Working Memory Rating Scale's Utility to Identify Children's Memory Difficulties in Diverse Educational Environments: Can It Work in Every School?

The aim of the present study was to explore the psychometric properties of the observer‐based Working Memory Rating Scale (WMRS) tool, in a sample of 6‐ to 12‐year‐old Greek primary school children. Results established a good internal consistency; appropriate factorial, criterion‐related and convergent validity; and diagnostic utility of the scale in the Greek population. However, the relationship between teacher's ratings and the objective assessment of children's working memory abilities was mediated by children's vocabulary knowledge, suggesting that verbal skills can constitute a form of bias in this particular educational environment. In conclusion, the WMRS can provide a reliable assessment of children's working memory capacity in Greek schools. Nevertheless, characteristics of the child such as verbal abilities could bias teacher's judgments. Therefore, the WMRS in Greek schools should be used as an initial screener, and objective working memory measures should be included in the assessment if warranted. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the Psychoanalytic Treatment of the Depressive Personality

In order to discuss the depressive personality we have first to distinguish between this clinical entity and other types of depressive psychopathology that might also be chronic. The character traits and psychodynamics of the depressive personality confirm that there is a special group of patients, who belong to a depressive disorder continuum. The particular technical problems that depressive personality present are: (1) the inability to enjoy anything and the consequences of this on the therapist's experience and interventions, and (2) the negative therapeutic reaction which threatens the analytic process and the therapist's competence. If we combine transference/extratransference interpretations with an "empathetic understanding" approach to systematic confrontation and interpretation, we can therefore justify the need for a slightly modified psychoanalytic technique in the treatment of the depressive personality.     

On the process of the psychoanalytic psychotherapy with the borderline depressive patient

Abstract

A certain subgroup of borderline patients often presents depressive symptomatology (either chronic or periodic) and an underlying borderline personality organization.

In this article, the effort is directed at elucidating the psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic process of these borderline depressives by presenting clinical fragments of several psychotherapeutic cases.

The process goes through periods of activation of the patient's depressive or primitive mental functioning, which also reflects on the therapist's countertransference.

The capacity of the therapist to tolerate and elaborate on his patient's projections, facilitates the development of the therapist-patient communication and plays a significant role in the therapeutic outcome itself.     

Handedness and spatial ability in children: further support for Geschwind's hypothesis of "pathology of superiority" and for Annett's theory of intelligence.

Spatial ability of 60 left-handed and 60 right-handed school children was investigated using a battery of nine tasks. The results do not agree with Levy's (1969, 1976) theory predicting spatial inferiority of left-handed individuals. Instead, higher performance by left-handed children provided further support for Annett's (Annett & Manning, 1989) theory on intelligence and for Geschwind's (Geschwind & Galaburda, 1985) hypothesis of "pathology of superiority." The distinction of left-handed and right-handed individuals into familial and nonfamilial groups appeared to be psychologically equivocal according to our results.     

Differences in language performance in variations of lateralization

Language proficiency was studied in 489 primary-school-aged children classified as extreme left-, extreme right-, mild left-, and mild right-handers on the basis of both hand-preference and hand-skill, using a test battery of seven measures. An ANOVA run on factor scores showed neither significant association of language proficiency with variations of lateralization regarding hand-preference and hand-skill nor differences in factor structure derived from a principal component analysis between extreme vs. mild hand-preference and hand-skill groups. Moreover, low language proficiency was not significantly associated with specific patterns of lateralization in hand-preference subgroups. In contrast, low language performers with poor hand-skill were significantly overrepresented both in the extreme left-handed group alone and when combined with the extreme right-handed, in comparison to mild left- and mild right-handed with respect to population. The data are not consistently accommodated by the theory of balanced polymorphism (mainly Annett, 1978, 1985 Annett & Manning, 1989 ). Alternately, factors such as lag of maturation ( Bishop, 1980, 1984, 1990a, 1990b ), delay of growth ( Geschwind & Galaburda, 1985b ), and developmental instability associated with unique patterns of variations in lateralization ( Yeo, Gangestad, & Daniel, 1993 ) are discussed as possible factors accounting for the present results.     

Concurrent validity of the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence in Parkinson's disease patients

The Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (TONI-2; L. Brown, R. J. Sherbenou, & S. Johnsen, 1990) and Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices (RCPM; J. C. Raven, 1965) are defined as language-free measures of cognitive ability. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relation between the RCPM and the TONI-2 for samples of patients with Parkinson's disease (n = 75) and controls (n = 47). A regression equation was computed to evaluate the relation of the RCPM scores to the TONI-2 quotient. Regression equation results indicate that there is a significant overlapping linear variance between the two measures in both patients and controls.     

Projective identification,containment and sojourn in the psyche: Clinical notes on a specific type of transference-countertransference interaction

Abstract

This paper suggests that the interplay between transference and countertransference is considered to be a valuable channel of communication. The author puts an emphasis on the containing function of the analyst. The patient strives for an experience of an object (analyst) that tolerates and copes with the patient's projections. There are some moments when analysts feel themselves to be invaded, controlled or abused by their patient's products. As Bion has postulated, this situation takes the form of a sojourn in the analyst's psyche. Clinical vignettes are given to provide support for the ways in which the analyst contains and elaborates the projections of the patients in his or her own mind and the therapeutic role that these processes have.     

Memories,or attempts to dream undreamt traumas? Souvenirs dormants (Sleeping memories) by Patrick Modiano,under the gaze of Thomas Ogden

Abstract

In “Sleeping memories”(2017), French writer Patrick Modiano confronts the past and his memories in a different way compared with his previous novels, as he keeps trying to revisit and reprocess them. In this book he adds a new method, the dreaming revision of memories, especially traumatic ones, turning to the work of Marquis d’Hervey de Saint-Denys, “Les rêves et les moyens de les diriger: Observations pratiques.” I would suggest that in this way he dreams undreamt traumas, thereby transforming them. In doing so, Modiano meets Thomas Ogden’s art of psychoanalysis.