A new book by N. A. Bernstein: "On dexterity and its development"

A book, "On Dexterity and Its Development," written by N. A. Bernstein in the 1940s has recently been published in Moscow. We describe briefly the amazing fate of this miraculously saved book and of its famous author. The book is unique in its reader-friendly handling of the most complicated issues of motor control, motor development, motor skill acquisition, and more general aspects of brain activity. It presents the basis for what is now called motor control and for some of the more fundamental issues of theoretical neuroscience. Bernstein described his views on multilevel control of movements, the role of sensory feedback, preprogramming, feedback and feedforward components in motor control, the role of exercise, and other subjects. Despite the fact that the book was written nearly half a century ago, its deep philosophical content remains beyond any competition.     

Conceptual pluralism: A.G.P.A.'s shift from orthodoxy to an "umbrella" organization

The American Group Psychotherapy Association began in 1942 as an elite, strictly Freudian organization. Its dramatic growth in the 1960s and 1970s was accompanied by much theoretical disagreement and professional "chauvinism." During the past decade, however, the ideological controversy has yielded to pluralism in theory and eclecticism in practice.     

A "good enough" separation: some characteristic operations and tasks.

Perhaps there are advantages, at this stage of our knowledge, to be looking for the adaptive mechanisms of divorcing families where children are involved, rather than focusing primarily on concepts of risk, dysfunction, and disaster. Perhaps what is truly remarkable is that divorcing families are not more disturbed, given the stigmatization, the uncharted nature of this complex upheaval with little normative frame, and diminished financial resources. As a modest offering in this regard, a 3-year longitudinal study is presented of a nonclinical postseparation family with an adolescent who neither entered nor required treatment. Specifically, their successful resolutions invented for dealing with day-to-day divorce dilemmas and challenges are explored.     

T. S. Eliot's The Family Reunion—"Schizophrenia" Reconsidered

T. S. Eliot's play, The Family Reunion ( 4 ), can be interpreted as a representation of a "schizophrenic" and his family. As such it illustrates some of the clinical insights of both individual psychiatry and family psychiatry. This paper will discuss the play from a clinical vantage point and conclude with a re-consideration of the concept of schizophrenia.