Application of Group Psychotherapy to the Teaching of Dynamic Psychiatry and Understanding Student Resistances

Abstract

This paper explores the role of excitement in shame, extending the theoretical underpinnings of my work (Aledort, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009) on narcissism and the omnipotent child syndrome. Shame, excitement, and early narcissistic self-states are complexly intermingled, each influencing the other. Empathy alone is insufficient; the passion connected to shame can be easily hidden. Detailed case studies describe a model for working with the excitement in shame, how it functions, and how it gets resolved.     

Attachment-Related Mentalization Moderates the Relationship Between Psychopathic Traits and Proactive Aggression in Adolescence

The lack of affective responsiveness to others’ mental states – one of the hallmarks of psychopathy – is thought to give rise to increased interpersonal aggression. Recent models of psychopathy highlight deficits in attachment security that may, in turn, impede the development of relating to others in terms of mental states (mentalization). Here, we aimed to assess whether mentalization linked to attachment relationships may serve as a moderator for the relationship between interpersonal aggression and psychopathic traits in an adolescent community sample. Data from 104 males and females with a mean age of 16.4 years were collected on mentalization capacities using the Reflective Functioning Scale on the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Psychopathic traits and aggressive behavior were measured via self-report. Deficits in mentalization were significantly associated with both psychopathic traits and proactive aggression. As predicted, mentalization played a moderating role, such that individuals with increased psychopathic tendencies did not display increased proactive aggression when they had higher mentalizing capacities. Effects of mentalization on reactive aggression were fully accounted for by its shared variance with proactive aggression. Psychopathic traits alone only partially explain aggression in adolescence. Mentalization may serve as a protective factor to prevent the emergence of proactive aggression in spite of psychopathic traits and may provide a crucial target for intervention.     

The effect of implementation intentions on prospective memory performance across the lifespan

Differences in the amount and availability of cognitive resources may be responsible for age‐related differences in event‐based prospective memory tasks. We hypothesised that a manipulation which reduces resource requirements by enhancing automatic processing will reduce age differences. Implementation intentions are assumed to satisfy this requirement. We tested a total of 563 participants, 185 adolescents, 193 young adults and 185 older adults in order to investigate whether providing participants with implementation intention instructions would improve performance, whether any improvement would vary with age, and whether it would affect the prospective component or the retrospective component. The results showed a benefit of implementation intentions for older adults, but not for adolescents and for young adults. Separate analyses for the prospective and the retrospective components revealed that this effect was based mainly on a performance facilitation of the prospective component. These results suggest that implementation intentions provide a means to reduce age differences in prospective memory. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Méta-analyse et efficacité des psychothérapies : faits et fictions

In a political environment increasingly concerned with the problem of escalating health care costs, the issue of psychotherapy efficacy evaluation is still debated. Historically, this debate started after Eysenck (1952) published a famous article suggesting that average improvement from pre- to post-therapy has nothing to do with psychotherapy participation, but something that would tend to happen anyway (“spontaneous remission”). Wanting to prove that psychotherapy was effective (Glass, 2000), Smith and Glass (1977) published the first meta-analysis of the psychotherapy efficacy, combining the results of several controlled clinical trials, and found that psychotherapy was remarkably efficacious. Following a brief historical introduction, the objectives of this paper is to define the principles of meta-analysis, to discuss of epistemological contextualization of this methodological approach, and finally to examine the interest and limits of the application of this method in the field of evaluation of psychotherapy.     

Communication Modality and Biased Processing: A Study on the Occasion of the German 2002 Election TV Debate

Participants were presented with a segment of the 2002 Schroeder-Stoiber TV debate, in which the two candidates running for the post of German Chancellor argued for clearly different positions. Prior to presentation of the segment in either audiovisual, audio, or written modality, participants' politician preference was measured. Position agreement and valence of thoughts about the candidates' specific statements were found to be affected by politician preference in all three modalities. However, as shown by a modality by preference interaction, the effect of politician preference on position agreement was stronger in audio and audiovisual modalities than in the written modality. Similar interactions were found regarding the valence of thoughts broadly related to the issue discussed as well as regarding the valence of thoughts related to the two candidates themselves. Taken together with further path analyses, these findings are interpreted as showing biased processing across modalities, with the broadcast modalities intensifying this bias due to the heightened salience of nonverbal politician-related cues.     

