Noah’s Ark: technical and theoretical implications concerning the use of metaphor in the treatment of trauma1

In this paper, using my clinical work with a 3-year-old boy who lost his hearing when he was between 9 and 12 months old, and whose disability was only discovered when he was 22 months old, I will explore two issues of paramount technical importance when working with trauma. Firstly, it is crucial to create a boundary around the traumatic event, so that life before, during and after the trauma can be circumscribed and the traumatic event explored and hopefully understood and integrated. Secondly, it is of paramount importance to establish the level of developmental organization at the time of the trauma, especially in relation to the capacity to integrate bodily affects into mind. I will show how trauma and its vicissitudes are directly dependent on the person’s capacity to resolve the splitting that trauma creates in the mind, and also the key role played by the use of metaphors in the process whereby trauma becomes thinkable and can therefore be integrated into the self.     

Starting from scratch: Developing clinical psychology training and services in Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper outlines the author's personal experience of contributing to the development of the first ever training in clinical psychology in Bangladesh. This was part of a link project between University College London and Dhaka University. It examines the challenges posed by such an enterprise through the author's experience of teaching and assessing patients in the local psychiatric wards. It questions the validity of exporting Western models of psychotherapy – psychoanalysis in particular – to a non-Western culture.     

Clinging,gripping, holding,containment: Reflections on a survival reflex and the development of a capacity to separate

This paper attempts to describe how, in the very first months of extra‐uterine life, personality structures are formed around notions of personal space, separateness, attachment and individuation. The contribution of a forgotten Hungarian analyst, Imre Hermann, who wrote about the ‘clinging reflex’, will be explored in relation to the origin of Bowlby's concept of attachment and Rey's theoretical understanding of personal space. Particular attention will be given to transitions, transitional experiences and the development of a sense of internal space. Vignettes from infant observations will be used to illustrate the theoretical frame of reference. Clinical material from the analysis of a child and an adult patient will be provided to postulate how a distorted perception of personal space and separateness in the first few months of life may affect the capacity to attach and to individuate.     

Regulatory mode orientations and well‐being in an organizational setting: the differential mediating roles of workaholism and work engagement

This paper examines the relationships between two independent regulatory mode orientations, locomotion and assessment, and well‐being in organizational contexts. Results from a sample of 320 employees revealed that locomotion was negatively associated with burnout and psychological strain whereas assessment was positively associated with burnout and strain. The effects of locomotion and assessment on burnout and strain were mediated by workaholism and work engagement. Both locomotion and assessment predicted greater workaholism; however, locomotion was positively associated whereas assessment was negatively associated with work engagement. In turn, workaholism predicted greater burnout and strain, and work engagement predicted less burnout and strain. Implications for employee health and organizational success are discussed.     

What is in a Name: Drug Names Convey Implicit Information about Their Riskiness and Efficacy

The present research provides empirical evidence that drug names may entail implicit promises about their therapeutic power. We asked people to evaluate the perceived efficacy and risk associated with hypothetical drug names and other secondary related measures. We compared opaque (without meaning), functional (targeting the health issue that the drug is meant to solve) and persuasive (targeting the expected outcome of the treatment) names. Persuasive names were perceived as more efficacious and less risky than both opaque and functional names, suggesting that names that target the expected outcome of the drug may bias the perception of risk and efficacy. Implications for health‐related communication are discussed in light of both the increasing use of over‐the‐counter drugs and the concern about people's low health literacy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Should I fetch one or the other? A study on dogs on the object choice in the bimodal contrasting paradigm

The present study assessed how dogs weigh gestural versus verbal information communicated to them by humans in transitive actions. The dogs were trained by their owners to fetch an object under three conditions: a bimodal congruent condition characterized by using gestures and voices simultaneously; a unimodal gestural condition characterized by using only gestures; and a unimodal verbal condition characterized by using only voices. An additional condition, defined as a bimodal incongruent condition, was later added, in which the gesture contrasted with the verbal command, that is, the owner indicated an object while pronouncing the name of the other object visible to dogs. In the incongruent condition, seven out of nine dogs choose to follow the gestural indication and performed above chance, two were at chance, whereas none of the dogs followed the verbal cues above chance. The dogs, as a group, performed above chance the gestural command in 73.6% of cases. The analysis of latencies in the above-mentioned four conditions exhibited significant differences. The unimodal verbal and the gestural conditions recorded a slower performance than both the bimodal incongruent and congruent conditions. No statistical differences were observed between the unimodal and bimodal conditions. Our results demonstrate that dogs, trained to respond equally well to gestural and verbal commands, choose to follow the indication provided by the gestural command than the verbal one to a significant extent in transitive actions. Furthermore, the responses to bimodal conditions were found to be quicker than the unimodal ones.     

Big Five personality dimensions in Italian and Dutch adolescents: A cross-cultural comparison of mean-levels, sex differences, and associations with internalizing symptoms

In the present cross-national comparison, self-reported Big Five personality data on large samples of Dutch (N = 1521) and Italian (N = 1975) adolescents were employed. Results suggest that the personality of Dutch and Italian adolescents can be described by the same Big Five traits, but that these might have slightly different meanings to the Dutch and Italian adolescent respondents. Supplementary analyses uncovered that sex differences are largest among Italian adolescents. Further comparisons reveal subtle cross-national differences in personality-psychopathology relationships, with stronger associations of Emotional Stability with depression for Italian when compared to Dutch adolescents. Results underscore that cross-national comparisons of personality may be alluring to use in research, however the findings of these comparisons should be interpreted with caution.