Religious integration in a residential treatment center

Summary After many years of service to the community, the Children's Home of Baltimore recently admitted its first Jewish child. While the basic content of the youngster's feelings and behavior, both prior and subsequent to placement, has been no different from that of a number of other children with similar backgrounds, it has been expressed in a fashion colored by the history of the agency and the child's religion. The psychological phenomena that have been witnessed have been no different from those seen in a host of other children; only the choice of a mode of expression has been altered. Some of this behavior, as well as verbalizations during the treatment sessions, has been characterized by unconscious feelings focused on the issue of religion. On other occasions, the boy has made conscious attempts to use this to his own advantage, to curry favor or to gain privileges denied others.The history of the home, with its beginnings rooted in Christian charitable endeavors, has provided a background against which may be viewed the chameleon-like quality of these psychological processes as they take on the coloration of the environment.     

The act of surrender in the treatment of the alcoholic

The success of A. A. in the alleviation of alcoholism has provided psychiatrists with a rich source of clinical material for a study of the religious process. The paper which follows is a discussion of one aspect of that process, namely, the act of surrender. It was prepared for a psychiatric audience; it may have some pertinence for the pastoral group since it represents at least an effort at understanding the religious life. Fully aware of its deficiencies, I offer the paper in the hope that it may seem to contain a measure of truth and be of some value to pastors in their relationships with their parishioners.This article is reprinted from Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, June, 1949 where it appeared under the title The Act of Surrender in the Therapeutic Process, by permission of author and publisher.s     

An abbreviated PTSD checklist for use as a screening instrument in primary care

Although the importance of recognizing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in primary care has been well-established, routine screening for PTSD remains unfeasible for many primary care clinics because of the length of the available screening instruments. Thus, the purpose of this work was to develop and validate a brief screening tool for PTSD. In Study 1, four short forms of the PTSD Checklist-civilian version were identified that captured a majority of the variance in the measure. In Study 2, the performance of these short forms was evaluated in a separate sample of primary care patients. We found that both two-item and six-item versions have adequate psychometric properties for screening purposes and suggest that the selection of one version over the other depends on the specific needs of each primary care clinic.     

From sensory processes to conscious perception

In recent years, cognitive neuroscientists have began to explore the process of how sensory information gains access to awareness. To further probe this process, event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used while testing subjects with a paradigm known as the "attentional blink." In this paradigm, visually presented information sporadically fails to reach awareness. It was found that the magnitude and time course of activation within the anterior cingulate (BA 32), medial prefrontal cortex (BA 9), and frontopolar cortex (BA 10) predicted whether or not information was consciously perceived during the critical period for the attentional blink. These results are discussed in light of a neural framework for conscious processing.     

Brief maternal interaction increases number, amplitude, and bout size of isolation-induced ultrasonic vocalizations in infant rats (Rattus norvegicus)

The number, amplitude, duration, and bout structure of isolation-induced ultrasonic vocalization (USV) of infant rats (Rattus norvegicus) were measured on postnatal Day 10. Measurements were made before and after a brief, 1-min, active interaction with their mother or before and after a "pick-up" control procedure. Consistent with prior studies, the number of USVs emitted was significantly increased in the period following the maternal reunion but not after the control procedure. The average amplitude of USVs was also greater following maternal reunion. Finally, analyses characterizing the bout structure of USV production indicated that the average bout size (i.e. number of USVs/bout) was increased severalfold following the reunion with the mother, accounting for the greater rate of USV production during the second isolation period.