Pathological Narcissism and Sudden Suicide-Related Collapse

Psychiatric inpatient admission of three nondepressed young men who escaped deadly self-injury provided an opportunity to study their character organization. Defects in affect-regulatory functions and evidences of pathological narcissism were identified and explored. Each patient had a specific suicide-risk consultation and a psychotherapy evaluation. Each denied intent to kill himself, and none acknowledged experience of depression or the wish to die. Each also denied his suicidal behavior involved significant risks, and each discounted the importance of obvious, identifiable stressors as triggers for it. The interrelation between pathological narcissism and this particular suicidal behavior is discussed. These observations can assist in the assessment of suicide risk in nondepressed patients.     

Self-imaging: beyond children’s and adolescents’ self-image / El Self imaginando-se: más allá de la autoimagen de niños y adolescentes

Abstract

This article documents the case studies of two Brazilian children aged 10 and 11, for whom drawing is a symbolic tool of self-meaning. Semi-structured interviews were methodologically carried out from drawings they had created previous to and during the interview. Using semiotic cultural psychology as a reference, the concept of Self-imaging is put forward as an alternative to the self-image construct, highlighting the active role of the subject in the construction of his/her life trajectory. Results suggest that the transition process to adolescence represents a challenge in which young people recreate images of themselves by projecting new possibilities of action in the world through their imagination.     

The Effect of Symbolic Distancing on Delay Tolerance across the Preschool Period

ABSTRACT

We aimed to longitudinally examine how symbolic distancing affects preschool children’s delay tolerance in a delay choice task. We presented children with choices between a smaller immediate reward and a larger delayed reward in conditions with either symbolic stimuli or edible rewards. Overall, symbolic distancing modulated children’s delay tolerance. In particular, whereas in the first phase (T1: 3- and 4-year-olds) children presented with edible rewards chose the larger option more often than children presented with symbolic stimuli, in the second phase (T2: 5- and 6-year-olds), there was no significant difference between children presented with symbolic stimuli and those presented with edible rewards. These results are discussed by examining how children’s delay tolerance changes during the development and comparing children to adult humans in a similar task.