Surfacing the depths: thoughts on imitation,resonance and growth

This paper examines some of the research on imitation that shows it to be much more than simply a behavioural or reflex response, but rather an aspect of the growth of genuine social and psychological interaction and part of an intersubjective process that includes the representation of object relationships. Differentiations between mind, behaviour and emotion may no longer stand up in the light of much of the new neuroscientific and other research of recent years, and the fact that thoughts and feelings have physiological and neuronal correlates. I will look at some of research about ‘mirror neurons’ as a way of trying to bridge such gaps. I will try to integrate some of these thoughts in an extended clinical example of a 4-year-old girl with some autistic features who was seen for intensive psychotherapy. In this I will examine the role of affect attunement, imitation, mirroring and the need to amplify emotional states as part emotional development.     

Toward an Epistemology of the Hand

Western philosophy has been greatly influenced by visual metaphors. Knowing something has commonly, yet implicitly, been conceptualized as seeing something clearly, learning has been framed as being visually exposed to something, and the mind has been understood as a ‘mirror of nature’. A whole ‘epistemology of the eye’ has been at work, which has had significant practical implications, not least in educational contexts. One way to characterize John Dewey’s pragmatism is to see it as an attempt to replace the epistemology of the eye with an epistemology of the hand. This article develops the epistemology of the hand on three levels: A level of embodiment and metaphors, of craftsmanship and social practices, and of schooling and education.     

In the Pursuit of Absence: Reimagining Early Loss within the Psychotherapy Relationship

In this paper I examine absence—absence as an internal relationship, absence as an enactment, absences characteristic of psychotherapy, absence as a theory, and absence as something people do to each other, including patients, therapists, families, and societies. To illustrate these ideas, I discuss my work with Gemma. When absence enters our relationship in a very present way, the powerful emotions that absence eludes come alive for us. Forced to confront my own absences, I begin doing a better job of holding her in mind, which ultimately helps her to hold me in mind and make better use of me.     

WHY I AM AN ACCOMMODATIONIST AND PROUD OF IT

There is a strong need of a reasoned defense of what was known as the “independence” position of the science–religion relationship but that more recently has been denigrated as the “accommodationist” position, namely that while there are parts of religion—fundamentalist Christianity in particular—that clash with modern science, the essential parts of religion (Christianity) do not and could not clash with science. A case for this position is made on the grounds of the essentially metaphorical nature of science. Modern science functions because of its root metaphor of the machine: the world is seen in mechanical terms. As Thomas Kuhn insisted, metaphors function in part by ruling some questions outside their domain. In the case of modern science, four questions go unasked and hence unanswered: Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the foundation of morality? What is mind and its relationship to matter? What is the meaning of it all? You can remain a nonreligious skeptic on these questions, but it is open for the Christian to offer his or her answers, so long as they are not scientific answers. Here then is a way that science and religion can coexist.     

Psychotropic medication from an object relations theory perspective: an analysis of vignettes from group psychotherapy

In this article we explore the content and dynamics of patients' verbalizations within a "living with medications" group. Patients' perceptions of their psychotropic medications are interpreted and classified within the framework of object relations theory. One's perception of the role of medication in one's life can serve as a gateway to one's inner world and the way that he or she perceives authority figures, peers, and oneself. We suggest that working through patients' relationships with their medications can help them to achieve better integration of internal object relations. Discussing patients' views about medications should therefore be seen as an important part of psychotherapy with many individuals. Such a discussion may enhance and improve efficacy of both psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. It is of particular importance in group therapy, within milieu environments and with individuals reluctant to explicitly discuss interpersonal matters. Vignettes from the group sessions illustrate the way in which discussing medication advances group process.     

Hegel and self‐actualization

Abstract

Hegel says that mind develops through three phases, which he calls soul, consciousness, and mind. By referring to these three phases as the Primary level, the Social level and the Realizing level, it makes it clearer that they link up with thoroughly familiar phenomena in the field of psychotherapy and with contemporary life generally. In fact, they give a new angle on the whole process of self‐actualization, which throws light on many topics in humanistic psychology.     

The Worldviews of Healing Traditions in the East and West: Implications for Psychology of Religion

This article will compare the worldviews of psychotherapy traditions in Eastern and Western culture, particularly the therapeutic factors and principles indigenous to the Chinese culture. The author will first define the meaning of culture and psychotherapy from a postmodern anthropological approach. By referring to history and literature in the study of cultural psychology, a comparison will be made between the value systems lying behind therapeutic methods used in the East and West. This includes the worldviews on the body and mind, the self, mental health, relationship, community, healing, and spirituality. Lastly, a famous Chinese legend will be used as an example to illustrate how worldview differences between the East and West determine the goals and process of psychotherapy. It is hoped that psychology of religion would be sensitive to the underlying worldviews across different cultures, without imposing its definition of “mental health” and method of “healing,” as different religions embody different cultural traditions as well. It is argued that whether spirituality or religion is helpful to the wellbeing of local people, it should be defined by the local persons and expressed in their mother tongue. Hence a psychology of religion for Chinese people should respect its customs of healing and particular set of worldviews.     

