What is psychoanalysis?

Although we are now less inclined to argue about whose treatment is entitled to be called psychoanalysis, we will understand current debates better if we revisualize what originally made psychoanalysis different from other treatments. At its birth, psychoanalysis twisted the common-sense treatments it grew out of into very peculiar shapes. In reaction to that extreme peculiarity, a process of normalizing began almost immediately and continues to this day. This process is illustrated by tracing the rise and fall of peculiarities in four aspects: medical procedure, the analyst's vision, the analyst's role, and the sense of time.     

The roles of sequencing and verbal working memory in sentence comprehension deficits in Parkinson's disease

Studies of sentence comprehension deficits in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients suggest that language processing involves circuits connecting subcortical and cortical regions. Anatomically segregated neural circuits appear to support different cognitive and motor functions. To investigate which functions are implicated in PD comprehension deficits, we tested comprehension, verbal working memory span, and cognitive set-switching in a non-linguistic task in 41 PD patients; we also obtained speech measurements reflecting motor sequencing processes that may be involved in articulatory rehearsal within working memory. Comprehension of sentences with center-embedded or final relative clauses was impaired when they could not be understood from lexical semantic content alone. Overall comprehension error rates correlated strongly with impaired set-switching and significantly with reduced working memory span and speech motor sequencing deficits. Correlations with comprehension of different sentence structures indicate that these impairments do not represent a single deficit; rather, PD comprehension deficits appear to arise from several independent mechanisms. Deficits in cognitive set-switching or underlying inhibitory processes may compromise the ability to process relative clauses. Deficits in verbal working memory appear to impair comprehension of long-distance dependencies. Speech sequencing correlated with neither set-switching nor verbal working memory span, consistent with their being supported by independent, segregated cortico-subcortical circuits.     

Facilitating Individuation Processes in Supervision Groups Comprised of Co-Therapists Conducting Group Therapy with Bereaved Parents

Helping Israeli bereaved parents work through losses and anger poses great emotional challenges for group therapists. Separation-individuation becomes an issue for both mourners and conductors alike. Supervision groups composed of such co-therapists often go through unique stages in the course of their development. The conflict between a defensive belonging to a dyadic subgroup with their co-therapist on the one hand, and involvement with the supervision group and its leader on the other, are the main reasons for this uniqueness. In these stages, special difficulties in the co-therapist's separation/individuation may be observed and furthered. An important emotional function we call reverse parallel process can be activated in supervision groups, and can eventually influence the therapy. It is achieved in the supervision through the containment and working through of difficult emotions disowned by the therapy group. What seemed to be an obstacle to the group's development, if processed by the co-therapists, can enable patients to work through their difficulties and improve their functioning. If, on the other hand, the co-therapists' separation/individuation development is faulty, containment dysfunction may burden the receptiveness and working through of dreadful projections, and result in massive acting-out. The rich Israeli experience in this field could contribute to cope with similar group situations.     

An event-related potential evaluation of involuntary attentional shifts in young and older adults

Involuntary shifts in attention to irrelevant stimuli were studied in elderly and young volunteers during a dichotic-listening task. Event-related potentials and behavioral measures were recorded. Volunteers heard pairs of tones presented with 2 different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). To-be-ignored tones were presented to the left ear, followed by to-be-attended tones to the right ear. Left-ear tones were a frequent standard (700 Hz) and an infrequent small (650 Hz) and large (500 Hz) deviant. Right-ear tones (1500 Hz) were presented with 2 equiprobable intensities. Volunteers responded to the lower intensity stimulus. Behavioral performance was impaired at the short SOA when to-be-ignored large deviants preceded to-be-attended targets, but more so for the elderly volunteers. Large deviants also elicited the mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a for both age groups. It was concluded that the more impaired behavioral performance observed for the elderly was due to greater sensitivity to output from the MMN system by a frontal lobe system responsible for the maintenance of attentional focus.     

Attachment and information seeking in romantic relationships

Testing predictions derived from attachment theory, this research investigated how adult attachment orientations are associated with selective exposure to information about the self, one's partner, and one's relationship. The results of two studies revealed that (a) more avoidantly attached individuals have limited interest in knowing their partner's intimate thoughts and feelings, (b) more anxiously attached individuals selectively prefer information on intimate topics pertaining to their partner and relationship and focus on information that highlights their own as well as their partner's shortcomings, and (c) regardless of attachment orientation, individuals express interest in learning about the negative relationship behaviors and characteristics of their insecurely attached partners. These findings suggest that selective information seeking may have important effects on relationships and may help explain how attachment orientations affect important relationship outcomes.     

