Psychodrama,Vol. II. Foundations of Psychotherapy by J. L. Moreno Beacon

This article explores the dynamics of the supervisory process focusing on the factors effecting the balance of power between the supervisor and supervisee. The assignment of inherent roles, issues of transference, countertransference, and the parallel process with all the risks involved for both parties are reviewed. Recent developments in the shifting supervisory equilibrium are analyzed and specific suggestions are offered to avoid the common pitfalls present in many contemporary supervisor situations.     

Dynamics of Psychotherapy,Vol. III by Percival M. Symonds

This article presents a model for the group treatment of young children who are victims of physical or sexual abuse using the basic socialization unit, the family, as the analogue model. Components of the model include male–female cotherapists, a peer group of abused children, periodic home visits, a consultative rather than therapeutic relationship with the caretakers, and group supervision of the therapists. Seven therapeutic goals are identified which highlight therapeutic issues unique to the abused child within a developmental framework. A case example illustrates the process.     

Why We Are Still Not Cognitive Psychologists: A Review of Why I Am Not A Cognitive Psychologist: A Tribute to B. F. Skinner

Any instructor of behavior analysis is no doubt aware that neuroscience, characterized by a cognitive–mentalistic approach, has substantial influence in behavioral science. As a counterpoint, behavior analysis can raise timely questions and promote critical thinking, as did Skinner (1977) in his critical analysis of cognitive psychology. Keenan and Dillenburger (2004) have produced a CD-ROM with effective audio-visual presentations to aid in the teaching of behavior analysis and in critiquing reductionistic mentalism.     

Thinking About Your Thoughts: Investigating Different Cognitive Change Strategies

A mainstay technique of cognitive therapy is the cognitive error (CE) method, which aims to mitigate psychological distress by identifying logical errors in thinking and replacing them with alternative, adaptive cognitions. Monson and Fredman (2012) have developed a different cognitive change strategy, named the U.N.S.T.U.C.K., which is predicated on the notion of increasing cognitive flexibility to improve distress. This therapy analogue study (N?=?32) examined the emotional change produced by each strategy and initially tested each strategy??s underlying theory. Both strategies resulted in emotional change, and there was a marginally significant advantage of the U.N.S.T.U.C.K. in producing this change. The U.N.S.T.U.C.K. also resulted in a greater decline in belief in original thought over time. Finally, the interaction between level of belief in new thought and cognitive strategy was a marginally significant predictor of emotional change; there was a stronger relationship between belief in new thought and emotional change for those in the U.N.S.T.U.C.K. group. Limitations and future research directions are offered.     

Change Processes in Residential Cognitive and Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Social Phobia: A Process-Outcome Study

The purpose of this study was to test cognitive and interpersonal models for improving social phobia. Eighty patients with social phobia were randomized to 10-week residential cognitive (RCT) or residential interpersonal psychotherapy (RIPT). They completed process measures every Thursday and a sub-outcome measure every Monday. The ratings were analyzed with mixed models. Weekly changes in the process variables derived from the cognitive model (self-focus, estimated probability and estimated cost of negative social events, safety behaviors) predicted subsequent weekly changes in social anxiety. Changes in the interpersonal variable perceived acceptance by others also predicted subsequent changes in social anxiety. On the other hand, changes in social anxiety predicted changes in the four cognitive variables. There were no interactive effects of process with treatment. The cognitive variables decreased during treatment to a similar degree in both treatments. The results indicate that, to reduce social anxiety, therapy should target self-focus, estimated probability and cost of feared social events, safety behaviors, and perceived acceptance by others. The process of improvement may involve positive cycles in that a reduction of social anxiety, in turn, appeared to impact self-focus, probability, cost, and safety behaviors.     

Book Reviews: Introduction to the Technique of Psychotherapy: Practice Guidelines for Psychotherapists,by Samuel I. Greenberg,M.D., Charles Thomas, 1998, 106 ps

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

I. R. Owen. Psychotherapy and Phenomenology. New York: iUniverse,Inc.

Abstract

This study¹ explores the experience of the body for contemporary female mystics. It is an exploration in how women mystics of today—those who have devoted most of their lifetime to prayer, meditation, and spiritual service—make sense of the body. What is the relationship between spirit and body, God and flesh, for such women? Is it a relationship of tension or even opposition, and how does it evolve over time? These are some of the questions that guided my investigation. The impulse to understand how the body is experienced and understood by such women was felt by me as both a longing to challenge, deepen, and refine my awareness and understanding of spirit and the body, specifically for women mystics. I also felt this as a burning in the heart, an urgent desire to connect and bridge the larger world of matter and that of spirit, to inquire into that dimension where flesh and spirit are not two, but one. I believe that this impulse to understand the relationship between body and spirit is both personal and quite possibly collective. My hope is that this research will serve as one step to further our collective understanding of human embodiment.     

Non-Monotonic Reasoning from an Evolution-Theoretic Perspective: Ontic, Logical and Cognitive Foundations

In the first part I argue that normic laws are the phenomenological laws of evolutionary systems. If this is true, then intuitive human reasoning should be fit in reasoning from normic laws. In the second part I show that system P is a tool for reasoning with normic laws which satisfies two important evolutionary standards: it is probabilistically reliable, and it has rules of low complexity. In the third part I finally report results of an experimental study which demonstrate that intuitive human reasoning is in well accord with basic argument patterns of system P.