ego structures because it maintains focus on the here-and-now, preventing disclosure of painful material from the personal history of each group member. This technique increases the participants' awareness of their own interactions, their repetitive patterns of behavior as well as their assets and vulnerabilities. Therapeutic change is obtained through the medium of constructive feedback provided by both the members and therapists.     

Religious conversion in adolescence

Conclusion The religious conversion experience as it occurs in the adolescent has been defined and its various components delineated. Several predisposing factors similar to those described by Helen Carlson were discussed. It is thought that in the presence of these predisposing factors, additional psychic stress tends to overwhelm a weak ego that is especially vulnerable, because it is in the transitional stage of adolescence. It is further thought that the religious conversion experience is an ego phenomenon which serves to reintegrate the ego.That it sometimes does not is due to factors other than religionper se. The religious beliefs function as a framework within which the processes occur. While they are involved in the conflicts and serve to precipitate the reaction, they also are a factor in the resolution. The total experience is a special instance of the acute confusional state described by Helen Carlson.     

Man on a Pendulum by Israel J. Gerber

Group therapy provides the ideal arena for helping individuals cultivate the observing ego—that part of the sensorium that has the power of witnessing oneself in the world. The essence of our method is to employ the group as a temporary observing ego, out of which members may develop their own observing egos. A five-step process is presented to (1) help the members see how they are affecting others when they do not see this themselves, (2) help the members see how they produce this effect, (3) help the members see the self-injurious nature of their behavior, (4) resolve resistances to seeing any of this, and (5) help the members arrive at new modes of behavior.     

The developing ego in group psychotherapy

Analytic group psychotherapy offers the potential for developing ego functions and enhancing identity formation. The nature of the interaction in group psychotherapy forces participants to deal with their perception of reality and revise their perceptions. After a brief review of the literature, focusing on the theoretical basis and ego development in analytic group psychotherapy, the paper discusses the following ego functions and gives an example of each: adaptation to reality, judgment, drive control, object relations (relationships with others), thought process and communication, defenses, affect differentiation, autonomy, mastery-competence, regulation of self-esteem, and frustration tolerance. The paper concludes with an example of assessing ego functions from a clinical vignette taken from one group psychotherapy session.     

Psychoanalysis in groups: Creativity in diegophrenia

This paper illustrates the value of psychoanalysis in groups in promoting the creative potentials of diegophrenics. The concepts in diegophrenia and creativity are defined and described, with two types of creativity postulated: ego alien or oppositional and ego syntonic. Illustrations of how 12 major ego functions can be enhanced in therapy in order to allow the diegophrenic to recover his or her suppressed ego and free it from the ambivalence of subordination and revolt inherent in his/her prevailing pseudo-egos is provided.     

Changeover of a Mental Hospital Unit into a Therapeutic Community

This paper explores some clinical implications of combining individual and group psychotherapy for children functioning at different levels of ego development. More highly structured children are able to observe the continuity and discontinuity that inevitably exist between the two modalities. Bridging of the two therapeutic contexts—integrating split off object representations—enriches the transference and strengthens the therapeutic alliance. In working with ego impaired children the goal in combining treatment modalities is to provide a therapeutic structure capable of containing unintegrated affects and perceptions. The therapist's challenge is to provide the opportunity to regulate emotional distance while at the same time maintaining the experience of a nurturing relationship. While potential hazards exist, with proper precautions taken, combined treatment can provide significant opportunities to establish or strengthen a therapeutic alliance with children, particularly those most in need and yet most resistant to treatment.     

Delay of Gratification,Psychopathology, and Personality: Is Low Self-Control Specific to Externaiizing Problems?

We assessed the delay of gratification behavior of 428 twelve and thirteen-year-old boys, half of whom were known to manifest symptoms of behavioral disturbance. Consistent with the hypothesis that low self-control is a risk factor specific to externalizing (aggressive and delinquent) disorders, boys who showed signs of externalizing disorders tended to seek immediate gratification in a laboratory task more often than both nondisordered boys and boys who showed signs of internalizing (anxious and depressed) disorders. In addition, children who were able to delay immediate gratification were described by their mothers as ego controlled, ego resilient, conscientious, open to experience, and agreeable. These results suggest that poor delay of gratification may be one of a select number of specific risk factors for externalizing     

Individual needs and charismatic promises

Using psychoanalytic theory, the author explains how a woman came to devote herself to a man's group that conceived of itself as the New Kingdom of God. He refers to notes from counseling sessions with the woman, Jane, and to excerpts from the book,T, which is an autobiography of the group's leader, Thomas. The author compares their ego profiles as measured on ego assessment scales and argues that this allows us to see how Thomas gained his charismatic status.     

恶的想象力

Sartre’s “transcendence of the ego” means that consciousness is outside of the ego, that the ego is the “ego of the other”, and that the other is neither in consciousness nor in the ego. Sartre viewed “reflection” as a pure mood rather than as the substantial carrier of mood. The strangeness and absurdity of the world emerge from this reflection. Sartre’s “imagination of the evil” has two aspects. On the one hand, “evil” corresponds to the concept of the other, transcending the capacity for domination of the ego; on the other hand, imagination is related to the other in a broad sense, with the ability to transform “philistinism” and “evil” into marvels.     

