Out of the Blue: Reflections on a Shared Trauma

Richard Almond’s paper challenges us to think deeply about the analyst’s impactful desires on the patient. My discussion considers different aspects of this impact: phallic, maternal, ethical. Specifically, I assert that Almond’s position in relation to the female patients he describes is more maternal, or “matricial,” than phallic. Chetrit-Vatine’s concept of matricial space is used to elucidate this point. Further, Almond’s paper asks us to consider seriously psychoanalysis as an ethics regarding responsibility for desire as it relates to countertransference and enactment. The specific desire I focus on is Almond’s desire for his patients’ love. Such as desire involves inherent clinical difficulties.     

Inconsistency in natural languages

An argument for Trivialism, the view that natural languages are logically inconsistent, is provided that does not rely on contentious empirical assumptions about natural language terms such as “and” or “or.” Further, the view is defended against an important objection recently mounted against it by Thomas Hofweber.     

Konflikt- und Strukturachse der Operationalisierten Psychodynamischen Diagnostik des Kindes- und Jugendalters

This paper presents the advantages of a comprehensive Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostic in childhood and adolescence (OPD-CA) for subsequent treatment planning. Information about the conflict and structural axes as a function of age, gender, diagnosis and proposed form of treatment (outpatient/inpatient) was analyzed in a group of 116 patients. Independent from the diagnosis, a similar ranking in the importance of conflicts was found. Self-esteem conflicts were more prominent for inpatient children and adolescents and identity conflicts were more prevalent in children and adolescents who were at the start of outpatient therapy. Patients with an indication for inpatient treatment had a significantly lower level in all structural dimensions. This study analyzes the reasons for these findings.     

Endovaskuläre Therapie des akuten ischämischen Schlaganfalls

Endovascular therapy of acute ischemic stroke represents a supplementary or (in cases of contraindications to systemic lysis) alternative therapy option to intravenous thrombolysis for patients with severe clinical deficits and proximal vascular obstruction. Currently, (in cases with no contraindications to systemic lysis) the combination with mechanical thrombectomy in the form of so-called stent retrievers has proven to be effective and safe. Until superiority over intravenous thrombolysis alone has been proven in certain patient groups, patients who have received endovascular therapy should be carefully documented in register-based studies.     

The Second Vatican Council 50th anniversary: visions and re-visions

On 21 November 2014, the 50th anniversary of the solemn promulgation of Lumen Gentium and Unitatis Redintegratio was celebrated. Between ‘aggiornamento’ and ‘ressourcement’ the Catholic Church had been striving to understand itself and its Tradition more precisely, in order to be newly relevant, lastingly true and authoritative in the future ? an indispensible task, if the gospel were to be proclaimed to the contemporary world, but not an easy one. It is little wonder that this completion of the Council's endeavours was preceded by its so-called ‘black week’. Questions remain as to the outcome of it all, and the articles assembled in this issue assess the reception of these two conciliar texts after 50 years. Where do the achievements lie? Where are the shortcomings? Where do questions need to be asked today that reach beyond the horizon of Vatican II?     

Web-based recruitment in the Millennial generation: Work–life balance,website usability,and organizational attraction

In this digital era, traditional recruitment efforts have increasingly been supplemented with or replaced by recruiting applicants on the Web. Concurrently, organizations are increasingly adapting to younger individuals from the Millennial generation as they enter the workforce. We combine these salient issues to examine Web-based recruitment of the Millennial generation by assessing predictors of organizational attraction. Using a sample of Millennials (N = 493), we found that perceptions of both work–life balance and website usability incrementally predicted attraction, when controlling for perceptions of other organization characteristics. In addition, person–organization fit mediated these relationships. These findings speak to the importance of examining how aspects of Web-based recruitment influence Millennial applicants.     

The distinctiveness and utility of a measure of trait emotional awareness

There has been a proliferation of new measures of individual differences in emotional processing, but too little research that evaluates the distinctiveness and utility of such measures. We critically evaluated the Level of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS), which is a measure of people's awareness of emotions in both the self and others. Across two studies, university students (N=124 and 107 for study 1 and 2, respectively) completed the LEAS, as well as a battery of personality measures and ability tests, and a mood-induction task. The LEAS was statistically distinct from a wide variety of personality measures, emotional intelligence tests, and self-report ability measures. In addition, both studies demonstrated that people high in emotional awareness were less likely than others to show mood congruent biases in their judgments (e.g. when bad moods lead to negative judgments and good moods to good judgments). The LEAS appears to be both distinctive and useful in understanding mood-relevant processes.     

Smoking onset in adolescence: a person-centered analysis with time-varying predictors.

Predictions from smoking-specific versus contextual models of smoking onset were tested with data from a 4-wave sample with 1,364 adolescents. Predictor variables were derived from stress-coping theory, social influence theory, and problem-behavior theory. In addition to groups of abstainers and experimenters, cluster analysis of smoking data indicated 3 groups who showed onset either in 7th grade (early onset), 9th grade (intermediate onset), or 10th grade (late onset). Almost all study variables discriminated the smoking groups from the abstainers. The onset groups were discriminated by Group X Time interactions showing differential changes in predictors (increases in risk factors and declines in protective factors), which occurred just prior to onset. The results generally support a contextual model of the onset process.