A. G. P. A. News

Therapist interventions in group therapy are not usually considered in terms of criteria for their validity. Such criteria hinge on the theoretical orientation of the therapist. In a psychoanalytic group context, 10 validating criteria are presented in broad areas relevant to affect, effective communication, and group cohesion. Other issues, such as timing, are considered, and illustrative clinical material is presented. Ongoing clinical hypothesis testing in the work of therapy is encouraged.     

Once More. . .

Short notices of reissued books:
Ken Parry (ed.), The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity
Rowan Williams, Arius
Colin E. Gunton, Becoming and Being: The Doctrine of God in Charles Hartshorne and Karl Barth
Leszek Kolakowski, Religion. If There Is No God. . .: On God, the Devil, Sin and Other Worries of the So-Called Philosophy of Religion     

ONCE MORE. . .

Books reviewed:
A.J. Heschel (ed. and trans.), G. Tucker. Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations. Reviewed by David R. Blumenthal
Robert Murray. Symbols of Church and Kingdom: A Study in Early Syriac Tradition. Reviewed by Augustine Casiday     

Once More . . .

The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings , Third Edition, Bart D. Ehrman, Oxford University Press 2004 (0-19-515462-2), pp. xxxvi + 506, Pb £21.99
A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages , Walter Ullmann with a new introduction by George Garnett. Routledge 2003 (0-415-30227-7), pp. xix + 339, Pb $19.99
Showing of Love , Julian of Norwich, translated by Julia Bolton Holloway, DLT 2003 (0-232-52503-X), pp. xxxiv + 133, Pb £9.95
The Encyclopedia of Christianity , Volume 3 (J-O), Erwin Fahlbusch et al. , Eerdmans 2003 (0-8028-2415-3) / Brill 2003 (90-04-12654-6), pp. xxix + 918, Hb £65/$100
Approaches to Auschwitz: The Holocaust and its Legacy , Revised Edition, Richard L. Rubenstein and John K. Roth (eds), Westminster John Knox Press 2003 (0-664-22353-2), pp. xi + 499, Pb $29.95     

Once More. . .

Black, Matthew (ed.), Peake's Commentary on the Bible
Mills, Watson E. and Wilson, Richard F. (eds), Mercer Commentary on the Bible. Volume 3: (Wisdom) Writings
Barrett, David B., Kurian, George T. and Johnson, Todd M., World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World (Second Edition, 2 vols)
Dupré, Louis Symbols of the Sacred     

Fieldwork Journal at F.E.G.S.

SUMMARY

The challenge of working with the mentally ill population on the first Level I fieldwork exposure is often experienced in a setting where the on-site supervisor is a therapist from another discipline. Many skilled mental health professionals can offer a rich learning experience and assist students in mastering generic clinical skills in relating to and understanding the psychiatric population. Occupational therapy students bring to this clinical relationship the opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of occupational therapy interventions through group work, and individual evaluation and treatment, which benefits both the clients and the larger program. This article recounts the journal of a Level I student's journey through a setting that provided a receptive environment for fostering growth in the process of becoming truly comfortable and effective in the skills and roles of an occupational therapist in a mental health environment.     

A.G.P.A. News

Clinical observations regarding themes and roles that are characteristic of short-term, psychoanalytically oriented therapy groups for loss patients are presented. They reflect aspects of both the therapy and the patients. Themes refer to the content of a recurrent conflict in the group. They include trust, survivor guilt, mortality, and termination. Roles refer to a set of patient behaviors that represent a shared conflict. They include the apparition, monk, professor, professional nurturer, emotional conductor, and cruise director. Challenges that the themes and roles present to the therapist and clinical guidelines for addressing them are offered. Awareness of characteristic themes and roles and possible therapist responses are regarded as important parts of the preparation and training of therapists who plan to conduct short-term loss groups.     

W. H. R. Rivers and the war neuroses.

W. H. R. Rivers was the most famous member of the Cambridge Expedition to the Torres Strait. At the time, he was a physician and had an international reputation as a researcher in physiological psychology. The expedition signaled the beginning of his career in social anthropology, but also a long hiatus in his activities in medicine. His clinical interests revived during World War I. As an officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), Rivers became a leading proponent of "psychological medicine." Today, his war-time psychiatry is remembered mainly in association with his patient, Siegfried Sassoon. This article focuses on his wartime activities, his clinical practices, and his theories concerning the war neuroses and the unconscious. The currently popular view of Rivers as a quasi-Freudian humanist is challenged.     

