The waiting room as boundary and bridge between self-States and unformulated experience

For both patient and analyst, the waiting room serves containing and expressive functions. The waiting room may serve as both a boundary between the analytic couple and a bridge to engagement. At times it can provide a means of titrating the intensity and duration of the affects activated by immersion in the analytic process: it can also serve to extend the boundaries of the analytic frame by providing a holding environment to facilitate metabolizing the impact of comings and goings. It also may be viewed as a membrane between self-states through which oscillating facets of dissociated or unformulated experience are enacted. Clinical material from the analysis of an adolescent girl illustrates these ideas.     

How Group Analysis Cures: An Exploration of Narcissistic Rage in Group Treatment

This paper addresses the use of group analysis in treating individuals for whom chronic narcissistic rage is a prominent feature of their character. Such individuals are often especially suspicious of participating in group experiences, as their sensitivity to slight and circumscribed empathy for others often leaves them vulnerable to being attacked and ostracized in groups. Their history often reveals experiences in which they were either the scapegoat of the family or of the playground, often both. Such individuals, however, may also long for inclusion and acceptance, and thus participation in a therapeutic group may be a particularly important part of their continued development. An extended clinical vignette illustrates how such work occurs within a therapeutic group using a self-psychological model. Narcissistic rage as manifested within the group-as-a-whole or groupself is also examined.     

Reflections on Preparing the Group Leader for an Analytic Perspective

Preparation of group therapists for an analytic perspective involves awareness of unconscious processes at the group and individual levels. The adequately prepared group leader should have familiarity with dream interpretation and group-as-a-whole transferences. Training in the use of long-term treatment methods is useful whether or not the practitioner uses these methods in actual practice. The ideal training program would include didactic seminars, weekly supervision, the experience of conducting a long-term (at least two years) therapy group, as well as personal analytic group therapy. Previous individual analytic therapy is also encouraged.     

BRCA1 testing and informed consent in a woman with mild retardation

Cancer predisposition testing can pose complex genetic counseling issues. This casereport discusses whether it is appropriate to provide BRCA1 testing to a woman withlimited intellectual capacity and documented psychological distress. This case is one ofseveral cancer counseling cases presented to our Genetic Counseling Supervision Groupover the past three and a half years. The Supervision Group provided valuable feedback and supportto proceed with this challenging case.     

DNA-sequence patenting: National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) position paper

In November 2000, the Genetic Services Committee of the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) convened a working group to draft a position paper on patenting of DNA-sequences. The mandate of the group was to produce general position statements that support the perspective and needs of consumers of DNA-based genetic tests and therapies (our patients and their families) and participants in DNA-based genetic research. After review and discussion of the literature on DNA-sequence patenting issues, the working group drafted position statement points that support current United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) guidelines; broad licensing of DNA-sequence patents; nonenforcement of DNA-sequence patents in noncommercial research; reasonable royalty rates; an informed consent process for research participants that discloses whether they can share in any financial rewards relating to the project; the development of guidelines for licensing of DNA-sequence patents; and the establishment of oversight organizations to monitor licensing of DNA-sequence patents. These position statements were approved by the NSGC Board of Directors in the fall of 2001.     

Phases of Group Development: A View from Self Psychology

This paper delineates four phases of group development from the standpoint of self psychological theory. The author contends that a stable sense of groupself develops over time and that the groupself has a distinct number of phases, each of which has a therapeutic impact on members. The individual patient's selfobject experiences include a relationship to the group-as-a-whole, a transference state of which the leader is but one part. Thus, rather than dilute the transference, group analysis offers a unique opportunity to help the individual experience him or herself within a selfobject matrix that extends beyond the dyad. Group analysis leads to a strengthening of the self, especially as it enables the self to experience itself as part of a group identity, which provides alter-ego selfobject experiences, as well as a sense of acceptance within a larger community. This paper attempts to clarify how different selfobject experiences may be highlighted within the groupself at different stages of group development.     

Validation,Persuasion and Recycling: Capitalizing on the Social Ecology of Newspaper Use

Two experiments used clinical validation to increase scrutiny of messages posted in public settings. The first experiment used a 2 (validation: no/yes) × 2 (persuasion: none/"it is important") factorial design to develop messages about newspaper recycling. The prompt (no validation/no persuasion) had little impact on newspaper recycling, but the other 3 signs all resulted in increased recycling while the signs were in place. After signs were removed, recycling remained significantly higher than baseline (marginally significant for validation/persuasion). At the end of the study, number of cognitions favoring recycling was significantly higher in the validation-only condition and was lower in the validation/persuasion condition. Experiment 2 tested whether signs would have more impact if they were sensitive to the social ecology of newspaper recycling; that is, readers' tendency to leave newspapers behind so others may read them. Messages based on a 2 (message: validation-only/validation plus persuasion) × 2 (ecology: no social ecology/social ecology) factorial design supported social ecology's importance. Furthermore, because of the increased sharing in the social ecology conditions, total numbers of newspapers used was significantly lower in those buildings. Validation only yielded sustained behavior change in both Experiments 1 and 2, supporting additional research on the question of whether validation can, by itself, lead to cognitive elaboration and self-persuasion.