Collective Trauma,Implicit Memories,the Body,and Active Imagination in Jungian Analysis1

This presentation attempts to show the healing potential underlying the inclusion of the patient's body in the analytic process, while honouring and revisiting the understanding of the psyche-body connection described by Jung in his early work. In addition, the author offers reflections on the impact of collective trauma whose aftermath, among others, has been the disappearance of thousands of people, consequently breaking the family genealogy, leaving hundreds of children stripped of their roots and true identity. Referencing clinical material, the author describes how the process of translation and integration—from the sensory-perceptual to the conceptual-symbolic—can be halted on account of collective trauma occurring at an early stage in development. Moreover, it is shown how the potential of the archetype or image schema, linked to the somatic-affective early experiences encoded as implicit memories, can be recovered, when Embodied Active Imagination is included in the analytic work. The patient's bodily gestures and somatic experience may bridge the gap between the preverbal-implicit knowledge and the emergence of emotions and images that allow for the creation of a new symbolic narrative.     

The associations of cultural worldviews,political orientation,and trust with COVID-19 risk beliefs in the U.S.

Given that risk beliefs predict engagement in behaviors to prevent disease, it is important to understand the factors associated with risk beliefs. In the present paper, we conducted path analyses to investigate the associations of belief systems (political orientation and cultural worldviews of individualism and hierarchy) with COVID-19 risk beliefs (i.e., perceived likelihood, perceived severity, and worry about disease; Studies 1 and 2), and the indirect effect through trust in information sources in these relationships (Study 1). Two online panels of U.S. adults were surveyed at three timepoints during the COVID-19 pandemic (Study 1: baseline n = 1,667, 1-year follow-up n = 551; Study 2: n = 404). Results of path analyses indicated that, across studies and timepoints, when controlling for political orientation, trust, and demographic factors, greater individualism had consistent significant direct effects on lower perceived severity and worry about COVID-19, whereas greater hierarchy had consistent significant direct effects on lower perceived severity. However, after accounting for cultural worldviews of individualism and hierarchy (and trust and demographic factors), none of the associations among political orientation and any of the three COVID-19 risk beliefs were significant. The test of indirect effects indicated that individualism and hierarchy were indirectly associated with lower perceived severity of and worry about COVID-19 through less trust. The findings suggest that cultural worldviews of individualism and hierarchy play a role in shaping people's risk beliefs.     

Meta-analytic studies of leadership: Added insights or added paradoxes?

This research examines the extent to which meta-analysis of leadership research fulfills its promise to bring order into a body of literature characterized by inconsistent, equivocal findings. Manual and computer searches yielded 14 meta-analyses which clustered around the following leadership topics: (1) theories of leadership (n=7); (2) leadership in small groups (n=2); and gender differences in leadership (n=5). In all three categories, the results of the meta-analyses were as inconsistent as those of primary research. Differences in the types of meta-analystic techniques used, differences in judgment calls including decisions defining the research domain, establishing criteria for inclusion of studies, coding characteristics and selection of potential moderators are, at least in part, responsible for the differences observed. In addition, areas of leadership research which have produced sizable bodies of empirical studies such as the effects of power on leadership outcomes, leader effectiveness as well as the effects of leadership competencies and leadership contexts on leader-follower relations have not been subjected to statistical aggregation and summarization of results across studies. Recommendations for improving the quality of meta-analytic research on leadership are offered.     

Semantic emphasis in causal sentences

A shift in emphasis can change the truth-value of a singular causal sentence. This poses a challenge to the view that singular sentences predicate a relation. I argue that emphasized causal sentences conjoin predication of a causal relation between events with predication of a relation of causal relevance between states of affairs (or perhaps facts). This is superior to the treatments of such sentences offered by Achinstein, Dretske, Kim, Sanford, Bennett, and Levin. My proposal affords clarity regarding logical structure, at least at a certain level of detail. It makes the relation between the content of an emphasized causal sentence and the unemphasized version clear. It answers some questions about the ontological requirements of the truth of emphasized causal sentences, without introducing new entities (as do some other accounts) or unacceptable consequences for identity and individuation of events.     

