Breakdown in communication: On finding the child in the analysis of an adult

SUMMARY

In this paper a patient is described in whom communication with parts of herself and with her objects, internal and external, had broken down. I suggest that her way of communicating was achieved by projective identification, as described by Klein (1946) and Bion (1962). The only way she could deal with and communicate her own very “bothered” feelings was to “put them” into the analyst. In this way she “bothered” the maternal or analytic mind in such a way as to make the analyst experience feeling like a “bothered” child.

I have tried to show how the analyst holds or contains these feelings, and to show the gradual establishment in the patient of a different way of communicating with the analyst and with the more primitive parts of herself.     

Child Personality as Moderator of Outcome in a School‐based Intervention for Preventing Externalising Behaviour

Studying moderators of intervention effects is essential to elucidate what works for whom. The present study investigated whether child personality moderates short‐term and follow‐up effects of an individualised preventive school‐based intervention for children with externalising behaviour. The sample consisted of 48 schools, with 264 fourth‐grade children displaying externalising behaviour (M_age = 10.2 years), randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 191) or no intervention control (n = 73) condition. Teachers and children reported at pretest, posttest and follow‐up test about reactive and proactive aggression. Child personality was assessed by teachers at pretest. Child conscientiousness moderated short‐term intervention effects, indicating that more organised and planful children benefited more from the intervention. Child extraversion moderated both short‐term and follow‐up intervention effects, with low extraverted children showing larger effects. These results affirm the importance of including personality as moderator of intervention effects in future studies, as interventions adapted to specific child traits might yield larger effects. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Self-Knowledge Gambit

If we hold that perceiving is sufficient for knowing, we can raise a powerful objection to dreaming skepticism: Skeptics assume the implausible KK-principle, because they hold that if we don’t know whether we are dreaming or perceiving p, we don’t know whether p. The rejection of the KK-principle thus suggests an anti-skeptical strategy: We can sacrifice some of our self-knowledge—our second-order knowledge—and thereby save our knowledge of the external world. I call this strategy the Self-Knowledge Gambit. I argue that the Self-Knowledge Gambit is not satisfactory, because the dreaming skeptic can avail herself of a normative counterpart to the KK-principle: When we lack second-order knowledge, we should suspend our first-order beliefs and thereby give up any first-order knowledge we might have had. The skeptical challenge is essentially a normative challenge, and one can raise it even if one rejects the KK-Principle.     

On stealing clinical notes on three adolescent boys

In this paper I wish to explore the problem of stealing as a disturbance related to difficulties in coming to a recognition and acknowledgement of the need for an object with all this implies. To illustrate I should like to report sessions from three adolescent boys, beginning with John, a 19 year old boy whom I had been seeing once-weekly for psychotherapy. He was in his first year at College and came to treatment for, inter alia, examination difficulties. He was of high intelligence, and was not succeeding as he should.     

Exact solution of the one-dimensional Potts bridge model with competing interactions

Abstract

The exact solution of the q-state Potts bridge model with competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions is obtained and corresponding regular and critical behaviour studied.     

Factorial and Diagnostic Validity of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) in Croatian Primary Health Care

The aim of this study was to examine the factorial and diagnostic validity of the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II) in Croatian primary health care. Data were collected using a medical outpatient sample (N = 314). Reliability measured by internal consistency proved to be high. While the Velicer MAP Test showed that extraction of only one factor is satisfactory, confirmatory factor analysis indicated the best fit for a 3-factor structure model consisting of cognitive, affective and somatic dimensions. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis demonstrated the BDI-II to have a satisfactory diagnostic validity in differentiating between healthy and depressed individuals in this setting. The area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity and specificity were high with an optimal cut-off score of 15/16. The implications of these findings are discussed regarding the use of the BDI-II as a screening instrument in primary health care settings.     

In Pursuit of Happiness: How Some Young South African Children Construct Happiness

The purpose of the study was to explore the ways in which young South African children construct the notion of happiness. The small-scale study was conducted with children (n=42) in middle childhood between the ages of 6 and 13 years. Four fieldworkers were trained to elicit responses from young children through face-to-face, semi-structured interviews and six open-ended questions. This data collection strategy was twinned with the elicitation of graphic representations of ‘happiness’ as expressed and projected by the young children. Observations and audiotape data capturing served as secondary data sources. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed through theme analysis. Axial coding followed open coding as themes emerged. Graphic representations were analysed using basic psychological analysis techniques and then correlated with established themes from the interview data. Results from the study indicate that the participants in the study constructed ‘happiness’ predominantly in terms of relationships, recreation and the attainment of material possessions.     

Blood flow velocity changes in anterior cerebral arteries during cognitive tasks performance

Objective

Transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) enables monitoring of blood flow velocities (BFVs) in basal cerebral arteries during different cognitive tasks performance with great temporal resolution. So far, BFVs changes during mental activity were monitored primarily in middle cerebral arteries (MCAs) and little is known about these changes in anterior cerebral arteries (ACAs).

Aim

To determine the effect of different cognitive tasks performance on BFV changes and hemispheric dominance in ACAs and to assess the most suitable activation test for monitoring of BFV changes in ACAs.

Methods

Fourteen right-handed, healthy subjects aged 20–26 were included in the study. BFVs in both ACAs were recorded simultaneously during performance of cognitive tasks designed to activate frontal lobes: phonemic verbal fluency test (pVFT), Stroop tests and Trail Making Tests (TMTs).

Results

A statistically significant BFV increase was recorded in both ACAs during performance of all cognitive tasks. Statistically significant right ACA dominance was found during performance of pVFT and TMTB. The most significant BFV increase was obtained during performance of TMTB.

Conclusion

Our result addressed cognitive tests with great activation potential for monitoring of ACAs that might be used in distinguishing of healthy individuals and patients with neurovascular or neurodegenerative diseases.