The Dream Sense,Emergent Clinical Process,and the Question of Symmetry: Reply to Brown and Colombo

In recent years I have become interested in Bion and neo-Bionian field theory, but the origin of my interest in dreaming does not lie in scholarly or clinical sources. The source of the idea of the dream sense is my own experience. After addressing that point, I reject what appears to be Colombo’s impression (this issue) that detailed inquiry is necessarily the basis of interpersonal and relational clinical practice, and then take issue with Brown’s understanding of expressive participation in relational thinking (this issue). Responding to Brown’s wish that I offer more detail about my own clinical process, I present an overview of my understanding of the way I work. I conclude by addressing the understandings offered by the discussants of symmetry in the analytic relationship, and offering more details of my own.     

Relations between print exposure and literacy skills: New evidence from Grade 1–5

This study had two main aims: (a) to develop checklists adapted for the French culture and the age of the children whose level of print exposure (PE) was to be assessed and (b) to analyse the impact of print exposure on various literacy skills. The checklists consisted of Titles, Magazines, and Authors (targets and foils). The children's responses decreased from Titles to Magazines to Authors. With children in first grade and their parents (Expt 1), we established that PE shows links to socio‐economic status. In a longitudinal study conducted in Grade 1 (Expt 2), a hierarchical regression indicated that PE predicts variance in word reading after age, phonological skills, and letter knowledge have been partialled out. In older children (Expt 3), and only in Grades 4–5, PE accounts for unique variance in word recognition, in word spelling, and, finally, in vocabulary, after chronological and lexical age have been controlled for.