具身心理治疗:原理与技术

具身心理治疗是以身体心理治疗、舞动治疗为代表的,理论上契合具身认知观点、实践中注重身体作用的一种当代心理治疗取向。它将“身体”与“躯体”区分开来,赋予身体解剖学的、感觉运动的、认知的与嵌入环境等不同层面的意义。当前,已有不少研究证实身体有助于改善治疗关系,促进来访者认知、情绪的改变,并发展出一系列注重身体内外感知、姿势或运动的非言语治疗技术。具身心理治疗重构了身体在治疗过程中的概念与角色,发展了新的技术,是传统心理治疗的有益补充; 但也存在实证证据不足、理论框架尚未完全整合、容易过分强调身体作用等问题。今后需自觉整合其他治疗流派、开发独特的核心技术,推进循证的具身心理治疗的发展。     

Descartes's Regulae, mathematics, and modern psychology: "the Noblest example of all" in Light of Turing's (1936) On computable Numbers

There are surprisingly strong connections between the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of mathematics. One particular important example can be seen in the Regulae (1628) of Descartes. In "the noblest example of all," he used his new abstract understanding of numbers to demonstrate how the brain can be considered as a symbol machine and how the intellect's algebraic reasoning can be mirrored as operations on this machine. Even though his attempt failed, it is illuminating to explore it because Descartes launched 2 traditions--mechanistic philosophy of mind and abstract mathematics--that would diverge until A. Turing (1936) approached symbolic reasoning in a similar "symbol machine-existence proof" way. Descrates's and Turing's thought experiments, which mark the beginning of modern psychology and cognitive science, respectively, indicate how important the development of mathematics has been for the constitution of the science of mind.     

Words,You, and Me

It is tempting to explicate the mastery of language, as many philosophers have, with how we come to learn language. Interpreting how we come to learn a language necessarily involves saying what the mind's relevant capacities are. Too long we have been told that those capacities are adaptive to, as well as within, a social context; it seemed plausible to argue that we learn to have (propositional) thoughts as we learn and use the language conatively. This essay tries to persuade the reader that there is something else besides, something that cannot be taught. That something, elusive as it is, is caught in one of the phrases with which the OED defines passion , 'An eager outreaching of the mind towards something'. Passion understood in this way is conceptually indispensable to human language.     

Rethinking mind-body dualism: a Buddhist take on the mind-body problem

This paper is an effort to present the mind-body problem from a Buddhist point of view. Firstly, I show that the Buddhist distinction between mind and body is not absolute, but instead merely employed as a communicative tool to aid the understanding of human beings in a holistic light. Since Buddhism acknowledges a mind-body distinction only on a conventional level, it would not be fair to claim that the tradition necessarily advocates mind-body dualism. Secondly, I briefly discuss a response to Cartesian dualism from a Buddhist perspective and suggest that in this particular regard, the Buddhist approach may be likened to the ‘category mistake’ argument formulated by Gilbert Ryle. The fact that the Buddhist view does not accord with Cartesian dualism, however, does not imply that a monistic approach to the mind-body problem such as behaviourism, physicalism or biological naturalism is necessarily assumed. The Buddhist position could perhaps be best described as a middle way approach of ‘neither-duality-nor-identity’. Thirdly, I remain sceptical about the reductionist approach of accounting for mind merely on the level of brain or behaviour. In overlooking crucial ethical and axiological implications of mind, I argue that such an approach necessarily fails to impart a complete picture of mind. The Buddhist soteriological approach furthermore reveals certain law-like connections between mental attitudes and suffering which are for the most part overlooked in mainstream metaphysical explorations into the relation between mind and body. I thus endeavour to show why exploration into the link between mental phenomena, spiritual cultivation and the accumulation of karma is imperative to any comprehensive inquiry into the human mind.     

An experimental analysis of body checking

The relationship between repeated body checking and its impact on body size estimation and body dissatisfaction is of interest for two reasons. First, it has importance in theoretical accounts of the maintenance of eating disorders and, second, body checking is targeted in cognitive-behavioural treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of manipulating body checking on body size estimation and body dissatisfaction. Sixty women were randomly assigned either to repeatedly scrutinize their bodies in a critical way in the mirror ("high body checking") or to refrain from body checking but to examine the whole of their bodies in a neutral way ("low body checking"). Body dissatisfaction, feelings of fatness and the strength of a particular self-critical thought increased immediately after the manipulation among those in the high body checking condition. Feelings of fatness decreased among those in the low body checking condition. These changes were short-lived. The manipulation did not effect estimations of body size or the discrepancy between estimations of body size and desired body size. The implications of these findings for understanding the influence of body checking on the maintenance of body dissatisfaction are considered.     

