Religious Fundamentalism and Gender Differences

The role of religious fundamentalism and its relationship to shame and guilt was evaluated in 107 students who attend a church-sponsored university. A number of personality measures were given and gender differences were analyzed. The role of externalization was similar for males in this sample to that of earlier studies. However, it was found that females showed positive correlations between externalization and both shame and guilt. For females, more fundamentalistic religious training may help to contribute to an external orientation at the expense of identifying with a personal religion, and appropriate guilt.     

Reading and Writing: Psychoanalytical Treatment in a Case of Paranoia

Difficulties encountered in clinical work with psychoses require psychoanalytical approaches different from those used for treating neurosis. The authors use a clinical case of a paranoiac patient to highlight the role played by writing, drawing, and painting in the psychoanalytical treatment of psychosis. They also discuss the role of the reader-analyst in this patient’s transferential process, which led to the emergence of a new subjectivity.     

Religious Fundamentalism and Limited Prosociality as a Function of the Target

Two distinct research traditions have established that (a) religiosity implies prosocial tendencies, though limited to proximal targets, and (b) religious fundamentalism (RF) relates to prejudice, often because of underlying right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA). Through two studies, we investigated the idea that RF, due to underlying religiosity, also predicts prosociality that is limited to proximal rather than distal targets. Specifically, we found that RF, unlike RWA and because of religiosity, predicted prosociality towards a nonfeminist but not a feminist target in need (Experiment 1) and willingness to help friends but not unknown people in need in the same hypothetical situations (Experiment 2). Moreover, like RWA, RF implied negative attitudes towards the feminist. This limited, not extended, prosociality of people scoring high on RF was in contrast with their self‐perceptions of being universally altruistic. Fundamentalism seems to combine religiosity's qualities (in‐group prosociality) with authoritarianism's defects (out‐group derogation).     

A Comparison of Computer-Assisted Psychotherapy and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Groups

This study is the first independent, randomized controlled study in a clinical setting of a computer-assisted therapy program (Therapeutic Learning Program; TLP) developed to permit individualized therapy in a group setting. This software differs from other computer-assisted approaches in that targets for change are chosen by the patient rather than determined by the software. TLP was compared to a standard cognitive-behavioral treatment in 109 patients with 6-month follow-up. Although both treatments were associated with a significant reduction in symptoms of anxiety and depression at posttreatment and follow-up, no differences were found between treatments with respect to patient-rated satisfaction and effectiveness, clinician ratings of improvement, and scores on measures of anxiety and depression. At treatment midpoint patients tended to give more neutral ratings of satisfaction and treatment effectiveness of the TLP treatment, perhaps suspending judgment about this more novel treatment until its completion. It is concluded that at least one form of computer-assisted psychotherapy is as effective and acceptable to patients in a clinical setting as standard short-term cognitive-behavioral therapy conducted by experienced clinicians.     

Paranoia predicts out-group prejudice: preliminary experimental data

This article examines the relationships between exposure to terrorism news and state social paranoia, death anxiety and Islamophobia. In two experiments we show that, contrary to previous research in this area, the terrorism news condition did not significantly increase state social paranoia, death anxiety and prejudice towards Muslims, but that paranoid thinking was the sole predictor of Islamophobia. Trait paranoia is associated with both poor well-being and with negative perceptions of Muslim competitive players – a form of inter-relational prejudice. Results indicated that the frequency of paranoid thoughts mediates the relationship between death anxiety and anti-Muslim prejudice and trait paranoia is the main predictor of the negative perceptions of a Muslim competing player. This study elucidates new pathways to understanding terror management theory, by including paranoia as a type of thinking that predisposes individuals to be suspicious of salient out-groups.     

Facets of Right‐Wing Authoritarianism Mediate the Relationship Between Religious Fundamentalism and Attitudes Toward Arabs and African Americans

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, hate crimes against Arabs have increased in the United States. Despite recent increases in anti‐Arab attitudes, little psychological research has been conducted to understand this prejudice. Across two studies, we tested a theoretical model of Arab and African‐American prejudice. We found the aggression facet of right‐wing authoritarianism mediated the relationship between religious fundamentalism (RF) and prejudice toward Arabs and African Americans. Results are interpreted in light of previous research on cognitive rigidity, RF, and prejudice, and implications are made for political leaders conversing about Arab nations and peoples.     

To Love or Hate Thy Neighbor: The Role of Authoritarianism and Traditionalism in Explaining the Link Between Fundamentalism and Racial Prejudice

Fundamentalism is consistently related to racial prejudice (Hall, Matz, & Wood, 2010), yet the mechanisms for this relationship are unclear. We identify two core values of fundamentalism, authoritarianism and traditionalism, that independently contribute to the fundamentalism‐racial prejudice relationship. We also contextualize the fundamentalism‐racial prejudice relationship by suggesting that fundamentalists may show prejudice based on conceptions of African Americans as violating values but show tolerance when prejudice is less justifiable. These ideas are tested and confirmed using three data sets from the American National Election Studies. Across all three samples, fundamentalism is related to increases in symbolic racism but decreases in negative affect towards African Americans, and these relationships are mediated by both authoritarianism and traditionalism.     

Practicing Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and Religious Clients

REBT is a process of: (1) identifying dysfunctional emotions and behaviors which inhibit more effective pursuit of what clients experience as their deepest and most abiding desires; (2) relating these dysfunctions to irrational beliefs; (3) inducing clients to reduce the controlling role played by these beliefs in their lives and (4) adopting more self-helping beliefs and practices related to their goals thus reducing their dysfunctional emotions and behaviors and increasing their joyful living. This article discusses how this can be done from within an individual's supernatural belief system, whether that system is theistic or nontheistic.     

