Phases of Organ Integration and Conflict in a Transplant Recipient: A Longitudinal Study Using a Diary

In this paper the results from a research project on self-perception and psychological processing following transplantation of solid organs are presented. A diary at the individual case level was introduced to generate a longitudinal analysis. In the following paper we describe an evaluation of the entries of a single patient following a living donor kidney transplant. Conflicts in the relationship between the transplant recipient and the donor, who is also his wife, are clearly evident, and these are interpreted as incorporation conflicts in light of current psychoanalytic theory.     

Tatcharakteristika, Rückfallrisiko und Rückfallprognose bei Sexualstraftätern vom Jugend- bis ins Seniorenalter

The basis of this study was a census of all offenses of sexual assault and sexual abuse that were reported to the Berlin police between 1994 and 1999 (N?=?2,446). The purpose was to analyse the particularities of elderly offenders (60 years or older, n?=?68) compared to the 273 juvenile and the 2,105 younger adult offenders with regard to prior offenses, index offenses and recidivism rates. Furthermore, the analysis focused on the prediction of sexual and violent reoffence by means of the static-99 within the elderly age group. The analysis showed that the rate of former sexual offence committed by seniors was comparable to the younger adults; however, sexual and non-sexual violent pre-offences were much less frequent. On the other hand, the seniors were more frequently involved in sexual abuse, their modus operandi showed lesser degrees of intensity of the sexual acts and less use of force and violence (even among sexual abusers only) and group-offence was definitely uncommon. Furthermore the rate of sexual reoffence was similar to the juvenile offenders, but lower in comparison to adult offenders younger than 60 years. A more sophisticated analysis of the age-effects on recidivism-rates confirmed the anticipation of growing risks until middle adulthood and decreasing risks of reoffence afterwards. However, an explicit trajectory of first growing and than decreasing risks in the course of aging could only be found among offenders with sexual abuse, whereas the zenith was shifted in elderly stages of age. On the other hand, among offenders with sexual assaults, the risks of sexual reoffending seemed rather similar until the middle adulthood and increasingly lower in later stages. In spite of these aging-effects and the particularities of the elderly sexual offenders, the static-99 predicted sexual reoffence among the senior offenders quite well and there was no difference in comparison with the total sample.     

Conditioning in the prediction of therapeutic outcome in depressions

Predictions of clinical responsiveness to tricyclic anti-depressants were studied in 25 depressed patients. A well-preserved external inhibition at the commencement of treatment was found to be the best single indicator of therapeutic success.     

A multi-dimensional model for treating families that have survived mother assault

This paper offers a multidimensional family systems approach to treating children and their mothers in families who have survived violence and are in father-absent families. The model incorporates theoretical and clinical ideas from the child witness-to-violence field, the field of traumatic stress, and from feminist thinking. Three areas of intervention are detailed.The authors gratefully acknowledge the suggestions of the reviewers.     

Religious Perspectives on the Use of Psychopharmaceuticals as an Enhancement Technology

The use of psychopharmaceuticals as an enhancement technology has been the focus of attention in the bioethics literature. However, there has been little examination of the challenges that this practice creates for religious traditions that place importance on questions of being, authenticity, and identity. We asked expert commentators from six major world religions to consider the issues raised by psychopharmaceuticals as an enhancement technology. These commentaries reveal that in assessing the appropriate place of medical therapies, religious traditions, like secular perspectives, rely upon ideas about health and disease and about normal human behavior. But unlike secular perspectives, faith traditions explicitly concern themselves with ways in which medicine should or should not be used to live a “good life”.