Remarriage after divorce: dissolution and reconstruction of family boundaries.

Remarriage is analyzed from the perspective of family boundaries and roles. The nuclear and remarriage family models are compared, and the process that begins with the formation of the first-marriage nuclear family and ends with the formation of a second-marriage family is conceptualized in terms of changing family boundaries and roles. Discussions with remarriage group members provide concrete illustrations of this process and suggest solutions to some of the problems confronting remarriage family members.     

The drama of the gifted child and the psycho-analyst's narcissistic disturbance.

In order to develop a true self, the child needs, in the first weeks and months of his life, his mother's appropriate emotional response, mirroring and respect. These narcissistic aspects have to be distinguished from the drive wishes. Only the mother's appropriate responses make it possible for the child to experience his feelings as belonging to his own self. If the child does not get the right narcissistic response, he will continue to search for narcissistic supplies for the rest of his life. The most suitable objects for this will be his own children initially, who are completely at his disposal. Specially gifted children who are sensitive, alert and have many 'antennae', will quickly learn to adapt to the narcissistic needs of their parents. Their behaviour will then give the mother all the mirroring, consideration and admiration which she had missed as a child herself. The result will be that, in spite of excellent performance, the child's own true self cannot develop. All this leads to narcissistic vulnerability and to new attempts in the adult to find at last an available 'mother' in his own child, partner, or, if he has become a psycho-analyst, in his patient. In the transference this type of analysand first experiences narcissistic rage before deep mourning is possible. This process of mourning enables him finally to accept his own deprivation as a child, to give up the unconscious idealizations and with them the hope of finding such a 'mother'. This leads regularly to the liberation of the life forces and allows creativity to develop. Only after this has been achieved is the analysis of drive conflicts possible and becomes emotionally effective.     

Evaluation of infant vocal conditioning.

The use of the operant conditioning paradigm, as it has been applied to infant social, vocal behavior, reflects a failure to take into account the social nature of human infants over and above the rigid theoretical rationale of the paradigm. It is argued that: (1) the baseline procedure used in operant conditioning studies is methodologically and conceptually invalid; (2) the reinforcing stimulus used in social conditioning studies elicits the very response that it is assigned to reinforce; and (3) the effect of the response-reinforcer relationship is not the reinforcement (strengthening) of vocal response rate.     

Imaging,empathy, and causal attribution

Three studies were conducted to test whether imagery accounts for the effects of empathy on attributions, that is, whether attributers construct and scan a mental image of social scenarios the same way that actual participants scan a real environment. According to this interpretation, attributers “see” the world as the participant does and make vicarious attributions. An alternative interpretation holds that subjects base vicarious attributions on recreating the motivations and affect of the actor, so that imaging is irrelevant to empathy and attributions. In the first study, subjects who imagined a story from the perspective of a particular character later showed differential recall of story details as a function of role, but not differential attributions. In Experiment 2, role-taking subjects showed clear effects of imaged perspective on recall for story details, but no effects on attributions of causality for an accident. Further, recall and attribution were uncorrelated. In the last study, empathy and imagery role-taking instructions produced independent effects: imagers showed pronounced perspective-relevant recall and empathizers did not. Neither showed unambiguous vicarious attributions. Recall and attribution were again uncorrelated. These studies suggest that the imagery explanation of empathy effects is untenable, and imply that the recall of perspective-relevant details is unlikely to mediate attributions of causality in imaginary scenarios.     

Psychomotor reminiscence as a function of sex and length of rest period

Sex differences in psychomotor reminiscence were examined as a function of the length of the rest period. Five groups of Caucasian subjects, each group consisting of 12 males and 12 females, practiced continuously for 3 min on a mirror-tracking task, then rested for 0,1, 2, 4, or 8 min before resuming continuous practice. Reminiscence in both sexes increased as negatively accelerated functions of the amount of rest. The asymptotic level of reminiscence was higher for females than for males, but the quadratic slopes of the two functions were essentially alike. Analyses of prerest trial gains supported a conclusion that females reminisced more because they accumulated more reactive inhibition prior to rest.     

Hereditary and psychosocial causes of schizophrenia

On the basis of the examination of patients with endogenic psychosis, indications were obtained that there are forms that mainly develop on a hereditary basis, and forms determined by psychosocial causes. In unsystematic schizophrenia the chief factors are hereditary, above all in periodic catatonia. On the other hand, there are a few indications of a hereditary genesis in systematic schizophrenia although it is just these forms that are distinguished by the severity of their course. By studying twins, cases of schizophrenia in infancy, and the circumstances of brothers and sisters, strong indications of psychosocial causes of systematic schizophrenia were found. Lack of contacts in the course of development appears to the determing factor. In motility psychosis, one of the cycloid psychoses, indications were found that excessive encouragement by other children can be a cause of overstrain and thus may be detrimental. The conclusions drawn are based on concrete findings obtained in a total of 1,114 cases and are for the most part statistically significant.     

Some problems of Wilson's disease

The Leipzig Center for Wilson's Disease in the GDR is charged with the registration and diagnosis of all homozygous Wilson gene carriers, the clarification of all suspected cases, including the heterozygote test, and the co-ordination of long-term treatment. At present, there are 78 recorded Wilson gene carriers living. On the basis of our own comprehensive observations and investigations over prolonged periods of time, questions concerning pathogenesis, genetics, diagnosis and therapeutic measures, including their side-effects, are dealt with.     

Treatment of handwriting problems utilizing EMG biofeedback training.

The effects of EMG biofeedback training on cursive handwriting were investigated for 4 girls and 5 boys in Grade 4. A significant reduction in EMG between the first baseline session and the last training session was obtained. Four of 5 characteristics of handwriting improved significantly. The need for carefully designed research comparing EMG biofeedback training and relaxation training was indicated. A self-control factor in handwriting was hypothesized.     

Hyperactivity and related behavioral characteristics in a sample of learning disabled children.

64 learning disabled and 12 minimal brain-damaged children were evaluated by their teachers on 11 categories of behavior. Analysis showed that behavioral characteristics associated with hyperactivity did not differentiate among subjects. Teachers rated poor motor coordination as the outstanding trait of this sample.