Countertransference as object of empirical research?

Abstract

The concept of countertransference as a robust cornerstone of psychoanalytic work has gained momentum over the last five decades. It is a prime example of elastic concepts covering the range from microprocesses to global clinical phenomena. Empirical research on the treatment process has for a long time – and for good reasons – avoided even trying to measure countertransference. We report here on various efforts for approaching a methodology for measuring it. The paper organizes the various approaches in terms of stages of research.     

The cultural dimension of tightness–looseness: An analysis of situational constraint in Estonia and Greece

The importance of tightness–looseness as a dimension that explains a considerable amount of variance between cultures was demonstrated by Gelfand et al. (2011). Tight nations have many strong norms and a low tolerance of deviant behaviour, whereas loose nations have weak social norms and a high tolerance of deviant behaviour. The main aim of the current studies was to examine situational constraint in Estonia and Greece: that is, how the cultural dimension of tightness–looseness is manifested in everyday situations in those two countries. The findings of a questionnaire study (Study 1) suggested that, in general, there is higher constraint across everyday situations in Greece than in Estonia, but situational constraint in Greece is especially strong in school and organisational settings where people have hierarchically structured roles. The results of an observational study (Study 2) revealed a relatively high agreement between appropriateness of certain behaviours as judged by the respondents in Study 1 and the frequencies of observed behaviours in the two countries. Our findings suggest that the strength of situations may substantially vary both within and across cultures, and that the attitudes of the members about situational strength in their respective cultures are in concordance with observations of situations by neutral observers in how people in general behave in their culture.     

Judgements,Expertise, and Counterfactuals

Abstract

In The Philosophy of Philosophy (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007), Tim Williamson has offered a sophisticated account of thought experiments and of modal epistemology. More recently, he has also engaged in a variant of the so-called ‘expertise defence’ of traditional philosophical methodology. In this paper I argue that if Williamson’s account of thought experiments and of modal epistemology is right, this seriously undermines his version of the expertise defence.     

Analytic change: Assessing ways of being in a psychoanalytic follow‐up interview

The article argues that the concepts of relational scenario, structuralized affect and actualized affect are proposed candidates for observation of changes in relational ways of being as it is expressed in transference. A psychoanalytic follow‐up interview of a former analytic patient is presented in order to illustrate how change in relational ways of being may be registered and studied. By triangulating the patient's verbal report of change with nonverbal information and transference–countertransference dynamics, one may grasp qualitative changes in relational ways of being. The case presented illustrates a former patient's on‐going process of working towards representing aggression in a more direct manner and how this process is made observable with the aid of the proposed concepts in the interview situation. The proposed concepts of relational scenario, structuralized and actualized affect discussed are compared to the concept of transference used in studies of core conflictual relationship theme (CCRT).     

Zur Analyse des Bumerang-Effektes

Zusammenfassung In zwei Experimenten wurde mit Hilfe unterschiedlicher sozialer Attitüden und Werthaltungen jeweils die Hypothese geprüft, daß sich Einstellungen nach einstellungskonträrer Agitation in Richtung dieser Agitation oder aber nicht und in Gegenrichtung zur Agitation ändern, je nachdem ob sie weniger oder mehr in allgemeineren Werthaltungen verankert sind. Im Rahmen einer um die Konzeption der Verankerung erweiterten Theorie der kognitiven Dissonanz können damit besser als bisher sogenannte Bumerang-Effekte bei Änderungen von Attitüden erklärt werden.

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Summary In two experiments we tested the following hypothesis concerning social attitudes and value orientations: Attitudes will be changed after counter-attitudinal agitation in the direction of this agitation or in opposite direction depending on their degree of being anchored in general value orientations. With the theory of cognitive dissonance, supplemented by the conception of anchoring, we are now able to explain better than before the so-called boomerang-effects which appear with attitude changes.

     

Der Sinn Pessimistischer Sätze

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Einige Bemerkungen Zum Begriffe Der Wahrnehmung Und Zu Den Wahrnehmungssätzen

Ohne Zusammenfassung