Secrets versus privacy in group psychotherapy

Secrets lead to subgroup formation and premature termination in group psychotherapy. Privacy is the right of each individual to choose the appropriate time and manner in which he or she reveals intimate knowledge about him/herself. Secrets are the conscious or unconscious withholding of information, often as a protective mechanism to avoid fear and shame. Holding secrets is a form of acting out in groups. When secrets are revealed, working through occurs and shame is overcome. This occurs when boundaries are maintained and safety develops as a result of acceptance within the group.     

Brief crisis group psychotherapy versus the initial sessions of long-term group psychotherapy: An exploratory comparison

An attempt was made to specify the therapist behaviors characteristic of the brief crisis group (BCG) approach, to assess how patients experience BCG on dimensions of session impact and group climat, and to describe the changes possible from BCG on measures of outcome by contrasting this modality with the initial sessions of traditional long-term therapy groups in a preexperimental design. Data obtained from four eight-session BCGs and three beginning long-term groups (LTG) were used for analyses. Patients were administered the Session Evaluation (SEQ) and Group Climate (GCQ) Questionnaires at the end of each group session. Two judges sat in on each session and coded the types of therapist interventions using the Therapist Behavior Categories (TBC) system. Aspects of self-esteem and symptomatology were assessed as indices of change over the 8-week period in a pre-post fashion. Therapists in BCG evidenced a distinct pattern of interventions during midpoint group sessions (sessions 3–6), placing a greater emphasis on challenging patient perceptions and providing information than their LTG counterparts. The therapists' use of self as an issue in BCG increased as termination approached and apparently served a more limited function than in LTG. Patients in BCG reported a more rapid development of a working group and experienced greater session benefit. Patients in BCG also reported lower levels of conflict and avoidance and a greater decrease in these resistance behaviors. As expected, BCG patients reported substantially greater improvement on most outcome dimensions at the end of the 8-week period. Results are considered as clarifying the approach to and impact of BCG psychotherapy.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 15th Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, Lake Louise, Alberta, June 19–23, 1984.     

Personality Psychology and Postmodernism

Interest in constructing theories of the individual person as a whole has been relatively weak since 1950. This disinterest, especially in the past 2 decades, may, it is suggested, be partly due to the growth and popularity of postmodern thought, which seems to be in conflict with the idea that behavior is controlled by real psychological properties within the individual. The aim of this article is to question some of the main postmodern assumptions that represent obstacles to a renewed interest in the nature of the individual. It is concluded that the parts of postmodernism that are inconsistent with a science of the person as a whole are all false—and that the part that is true is consistent with a science of the individual.     

The lab versus the clinic. Effects of child and adolescent psychotherapy.

Four recent meta-analyses, involving more than 200 controlled outcome studies, have shown consistent evidence of beneficial therapy effects with children and adolescents. However, most of the studies involved experimental procedures, nonreferred subjects, specially trained therapists with small caseloads, and other features that may not represent conventional clinic therapy. Research focused on more representative treatment of referred clients in clinics has shown more modest effects; in fact, most clinic studies have not shown significant effects. Interpretation studies have not shown significant effects. Interpretation of these findings requires caution; such studies are few and most could profit from improved methodology. The clinic studies do raise questions as to whether the positive lab findings can be generalized to the clinics where most therapy occurs; however, the lab interventions that have worked so well may point the way to enhanced therapy effects in clinics.     

全球帝国主义与重构的后现代主义

现代文化和政治已经导致了全球帝国主义,即一种通过一个国家来创建一个无所不包的帝国的尝试。为了战胜这种全球帝国主义,需要从现代世界秩序转向一种后现代世界秩序,其中,以主权为基础的民族国家的无政府秩序将被全球民主所取代。怀特海式的重构的后现代主义为后现代政治的双重任务(抵抗全球帝国主义和建立全球民主)提供了各种文化资源。     

后现代叙事心理治疗探幽

近15年来国际心理治疗界出现一种由科学隐喻向叙事隐喻转变的潮流.它突出了心理问题的多维性和生活方式的多样性,强调整体联系的视角,与中国文化中的"大人"思想相契合.对叙事心理治疗做探讨,分为三个部分:什么是叙事心理治疗,介绍对叙事心理治疗的整体理解;叙事心理治疗的哲学渊源,介绍叙事心理治疗的理论基础;伦理问题,探讨叙事心理治疗在组织实施过程中权力关系与责任分布.     

Treatment preference, engagement, and clinical improvement in pharmacotherapy versus psychotherapy for depression

Pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy are generally effective treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD); however, research suggests that patient preferences may influence outcomes. We examined the effects of treatment preference on attrition, therapeutic alliance, and change in depressive severity in a longitudinal randomized clinical trial comparing pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. Prior to randomization, 106 individuals with MDD reported whether they preferred psychotherapy, antidepressant medication, or had no preference. A mismatch between preferred and actual treatment was associated with greater likelihood of attrition, fewer expected visits attended, and a less positive working alliance at session 2. There was a significant indirect effect of preference match on depression outcomes, primarily via effects of attendance. These findings highlight the importance of addressing patient preferences, particularly in regard to patient engagement, in the treatment of MDD.     

Cross-fertilization versus transmission: Recommendations for developing a bidirectional approach to psychotherapy dissemination research

Psychotherapy researchers are increasingly engaged in collaborations with clinical practitioners and mental health administrators. Each party brings its own perspectives, values, and agendas to bear in these encounters. Viable research—practice collaborations depend on understanding and negotiating some of the tensions in these relationships. In this article, we discuss the contexts that prevail for various participants in a psychotherapy dissemination study as well as the values, goals, costs, and benefits related to research participation. This article is a collaboration among the researchers, mental health administrators, therapists, and clients involved in an ongoing treatment dissemination study. Our recommendations for research—practice collaborations are based on our experiences and dialogues over the course of this study.     

Postmodernism and the parody of argument

Argument, in any full sense of the word, needs resources and assumptions that postmodernism does not provide. Postmodernism is not a phenomenon that emerged after modernism, as it were, to replace it; postmodernism is just an ultimate expression of the nihilistic tendencies of modernism, tendencies which were present from its beginning and have continued to the present. A radical critique of modernism undercuts postmodernism as well and clears the way for a revival of realist foundations for argument and rhetoric.     

There is No Education After Postmodernism

Studies in Philosophy and Education -     

Postmodernism and the unchangeability of God

Postmodern thought that emphasises the changing and constructive element in all our concepts and conceptions, also seems to challenge the very idea of the unchangeability of God. How can we think of God as unchangeable, when the means by which we do this seem to change? After presenting some main traits of postmodern thought relevant for this problem, the arguments in the article takes a twofold line: first, thinking of God requires that we accept the internal logic of the concept, that do not allow us to think God in any way whatsoever. Second, it is also argued that thinking about God is based in the conceptions of the (religious) life‐world and that these conceptions exist in a dialectic relationship with the concepts and informs and directs the way they can be developed. On this basis, the idea of God's unchangeability seems to be in consonance with the idea of God's otherness, as opposite to everything that can be experienced in the world (as changeable). The outcome of this is that postmodern though allows of a positive affirmation of unchangeability as a basic element in Christian thinking about God.