Maternal aggression: disruption by perioral anesthesia in lactating Long-Evans rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Role of perioral somatosensation in the display of maternal aggression in Long-Evans Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) was investigated during early lactation by local anesthesia of the mystacial pads with lidocaine, which blocks conduction in the infraorbital nerve. Acute perioral anesthesia markedly reduced the likelihood that maternal aggression was expressed; this effect of perioral anesthesia was not ameliorated by a repeated test with the same treatment or by pretreatment fighting experience. The dams that fought with the intruder during perioral anesthesia did so after greatly increased sniffing contact and with decreased vigor compared with controls. Males that were attacked tended to freeze, whereas males that were not attacked were active. Thus, trigeminal afferents are critical for the initiation and normal execution of maternal aggression responses in Norway rats.     

The lost e-mail method: Milgram’s lost-letter technique in the age of the Internet

We examined Milgram’s (1977) lost-letter technique using e-mail. In the first experiment, 79 college faculty received mock lost e-mail messages. Nineteen percent of those who received the messages responded, in all cases by returning the message to the “sender” instead of forwarding it to the “recipient.” In the second study, attitudes toward presidential candidate Ross Perot were examined by sending out two different messages to 200 randomly selected e-mail addresses in the United States. Although there was no differential response rate, examination of content revealed attitudes consistent with concurrent poll data.     

Combating business crime in Sweden: A performance audit

This article describes an extensive audit of the work of government agencies against business crime in Sweden, as an example of a performance evaluation by an auditing institution. Business crime was shown to be a major and growing social problem. Manifold measures are required, and these must be directed and coordinated by the Government and the Riksdag. The cooperation of the commercial sector is also needed. The investigation was made by the Parliamentary Auditors of Sweden, which is the smaller of the two auditing institutions in the country. The method used in the investigation can be described as an “interactive” one. The intention was to create a thorough understanding of the issue and a shared approach to the problem. This aim seems to have been achieved to a great extent. Karin Rudberg is one of the audit directors at the Office of the Parliamentary Auditors of Sweden. She is an eonomist with experience in investigations of many different fields, such as restructuring government agencies, evaluation of energy research policies, and analyses of the Swedish industrial structure and labor market.     

Attentional bias to threat: Roles of trait anxiety, stressful events, and awareness

Attentional biases for threat stimuli were assessed in high and low trait anxious subjects (n = 66) using a probe detection task. To examine the effects of trait anxiety and situational stressors, each subject was tested three times: Under no stress, laboratory-induced stress, and examination-induced stress. To evaluate the role of awareness, half the word stimuli were presented very briefly (14 msec) and masked, and the other half were presented for 500 msec without a mask. Results showed that high trait anxious subjects under exam stress showed an attentional bias towards unmasked threat stimuli compared with low trait subjects. This effect was not found under lab-induced stress, suggesting that the attentional bias for unmasked threat in high trait subjects may be a function of a prolonged stressor, rather than a transient increase in state anxiety. The results from the masked exposure condition were not predicted; high trait anxious subjects shifted attention towards the spatial location of threat words despite lack of awareness of their lexical content, but this bias was only apparent in the no-stress condition. The results are discussed in relation to recent cognitive theories of anxiety.     

Sensorimotor synchronization: Motor responses to pseudoregular auditory patterns

Musically trained and untrained subjects (N=30) were asked to synchronize their finger tapping with stimuli in auditory patterns. Each pattern comprised six successive tonal stimuli of the same duration, the first of which was accented by a different frequency. The duration of interstimulus onset intervals (ISIs) gradually increased or decreased in constant steps toward the end of the patterns. Four values of such steps were used in different trials: 20, 30, 45, and 60 msec. Various time-control mechanisms are hypothesized as being simultaneously responsible for subjects’ incorrect reproduction of the internal temporal ratios of the stimulus patterns. The mechanism of assimilation (of a central tendency) led subjects to enforce a regular (isochronous) structure on the patterns. The influence of other time-control mechanisms (distinction, subjective expression of an accent, sequential transfer) was expressed mainly in differences between intertap onset intervals (ITIs) and the corresponding ISIs at the beginning of the patterns. The duration of the first two ITIs was in the majority of the trials in an inverse ratio to the ratio of the respective ISIs. The distortions resulting from the timing mechanisms concerned were more pronounced in the performance of nonmusicians than in that of musicians.