Affect consciousness or mentalization? A comparison of two concepts with regard to affect development and affect regulation

Affect consciousness refers to the ability to adequately perceive, reflect upon and express affect. The concept is used in clinical work with adults, but lacks an equivalent for children's experience of affect. This paper examines the developmental prerequisites for affect consciousness, as well as the concept's applicability to work with children. The main focus is on the development of affect regulation throughout the first 6 years of life. Special emphasis is put on the role of attachment and the unfolding of mentalization ability in this development. The role of play as an organizing factor for affective experience is discussed. Observation of play is highlighted as a strong indicator of affect consciousness in children.     

How Satisfied are the Self-Employed? A Life Domain View

It is well-known in the literature that self-employment positively influences job satisfaction, but the effects on other life domains and overall life satisfaction are much less clear. Our study analyzes the welfare effects of self-employment apart from its monetary aspects, and focuses on the overall life satisfaction as well as different domain satisfactions of self-employed individuals in our German sample from 1997 to 2010. Using matching estimators to create an appropriate control group and differentiating between different types of self-employment, we find that voluntary self-employment brings with it positive benefits apart from work satisfaction, and leads to higher overall life satisfaction as well as increased health satisfaction, all of which increase in the first three years of self-employment. Being forced into self-employment to escape unemployment, however, confers no such benefits. Additionally, both types of self-employment lead to increasing dissatisfaction with one’s leisure time.     

The working through of patients' suicides by four therapists.

In 1976 four psychotherapists in training at one institution had patients who committed suicide. The therapists met as a group over a one-year period. This paper presents brief case summaries, explores the reactions of each therapist, presents conclusions regarding the mourning process following patients' suicides, and puts forth implications and suggestions for training programs. The authors conclude that it is necessary for therapists, supervisors, and training programs to recognize the inevitability of crises and tragedies when working with disturbed persons and that, though the process of mourning must be worked through individually, training settings can permit therapists to experience the pain and loneliness while providing opportunities for mastery and growth.