Investigating the link between validation seeking and lay dispositionism

In this study, the authors investigated the relationship between validation seeking (VS; Dykman, 1998) and lay dispositionism, the use of personality traits as the basis for social inference (Chiu, Hong, & Dweck, 1997). Specifically, the authors sought to empirically address three questions: (a) Does VS predict the tendency to make dispositional inferences and, if so, do social comparison tendencies mediate this relationship? (b) Does VS mediate the association between implicit person theories and lay dispositionism? and (c) Does contingent parental regard indirectly predict lay dispositionism via its effects on VS and/or implicit person theories? Results suggest that both VS and entity person theories facilitate lay dispositionism, yet do so via distinct processes. Both processes are driven at least partly by contingent parental regard; however, their effects on lay dispositionism differ in scope and in the extent to which they entail social comparison.     

Causal attribution for interfirm contract violation: a comparative study of Chinese and American commercial arbitrators

In this study, the authors examined differences between Chinese and American commercial arbitrators. They predicted and found that Chinese arbitrators make higher awards for interfirm contract violations than Americans. This difference is partially explained by differences in attributions. Prior theory suggests, and the authors found, that the Chinese tend to have more internal attributions for events when observing group actions. When evidence provided to arbitrators is mixed (evidence is provided for both internal and external attributions), Chinese-American differences in awards become even stronger.     

Plasma interleukin-6 and soluble IL-6 receptors are associated with psychological well-being in aging women.

OBJECTIVE: This study tested the hypothesis that psychological well-being would predict lower plasma levels of inflammatory factors in aging women. DESIGN: One hundred thirty-five women ages 61-91 years (M = 74.5 years) participated in this study. After completing self-administered questionnaires in their homes, participants stayed overnight at the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Blood samples for cytokine analyses were obtained in participants' homes after the GCRC visit. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Psychological well-being and ill-being, history of health problems, and health behaviors were assessed via self-administered questionnaires. Detailed medical history and concurrent health measures were obtained during the GCRC stay. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were used to determine interleukin-6 (IL-6) and soluble IL-6 receptor (sIL-6R) concentrations in plasma. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Regression analyses showed that plasma IL-6 levels were lower in women scoring higher on positive relationships, whereas sIL-6R levels were lower in women scoring higher on purpose in life, even after a variety of sociodemographic and health factors were controlled. These outcomes, combined with the absence of significant links with other measures of well-being and ill-being, suggest selective patterns of association between later life inflammatory processes and psychological factors, particularly those focused on positive ties with others and purposeful engagement.     

Ongoing physical activity advice by humans versus computers: the Community Health Advice by Telephone (CHAT) trial.

PURPOSE: Given the prevalence of physical inactivity among American adults, convenient, low-cost interventions are strongly indicated. This study determined the 6- and 12-month effectiveness of telephone interventions delivered by health educators or by an automated computer system in promoting physical activity. DESIGN: Initially inactive men and women age 55 years and older (N = 218) in stable health participated. Participants were randomly assigned to human advice, automated advice, or health education control. MEASURES: The validated 7-day physical activity recall interview was used to estimate minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity. Physical activity differences by experimental arm were verified on a random subsample via accelerometry. RESULTS: Using intention-to-treat analysis, at 6 months, participants in both interventions, although not differing from one another, showed significant improvements in weekly physical activity compared with controls. These differences were generally maintained at 12 months, with both intervention arms remaining above the target of 150 min per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity on average. CONCLUSION: Automated telephone-linked delivery systems represent an effective alternative for delivering physical activity advice to inactive older adults.     

Environmental-genetic interactions in experimental hypertension: the Dahl rat model

Dahl selected lines of salt-sensitive rats respond to hypertensinogenic stimuli such as sodium or behavioral stressors with marked elevations in blood pressure. In contrast, Dahl salt-resistant rats do not. The two lines appear to differ in terms of heart-rate reactivity and central nervous system organization.