Psychotherapy training in Europe: similarities and differences

This paper gives a brief overview of the survey of European Psychotherapy training that was carried out by a team of European researchers. It sketches the current situation in each country and provides a brief quote from informants in each country, giving the flavour of the problems each is struggling with.     

Das Drama des begabten Kindes und die Suche nach dem wahren Selbst

The clinical material for this study of female fantasies stems from a specific psychoanalytical situation where the analyst and the analysand are pregnant at the same time. The impact of this situation is powerful. The emergence of archaic fantasies is facilitated in transference and countertransference. Fantasies of damage to the baby or to the procreative function may emerge very vividly in the double pregnancy setting and working through these fantasies becomes possible. It is suggested that these fantasies are typical female castration fantasies and manifest the fear of the mother's revenge and punishment for forbidden oedipal wishes. The double pregnancy setting may sensitize the analyst to her pregnant analysand's unconscious communication and yet blind the analyst in some areas to the protection of her own baby. The duality of phallic strivings in the girl's psychosexual development is discussed. They may be employed as a defense against specific feminine anxieties, such as fear of retaliatory attacks on her inner space and its fertility: the female castration anxiety. They may also be constituents of her sexuality, coexisting with inner genital strivings. The co-existence of phallic and inner-genital strivings in the female psyche is always conflictual.     

The Survey of European Psychotherapy Training 2: questionnaire data

49% of 730 Psychotherapists surveyed in 8 European Countries provided information about obstacles to accessing training. Distance, childcare (especially in women) and family responsibilities and educational background (especially in men). The introduction of a common platform for the training, the European Certificate of Psychotherapy, had not, the respondents thought, reduced these barriers but the Certificate was considered beneficial for other reasons.     

The Development and Validation of the Health Proneness Questionnaire

This series of studies describes the development, validation and potential use of the Health Proneness Questionnaire (HPQ). Recent health, wellness and illness studies focus upon the dynamic interaction between psychological and physical well-being. This newly developed scale allows practitioners to quickly screen psychological characteristics related to health and a patient's perception of their quality of life. Participants were patients in university research clinics for vision problems. Through exploratory factor analysis three factors evolved related to the hypothesized psychological characteristics involved in health related quality of life: adaptability, self-efficacy and subjective well-being. In a confirmatory factor analysis, the best fit model yielded a higher-order health-proneness factor with the original three categories as sub-factors. Further criterion-related validity comparisons and discriminant and convergent validity studies indicated a psychometrically sound short survey for examining psychological characteristics of patients with mild chronic health conditions.     

Association between basic numerical abilities and mathematics achievement

Various measures have been used to investigate number processing in children, including a number comparison or a number line estimation task. The present study aimed to examine whether and to which extent these different measures of number representation are related to performance on a curriculum‐based standardized mathematics achievement test in kindergarteners, first, second, and sixth graders. Children completed a number comparison task and a number line estimation task with a balanced set of symbolic (Arabic digits) and non‐symbolic (dot patterns) stimuli. Associations with mathematics achievement were observed for the symbolic measures. Although the association with number line estimation was consistent over grades, the association with number comparison was much stronger in kindergarten compared to the other grades. The current data indicate that a good knowledge of the numerical meaning of Arabic digits is important for children's mathematical development and that particularly the access to the numerical meaning of symbolic digits rather than the representation of number per se is important.     

Common sense or nonsense: Intervening in moral dilemmas

The complex issue of counsellors' interventions in their clients' moral decision-making is briefly considered. It is suggested that it is not helpful to avoid dealing with dilemmas by retaining a neutral position and that common-sense-based interventions can be harmful rather than helpful. A more thorough examination of philosophical and moral issues is recommended.