Moving along to things left undone

This paper expands on three areas of clinical theory that are introduced and discussed in the lead paper and the others in this symposium. The first issue addressed is the concept of the real relationship as used in the moment of meeting model of psychotherapeutic change. Particular focus has been placed on the past, the present, and the hierarchy of goals in the treatment relationship. Second, the paper explores the concept of implicit relational knowledge with attention to the concepts of transference, countertransference, interpretation, and insight in the change process. Finally, the paper attends to the nature of the “now moment” in the moment of meeting model. Specifically explicated are ways this concept relates to changes in brain organization and also ways the moment of meeting model relates to other psychotherapy models, such as the relational schools and self-psychology. © 1998 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

Dyadically expanded states of consciousness and the process of therapeutic change

This paper addresses an intersubjective issue that arises out of our model of therapeutic change: Why do humans so strongly seek states of emotional connectedness and intersubjectivity and why does the failure to achieve connectedness have such a damaging effect on the mental health of the infant? A hypothesis is offered—the Dyadic Expansion of Consciousness Hypothesis—as an attempt to explain these phenomena. This hypothesis is based on the Mutual Regulation Model (MRM) of infant–adult interaction. The MRM describes the microregulatory social-emotional process of communication that generates (or fails to generate) dyadic intersubjective states of shared consciousness. In particular, the Dyadic Consciousness hypothesis argues that each individual, in one case the infant and mother or in another the patient and the therapist, is a self-organizing system that creates his or her own states of consciousness (states of brain organization), which can be expanded into more coherent and complex states in collaboration with another self-organizing system. Critically understanding how the mutual regulation of affect functions to create dyadic states of consciousness also can help us understand what produces change in the therapeutic process. © 1998 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

Implicit relational knowing: Its role in development and psychoanalytic treatment

It is increasingly apparent that “something more” than interpretation is needed to bring about change in psychoanalytic treatment. Drawing on clinical and developmental observations, we propose that interactional processes from birth onward give rise to a form of procedural knowledge regarding how to do things with intimate others, knowledge we call implicit relational knowing. This knowing is distinct from conscious verbalizable knowledge and from the dynamic unconscious. The implicit relational knowing of patient and therapist intersect to create an intersubjective field that includes reasonably accurate sensings of each person's ways of being with others, sensings we call the “real relationship.” This intersubjective field becomes more complex and articulated with repeated patient–therapist encounters, giving rise to emergent new possibilities for more coherent and adaptive forms of interaction. During a transactional event that we term a “moment of meeting,” a new dyadic possibility crystallizes when the two persons achieve the dual goals of complementary fitted actions and joint intersubjective recognition in a new form. We argue that such moments of meeting shift the relational anticipations of each partner and allow for new forms of agency and shared experience to be expressed and elaborated. © 1998 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

Effects of Race and Victim Drinking on Domestic Violence Attributions

This research examines the mutual influence of race and victim drinking on college students' domestic violence attributions. Participants were 200, predominately White, middle-class college students. They read a vignette depicting a domestic violence incident. Manipulated within the vignette were batterer race, victim race, and victim drinking. After reading the vignette, participants completed a questionnaire concerning their perceptions of the domestic assault. Results indicate batterers in interracial relationships are attributed more guilt than batterers in same-race relationships. In addition, when domestic violence victims drink alcoholic beverages before a domestic assault, more responsibility for the assault is attributed to Black victims than to their White counterparts. Furthermore, domestic violence victims who drink alcohol are ascribed more blame and derogation in comparison to abstinent domestic violence victims. We examine these findings in relation to stereotypes and gender-role violations. Implications for actors involved in domestic violence are also discussed.     

