The day the clock stopped. Primitive states of unintegration,multidimensional working through and the birth of the analytical subject

This paper is based on one idea and built around one clinical experience that helped me to broaden my comprehension of it. The idea, underlying the work of several authors, is that when the analytic field is saturated with primitive and unintegrated mental contents, the analyst’s somatic countertransference is a precious indicator of a deep, dissociated form of communication. The clinical experience concerns the difficult elaboration of a complex, multifaceted countertransference that took place during the early stages of the analysis of a sensitive patient who used to communicate in a very dissociated way and that I found hard to contain. This experience, closely described in the article, led me to formulate the clinical idea that the transference field may be made of distinct layers (psychoid, affective, verbal), and that each one of them may potentially convey dissociated, even contrasting bits of information. The corollary of this is that the analyst should be ready to accept contrasting sensations, feelings and thoughts at the same time, as they might be the basic ingredients of a complex reverie. The analyst could find himself/herself in front of his/her own internal unelaborated multiplicity before a symbolic image may emerge to link the scattered pieces of the experience. Nevertheless, the heart of this paper is not about suggesting an idea, but in the sharing of a complex working through, which fostered the birth of a new, more human relational perspective: the capacity of being together in time, in a transitional space where there is neither total separation nor fusion.     

Separation-survivability as moral cut-off point for abortion

Abstract

We argue that separation-survivability is a significant developmental fetal milestone beyond which abortion is only rarely and exceptionally morally justifiable. Secondly, we argue that the continuous nature of prenatal development, and simultaneous parallel development and actuation of intrinsic and contingent potentiality that eventually results in the development of a person capable of moral thoughts and deeds, implies continuously incremental moral significance. We propose that the moral justifiability of each instance of non-therapeutic pre-viable termination should be the product of an internal dialectic or “moral enquiry”. Arguments should be of increasing power in order to trump the sliding-scale increase in prenatal moral significance. We agree that sentience is morally significant, but argue that survivability is of predominant importance, since human beings who have the potentiality of separate, relatively independent lives, should, normally, be allowed to continue living. We argue for a moderate position on abortion.     

Sound improves diminished visual temporal sensitivity in schizophrenia

Visual temporal processing and multisensory integration (MSI) of sound and vision were examined in individuals with schizophrenia using a visual temporal order judgment (TOJ) task. Compared to a non-psychiatric control group, persons with schizophrenia were less sensitive judging the temporal order of two successively presented visual stimuli. However, their sensitivity to visual temporal order improved as in the control group when two accessory sounds were added (temporal ventriloquism). These findings indicate that individuals with schizophrenia have diminished sensitivity to visual temporal order, but no deficits in the integration of low-level auditory and visual information.     

The semantic origins of word order

Where do the different sentence orders in the languages of the world come from? Recently, it has been suggested that there is a basic sentence order, SOV (Subject–Object–Verb), which was the starting point for other sentence orders. Backup for this claim was found in newly emerging languages, as well as in experiments where people are asked to convey simple meanings in improvised gesture production. In both cases, researchers found that the predominant word order is SOV. Recent literature has shown that the pragmatic rule ‘Agent first’ drives the preference for S initial word order, but this rule does not decide between SOV and SVO. This paper presents experimental evidence for grounding the word order that emerges in gesture production in semantic properties of the message to be conveyed. We focus on the role of the verb, and argue that the preference for SOV word order reported in earlier experiments is due to the use of extensional verbs (e.g. throw). With intensional verbs like think, the object is dependent on the agent’s thought, and our experiment confirms that such verbs lead to a preference for SVO instead. We conclude that the meaning of the verb plays a crucial role in the sequencing of utterances in emerging language systems. This finding is relevant for the debate on language evolution, because it suggests that semantics underlies the early formation of syntactic rules.     

Test development and use in five Iberian Latin American countries

The abundance of scholarship on test development and use generally is higher in English‐speaking than in Iberian Latin American countries. The purpose of this article is to help overcome this imbalance by describing and identifying similarities and differences in test development and use in two Iberian (Portugal and Spain) and three of the largest Latin American (Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela) countries. The stages of test development in each country, roles of professional associations, presence of standards for test use, professionals' educational training, commonly used tests, together with prominent challenges to continued progress are discussed. Test development and use in these five countries are transitioning from a dependence on the use of translated tests to greater reliance on adapted and finally nationally constructed tests. Continued growth requires adherence to international standards guiding test development and use. Stronger alliance among professional associations in the Iberian Latin American countries could serve as a catalyst to promote test development in these regions.     

Why do Managers Engage in Trustworthy Behavior? A Multilevel Cross‐Cultural Study in 18 Countries

Drawing on theories of generalized exchange and the norm of indirect reciprocity, we conceptualize subordinates’ organizational citizenship behavior directed toward the organization (OCBO) and directed toward peers (OCBI) as antecedents of managerial trustworthy behavior and examine how managers’ affective trust in subordinates mediates this relationship. We also investigate the extent to which this mediation is moderated by the level of collectivism in a society. Data were collected from 741 managers and 2,111 subordinates in 18 countries representing all major cultural regions of the world. We find support for our hypothesized moderated mediation in that managers’ affective trust in subordinates mediates the relationships between both subordinates’ OCBO and managerial trustworthy behavior, and subordinates’ OCBI and managerial trustworthy behavior across the different countries studied. Further, managers’ affective trust in subordinates only mediates the relationships between both types of citizenship behavior and managerial trustworthy behavior when collectivism is low to medium but not when it is high. Implications for research on cross‐cultural psychology, trust, and organizational citizenship behavior are discussed.     

Illness perception in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Illness perception (IP) concerns how patients evaluate living with a disease. To get a broader understanding of IP in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), we investigated whether breathlessness is an important precursor of IP and whether IP in its turn is related to mental health, physical health and global quality of life (QOL). One hundred and fifty‐four patients with COPD participated in a cross‐sectional survey. Participants underwent pulmonary function testing, provided socio‐demographic and clinical information, and completed the following standardized instruments: Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, Respiratory Quality of Life Questionnaire, Short‐Form 12 Health Survey and the Quality of Life Scale. Multiple regression analyses were performed. A high IP score indicates that a patient believes that his/her illness represents a threat. Participants with a high score on the IP dimensions consequences, identity, concern and emotional representation, experienced more breathlessness. High scores on the IP dimensions consequences, identity and concern were associated with impaired physical health and high scores on the IP dimensions consequences, identity and emotional representation were associated with impaired mental health. Impaired global QOL was associated with high scores on the IP dimensions consequences, identity, concern, coherence and emotional representation. The strength of the associations between breathlessness and physical/mental health and global QOL decreased when certain dimensions of IP were included as predictors, indicating that IP to some extent acts as a mediating factor. These findings may have practical implications of patient counselling by helping COPD patients to cope with their disease by restructuring their personal models of illness.