Growing old: A psychoanalyst’s point of view1

With the help of clinical examples, the author shows that psychoanalysis or psychotherapy after the age of 70 can be a fascinating experience, one that enables patients to reconstruct their internal history in such a way that their final years can be given their rightful place in the overall journey through life. Often it will be a matter of going beyond the conflict between paralysing time with the illusion of keeping death at bay and taking the transient nature of life into account in order to perceive its true flavour. We can grow old passively, juxtaposing different periods of our life without linking them together, thereby creating the illusion of time without end; or we can grow old actively, integrating the different phases of our life into a coherent historical narrative. This representation of time leaves the door open for experiences which the author calls ‘small seconds of eternity’. We can all experience such moments when we are deeply moved – joyfully or painfully – by something, so that we perceive another quality of time that goes beyond its chronological dimension without all the same negating it. Helping elderly people to identify these seconds of eternity and catch hold of them can be an invaluable experience for them. Perhaps we need to see our life unfold through the chronology of its different phases in order to discover, second by second, how to express on an everyday basis something of which we have had an inkling in some second of eternity.     

Developmental Pathways to Conduct Problems: A Further Test of the Childhood and Adolescent-Onset Distinction

This study tested several theoretically important differences between youth with a childhood-onset and youth with an adolescent-onset to their severe conduct problems. Seventy-eight pre-adjudicated adolescent boys (ranging in age from 11 to 18) housed in two short-term detention facilities and one outpatient program for youth at risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system participated in the current study. The sample was divided into those with a childhood-onset to their serious conduct problem behavior (n = 47) and those with an adolescent-onset (n = 31). The childhood-onset group showed greater levels of dysfunctional parenting, callous–unemotional traits, and affiliation with delinquent peers. The only variable more strongly associated with the adolescent-onset group was lower scores on a measure of traditionalism.     

Words that touch2

In this paper the author examines her own use of language as a psychoanalyst and asks: what is the best way to help analysands to find the words to express not only what they are thinking but also what they are feeling and experiencing? In common with other psychoanalysts, the author has observed that each of us simultaneously utilises both advanced psychic mechanisms that are accessible to symbolism and more archaic ones, which are less so. However, she draws a distinction between people who are able to tolerate the perception of their own heterogeneity, even if it is sometimes a source of suffering, and those whom she terms ‘heterogeneous patients’. Patients in the latter category, whose lack of internal cohesion causes them anxiety, are afraid of losing their sense of identity. The author asks how we can understand their language and how we should speak to them. She uses several clinical examples to demonstrate that ‘heterogeneous patients’ need to be touched with a language that does not confine itself to imparting thoughts verbally but also conveys feelings and the sensations that accompany those feelings. It is also an ‘incarnated’ language because the words pronounced by the analyst can awaken, or reawaken, bodily fantasies in the patient. These words may enable him to find an emotional meaning in forgotten sensory or bodily experiences, which may then become a starting point for his work of thinking and of symbolisation.     

Differences in career maturity among adjudicated and nonadjudicated male students with and without disabilities

The authors investigated the level of career maturity of nonadjudicated high school students without disabilities and 3 groups of adjudicated high school students: those without disabilities, those with learning disabilities, and those with emotional disturbance. Also investigated was the relationship between career maturity and behavioral functioning, using the Behavior Assessment System for Children‐Self‐Report of Personality (BASC‐SRP; C. R. Reynolds & R. W. Kamphaus, 1992). No significant differences existed between nonadjudicated and adjudicated students without disabilities. Adjudicated students with emotional disabilities and learning disabilities scored significantly lower than nonadjudicated high school students without disabilities on the overall measure of career maturity. Career maturity was found to be significantly but only moderately related to 8 behavioral domains on the BASC‐SRP.     