Human odometry verifies the symmetry perspective on bipedal gaits

Bipedal gaits have been classified on the basis of the group symmetry of the minimal network of identical differential equations (alias cells) required to model them. Primary gaits are characterized by dihedral symmetry, whereas secondary gaits are characterized by a lower, cyclic symmetry. This fact was used in a test of human odometry. Results suggest that when distance is measured and reported by gaits from the same symmetry class, primary and secondary gaits are comparable. Switching symmetry classes at report compresses (primary to secondary) or inflates (secondary to primary) measured distance, with the compression and inflation equal in magnitude. Lessons are drawn from modeling the dynamics of behaviors executed in parallel (e.g., interlimb coordination) to model the dynamics of human odometry, in which the behaviors are executed sequentially. The major observations are characterized in terms of a dynamics of sequentially coupled measure and report phases, with relative velocity as an order parameter, or equilibrium state, and difference in symmetry class as an imperfection parameter, or detuning, of that dynamic.     

Working memory capacity and visual attention: top-down and bottom-up guidance

Previous studies have indicated that working memory capacity (WMC) is related to visual attention when selection of critical information must be made in the face of distraction. The present study examines whether WMC-related differences in flanker task performance might be decreased by displays that are designed to support bottom-up guidance of attention. Participants were required to respond to a centrally located target while ignoring a peripheral flanker. In one condition, bottom-up support was provided by embedding the target in a row of zeros. In another condition, the zeros were removed, thus emphasizing the role of top-down attention in selecting spatially defined information. It was found that the inclusion of zeros led to the elimination of WMC-related flanker effects. We conclude that bottom-up attentional guidance can attenuate the role of WMC in selective attention.     

On describing colours

This paper attempts to refute the familiar sceptical argument based upon the theoretical possibility of systematic transpositions of colours in different observers’ colour‐vision. The force of this argument lies in its apparent demonstration that cases of transposed colour‐vision would be on a quite different cognitive footing from ordinary cases of colour‐blindness; since colour transposition, unlike colour‐blindness, could not possibly have any effect on the use of language by a person who suffered from it. It is argued (1) that this demonstration works only if we assume the truth of a certain theory of the logical nature of our colour vocabulary, and (2) that this theory is false.     

Reliability and Validity of the qualitative interpretation of sentence completions: A single case statistical study

Based on the sentence completions of a psychiatric patient, ratings were assigned on a number of personality dimensions by six clinical psychologists and 10 graduate students. Independent ratings by a psychologist and a psychiatrist who had interviewed the patient and had access to all the clinical background material, including case history, autobiography, and other tests, served as the criterion. A high degree of validity and interrater reliability was obtained by both clinicians and students with insignificant differences between them. Confidence in judgment was associated with extreme ratings but not with higher validity.     

Control of responding by the location of sound: role of binaural cues.

In auditory localization experiments, where the subject observes from a fixed position, both relative sound intensity and arrival time at the two ears determine the extent of localization performance. The present experiment investigated the role of binaural cues in a different context, the sound-position discrimination task, where the subject is free to move and interact with the sound source. The role of binaural cues was investigated in rats by producing an interaural imbalance through unilateral removal of the middle auditory ossicle (incus) prior to discrimination training. Discrete trial go-right/go-left sound-position discrimination of unilaterally incudectomised rats was then compared with that of normal rats and of rats with the incus of both sides removed. While bilateral incus removal affected binaural intensity and arrival times, the symmetry of sound input between the two ears was preserved. Percentage of correct responses and videotaped observations of sound approach and exploration showed that the unilateral rats failed to localize the sounding speaker. Rats with symmetrical binaural input (normal and bilaterally incudectomised rats) accurately discriminated sound position for the duration of the experiment. Previously reported monaural localization based upon following the intensity gradient to the sound source was not observed in the unilaterally incudectomised rats of the present experiment. It is concluded that sound-position discrimination depends upon the use of binaural cues.     

Morality,Inescapable Rational Authority,and a God's Wishes

It is a supposed conceptual truth about moral norms that we have reason to comply with them even if we desire not to. This combination of rational authority and inescapability is thought to be incompatible with instrumentalism about practical reason. This essay argues that there are ways in which norms with inescapable rational authority can exist alongside instrumentalism about practical reason. One way involves positing an afterlife and a powerful supernatural agency—so, a kind of god—who has total control over our welfare in that afterlife. I go on to argue that the attitudes of this god would also provide something answering to our impressions of moral desert.