PRIVATE THEORIES AND PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUE

That if real success is to attend the effort to bring a man to a definite position, one must first of all take pains to find him where he is and begin there. This is the secret of the art of helping others (Kierkegaard [] 1962, p.?27)

The aim of this study is to explore the importance, to the therapeutic process, of the relation between the patient's and the therapist's problem formulations and private theories of pathogenesis and cure. Four cases of young adults in psychoanalytic psychotherapy were compared, two with unequivocally positive and two with more ambiguous outcome at termination. The patients and therapists were interviewed about their private theories initially and at termination of therapy, and a qualitative comparison was made between the cases. In the two more successful cases the therapists had early in therapy perceived obstacles for the therapeutic work in the patients' ways of thinking, feeling, and relating, and made interpretative interventions focusing on these. This was not observed in the less successful cases. In the more successful cases the patient's and the therapist's private theories were more similar at termination than initially, whereas the opposite development was found in the less successful cases. One hypotheses generated is that the therapeutic process can be facilitated by a therapist listening to the patient's private theories, making interpretative interventions focusing on obstacles to the therapeutic work, including contradictions between their private theories, and monitoring the patient's reactions to these interventions.     

The Human Factor in Maritime Transport: Personality and Aggression Levels of Master Mariners and Navigation Students

The current study sought to identify groups of navigation students and master mariners (captains) characterized by different constellations of the Big Five personality traits and aggression levels. We hypothesized that master mariners would exhibit the resilient personality type and that navigation students would additionally exhibit personality types other than the resilient (e.g., over- or undercontrolled). A sample of 108 navigation students (men, in their second or third year of naval school, all active athletes) and 76 master mariners took part in the study and completed the Polish version of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992; Zawadzki et al., 1998) and the Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Perry, 1992; Tucholska, 1998). The hypothesis about the resilient personality type among master mariners was confirmed. The second hypothesis about personality types other than the resilient among navigation students was also confirmed: 33% of the students exhibited the overcontrolling personality type. The article also highlights the need to include psychological assessment in naval school enrolment procedures.     

Slow gait as a motor marker of mild cognitive impairment? the relationships between functional mobility and mild cognitive impairment

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between functional mobility and mild cognitive impairment in older adults. A total of 800 older adults were recruited (653 controls and 147 subjects with MCI [88 subjects with aMCI and 59 subjects with naMCI]). Motor performance was measured with the Timed Up and Go test (TUG). The demographic factors associated with MCI were: age (OR = 1.05; 95% CI: 1.01–1.09) and the level of education (OR = 0.73; 95% CI: 0.68–0.79). An independent clinical factor associated with MCI was the TUG (OR = 1.14; 95% CI: 1.03–1.27). In the aMCI group, the relation between the TUG and cognitive status occurred (OR = 1.15; 95% CI: 1.02–1.31), whereas in the naMCI group this relationship was not observed. There is an association between cognitive dysfunction and impaired motor performance in older adults with MCI.