It Only Looks the Same From a Distance: How U.S., Finnish,and Irish Schools Support Struggling Readers

This study examined how U.S., Finnish, and Irish educators identified and supported struggling readers. Using Johnston's (2011) framework for evaluating reading interventions and activity theory (Engeström, 1999), we interviewed educators in four U.S., three Irish, and three Finnish schools. In the United States, the adoption of three beliefs—reductionist reading philosophy, difficulties as cognitive and remediated through instruction, and reading problems as unexpected phenomena—reinforced a skills-driven approach. Irish and Finnish educators adopted a more holistic view of reading, and teachers used formative assessment to support struggling students over extended periods while working collaboratively with other staff. Discussion focuses on how these beliefs influenced divisions of labor, roles and responsibilities, and the urgency with which difficulties were addressed.     

The Relationship of Korean Students’ Age and Years of English-as-a-Foreign-Language Exposure with English-Reading Ability: A Cross-Age Study

The differences in spelling error features among learning disabled and normal students spelling instructionally on four grade levels of achievement were investigated. The categories of errors were determined by invented spelling research. The results indicated that the ranking of error features for each group were significantly correlated, and that the range of individual variation about the mean group pattern of spelling error variables was highly similar at each level of achievement. The findings are congruent with the theory of developmental word knowledge and support the position that learning disabled and normally achieving children acquire specific aspects of English orthography in highly similar progressions.     

Terminating Without Fatality

The psychoanalytic relationship is unique among intimate relationships, in that its ultimate goal is separation. After termination, the analysand mourns the loss of the analyst and while feeling vulnerable and bereft, faces demanding emotional tasks alone. The post-termination phase is a precarious time during which the hard-won gains of an analysis may be threatened or even lost. Given the analysand's vulnerability, it is disturbing that many of our common termination practices may undermine the patient's leave-taking and harm the positive internal images of the analyst and the analytic relationship that have been forged during the analysis. Findings from recent research about the patient's experience after analysis are presented and implications are drawn for practice regarding the termination and post-termination phases. The author recommends that our theory and technique of termination should be reexamined and revised in light of new research and within the context of contemporary two-person theories of psychoanalysis.

In real life, only death and hostility bring a libidinal relationship to an end. The kind of termination psychoanalysis demands is without precedent.

—Martin Bergmann (1997, p. 163)     

The role of childhood sexual seduction in the development of an erotic transference: Perversion in the psychoanalytic situation

Abstract

Based on Ferenczi's Confusion of Tongues theory of trauma we proposed the following hypothesis: “An erotic transference is an enactment in the here-and-now of the psychoanalytic situation of a childhood seduction of sexual trauma”. We delineate the relational approach to the analysis of the incest trauma, both theoretically and clinically. The concept of enactment helps us understand the emergence of the incest trauma in the psychoanalytic situation as an indication of an earlier childhood experience. Three clinical examples are discussed which illustrate ways of using the hypothesis within the analytic process. The clinical examples demonstrate the value of enactments that are contained in the unconscious communication that the erotic transference represents.

Rachman AWM et al. Die Rolle sexueller Verführung in der Kindheit bei der Entwicklung einer erotischen Übertragungsperversion in der psychoanalytischen Situation

Basierend auf Ferenczi′s Konfusion der Zungen Trauma Theorie schlugen wir die folgende Hypothese vor: Eine erotische Übertragung ist eine Inszenierung im Hier und Jetzt der psychoanalytischen Situation einer Kindheits Verführung als sexuellem Trauma. Wir entwerfen den relationalen Ansatz theoretisch und klinisch in Bezug auf die Analyse des Inzest Traumas. Das Konzept der Reinszenierung hilft uns das Auftauchen des Inzest Traumas als ein Anzeichen einer früheren Kindheitserfahrung in der psychoanalytischen Situation zu verstehen. Es werden drei klinische Beispiele diskutiert, die die Wege illustrieren, die Hypothese innerhalb des analytischen Prozesses anzuwenden. Die klinischen Beispiele zeigen den Wert von (Re-) Inszenierungen, die in der unbewußten Kommunikaton enthalten sind, welche die erotische Übertragung repräsentieren.

Rachman A WM et. al. El rol de la seducción sexual infantil en el desarrollo de una transferencia erótica: perversión en la situación analítica.

