“Where Thoughts Arrive as Actions”: Some Thoughts in Response to Commentaries by Hirsch and Newirth

The concept of psychoanalytic companioning is reviewed. The commentaries of Hirsch and Newirth are addressed. Hirsch’s dichotomizations are queried and found to constrain the concept of psychoanalytic companioning. Psychoanalytic companioning is offered as a unique form of psychoanalytic knowing in and of itself. Resonance is found with much of Newirth’s commentary, and his question of the relation of psychoanalytic companioning to self psychology is addressed.     

Independent effects of temporal expectation and stimulus intensity in audition

Temporal orienting—that is, selective attention to instants in time—has been shown to modulate performance in terms of faster responses in a variety of paradigms. Electrophysiological recordings have shown that temporal orienting modulates neural processing at early, probably perceptual, and late, probably decision- or response-related, stages. Recently, it was shown that the effect of temporal orienting on early auditory brain potentials is independent of the effect of the physical sound feature intensity. This indicates that temporal orienting might not affect stimulus processing by increasing the sensory gain of attended stimuli. In the present study, we investigated whether the independence of temporal-orienting and sound-intensity effects could be replicated behaviorally. Sequences were presented that were either rhythmic, most likely creating temporal expectations, or arrhythmic, presumably not creating such expectations. As hypothesized, the main effects of temporal expectation and sound intensity on reaction times were independent (Experiment 1). The exact pattern of results was replicated with a slightly altered paradigm (Experiment 2) and with a different kind of task (Experiment 3). In sum, these results corroborate the notion that the effect of temporal orienting might not rely on the same processes as the effect of sound intensity does.     

Creative Engagement in Psychoanalytic Practice,by Henry Markman,Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2022, 264 pp.

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Designing Health Communications: Harnessing the Power of Affect,Imagery, and Self‐Regulation

We review recent advances in self‐regulation theory and research, highlighting implications for communication strategies aimed at persuading individuals to adopt health‐protective behaviors. We focus on the role of affect and imagery processes in health persuasion, reviewing research on how fear arousal and imagery influence health information processing and decision‐making. Despite ongoing controversy over the use of fear‐arousing appeals, considerable empirical evidence supports their efficacy. Such threat appeals can backfire, however, if they fail to address key aspects of self‐regulation processes. Research on the cognitive and emotional influences of imagery and other concrete‐perceptual stimuli points to strategies for integrating them into health persuasion efforts. Mental simulation techniques represent another promising avenue for communications aimed at fostering health behavior change. New directions of inquiry include research on appeals that arouse emotions other than fear (e.g., positive emotions), more nuanced applications of fear arousal in communications, and applications for computer‐based and Internet communications.     

Pretreatment Correlates of the Therapeutic Alliance in the Chronically Depressed

We examined the relationship between patient characteristics and the working alliance in a multisite trial for chronic depression. Patients treated with the Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP), alone (n = 169) or combined with nefazodone (n = 198), completed the Working Alliance Inventory during the 2nd week of treatment. Within the CBASP alone group, a history of drug abuse/dependence, lower peak social adjustment over the past five years, and lower current social adjustment predicted a significantly poorer alliance. Within the combination group, male gender and a distancing coping style predicted a significantly poorer alliance. Results should be interpreted with caution since they did not replicate across treatment groups, and the number of significant findings were not much greater than chance expectations.     

Spatial memory for food hidden by rats (Rattus norvegicus) on the radial maze: studies of memory for where,what, and when

Rats (Rattus norvegicus) were allowed to hide food items on an 8-arm radial maze by carrying the items from the center to boxes at the end of each arm. Retrieval tests given after rats had hidden 4 items showed that they selectively returned to the maze arms where food had been hidden (Experiments 1 and 2). When rats were allowed to hide pieces of cheese (refed food) and pretzels (less preferred food) on different arms, they both hid and retrieved cheese before pretzels (Experiments 2-5). In Experiment 6, rats chose between arms where cheese and pretzels were hidden,with cheese degraded at one delay interval but not the other. Together, these experiments indicate memory for what and where but not when.     

Difficult Days: The Continuing Evolution of Relational Group Analysis: Discussion of “Taking the Sting Out: Manifesting Aggression and Containing Difficult States in a Relational Group Psychotherapy”

Raufman’s paper is located in the ongoing integration of relational concepts into the world of group analysis. Raufman’s difficult days of therapeutic impasse in her group are regarded as emblematic of the theoretical bind that she and other group analysts find themselves in, caught between older, more classically based theory that inheres in much group therapy and theory and the recent embrace of relational concepts. An alternate reading of the group enactment is offered from the perspective of an unobtrusive relational group analyst with a focus on the conductor’s negative capability and capacity to companion the group’s organic psychological language and idiom in a process of enactive co-narration. It is suggested that when Raufman killed the wasp, the group finally found the vitalizing, enlivening, and companioning object in the leader, that it had been seeking all along.