Facilitating Individuation Processes in Supervision Groups Comprised of Co-Therapists Conducting Group Therapy with Bereaved Parents

Helping Israeli bereaved parents work through losses and anger poses great emotional challenges for group therapists. Separation-individuation becomes an issue for both mourners and conductors alike. Supervision groups composed of such co-therapists often go through unique stages in the course of their development. The conflict between a defensive belonging to a dyadic subgroup with their co-therapist on the one hand, and involvement with the supervision group and its leader on the other, are the main reasons for this uniqueness. In these stages, special difficulties in the co-therapist's separation/individuation may be observed and furthered. An important emotional function we call reverse parallel process can be activated in supervision groups, and can eventually influence the therapy. It is achieved in the supervision through the containment and working through of difficult emotions disowned by the therapy group. What seemed to be an obstacle to the group's development, if processed by the co-therapists, can enable patients to work through their difficulties and improve their functioning. If, on the other hand, the co-therapists' separation/individuation development is faulty, containment dysfunction may burden the receptiveness and working through of dreadful projections, and result in massive acting-out. The rich Israeli experience in this field could contribute to cope with similar group situations.     

The Social Psychology of Groups and Group Psychotherapy: One View of the Next Century

Will fields that study groups in general, such as social psychology, and fields that use groups to achieve therapeutic goals, such as group psychotherapy, move toward unification in the future or will they drift apart? One possible future assumes that these two approaches to groups will become better integrated as (a) societal changes increase individuals' reliance on groups; (b) research and theory on group processes become more sophisticated; and (c) basic and applied researchers work together more closely in examining groups. Such unification requires, however, changes in the training, outlook, and procedures used by both practitioners and researchers.     

History,Paranoia, Fragmentation1

In his book Aion, Jung describes something like a quasi-Hegelian progressive historical realization of the Self in a perspective similar to Fernand Braudel’s longue durée history. This article deals with a similar perspective, as it tries to focus on what we may call a “cultural complex” yet within its unfolding in historical time and belonging not to just one specific cultural group, but to a large cultural basin, which we may indicate as the “West”. This complex marks the birth and development of modernity. The depth, pervasiveness and duration of this cultural complex permeates the lives and psychologies of all of those that are part of it. Therefore, every analytical project must take into account the underlying emotional, epistemic and social field within which this complex constellates. One of the main features of this (trans)cultural complex, strictly connected with the progressive fragmentation of the self and the transformation of the numinosum with its meaning-giving force, is paranoia. This article analyses the historical and cultural features that produce paranoia and fragmentation and determine paranoid symptoms and attitudes.     

Be It Ever So Humble...: The Controversial Issue of Psychotherapy Groups in the Home Office Setting

Group leaders who have home offices may be disclosing more about their personal lives than they consciously intend. While the home office may be convenient and financially advantageous for the leader, this disclosure can be problematic for both the group therapist and group members. It may provide more information about the leader than some members want to know or are able to metabolize. And although poor boundary maintenance can occur in a professional office setting as well, the leakage in the home office is inevitable. The potential pitfalls seem to be at least threefold: over-stimulation, gaslighting, and the emperor's new clothes effect. These hazards exist independently of the leader's training, competence, or ethics. This paper examines the impact of the home office setting on group treatment. Leaders who practice from the home need to be ever-vigilant of untoward treatment reactions that are related to the setting itself. The article provides vignettes that illustrate the benefits and liabilities of the home office.     

Group-Based Psychotherapy Integration in Theory and Practice: Therapeutic Community Revisited

A group-based theoretical integration model presented in this journal (F. Knobloch, 1996) is elaborated in practice. The core aspects of the group-based system are described and illustrated with clinical examples as they apply to a modified therapeutic community: (a) the creation of the therapeutic world to represent real life and its multiple realities; (b) the group schema model as a context for problem identification and exploration; (c) the collaboration between therapists and group members; (d) the exploration and experimentation of problems through individual and group tasks; and (e) the transfer of new behaviors to real life situations and (f) the systematic application of major psychotherapy theories and techniques.     

Finding Freedom Abroad: Working with Conservative Christian Students in Study Abroad Programs

Conservative (fundamentalist, evangelical) Christian students present a general theological worldview that often correlates with significant anxiety. In a foreign setting, the anxiety of conservative students, removed from their supportive infrastructure, can be considerably heightened. This structure of thinking and emotion presents distinctive challenges and opportunities. Drawing upon my work as a clinician and as a religion professor who conducted study abroad programs, I make suggestions for working effectively with conservative Christian students in study abroad contexts. Suggestions include predeparture, in‐country, and post‐trip strategies. Specific examples of conversations with students are provided to illustrate the challenges and strategies. This essay is published alongside of seven other essays, including a response from John Barbour, comprising a special section of the journal (see Teaching Theology and Religion 18:1, January 2015).     

Raising Fees in Group Therapy: Some Ethical and Clinical Implications

Of all money matters in group psychotherapy, one of the most neglected in the literature is the issue of raising the fees. The premise of this paper is that there are ethical and clinical considerations to group fee increases. One consequence of the lack of attention to the subject of raising of fees is that many neophyte group leaders do not learn about its complexity. It will be argued that the raising of fees is not merely a straightforward matter of informing groups about an impending change in the amount of money that they will pay but rather, it is a knotty, emotionally charged issue with both realistic and subjective components for members and leaders alike. Further, it will be argued that the issue of raising fees in group therapy is dissimilar, in significant ways, from raising fees in individual treatment. When leaders use subjective criterion to decide an increase, then the group process may be disrupted. Suggestions for reform will be offered.