Strukturbezogene Psychotherapie

Structure-oriented psychotherapy is a variant method of the psychodynamic therapeutic procedure concerned with the therapeutic encouragement of insufficiently available structural abilities of patients, in contrast to realization of conflicts. This form of psychotherapy is based on the definitions of Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostics (OPD) and the diagnostic and therapeutic studies carried out with this method in the comprehension of structural functions and levels. The therapeutic approach and the therapeutic attitude were formulated with respect to the developmental psychological aspects of early relationship disorders. The method is indicated where, for example in severe personality disorders the clinical picture is determined by the structural problems of self-regulation and relationship formation. In this case the patient should first be actively stabilized in order to then increasingly transfer responsibility for self-regulation and way of life and to work these out together. The individual stages of the therapeutic process and the special interventions against the background of a development promoting, parental-like therapeutic attitude will be described.     

SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST? A CROSS-SPECIES ANALYSIS OF CHOICES BETWEEN REINFORCER SEQUENCES

Two experiments were conducted to compare choices between sequences of reinforcers in pigeon (Experiment 1) and human (Experiment 2) subjects, using functionally analogous procedures. The subjects made pairwise choices among 3 sequence types, all of which provided the same overall reinforcerment rate, but differed in their temporal patterning. Token reinforcement schedules were used in both experiments and the type of exchange schedule varied across blocks of sessions. Some conditions permitted immediate exchange of tokens for consumable reinforcers (food for pigeons, video access for humans); in other conditions, tokens accumulated and were exchanged for consumable reinforcers only at the end of the sequence. Choice patterns in the immediate-exchange conditions were generally similar across species, with both pigeons and humans preferring sequences with the shortest delay to the initial reinforcer in the series. The results are broadly consistent with models of temporal discounting expanded to include the impact of sequences of delayed reinforcers acting in parallel from the time of the choice. Preferences were less consistent with discounting models in the delayed exchange conditions. Questionnaire data gathered at the end of the experiment were consistent with prior results of questionnaire studies, but showed no straightforward relation to the observed choice patterns, urging caution in the extrapolation of results from one decision-making domain to the other.     

Die Verleugnung der Realit?t

Denial is of great importance for the ego functions and for the constitution of the entire ego but little of this is reflected in case reports and theoretical treatises. The reason for this probably lies in the circumstance that two further problems play a role in the issue of denial: that of reality and that of truth. According to the theory of correspondence, truth is the equivalent of reality. According to this theory, subject and object are opposed. The repudiation of the theory of correspondence has led to blindness and deafness for many things. The modern concept of truth, according to which truth is constructed intersubjectively, destroys the opposition of subject and object. The destruction is an act of denial. Although the theory of correspondence may be outmoded, it could nevertheless retain its former appreciation. ??If we stopped reading canonical philosophy books??, wrote Richard Rorty, ??we would be less aware of the forces that make us think and talk as we do?? (citation from Habermas 2008, S.?34).