In defense of Joy: C. S. Lewis and psychoanalysis

The imaginative experience of Joy, as he calls it, was central to the career of C. S. Lewis: it informed his work as literary scholar, writer, and religious thinker. Cognizant that psychoanalytic concepts held implications for the meaning of this experience, Lewis offers a critical commentary on these implications and their presuppositions with regard to literary imagery. His commentary suggests possible conflicts between a view of humankind that is psychoanalytically-derived and one which is aesthetically informed.     

Genetic Counseling Practices in Germany: A Comparison Between East German and West German Geneticists

As part of an international study of ethics and genetics, we present a comparison between survey responses of 43 East German and 212 West German geneticists to anonymous questionnaires. Both groups indicated that the experience of the Third Reich has impacted the genetics profession in Germany today. East German geneticists reported more directive counseling practices after prenatal diagnosis for 10 of 26 conditions than those from West Germany. When asked to give their personal opinions about pregnancy termination, East Germans were more accepting of abortion than their West German colleagues for 7 of 24 fetal indications. In addition, there were significant differences between the two sample groups for 8 questions on the perception of disability and society. Discussions with German geneticists suggest that, while both groups were affected by Germany's experience of Nazism, different abortion laws, political systems, and ideas about the doctor-patient relationship in former East and West Germany may account for discrepancies in reported genetic counseling practices and in attitudes toward abortion and disability.     

Deciding to believe: The ethics and rationality of religious belief

This is the text of an Inaugural Lecture, given at the University of Auckland, 25th July, 1994. I am grateful to Stephen Davies, Fred Kroon and Alastair Anderson for helpful discussion on earlier drafts.     

Selective information processing and schematic content related to eating behavior

An adaptation of the Stroop color-naming task was used to investigate selective information processing related to eating behavior in 90 undergraduate women. This study differed from previous studies by (a) treating eating behavior as a continuous variable and (b) looking at five separate categories of words including color, neutral, food, body shape, and other emotionally salient words. We did not find a strong pattern of relation between the Stroop task and eating and body image measures. Results suggest that in a nonclinical population, direct methods of accessing cognitions related to eating may be more fruitful than indirect measures.     

Emerging Administrative Strategies for College and University Counseling Centers

The current environment in higher education is influencing college and university counseling centers in several new ways. Issues surrounding funding patterns, definitions of service entitlement, and personnel policies have emerged, as have a variety of responses on the part of counseling centers. Administrative and managerial strategiesfor dealing with these issues are described and discussed.     

Associations between the school-related beliefs of Mexican-American and Anglo-American mothers and children

Mexican-American and Anglo-American mothers' beliefs about their children's school related competence in the areas of academics and behavioral conduct, as well as their beliefs about their own academic competence, were assessed at the beginning of the children's kindergarten year. Mother-child dyads discussed the children's typical school experiences on four occasions during the school year, and children's beliefs were assessed at the end of the year. Pearson correlation coefficients indicated that strong associations between Anglo-American mothers' and children's beliefs existed, and partial correlation coefficients indicated that mother-child discourse contributed to many of these relations. Direct associations between mothers' and children's beliefs were not found for Mexican-American dyads, although mother-child discourse was linked to beliefs. The results suggest that dyads' conversations may serve as a means of transmitting beliefs about school-related competence, and that the this transmission may be more bidirectional in Mexican-American dyads.     

Jung and the mystical theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church: Comments on common ground

The authors present a comparison of the cosmological, theological, and anthropological assumptions that underlie the mystical traditions of the Eastern Orthodox Church and certain of Jung's mystical observations about the universe, God, and humankind. It is argued that, one touchstone of scientific validity being the universality of observations independently made, the common ground of the two divergent systems of Eastern Orthodox and Jungian mysticism suggests a universality and scientific validity in Jung's assumptions about the great unknown.Bishop Chrysostomos is Academic Director of the Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies at the St. Gregory Palamas Monastery in Etna, CA. He received his doctorate in psychology at Princeton University.     

Countertransference in group psychotherapy

This paper attempts to up-date our understanding of countertransference in the therapy group setting. After a brief review of some of the psychoanalytic and the group psychotherapy literature dealing with countertransference, the paper points out the vulnerability of the group therapist and presents examples of possible countertransferential situations, such as stereotyped roles, reactions to external aspects of patients, and therapists' insecurities. It concludes by suggesting ways in which group therapists can become more sensitive to their countertransferences.