Reviews: Books

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND BUDDHISM: AN UNFOLDING DIALOGUE. Edited by Jeremy D. Safran. 443 pp. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003. 19.95 (paperback). THE HOUSE OF JOSHUA. By Mindy Thompson Fullilove. 160 pp. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. $. MAGIC OF THE ORDINARY: RECOVERING THE SHAMANIC IN JUDAISM. By Gershon Winkler. Pp Place: North Atlantic Books, 2003. $. RAISING AMERICA: EXPERTS, PARENTS AND A CENTURY OF ADVICE ABOUT CHILDREN, by Ann Hulbert. 450 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. $27.50.. HONKY. By Dalton Conley. 207 pp. New York: Vintage Books, 2001. $12.00.     

Executive function, intellectual decline and daily living skills

Understanding the cognitive changes associated with compromised daily living skills in elderly individuals is important for making appropriate recommendations about the capacity for independent functioning. To this end, we retrospectively examined data from 92 elderly individuals presenting with cognitive decline who were administered measures of executive functioning, general intelligence, and daily living skills. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between executive functioning and daily living skills, while controlling for age, depression, and either IQ decline or current IQ. Executive functioning accounted for additional variance in a broad range of daily living skills after controlling for IQ decline. When FSIQ was used in the regression model rather than IQ decline, executive functioning was no longer uniquely associated with daily living skills. Executive functions appear to be important for daily living skills until a critical threshold of low intellectual functioning is reached, reflecting the combined influence of premorbid ability and the extent of intellectual decline. Our results suggest that understanding the relative contribution of different cognitive domains to functional decline in elderly individuals should take into account general intellectual functioning and estimated decline, and that the initiation and/or persistence of self-directed cognitive processes may be important for adaptive daily functioning. These findings have implications for making more evidence-based recommendations about the capacity for independent living.     

Paul Tillich and Psychoanalysis

Paul Tillich (1886–1965) was one of the leading theologians of the twentieth century. Tillich was born in Germany and received his education and first academic appointments there. Tillich left Germany in 1933 to teach at Union Theological Seminary after having been dismissed from his university position by the National Socialist government for his radical views and political associations. In the United States, he became a highly successful lecturer, preacher, and public intellectual who reached numbers of persons who had departed or who had doubts regarding traditional religious belief and practice. Tillich underwent a series of traumatic losses in the early decades of his life that powerfully shaped his subsequent contributions to religious and cultural discourse. This essay outlines this pattern of loss and speculates about its impact upon his theological work. It lifts up Tillich’s perspective of living and working “on the boundary” of disciplines, eras, and cultures, most particularly where psychoanalytic ideas contributed to his “theology of culture.” It also stresses Tillich’s role in initiating the ongoing dialogue between religion and psychiatry and psychoanalysis. The essay concludes with a summary critique of Tillich’s work along with an affirmation of his considerable legacy. This essay was originally a presentation for the Richardson Research Seminar in the History of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College.     

The relationship between attachment, personality and antisocial tendencies in a prison sample: a pilot study

This study examined the role of adult attachment and personality in relation to antisocial tendencies (i.e. convictions for violence and interpersonal problems in romantic relationships) in Norwegian prison inmates (N=92). Attachment styles and personality were measured using self-report questionnaires (RSQ; Griffin & Bartholomew, 1994; and NEO-FFI, Costa & McCrae, 1992a). The prison inmates scored higher on avoidant than on anxious attachment style. While age and agreeableness (negatively associated) emerged as significant predictors of violence, anxious attachment explained most of the variances in aggression in intimate relationships. The study suggests that different types of antisocial tendencies could have different attachment and general personality correlates.     

Measuring Employee Engagement During a Financial Downturn: Business Imperative or Nuisance?

In this article, we emphasize that measuring workforce attitudes is a business imperative—including during an economic downturn or crisis. After reviewing the concept of employee engagement we draw upon recent real-world examples and data across a variety of organizations and argue for the business value of an engaged workforce. We offer practical applications for HR managers, including providing guidance on the types of questions that should be asked in an employee survey and focusing on those that result in the most actionable feedback. We conclude the paper by laying out an agenda for future research aimed at helping bridge the academic-practitioner divide.     

Rejected and excluded forevermore, but even more devoted: irrevocable ostracism intensifies loyalty to the group among identity-fused persons

When people are ostrasized (i.e., rejected and excluded) by either an outgroup or an ingroup, they may either withdraw or engage in compensatory activities designed to reaffirm their social identity as a group member. The authors proposed here that individual differences in identity fusion (an index of familial orientation toward the group) would moderate the tendency for people to display such compensatory activity. Consistent with this reasoning, the results of four experiments showed that irrevocable ostracism increased endorsement of extreme, pro-group actions (fighting and dying for the ingroup) among fused persons but not among nonfused persons. This effect emerged when an outgroup ostracized fused individuals due either to their nationality (Experiment 1) or their personal preferences (Experiment 2). Similarly, ostracism by the ingroup amplified the tendency for fused persons to both endorse extreme pro-group actions, refuse to leave the group (Experiment 3), and donate money to an ingroup member (Experiment 4). Finally, compensatory activities emerged even when ostracism was based on being "too good" for the group, suggesting that a desire for self-enhancement does not mediate such activities (Experiment 4).     

Physical Attractiveness and Candidate Evaluation: A Model of Correction

Voters typically evaluate an attractive candidate more favorably than an (otherwise equivalent) unattractive candidate. However, some voters “correct” for the biasing influence of physical appearance. This reduces, eliminates, or even reverses the physical attractiveness effect. Correction occurs when political experts evaluate a political candidate under nondistracting conditions. Under these “high cognitive capacity” conditions, voters primarily correct for physical unattractiveness. However, correction fails to occur when voters possess low levels of expertise or are distracted. Thus, in most circumstances, attractive candidates are evaluated more favorably than unattractive candidates. Two experiments provide support for this model of appearance‐based candidate evaluation.     

The imprecise impermissivist’s dilemma

Synthese - Impermissivists hold that an agent with a given body of evidence has at most one rationally permitted attitude that she should adopt towards any particular proposition. Permissivists...