Form creation in rat: an ego-psychological approach to creativity.

The recent ego-psychological approach to form in art is utilized to understand the significance of form creation to artistic creativity in general. Two kinds of form in art are discussed--"good form" and "perfect form". The first is explained as the means used by the artist's ego to facilitate the expression and communication of latent meanings; the second, as the means used by the artist's ego to order disparate mental elements and to reconcile those opposite wishes, ideas, and emotions, whose opposite valences may endanger the integrity and cohesion of the self. In line with the assumptions presented in the paper, creativity and neurosis are described as two different methods used by the ego to solve the same underlying problems.     

Where East meets West: in the house of individuation

The psychological process of individuation as experienced in Jungian work may lead to states of consciousness that resemble advanced spiritual developments across religious traditions and cultures. This is where Westerners may reach a common ground with the East. In the essentials and with respect to the final goal there is little difference among the many ways to the self, even if the cultural features in the landscape are disparate. In late stage Jungian analysis and individuation and in what Erich Neumann calls ‘centroversion’, the personal and the impersonal aspects of the personality accumulate around the ego‐self axis to form a composite identity. In this complex structure the ego does not vanish but is joined to the impersonal archetypal levels of the psyche and identity thus becomes at once individual and archetypal. This is the third stage of conjunction as described by Jung in Mysterium Coniunctionis and it is identical to the type of consciousness depicted in the final scenes of Zen Buddhism's Ten Ox‐Herding Pictures.     

The Present Status of Group Therapy in United States Correctional Institutions

A time-limited group treatment program focusing on mothers of toddlers with a borderline personality disorder is reported. The project involved two intersecting groups—the toddler group and the mother group. The focus of the work with the children was to promote their social interests and skills to an expanded world beyond the maternal dyad. The focus of the work with the mothers was on their difficulties with emotional separation-individuation and on strengthening their ego functioning, particularly in the area of mothering so that they could participate positively in their child's separation-individuation phase.

Representative group process is presented as it organized around three distinct phases. The initial phase was marked by intense resistance, and ambivalence. During the middle phase, group cohesion developed around shared feelings and issues. The termination phase focused insistently on issues of separation. Conclusions drawn from the project include the utility of a group approach in influencing maternal behavior.     

"I had twenty-five piercings and pink hair when . . .": adolescence, transitional hysteria, and the process of subjectivization

The author discusses adolescent and preadolescent development as a transformative experience. The role of the ego ideal in this process, as distinct from the ideal of the ego, is highlighted, and idealization, narcissism, and symbolization are also discussed. Changing representations contribute to what the author describes as a process of subjectivization. An illustrative clinical vignette is presented: that of a 12-year-old girl who developed neurological symptomatology during a crucial period of psychosexual transformation, and whose symptoms rapidly receded after only a few psychoanalytically oriented treatment sessions. The author emphasizes his view of preadolescence as an important passage for the individual's knowledge of the plurality that characterizes him, noting that the recognition of one's own internal multiplicity is characteristic of the psychoanalytic process.     

Doing and Being: Mindfulness,Health, and Quiet Ego Characteristics Among Buddhist Practitioners

We examined the relationship between meditation experience, psychological mindfulness, quiet ego characteristics, and self-reported physical health in a diverse sample of adults with a range of Buddhist experience (N = 117) gathered from a web-based survey administered to Buddhist practitioners around the world between August 1, 2007 and January 31, 2008. Practicing meditation on a regular basis and greater experience with Buddhism was related to higher psychological mindfulness scores. Psychological mindfulness was correlated with a latent variable called “quiet ego characteristics” that reflected measures based on Bauer and Wayment’s (Transcending self-interest: psychological explorations of the quiet ego. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp 7–19, 2008) conceptual and multidimensional definition of a “quiet ego”: wisdom, altruism, sense of interdependence with all living things, need for structure (reversed), anger/verbal aggression (reversed), and negative affectivity (reversed). In turn, quiet ego characteristics were positively related to self-reported health. Our findings provide continuing support for the key role psychological mindfulness may play in psychological and physical well-being.     

The role of ego-control, ego-resiliency, and IQ in delay of gratification in adolescence

The delay-of-gratification behavior of 104 14-year-old Ss (54 girls and 50 boys) was assessed in an experiment in which each subject chose between immediate monetary payment and larger, delayed payment on 5 occasions. Personality data were obtained on these adolescents in the form of California Adult Q-Set ratings made by several research examiners who were blind to the subjects' delay behavior. The number of delayed payments chosen was strongly correlated with these personality ratings, within both sexes. Ss who exhibited the most delay of gratification tended to be independently described as responsible, productive, ethically consistent, interested in intellectual matters, and overly controlled. They tended not to be described as unable to delay gratification, rebellious, unpredictable, self-indulgent, or hostile. Delay behavior in both sexes was also correlated positively with IQ and with Q-sort-derived indexes of ego resiliency and ego control. The relationship between ego control and delay behavior was particularly strong after both IQ and ego resiliency were partialled. These results were interpreted as reflecting the fundamental importance of both cognitive skillfulness and impulse control for adaptive delay behavior in situations that contain strong motivational inducements.