Basado en la teoría del trauma de la confusión de lenguas de Ferenczi, proponemos la siguiente hipótesis: una transferencia erótica es un enactment en el aquí y el ahora de la situación analítica del trauma de la seducción sexual infantil. Trazamos la aproximación relacional del análisis del trauma del incesto. El concepto de enactment nos ayuda a entender la emergencia del trauma del incesto en la situación psicoanalitica, como indicación de una experiencia infantil temprana.

Se presentan tres ejemplos clínicos que ilustran formas de uso de la hipótesis desde el proceso analítico. Estos ejemplos clínicos demuestran el valor de los enactments contenidos en la comunicación inconsciente que representa la transferencia erótica.     

The Role of Relationships in Understanding the Alexithymia–Depression Link

Alexithymia is associated with increased depressive symptoms in both clinical and community samples. One way that alexithymia may lead to depression is through its impact on interpersonal relationships. Individuals with alexithymia report lower perceived social support, intimacy, and relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, poor relationship functioning is a clear risk factor for depressive symptoms. Given the established alexithymia–depression link and marital dysfunction–depression link, a logical next step is to examine whether relationship dysfunction (low social support, intimacy, negative relationship behaviours, and relationship dissatisfaction) mediates the association between alexithymia and depressive symptoms. The hypothesized mediation model was assessed in a sample of 104 community couples with two analytical approaches—first with cross‐sectional measures using path analysis and second with daily diary measures collected over a seven‐day period using a multilevel modelling approach. Poor relationship functioning mediated the association between alexithymia and depressed mood in the daily diary data and partially mediated that association with the cross‐sectional measures. These results identify alexithymia as an important variable in understanding the marital functioning–depression association, and this finding has implications for treatment. Copyright © 2012 European Association of Personality Psychology     

How Much Distress Is Too Much on Deployed Operations? Validation of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) for Application in Military Operational Settings

The aim of this study was threefold: (a) to assess the factor structure of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) to determine whether interpreting the scale as a single dimensional measure of psychological distress is justified in military operational setting; (b) to validate the K10 for mental health surveillance in operational settings against self-reported occupational impairment; (c) to evaluate whether the K10 has better discriminatory power than de facto standards for mental health surveillance on deployment, namely the Patient Health Questionnaire and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist, Civilian version. A convenience sample of Canadian Armed Forces personnel serving in Afghanistan (N = 1,264) completed self-report measures of psychological distress and occupational impairment. On examination of 6 competing models, the authors determined that interpreting the K10 as a measure of unspecified psychological distress is justified. Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, they identified new cutoff values for dichotomous and polychotomous scoring methods. After comparing the area beneath the ROC curves for each of the 3 mental health surveillance questionnaires, the authors determined that all measures perform well as predictors of self-rated occupational impairment, with values ranging from .86 to .90. These results highlight the importance of cross-setting validation and demonstrate that validating psychological screening questionnaires against self-report measures of occupational impairment can be a useful strategy for understanding the manifestation of psychological distress on deployed military operations.     

Development of Prospective Memory: Tasks Based on the Prefrontal-Lobe Model

This study investigated the development of prospective memory using tasks based on the prefrontal-lobe model. Three groups each of 30 children, adolescents, and young adults were compared on prospective-memory performance using ongoing tasks with two levels of cognitive demand (low and high), and two levels of importance (unstressed and stressed) of remembering prospective cues. The Self-Ordered Pointing Task (SOPT), Stroop Color Word Interference Test, and Tower of London were also used to assess relationships between prospective memory and prefrontal-lobe functions. The children remembered fewer prospective cues than either the adolescents or adults, but the adolescents and adults remembered equally well. This trend increased significantly as the cognitive demand of the ongoing tasks increased. However, stressing or not stressing the importance of remembering made no difference to prospective-memory performance. Performance on the SOPT and Stroop Colour Word Interference predicted performance on the high- but not on the low-demand condition. These findings implicate the maturation of the brain's prefrontal region in the development of prospective memory.     

Psychodynamic psychotherapy for children and adolescents: a critical review of the evidence base

For many years psychoanalytic and psychodynamic therapies have been considered to lack a credible evidence-base and have consistently failed to appear in lists of ‘empirically supported treatments’. This study systematically reviews the research evaluating the efficacy and effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy for children and young people. The researchers identified 34 separate studies that met criteria for inclusion, including nine randomised controlled trials. While many of the studies reported are limited by sample size and lack of control groups, the review indicates that there is increasing evidence to suggest the effectiveness of psychoanalytic psychotherapy for children and adolescents. The article aims to provide as complete a picture as possible of the existing evidence base, thereby enabling more refined questions to be asked regarding the nature of the current evidence and gaps requiring further exploration.