The Misuse and Use of Science in Family Therapy

The wish to adopt ideas and metaphors from science can have a constricting effect on thinking about family therapy theory and practice. We describe three examples from the recent literature. The two problems describe: (a) borrowing the prestige and certainty of scientific ideas and metaphors and using them as cultural representations of reality, and (b) embracing certain philosophically comprehensive systems of thought. We then recommend some appropriate borrowing from the natural history tradition of science, and give some examples of ways in which that tradition has widened rather than narrowed the range of ideas that are used in family therapy.     

Childhood Sexual Abuse and Female Spiritual Development

Religiously involved lay women (N = 266), 31% of whom had been sexually abused in childhood, filled out the revised Spiritual Experience Index (SEI-R). Results showed higher SEI-R scores for the sexually abused group, with a more accepting attitude compared with those with a striving attitude. A subscale of the SEI-R revealed that the sexually abused may turn to their faith and spirituality for support. Those with the highest educational achievements, Catholics, and those who experienced emotional abuse scored high on the Spiritual Openness subscale. Implications for spiritual development and counseling are discussed.     

The effectiveness of Japanese styles of management: A review and critique

A detailed review is presented of studies bearing on the performance and effectiveness of Japanese managers, with particular attention to comparative data. Japanese managers within Japan are found to show continuing marked differences from those within other countries. These differences are not easily conceptualized within established Western models of management style and systems of decision making, and are thus frequently misunderstood. Japanese firms in the West are found to utilize only some of the practices used in Japan. Researchers in this field have often failed to distinguish between the occurrence of a particular behaviour and the manner in which it is interpreted within and between particular cultures. The similarities and differences between effective management in Japan and in the West will only become clear when studies are undertaken which make such distinctions.     

Wittgenstein and Irigaray: Gender and Philosophy in a Language (Game) of Difference

Drawing Wittgenstein's and Irigaray's philosophies into conversation might help resolve certain misunderstandings that have so far hampered both the reception of Irigaray's work and the development of feminist praxis in general. A Wittgensteinian reading of Irigaray can furnish an anti-essentialist conception of “woman” that retains the theoretical and political specificity feminism requires while dispelling charges that Irigaray's attempt to delineate a “feminine” language is either groundlessly Utopian or entails a biological essentialism.     

Healthy Death

The concept of healthy death is introduced and explored. A review of literature on the subject of death and dying reveals efforts that have sought to make death a “good” and “meaningful” experience. The article concludes with a summary definition of healthy death.     

Consultation: A New Strategy For CETA

Program changes inherent in the CETA concept have markedly decreased the effectiveness of previous program management and liaison strategies. Some reasons for this decrease and a new set of skills for working at the interface between prime sponsors and subcontractors and/or the regional offices are presented. These skills, formulated within a consultation model and based on solid behavioral strategies, are one way to increase CETA program effectiveness.     

The validity of the serial color-word test A reply to Lennart Sjöberg

Abstract.— In reply to Lennart Sjoberg's conclusion that the reliabilities and validities of the serial Color-Word Test are at best moderate the present authors claim that, given reliable and adequate criteria, the validities are high. Hence, the true reliabilities can hardly be low. Supporting data are presented. However, the test should not be used merely to identify psychiatric syndrome groups, but rather to broaden our knowledge about them by unveiling their adaptive strategies.     

The effect on his visual afterimages of a subject's defensive system in interaction with the afterimage theory presented to him

Abstract.— Two groups of psychiatric subjects listened to instructions telling them that projected visual afterimages (Ah) are apt to reflect one's inner personal life, either openly (group UE) or only after suitable controls have been applied (group CE). Thereafter all subjects produced AIs of a schematic red face during 16 trials. The anxiety and defensive systems of the subjects were mapped by means of the Meta-Contrast Technique. As expected, the UE instructions produced more open anxiety in the A1 situation than did the CE instruction. It also tended to facilitate repressive-projective defenses, resulting in primitive or evasive A1 reactions, while the CE instructions in combination with compulsive-inhibitory defenses often led to reactions of an all-or-none type, i.e. either an unimpaired AI or no AI at all.