‘And when you were a child?’: how therapists working with parents alongside individual child psychotherapy bring the past into their work

When a child is offered psychotherapy, it is common that regular meetings will be offered to the parents. However, there are debates in the literature about the degree to which such parent work should include a focus on the parents’ own childhood experiences. This study aimed to examine the way that those offering parent work as part of a study evaluating the treatment of adolescent depression dealt with this issue in their work with parents, both in the study and in routine clinical practice. Design: five therapists were interviewed on the subject of working with parents’ childhood experiences within parent work parallel to child psychotherapy. Data were analysed qualitatively, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Findings: participants described the need to consider the different parameters of this work to individual adult therapy; in addition, participants felt that it was necessary to negotiate permission to work on the parents’ childhood experiences. They also spoke of making use of insight into the repetition of the parents’ history, the analysis of parental projections and offering containment within the relationship; this varies from the ‘transference work’ of individual therapy and a different style of interpretation was described. Conclusions: there is a need to give more attention to the neglected field of working with parents alongside individual child psychotherapy, especially at a time when such work is under threat within many public services. There are particular technical issues related to work with parents’ own childhood histories that are different to how one might work in individual therapy with a parent.     

Virtual reality in psychotherapy: review.

Virtual reality (VR) has recently emerged as a potentially effective way to provide general and specialty health care services, and appears poised to enter mainstream psychotherapy delivery. Because VR could be part of the future of clinical psychology, it is critical to all psychotherapists that it be defined broadly. To ensure appropriate development of VR applications, clinicians must have a clear understanding of the opportunities and challenges it will provide in professional practice. This review outlines the current state of clinical research relevant to the development of virtual environments for use in psychotherapy. In particular, the paper focuses its analysis on both actual applications of VR in clinical psychology and how different clinical perspectives can use this approach to improve the process of therapeutic change.     

The Attractions and Delights of Goodness

What makes something good for me? Most contemporary philosophers argue that something cannot count as good for me unless I am in some way attracted to it, or take delight in it. However, subjectivist theories of prudential value face difficulties, and there is no consensus about how these difficulties should be resolved. Whether one opts for a hedonist or a desire-satisfaction account of prudential value, certain fundamental assumptions about human well-being must be abandoned. I argue that we should reconsider Plato's objectivist theory of goodness as unity, or the One. This view is both consistent with and explains our most basic views both about goodness in general and human well-being in particular.     

Unerwünschte und schädliche Wirkungen von Psychotherapie

Unwanted effects or even damage due to psychotherapy are largely neglected issues within psychotherapy research as compared to other fields. On the other hand, it is reasonable to assume that unwanted effects of a treatment which intends to influence patients into a positive direction are very likely. The rate of negative effects of psychotherapy (the deterioration effect according to Bergin) is consistently estimated to be 10% of all cases and shows this same rate in a variety of studies. This review highlights side effects of psychotherapy both on the part of the patients and of the therapists. It reports unwanted effects related to different psychotherapeutic methods, i.e. psychoanalysis, cognitive behaviour therapy, client-centered psychotherapy and – beyond these basic orientations – group psychotherapy. The paper also reports on negative effects of psychotherapy on an untreated partner. Finally, some proposals are given on how negative effects of psychotherapy could be diminished. The authors especially highlight the possibilities of changing the therapist, the treatment technique, or the theoretical treatment approach as a way to reduce negative effects.     

Die Verantwortung der Psychoanalyse für die Psychotherapie

Whether psychoanalysis can take over the responsibility for psychotherapy when it is not operating as a part of psychoanalysis but on its own is a question which has currently become significant again. The present paper gives an affirmative answer, but under certain limiting conditions only. Psychoanalysis can take responsibility for psychotherapy. It can base this on the fact that the definition of “depth psychological psychotherapy” binds psychotherapy—as it is usually called—to psychoanalysis. How this is possible in practice is determined during the training. The training at the Michael-Balint-Institute in Hamburg is presented which partly occurs jointly and partly separately, in this way representing the reality of the two separate fields linked to each other and yet independent. The common ground is constituted by the basic principles of psychoanalysis. As an example of this common ground, the seminar on the technique of diagnosis and treatment, which is part of the early curriculum, is discussed in detail. Later on in the training, the two curricula separate more and more, each taking over its own responsibility. Not only questions of the contents but also formal aspects have to be considered. There are good reasons for establishing an independent Institute for Psychotherapy which runs the necessary arrangements together with the Institute for Psychoanalysis, from which it derives, and also remains close to the latter. Finally, it is pointed out that all of this is only possible when respecting each other’s work. Independent psychotherapy is not less valuable than psychoanalysis, but simply something else.