Intolerance of responsibility for internal conflict

A type of patient is described, who has marked intolerance of taking responsibility for his internal conflicts so as to confront them, analyze them, and change. Defensive repetition in pathological object relations aims to avoid what is wrong within and to engage another so as to protect oneself. Genetic, dynamic, and technical aspects of such defensive, dependent relating are considered. Responsibility for oneself and for what is within oneself is held to be terrifying--more than anyone can bear on his own. How destructiveness has become, and remains, so terrifying is discussed.     

Psychoanalytic enlightenment and the greening of diplomacy

The author reviews aspects of psychoanalytic theory which have helped him in his career as an American diplomat and political analyst. He cites the works of Erikson (1950, 1968, 1969), Volkan (1979, 1987), and Mack (1979, 1983) as especially helpful, and praises the late Jeanne Knutson, founder of the International Society of Political Psychology, for her work on the psychology of victimhood. The role and function of completed and incomplete mourning are discussed as fundamental aspects of unresolved ethnic and sectarian conflict, and the importance of asking and granting forgiveness in the resolution of violent political conflict is explored. The paper ends with a specific application of the meaning of forgiveness in the relationship between Christians and Jews.     

Pains and gains: a study of forced terminations

The forced termination of psychoanalysis, such as occurs when the analyst makes a geographic move, uniquely disrupts the analytic setting. This paper recounts the author's experience of terminating a full-time private practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy for such a move. The limited literature on the subject is reviewed with a focus on the use of technical variation in the forced termination situation. The author delineates three areas of interaction with patients where technical variation proved in her experience to be of value: dealing with countertransference and counter-reaction, providing information about the move, and the consideration and process of referral for continued therapy. As opposed to what would be predicted from a classical psychoanalytic perspective, the use of such technical maneuvers seemed to facilitate rather than impede analytic work. These variations in technique served at crucial times to maintain the analytic alliance, to preserve the patient's capacity to recognize and make use of transference, and to provide avenues for resolving past traumas in the transference and the actual loss of the analyst. The concept of the analyst as a new or useable object is proposed as providing a theoretical framework for understanding these observations.     

Recency effect in recall of a word list when an immediate memory task is performed after each word presentation

Subjects studied 12-word lists for free recall. During presentation of the lists, each word was followed by a supraspan sequence of digits, which the subjects tried to reproduce. This task, unlike those used in previous research with this continual distractor procedure, presumably taxed immediate memory capacity to the full. Nevertheless, the word recall data showed a pronounced recency effect. Moreover, the magnitude of the recency effect was found to be just as great with this task as with a more typical task in which the demands on immediate memory are likely to be fewer. These findings reinforce the emerging view that the recency effect need not be the product of immediate memory.     

Concepts and conceptual structure

Research and theory on categorization and conceptual structure have recently undergone two major shifts. The first shift is from the assumption that concepts have defining properties (the classical view) to the idea that concept representations may be based on properties that are only characteristic or typical of category examples (the probabilistic view). Both the probabilistic view and the classical view assume that categorization is driven by similarity relations. A major problem with describing category structure in terms of similarity is that the notion of similarity is too unconstrained to give an account of conceptual coherence. The second major shift is from the idea that concepts are organized by similarity to the idea that concepts are organized around theories. In this article, the evidence and rationale associated with these shifts are described, and one means of integrating similarity-based and theory-driven categorization is outlined.     

Reducing smoking among pregnant adolescents

Pregnant adolescents who smoke present a double obstetrical risk. Not only is the adolescent mother at risk from the biological, social, educational, and economic factors associated with childbearing at a young age, she and her developing infant also risk the complications associated with maternal smoking. This paper describes a psychosocial intervention designed to reduce smoking in a group of pregnant adolescents. Five modules are presented. Each is designed to: (1) heighten awareness of the issue, (2) provide motivational messages, (3) enhance the adolescent's social skills, and (4) teach specific smoking-cessation skills.     

Occult participation: its impact on adolescent development

This study investigated the relationship between occult participation, substance abuse, and level of self-esteem in adolescents. Data were collected from 50 adolescents who ranged in age from 12 to 19 years and who spoke English as their primary language. The combined group of adolescents consisted of 25 clinical and 25 nonclinical youth. Participants completed a three-part questionnaire package which included Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, the Adolescent Magic Questionnaire, and the Drug and Alcohol Assessment Scale. Results indicated that adolescent substance abuse and occult participation were significantly related. High and low occult participation groups were determined, and significant differences were found between the high versus low occult groups when compared on the primary variables of self-esteem and substance abuse. Significant differences were also noted when comparing the high versus low occult groups with various psychosocial developmental variables. Included is a discussion of the impact of occult participation on the psychosocial elements of adolescent self-esteem, self-concept, tolerance for deviance, and religious involvement.     

Emotional disturbance and the development of self-consciousness in adolescence

The development of self-consciousness and its relationship to emotional disturbance was examined in early and late adolescence. The Imaginary Audience Scale was administered to emotionally disturbed and nondisturbed adolescents. As predicted, results indicated that self-consciousness decreased with age in nondisturbed adolescents. For the emotionally disturbed adolescents, the development of self-consciousness in temporary situations did not follow consistent patterns, as indicated by interaction effects. A significant negative relationship was found between intelligence test scores and self-consciousness in the disturbed group. The findings support the premise that social-cognitive shifts found in early to late adolescence are disrupted in disturbed populations. The mediating role of social experience as a factor in cognitive and emotional development is discussed.     

School administrators, parents, and sex education: a resolvable paradox?

The emergence of AIDS as an untreatable, lethal disease, responding to educational prevention strategies in high-risk populations, has brought the issues of sex education in the public schools to the forefront. However, administrators, teachers, and parents perceive different barriers to sex education implementation. This study, undertaken in a northeastern, multigenerational, ethnic city, characterized by adolescent pregnancy rates a third higher than the state overall, polled 42 junior and senior high school administrators regarding educational priorities, perceived barriers to expansion of sex education, and preferred methods of introducing sex education. Administrators perceive parents as a major barrier to the introduction of more formalized sex education in their schools. Paradoxically, these same administrators felt that parents were generally uncomfortable in talking to their children about human sexuality. Recommendations are offered from existing models of health education for resolution of administrators' conflicting views on parental roles.