Neurocognitive deficits related to poor decision making in people behind bars

Using a novel quantitative model of repeated choice behavior, we investigated the cognitive processes of criminal offenders incarcerated for various crimes. Eighty-one criminals, including violent offenders, drug and sex offenders, drivers operating a vehicle while impaired, and 18 matched controls were tested. The results were also contrasted with those obtained from neurological patients with focal brain lesions in the orbitofrontal cortex and from drug abusers. Participants performed the computerized version of the Iowa gambling task (Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994), and the results were decomposed into specific component processes, using the expectancy valence model (Busemeyer & Stout, 2002). The findings indicated that whereas all the criminal groups tended to select disadvantageously, the cognitive profiles exhibited by different groups were considerably different. Certain subpopulations--most significantly, drug and sex offenders--overweighted potential gains as compared with losses, similar to chronic cocaine abusers. In contrast, assault/murder criminals tended to make less consistent choices and to focus on immediate outcomes and, in these respects, weremore similar to patients with orbitofrontal damage. The present cognitive model provides a novel way for building a bridge between cognitive neuroscience and complex human behaviors.     

Little Hans and the thought police: the 'policeman fantasies' as the first reported supervisory transference fantasies

The ‘policeman fantasies’ in Freud ’s case of Little Hans, famous for being Freud ’s most direct evidence for specifically sexual oedipal desire by Hans for his mother, are reconsidered. The Hans case is the first recorded instance of psychoanalytic supervision, and recent studies suggest that it is common for patients in supervised treatment to experience fantasies about the supervisor. It is argued that the policeman fantasies are the first recorded instances of such transference fantasies about psychoanalytic supervision and the patient–therapist–supervisor triangle. The explanatory power of this interpretation is supported by the nuances of the features of the fantasies themselves, as well as by the context in which they occurred that might serve as ‘day residues’. Moreover, this interpretation provides an answer to the central mystery of the two fantasies, which goes unaddressed by Freud ’s oedipal interpretation: Who is the policeman?     

PHILIP HEFNER AND THE MODERNIST/POSTMODERNIST DIVIDE

Abstract Philip Hefner is part of neither the dominant Western paradigm nor the usual postmodernist reaction against it. He belongs within an Anglo‐American viewpoint that also is within neither the dominant Western nor the postmodernist paradigm. Herein I sketch the differences between these paradigms. I elaborate Hefner's theology of the created co‐creator to show where Hefner constrasts with them and then contrast his ideas with those of two contemporary theologians who fit into the second paradigm, George Lindbeck and Mark C. Taylor.     

Extinction and spontaneous recovery of a conditioned flavor preference based on calories

After rats were conditioned to prefer a flavor (CS+) paired with sucrose over another flavor (CS−) paired with saccharin, this conditioned flavor preference was extinguished by presenting the CS+ flavor without sucrose. These results were replicated in a second experiment in which spontaneous recovery of the extinguished flavor preference was demonstrated 7, 14, and 21 days after the extinction test. This is the first clear demonstration of the extinction and spontaneous recovery of a conditioned flavor preference based on calories. The implications of these results for our understanding of the mechanism underlying the conditioning of flavor preferences are explored.     

Ethical Dilemmas in Multicultural Counseling

In a random survey of counselors working with socioracial minority clients (N = 256), multicultural ethical dilemmas were rated according to frequency encountered and significance. Comparisons of counselors' ratings of multicultural ethical dilemmas determined specific dilemmas relevant to counselors in various professional settings. En una encuesta hecha al azar de consejeros/as que trabajan con clientes de minorías socioraciales (N = 256), se clasificaron dilemas éticos multiculturales de acuderdo con su frecuencia y significancia. Las comparaciones de las clasificaciones de los dilemas éticos multiculturales subrayaron aquellos dilemas específicamente importantes para consejeros/as en varios escenarios profesionales.     

Should Psychoanalysis Become a Science?

I wish to formulate in broad outline an approach to the conceptualization of psychoanalysis that is divested from theory. This view sees the core of psychoanalysis as a humanistic practice, first and foremost guided by the individuality of the dyadic encounter, rather than as a science. I will not argue for any particular view of psychoanalysis. Instead I marshal a series of considerations from the humanities, to frame a conceptualization of psychoanalysis as a clinically based interpretive discipline having a unique mission. Finally, I will present a futuristic hypothetical scenario whose aim is to show why psychoanalysis will remain a viable enterprise basically as conceived by Freud.     

Pick up the baby (or dire consequences will ensue)!

Abstract

Decades of psychoanalytic developmental studies on children one year of age and under point to the need for maternal soothing when the infant is crying. Contrary to behavioral theorists who recommend letting the infant “cry it out,” data from analytically informed researchers of very different orientations converge on the conclusion that rocking, feeding, and/or verbal soothing by the mothering figure are requisite to set the stage for good mental health during the rest of the child’s development.     

Individual differences in the response to forgone payoffs: an examination of high functioning drug abusers

This study evaluates the effect of forgone payoffs in decision‐making tasks used for studying individual differences. We investigate whether the disclosure of forgone payoffs (defined as payoffs associated with un‐chosen alternatives) has selective effects for drug abusers. Evidence suggests that drug abusers are hypersensitive to signals of positive reward. Accordingly, because the forgone payoffs of risky high‐variability options include rewarding outcomes, this may create a distraction and lead drug abusers to make more risky choices. In a controlled experiment, we examined the behavior of high‐functioning drug abusers and healthy controls using the Iowa gambling task. The results showed that in a forgone payoff condition, drug abusers made more risky choices. The results demonstrate that adding information about forgone payoffs can be useful for studying individual differences, and that studying individual differences can be valuable in evaluating the effects of forgone payoffs. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unwitting self-disclosures in psychodynamic psychotherapy: deciphering their meaning and accessing the pain within

Unwitting self-disclosures (USDs), unconscious yet observable parts of personality, are often behavioral relics of past suffering and, as such, constitute valuable though frequently underutilized clinical information. While ego-syntonic aspects of personality can be commented on with impunity, dealing therapeutically with patients' USDs--manifestations of their blind spots--requires sensitivity, empathy, and timing. Providing many clinical examples of patient and therapist USDs from individual and group psychotherapy, this report discusses the origins, possible meanings, and the countertransference and empathic challenges encountered in the handling of these blind spots. The importance of establishing a narcissistic alliance and of employing the methods of the existential school of psychotherapy in processing USDs is described. Self-aware therapists can minimize the clinical impasse that may result when therapist-patient blind spots overlap.