The feeling of fluent perception: a single experience from multiple asynchronous sources

Zeki and co-workers recently proposed that perception can best be described as locally distributed, asynchronous processes that each create a kind of microconsciousness, which condense into an experienced percept. The present article is aimed at extending this theory to metacognitive feelings. We present evidence that perceptual fluency-the subjective feeling of ease during perceptual processing-is based on speed of processing at different stages of the perceptual process. Specifically, detection of briefly presented stimuli was influenced by figure-ground contrast, but not by symmetry (Experiment 1) or the font (Experiment 2) of the stimuli. Conversely, discrimination of these stimuli was influenced by whether they were symmetric (Experiment 1) and by the font they were presented in (Experiment 2), but not by figure-ground contrast. Both tasks however were related with the subjective experience of fluency (Experiments 1 and 2). We conclude that subjective fluency is the conscious phenomenal correlate of different processing stages in visual perception.     

L’alexithymie aujourd’hui : essai d’articulation avec les conceptions contemporaines des émotions et de la personnalité

More than thirty years after his introduction and despite many criticisms, the alexithymia concept is giving rise to a growing body of research and interest. Today, it is thought to reflect a deficit in the cognitive processing and regulation of emotion. After a brief historical introduction, this paper proposes an exploration of the links between the alexithymia construct, the multicomponent emotion theories and the five-factor model of personality. Specifically, the potential associations between alexithymia and emotion regulation are examined, referring to recent studies in psychology of emotions, neurobiology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology and psychology of personality.     

Somatoforme Schmerzstörung am Beispiel des chronischen Unterbauchschmerzes der Frau

In this review we discuss the psychological dimension of chronic pelvic pain in women. We give an overview of the psychopathology of the disease. The psychosomatic correlations of this complex syndrome are discussed. The diagnostic criteria of somatoform pain disorder are relevant for a large number of patients. The psychotherapeutic approaches are described. Psychosomatic knowledge is very helpful in the management of chronic pelvic pain in women. It helps to avoid unnecessary operations and contributes to a satisfying doctor-patient-relationship.     

Why go the extra mile? A longitudinal study on sojourn goals and their impact on sojourners' adaptation

Although international student mobility has become a ubiquitous phenomenon in many parts of the world, the goals that student sojourners pursue when moving abroad have received little systematic attention in psychological research. Likewise, their effects on psychological outcomes such as sojourners' psychological and sociocultural adaptation abroad have not yet been examined. Hence, the purpose of the present research was twofold: First, we established the parsimonious Sojourn Goals Scale and confirmed its psychometric quality and construct validity. Second, we used a longitudinal sample of student sojourners to investigate the role of sojourn goals for sojourners' sociocultural (i.e., sojourners' social relationships) and psychological (i.e., sojourn satisfaction) adaptation abroad at 3 months into the sojourn. Regression analyses revealed substantial effects of sojourn goals on measures of sociocultural adaptation. Response surface analyses served to examine the interplay of sojourn goals and respective sojourn experiences on sojourn satisfaction. We discuss implications for both psychological and applied research and identify future research needs.     

Modelling perceptions of criminality and remorse from faces using a data-driven computational approach

Perceptions of criminality and remorse are critical for legal decision-making. While faces perceived as criminal are more likely to be selected in police lineups and to receive guilty verdicts, faces perceived as remorseful are more likely to receive less severe punishment recommendations. To identify the information that makes a face appear criminal and/or remorseful, we successfully used two different data-driven computational approaches that led to convergent findings: one relying on the use of computer-generated faces, and the other on photographs of people. In addition to visualising and validating the perceived looks of criminality and remorse, we report correlations with earlier face models of dominance, threat, trustworthiness, masculinity/femininity, and sadness. The new face models of criminal and remorseful appearance contribute to our understanding of perceived criminality and remorse. They can be used to study the effects of perceived criminality and remorse on decision-making; research that can ultimately inform legal policies.