Aerobic Exercise and Creative Potential: Immediate and Residual Effects

The potential effects of aerobic exercise on creative potential were explored both immediately following moderate aerobic exercise and after a 2-hr lag. Sixty college students participated in an experiment consisting of 3 regimens varying the time when a Torrance Test of Creative Thinking was taken in relation to exercise completion. The results supported the hypotheses that creative potential will be greater on completion of moderate aerobic exercise than when not preceded by exercise (immediate effects), that creative potential will be greater following a 2-hr lag time following exercise than when not preceded by exercise (residual effects), and that creative potential will not be significantly different immediately following exercise than after a 2-hr lag time following exercise (enduring residual effects). Limitations and implications for future research were discussed.     

“You Must Remember This”

The question of a theory of analytic change is approached through a consideration of analytic impasse. Impasse is considered in relation to impasse in the analyst, linked to an impasse in some forms of mourning in the analyst. The analyst's impasse is considered in the light of character formation, the relation of analytic vocations to early attachment, and object ties in the analyst leading to problems with omnipotence. Impasse then is tied to various processes and defenses that shape and contribute to the analyst's countertransference. Analytic change is considered then in the context of theories of nonlinear development, models of speech practice, and mutative action. These ideas are explored through case material.     

Introduction to Judit Mészáros' “Progress and Persecution in the Psychoanalytic Heartland: Antisemitism,Communism, and the Fate of Hungarian Psychoanalysis”

In this introduction, a rationale is developed for why these accounts of the historical movements and catastrophes in psychoanalytic institutional histories are so important. I argue that we need to contextualize theory and practice in political and historical terms, seeing that historical forces shape institutions, the fates of individuals, and the evolution of theory and practice. In particular, I consider the impact of the events in Hungary over nearly 50 years as crucial elements in the eclipse of Ferenczi and his school. I argue that we need to rethink our too-narrow focus on comparative theory and imagine the role of history in the fate of ideas. The impact of fascism and of Stalinism on psychoanalytic work and practitioners is seen here as a necessary element in our understanding of where we are now and from what cultural and historical experiences we have emerged.     

Discussion: Putting our Heads Together; Mentalizing Systems

This discussion reviews the psychoanalytic and developmental psychological theories that utilize nonlinear dynamic systems theory to situate Sperry's paper in its theoretical and historical context. The power of such nonlinear models for clinical work and theories of mind is argued. The essay then argues that the shift in theory entails a shift in ways of clinical writing and that the clinical discussion in the paper does not always feel consonant with the theory. Moving to a model of nonlinearity, intersubjectivity, and uncertainty is likely to entail shifts in conceptualizing and conveying clinical material.     

Some Relationships between Group Process and Mental Health Phenomena in Theory and Practice

Though the focus on interpersonal interaction is a powerful therapeutic factor in group therapy, traditional chemical dependency therapy groups generally fail to employ the interactional group orientation. An interactional approach can be effectively applied to alcoholics if the following guidelines are observed: (1) recovery is always accorded priority, (2) the patient accepts identification as an alcoholic, (3) anxiety is carefully modulated, (4) the proper distinction is made between what the alcoholic is and is not responsible for, (5) the therapist is thoroughly familiar with Alcoholics Anonymous language, steps, and traditions. It is important that therapists not permit misperceptions of A.A. to be used as therapy resistance and that they be able to harness the wisdom of A.A. for psychotherapeutic ends. Group therapists must also be prepared to deal with common themes arising in the treatment of the alcoholic patient: idealization, devaluation, externalization, defiance, grandiosity, conning, and avoidance.     

Problems of Developing a Group-Centered Mental Hospital

All relationships could be described in terms of the coordinations and conflicts between competing needs for attention and the mechanisms utilized to seek this goal. In this article, I introduce the initialism AGM (Attention-getting Mechanism) to refer to an interpersonal style or particular behavior or constellation of behaviors that one adopts and displays publicly that is unhealthy, repetitively counterproductive and ultimately harmful to self and/or others. Delineated from socially- and personally- productive modes of seeking attention, self-defeating AGMs categorize across varied spectra, from subtle and seemingly inhibited, to blatant, excessive, or frankly pathological. They arise in response to trauma and psychological disturbance and, as such, are the outcome of enduring deficits in getting appropriate and sufficient attention. I record the evolution of my thinking and doing, over the course of leading two group sessions, spaced several months apart, regarding dilemmas in getting attention. The first drew me to the topic, and, unexpectedly, stimulated personal associations and remembrances, which centered on a cumulative childhood trauma organized around the term, “AGM.” I approached the second session better equipped to understand the proceedings, and to connect my ideas to current diagnostic criteria, technical considerations, clinical research, and metapsychological theory.