A modest/immodest proposal: Reciprocal foster families

In this article we describe the concept of reciprocal foster families a strength-based approach to helping families in poverty. This approach focuses on the resources that all families have to offer each other. The goal of reciprocal foster families approach is to restrict the role of professionals and develop trust in the intuitive wisdom of natural networks of people and families as they help each other succeed in times of difficulty.     

Presupposition and Implication of Truth: Linguistic Deficits following Early Brain Lesions

Twenty-four children (4–17 years) with unilateral left (N = 14) or right (N = 10) hemisphere damage and 24 age-matched controls were tested on their ability to presuppose the truth of factive sentences e.g., “Max knew that he locked the door,” and to infer the truth or falsity of implicative sentences “Max remembered to lock the door.” Experimental sentence types varied according to the type of inference, the semantic features of the verb (factive vs. implicative), the presence and type of negation (lexical or syntactic), and the syntax of the complement (tensed or infinitive). Relative to age-matched controls, left lesion subjects were deficient in both their presupposition and implication performance, particularly when such inferences required the computation of negation scope. Right lesion subjects exhibited a somewhat more selective deficit; one limited to implication, but not presupposition, and one limited to lexical but not syntactic forms of negation.     

The effects of age and intelligence on the dark-interval threshold

The threshold for the detection of the dark interval between two flashes of light (DIT) was investigated for 240 school children aged 6–17. It was found that the threshold showed a linear decline with chronological age. a finding attributed to physiological aging of the visual receptor system producing diminished persistence of the initial stimulus. This finding was counter to the expectation that the DIT would also indicate the growing potency of a higher-order cognitive process (temporal integration of stimulus traces) which would have caused the DIT to rise at some point along the chronological scale.     

Effects of age and asymmetrical stimulation on the subjective median plane

Changes in subjective median plane (SMP) as a result of asymmetrical visual and bodily stimulation were measured for a total of 260 Ss, age 5–17. Asymmetrical visual stimulation resulted in a readjustment of the SMP in the direction of stimulation, with a decline in magnitude of response as a function of age. Asymmetrical bodily stimulation was assimilated to by the younger children (SMP adjusted in the direction of stimulation), . and counteracted by the older children (age 8 and older). In the combination of the two, the effects of visual stimulation dominated those of bodily stimulation throughout the age range, possibly due to insufficient exposure to the asymmetrical bodily stimulation. Correlational analysis showed that CA, rather than MA, was the major variable associated with the results. The results are in general agreement with sensory-tonic theory, and are discussed in this light.     

Culturally Imposed Trauma: The Sleeping Dog Has Awakened. Will Psychoanalysis Take Heed?

This paper considers the scant attention psychoanalysis gives to cultural trauma. Three contributions to this deficiency are considered: (a) the continuing identification with our psychoanalytic forefathers’ silence regarding cultural trauma, (b) the authoritarian practices in psychoanalytic institutions that keep us overly focused on standard intrapsychic formulations to the near exclusion of cultural trauma, and (c) the fact that work with cultural trauma is difficult. To do this work requires us to “buck the system.” If we do so, we expose ourselves to toxic phenomena in a world still rife with cultural trauma. This paper, which includes clinical vignettes, is an invitation to do so.     

Retrieval-induced forgetting is associated with increased positivity when imagining the future

People often think of themselves and their experiences in a more positive light than is objectively justified. Inhibitory control processes may promote this positivity bias by modulating the accessibility of negative thoughts and episodes from the past, which then limits their influence in the construction of imagined future events. We tested this hypothesis by investigating the correlation between retrieval-induced forgetting and the extent to which individuals imagine positive and negative episodic future events. First, we measured performance on a task requiring participants to imagine personal episodic events (either positive or negative), and then we correlated that measure with retrieval-induced forgetting. As predicted, individuals who exhibited higher levels of retrieval-induced forgetting imagined fewer negative episodic future events than did individuals who exhibited lower levels of retrieval-induced forgetting. This finding provides new insight into the possible role of retrieval-induced forgetting in autobiographical memory.     

Containment,curiosity and consultation: an exploration of theory and process in individual systemic psychotherapy with an adult survivor of trauma

This paper describes an individual therapy from the author's private practice. On referral, the client came to therapy requesting help with her 8‐year‐old daughter. Within the assessment, a single episode of trauma was revealed. Further therapeutic conversations told of multiple memories of trauma. The main therapeutic work has now ended, the contract being left that the client can continue to request appointments if she wishes. I show how systemic therapy from Post Milan and Narrative models, including practices from other orientations, has been useful and name three key practices as being crucial to the work, containment, curiosity and consultation. I suggest parallel processes operating between myself and my client as well as between the therapy and consultation. Distinct phases in the therapy recovery are identified. The discussion will consider themes of containment, curiosity and consultation.     

Exposure to parental and community violence and the relationship to bullying perpetration and victimization among early adolescents: A parallel process growth mixture latent transition analysis

This study examined heterogeneity in parental and community violence exposure during middle school and its association with bullying perpetration and victimization in high school. Youth (N = 1,611) in four Midwestern middle schools participated. Parallel process growth mixture latent transition analysis was used to understand how trajectory profiles of middle school violence exposure was associated with high school bullying profiles. Impulsivity, depression, school belonging, and delinquency were assessed as moderators of the transition probabilities. A three class solution was found for violence exposure: decreasing parental violence/increasing community violence (n = 103; 6.4%), stable high parental violence and low community violence (n = 1,027; 63.7%), and increasing parental violence and stable high community violence (n = 481; 29.8%). Similarly, a three class solution was found for high school bullying: High Bullying Perpetration and High Victimization class (n = 259; 16%), Victimization only (n = 1145; 71%), and low all class (n = 207; 13%). The largest proportion of youth transitioning into the high bullying and high victimization class were from the decreasing parental violence/increasing community violence. Depression, impulsivity, school belonging, and delinquency all had various moderating effects on transition probabilities. Our findings make it apparent that early forms of parental and community violence are associated with aggressive behaviors and experiences with victimization during high school. Prevention and intervention efforts should target individuals who display early and chronic patterns of exposure to violence as these individuals have the greatest risk of later aggressive and victimization in high school.