U.S. mental health policy. Doomed to fail.

Changes in the de facto system of mental health care in the last decade reflect organizational and entrepreneurial responsiveness to changes in health policy, not mental health policy. Various other actions described here reduced statutory or institutional leadership roles in mental health and increased the pace at which mental health policy was becoming dependent on health policy. In turn, U.S. health policy in the 20th century has been inherently flawed. The short-term general hospital--the "doctors' workshop"--emphasizing acute care and surgery, has been the cornerstone of U.S. health policy throughout the 20th century. The mimicry of health services by mental health leads to demonstrably more expensive and less effective mental health care and dooms mental health policy to failure.     

S.I.M.P.L.E. control and measurement of auditory events

A SIMPLE interactive programming language is shown to be useful for psychological research involving auditory stimuli and responses. It is helpful in recording spoken stimulus tapes with program control of event sequencing and timing; it can control on-line interactive auditory and bisensory experiments; and it can calibrate the stimulus durations and pause times for auditory events.     

School psychology in the U.S.S.R.

Soviet psychologists perform various tasks and provide useful psychological services for pupils and educators. This article describes the general characteristics of education and the preparation and research of psychologists in the U.S.S.R. Also discussed are current practices and emerging trends relating to the establishment of school-based psychological services as well as future developments that may lead to the enhancement of the profession of school psychology in the Soviet Union.     

B. F. Skinner, organism.

B. F. Skinner illustrated the power of behavior analysis by turning it upon his own behavior. This article considers parallels in the life and work of Charles Darwin and places Skinner's views on life and death in the context of his selectionist paradigm for psychology. The term organism plays a special role, and the account shows why B. F. Skinner might have regarded it as an appropriate title.     

Qualifications for Membership in the A.G.P.A.

A model of the development of group therapists is presented. It is proposed that student group therapists proceed through a sequence of stages, each of which is marked by characteristic therapist behavior. During the initial Group shock phase, the student reacts to the novelty of group therapy stimuli with individual therapy or content-oriented approaches. Reappraisal is a period of some therapist inhibition, frustration, or self-doubt. One step behind is a phase characterized by a gradual recognition of the process level of analysis, despite difficulty supplying the interventions autonomously. Using the here-and-now is a period of active intervention about interpersonal phenomena among group members. The techniques for highlighting this material are refined in the Polishing skills phase. The usefulness of models in training is discussed.     

A note on E. B. Titchener and G. M. Whipple

In 1898, one of E. B. Titchener's graduate students, Stella E. Sharp, conducted an experiment on Alfred Binet and Victor Henri's theory and belief that mental abilities should be tested by means of complex mental processes. Her subjects were seven advanced students in psychology. She concluded that the findings were incommensurate with the effort required. That closed the subject as an area of research and instruction in the Cornell Department of Psychology until 1941, when the subject of test theory and uses was included in that department's course offerings. This continued until 1963. Currently, the subject is once again being actively pursued in the Department of Education.     

U.R.S.S. 1925: Politique et religion

The religious debates of the 1920's in the Soviet Union were marked by an agreement to disagree which no longer seems to exist.     

ONCE MORE . . .

Book reviewed:
An Interpretation of Religion: Human Responses to the Transcendent , John Hick, Second Edition, Palgrave Macmillan 2004 (1-4039-4445-8), pp. xlii + 416, Pb £18.99 Reviewed by Michael A. Chester North East Oecumenical Course, Durham     

H. G. Wells and B. F. Skinner on the superorganism

In Skinner's Walden Two, the central character Frazier refers to the superorganism and how to build it, but without elaboration. An examination of some parallels between the work of H. G. Wells and B. F. Skinner, however, casts light on that reference and other aspects of Skinner's views, such as multiple selves. Both Wells and Skinner wrote in similar ways about what the composition of such a superorganism would be and the conditions for its development. In particular, attention is directed to the ways in which their forecasts of the conditions for producing the superorganism changed over time, from determinism-based conditions to more evolutionary or selection-based conditions.     

Once More. . .

Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction (3rd edition)
Alister E. McGrath, The Christian Theology Reader (2nd edition)     

In these pages . . .

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -