The school psychologist in a non-school setting

School psychologists may be found in non-school settings which allow them to use training and experience gained in a school psychology doctoral program. This article briefly describes one such setting and emphasizes the need in multidisciplinary clinics for more psychologists with this training, since it enables them to make unique contributions to education, interdisciplinary communication, clinical diagnoses, and research. Children's clinics need a person who is knowledgeable in both education and psychology and who is trained to work effectively with other disciplines.     

Theoretical and methodological foundations of the authoritarian personality

This article provides a history of the theoretical and methodological contributions, particularly Erich Fromm's, of the sub-syndromes of the concept of authoritarianism and the relationship of his work to the classical study by Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson and Sanford.     

An Integrative Suicide Prevention Program for Visitor Charcoal Burning Suicide and Suicide Pact

An integrative suicide prevention program was implemented to tackle an outbreak of visitor charcoal burning suicides in Cheung Chau, an island in Hong Kong, in 2002. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the program. The numbers of visitor suicides reduced from 37 deaths in the 51 months prior to program implementation to 6 deaths in the 42 months post‐implementation period. The number of visitor suicide pacts decreased from 7 pacts (15 individuals) to 1 pact (2 individuals). No statistically significant differences in the numbers of visitor suicide attempts and resident suicides were observed in the two time periods. No statistically significant changes in visitor suicides during the study period were observed on the comparison islands. The consistency and timing of reduction in visitor suicides correlated with the development and delivery of the integrative program on the intervention island, suggesting a causal association between program delivery and reduction of visitor suicides. The possibility of displacement seems small because there was no increase in visitor suicides on the comparison islands during the study period. This integrative approach in preventing target‐specific suicides may serve as an example for other communities to develop suicide prevention programs that make use of the existing local resources.     

At the verge of unthinkable anxiety: On the relevance of a neurophysiologically informed relational perspective on meaning-making in psychosis

Abstract

This article examines the relevance of relationally oriented psychoanalytic phenomenology as a frame of reference for understanding psychotic states in schizophrenia. The etiology and structural characteristics of such states are examined from both a neurophysiological, and a relational and interpersonal point of view. Many findings indicate organic abnormalities in schizophrenia, acquired through an exposure to physical risk factors and genetic predisposition, but relational traumas also seem to have an impact on the form and content of psychotic states. This may happen through interruptions in the “use-dependent” maturation of the brain in a relational milieu. In addition, at the level of meaning-making, we find that the emotional and relational contexts—both past and present—give the substance or “raw material” for hallucinations and delusions. In a psychotic state, the person also tries to handle basic affects and relational needs, and to make meaning in states of overwhelming chaos and anxiety. Donald W. Winnicott's theory of “a holding environment”, Stephen Mitchell's theory of the relational matrix, and Stolorow, Atwood, and Orange's concepts of a “shattered world” and annihilation anxiety are used as a framework in the analysis of the phenomenology of psychosis. Two case illustrations, one from child psychotherapy and one from therapy with an adult patient, are used to illuminate the theoretical points of view.