Family Etiology and Remission in a Case of Psychogenic Fugue

A psychogenic fugue lasting six days occurred in a 15-year-old girl living with her mother, sister, and stepfather. The fugue was of the most complete type — the patient assumed a new identity; spoke a foreign language she had studied in school; “regressed” to an earlier period in history; radically altered her dress and grooming; and showed skills, interests, and personality features she had not shown before. Although accounts of fugues are rare and often sketchy, the present case is unique in the amount of detail that was available. The argument between situational and psychodynamic interpretations of fugue is reviewed briefly, and a family systems interpretation of the present case is offered.     

Teaching Interpersonal Communication to Troubled Families

Assumptions family members make about each other exert considerable influence on communication in families. Rigidly held assumptions restrict the flow of information, reinforcing counterproductive behavioral patterns. Combining psychoanalytic and structural components, this paper offers a new approach to family intervention that addresses itself to the exchange of information within troubled families. Groups of families convene for a series of camping weekends. The shared life experience in a recreational setting plus the use of a teaching model help family members to break through rigid conceptualizations of themselves and others. In following the observational model, which slows down and fosters reciprocation in communication, family members pursue the following steps: (a) observe each other; (b) compare notes with a co-observer; (c) share observations with those observed; and (d) receive feedback from the observed.     

Controlled Substance‐related Beliefs and Use: Relationships to Undergraduates' Creative Personality Traits

The relationship between creativity and various mind‐altering substances — especially alcohol — has been a popular topic among creativity researchers and the public at large. Yet experimental studies have found little evidence that alcohol use has a causal influence on creativity, with most studies of creative production showing negative or neutral effects. However, the impact of high levels of creativity on future alcohol use (i.e., the reciprocal relationship) has been rarely studied. The present study examined the relationship between creative personality characteristics, use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana, and alcohol‐related beliefs among 431 undergraduates. Results of correlational and t‐test analyses suggest that creative personality is not significantly correlated with use of these three controlled substances, and that the relationships between personality scores and self‐reported beliefs about alcohol are generally weak, with notable exceptions. The paper concludes with specific recommendations regarding research on the relationship between creativity and the use of controlled‐substances.     

Working through the end of civilization

This is an account of how a civilization works through the problems it faces when it is threatened with destruction. It focuses on the example of the Crow Nation, an Indian tribe of the northwest plains of North America, and their last great chief Plenty Coups. Psychoanalytic ideas play a crucial role in explaining how a creative response was possible. In particular, their collective use of dream-visions and dream-interpretation made possible the creation of a new ego ideal for the tribe. This allowed for the transformation of traditional allocations of shame and humiliation. It also allowed for the possibility of transformation of psychological structure. And it opened up new possibilities for what might count as flourishing as a Crow. Conversely, the threat of civilizational collapse allows us to see new possibilities for the conceptual development of psychoanalysis. In particular, psychoanalysis needs to recognize that destruction can occur at the level of the culture while the individuals are not physically harmed. The psychological states of these individuals can be various and complex and cannot be neatly summed up under the category of trauma. A culture can be devastated, while there is no one-to-one relation to the psychological states of the individuals who participate in that culture. It is also true that a collapse of a way of life makes a variety of psychological states impossible. Coming to understand these phenomena is essential to understanding how a culture works through threats to its very existence.     

Creativity Through a Lens of Social Responsibility: Implicit Theories of Creativity with Korean Samples

Implicit theories of creativity have been the subject of increased research interest in recent years. These investigations are motivated by the observation that an individual's creative activities are guided by personal definitions rather than professional theories, which may be very different. Cross-cultural studies of implicit creativity theories are rare, yet they can add significantly to our knowledge of how creativity is viewed across cultures. The nature of 428 Koreans' implicit creativity theories were identified in a prestudy, and the structure of 478 Koreans' ratings of the indicated behaviors was analyzed in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, 211 participants evaluated the creativity of 44 hypothetical profiles based on the results of the first experiment. Results provide evidence that Korean conceptions of creativity are similar to Western conceptions, although Koreans may emphasize negative behaviors and personality characteristics (e.g., deviance) to a greater degree. When asked to use their implicit theories to evaluate the creativity of hypothetical profiles, Korean adults strongly emphasized specific cognitive, personality, and motivational aspects of creativity over noncognitive aspects (e.g., perseverance, independence).