Narzißtische Persönlichkeitsstörungen

Zusammenfassung Der Begriff des Narzi?mus wird aus historischen, soziologischen, anthropologischen, mythologischen und etymologischen Quellen hergeleitet und dann in die verschiedenen psychoanalytischen Theorien eingeordnet. Die theoretischen Grundpositionen zum Narzi?mus und zur Auffassung narzi?tischer Pers?nlichkeitsst?rungen werden ausführlich erl?utert. Die Annahme eines prim?ren Narzi?mus wird anhand der theoretischen Vorstellungen von Freud, Grunberger, Mahler und Kohut erkl?rt, die Annahme einer prim?ren Objektbeziehung durch die Theorien von Ferenczi, Balint, Klein und Winnicott illustriert. Anschlie?end werden die Konzeptionen des Narzi?mus im Rahmen der Triebtheorie bzw. als eigenst?ndige Entwicklungslinie (Kohut) erl?utert. Grunberger nimmt dabei eine Mittelstellung ein. Kohut und Kernberg stehen sich gegenüber, wenn es um die Einordnung des Narzi?mus als pathologisches Ph?nomen (Kernberg) oder als Entwicklungsarretierung (Kohut) geht. Es schlie?t sich ein Abschnitt über die klassifikatorisch-deskriptive Erfassung des Narzi?mus an, in dem die Auffassungen der narzi?tischen Pers?nlichkeitsst?rung im Rahmen der g?ngigen Klassifikationssysteme (DSM-IV, ICD-10, OPD) beschrieben werden. Ebenso finden die Testdiagnostik sowie interpersonelle Ans?tze Berücksichtigung. Danach werden die Befunde der modernen S?uglingsforschung und deren Auswirkungen auf ein ver?ndertes Verst?ndnis der narzi?tischen Pers?nlichkeitsst?rung dargestellt. Die übersicht schlie?t mit einer differenzierten Betrachtung der unterschiedlichen therapeutischen Vorgehensweisen.      

The role of first- and second-order stimulus features for human overt attention

When processing complex visual input, human observers sequentially allocate their attention to different subsets of the stimulus. What are the mechanisms and strategies that guide this selection process? We investigated the influence of various stimulus features on human overt attention--that is, attention related to shifts of gaze with natural color images and modified versions thereof. Our experimental modifications, systematic changes of hue across the entire image, influenced only the global appearance of the stimuli, leaving the local features under investigation unaffected. We demonstrated that these modifications consistently reduce the subjective interpretation of a stimulus as "natural" across observers. By analyzing fixations, we found that first-order features, such as luminance contrast, saturation, and color contrast along either of the cardinal axes, correlated to overt attention in the modified images. In contrast, no such correlation was found in unmodified outdoor images. Second-order luminance contrast ("texture contrast") correlated to overt attention in all conditions. However, although none of the second-order color contrasts were correlated to overt attention in unmodified images, one of the second-order color contrasts did exhibit a significant correlation in the modified images. These findings imply, on the one hand, that higher-order bottom-up effects--namely, those of second-order luminance contrast--may partially account for human overt attention. On the other hand, these results also demonstrate that global image properties, which correlate to the subjective impression of a scene being "natural," affect the guidance of human overt attention.     

Differential involvement of the central amygdala in appetitive versus aversive learning

Understanding the function of the distinct amygdaloid nuclei in learning comprises a major challenge. In the two studies described herein, we used c-Fos immunolabeling to compare the engagement of various nuclei of the amygdala in appetitive and aversive instrumental training procedures. In the first experiment, rats that had already acquired a bar-pressing response to a partial food reinforcement were further trained to learn that an acoustic stimulus signaled either continuous food reinforcement (appetitive training) or a footshock (aversive training). The first training session of the presentation of the acoustic stimulus resulted in significant increases of c-Fos immunolabeling throughout the amygdala; however, the pattern of activation of the nuclei of the amygdala differed according to the valence of motivation. The medial part of the central amygdala (CE) responded, surprisingly, to the appetitive conditioning selectively. The second experiment was designed to extend the aversive versus appetitive conditioning to mice, trained either for place preference or place avoidance in an automated learning system (INTELLICAGE). Again, much more intense c-Fos expression was observed in the medial part of the CE after the appetitive training as compared to the aversive training. These data, obtained in two species and by means of novel experimental approaches balancing appetitive versus aversive conditioning, support the hypothesis that the central nucleus of the amygdala is particularly involved in appetitively motivated learning processes.     

Reliability in Dream Research: A Methodological Note

The coefficients of internal consistency and retest reliability had been rarely investigated within the methodology of dream content analysis. Analyzing a dream series of elderly, healthy persons obtained from weekly telephone interviews, the internal consistency of a series of 20 dreams and retests after 4 or 22 weeks, respectively, had been computed. The findings indicate that dream recall and dream length are quite stable, but dream characteristics such as bizarreness and emotional tone underlie large intraindividual fluctuations. In order to obtain reliable measures for these variables which will be important for correlational studies, including waking-life trait measures, one has to obtain as many dreams as possible (about 20) in a very short time period. Further research is needed to extend the present findings to diary dreams and laboratory dreams.