Predictive Validity of Adult Attachment Measures in Relation to Emotion Regulation Behaviors in Marital Interactions

This study examined the predictive validity of 2 assessment approaches to adult attachment in relation to emotion regulation behaviors during marital conflict interactions. Both partners of 40 couples completed the Adult Attachment Style self-report (AAS; C. Hazan & P. Shaver, 1987), the Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ; J. A. Simpson, 1990), the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1985), and a videotaped interaction during which the partners engaged in a problem-solving discussion. The discussions were coded by means of the Interactional Dimensions Coding System (IDCS; D. Julien, H. J. Markman, & K. M. Lindhal, 1989). Results showed that AAI classification predicted proactive emotion regulation behaviors, whereas the AAS and the AAQ did not. Issues concerning the predictive validity of current measures of adult attachment are discussed.     

Identifying topic sentencehood

Four experiments were conducted to assess two models of topic sentencehood identification: the derived model and the free model. According to the derived model, topic sentences are identified in the context of the paragraph and in terms of how well each sentence in the paragraph captures the paragraph's theme. In contrast, according to the free model, topic sentences can be identified on the basis of sentential features without reference to other sentences in the paragraph (i.e., without context). The results of the experiments suggest that human raters can identify topic sentences both with and without the context of the other sentences in the paragraph. Another goal of this study was to develop computational measures that approximated each of these models. When computational versions were assessed, the results for the free model were promising; however, the derived model results were poor. These results collectively imply that humans' identification of topic sentences in context may rely more heavily on sentential features than on the relationships between sentences in a paragraph.     

Emergence of attributional style and its relation to depressive symptoms

The development of depressive attributional style (AS) and its role as a cognitive diathesis for depression were examined in children and adolescents (Grades 2-9). In a 4-wave longitudinal study of 3 overlapping age cohorts, AS, negative life events, and depressive symptoms were evaluated every 12 months. Consistency of children's attributions across situations was moderately high at all ages. The cross-sectional structure of AS changed with age, as stability became a more salient aspect of AS than internality and globality. The structure of AS also changed, becoming more traitlike as children grew older. In longitudinal analyses, evidence of a Cognitive Diathesis x Stress interaction did not emerge until Grades 8 and 9, suggesting that AS may not serve as a diathesis for depression at younger ages. Results suggest that attributional models of depression may require modification before they are applied across developmental levels.     

Modeling homophily over time with an actor-partner interdependence model

Selection and socialization have been implicated in friendship homophily, but the relative contributions of each are difficult to measure simultaneously because of the nonindependent nature of the data. To address this problem, the authors applied a multiple-groups longitudinal actor-partner interdependence model (D. A. Kashy & D. A. Kenny, 2000) for distinguishable dyads to 3 consecutive years of intoxication frequency data from a large community-based sample of Swedish youth. Participants, ranging from 12 to 18 years old (M = 14.35, SD = 1.56) at the start of the study, included 902 adolescents (426 girls and 476 boys) with at least one reciprocated friend during at least one time point and 212 adolescents (84 girls and 128 boys) without reciprocated friends at any time. Similarity estimates indicated strong effects for selection and socialization in friends' intoxication frequency. Over time, younger members of these dyads had less stable patterns of intoxication than older members, largely because younger partners changed their drinking behavior to resemble that of older partners.     

If-then contingencies and the differential effects of the availability of an attractive alternative on relationship maintenance for men and women

In 7 experiments, the causal effects of the availability of an attractive alternative (AA) relationship partner on current relationship thoughts and intentions were tested using confederates, mental simulations, and virtual reality. Men behaved consistent with traditional relationship-commitment theories, showing decreased willingness to tolerate their partner's transgressions after the availability of an AA was made salient. However, consistent with a motivated cognition approach to commitment and work on relational self-construals, women increased their tolerance when presented with the relationship threat of an alternative. Word-fragment and lexical decision data suggested that AAs may activate threat for women, and their ability to dampen threat accessibility is associated with prorelationship responses. Finally, this "if relationship is threatened, then defend the relationship" contingency was induced in men with an implementation intention induction.