Play Group Therapy with Psychotic Adolescent Girls

In this paper, by using the perspective of self psychology, we hope to illustrate and explicate (through clinical examples) the positive aspects of the pairing phenomenon in group therapy with the elderly. Traditionally subgrouping or pairing has been viewed as the “Achilles' heel of group therapy,” and usually interpreted as defensive and destructive to group process. In this paper we distinguish between those instances of pairing and subgrouping that are defensive and those that are reparatory of the self system (the latter involving twinship and alter ego selfobject transferences). These reparatory transferences may play a constructive role in establishing group cohesion and allaying primitive somatic anxieties, especially in the elderly patient.     

Where Ethics and Aesthetics Meet: Titian's Rape of Europa

Titian's Rape of Europa is highly praised for its luminous colors and sensual textures. But the painting has an overlooked dark side, namely that it eroticizes rape. I argue that this is an ethical defect that diminishes the painting aesthetically. This argument—that an artwork can be worse off qua work of art precisely because it is somehow ethically problematic—demonstrates that feminist concerns about art can play a legitimate role in art criticism and aesthetic appreciation.     

The deceleration of inappropriate comments by a natural consequence

The characters of this study were two boys in a class for pupils with learning disabilities. The subject was a nine-year-old boy who emitted certain inappropriate comments in class. The manager throughout this study was a peer of the subject.Following a period of initial assessment, which revealed that the inappropriate verbalizations occurred about twice each day, the peer-manager, contingent on each inappropriate remark, moved away from the subject to another desk. Furthermore, before he moved, he explained to the subject why he was displeased. The peer-manager, after a period of time, returned to his original location contingent on appropriate verbalizations of the subject.This technique proved effective in that the subject rarely responded inappropriately throughout the remainder of the school term. Further, it was reported that follow-up observations taken the next year, when the pupil was in a different class, revealed that the inappropriate verbalizations had not reoccurred.     

A digital system for recording startle,responses in small animals

An easily constructed, isometric startle-recording system is described. The animal enclosure is attached to a plywood board-which, in ten, is mounted in a “springboard” arrangement. Movement is detected by a phonocartridge mounted beneath the chamber, and a digital record of this movement is obtained through the use of a voltage-to-frequency converter. A brief experiment in which the system was used to assess the rat’s reaction to electric footshock is also presented.     

Qualities of reflection: using Saul’s (2001) On Equilibrium to restore humanity to reflection in healthcare

Reflection features strongly in health and care work as a tool for personal and professional development and can support us as practitioners to be critical and self-aware in practice, of practice and the impact on clients and patients. Its power to transform learning and practice, however, has been watered down through recipe-following in reflective recording and through the avoidance of recording uncertainty or practice that might not measure against professional codes. Drawing on the humanist philosophy of John Ralston Saul, I suggest using Saul’s ‘six qualities’ as themes for reflective questions. I reflect on the influence of reason through codes of practice and offer suggestions for questions to restore an awareness of Self in work with clients and patients. Finally, from my experience as a counselling student and healthcare educator, I argue that we should have a greater appreciation of the power of uncertainty in reflective recording.     

Challenging the Stubborn Core of Opposition to Equality: Racial Contact and Policy Attitudes

A Random Digit Dialing survey (n = 794) examined the interracial contact experiences and racial attitudes of White South Africans. The survey measured racial attitudes not only in terms of individuals' prejudice, but also in terms of their perceptions of group threat, perceived injustice, and support for various government policies designed to rectify the legacy of apartheid. The results indicated that the frequency and quality of interracial contact predicted Whites' support for both race compensatory and race preferential policies of redress, and these effects were partly mediated by perceived threat, sense of fairness, and racial prejudice. The research points to a potential rapprochement between the social psychological theories of intergroup contact and group positioning theories derived from the work of Blumer. It also highlights the value of adopting a more expansive and politically nuanced conception of the “consequences” of contact and desegregation.