Consumers,physicians, and payors: A triad of conflicting interests

The dynamic changes in American health care are significiantly deeper than technological advancement alone. Consumers, physicians, and third party payors are all assuming new roles in the system. The balance of medical control is radically shifting. Unless the three parties come together in a mutual partnership, needed improvements will not occur and what is currently good in the system will be lost. The key to this important partnership is the consumer.     

A Decade of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings: The Short Longer View

The progress and accomplishments of psychology in medical settings over the past decade since the publication of the Handbook of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings (J. J. Sweet, R. H. Rozensky, & S. M. Tovian, 1991) and the subsequent founding of the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings (JCPMS) in 1994 are highlighted. Areas of progress and accomplishments reviewed include professional developments with our field, roles and services provided by psychologists, education, training and research issues, and program administration in medical settings. The current status of, and possible changes in, medical settings is identified. Future challenges and opportunities for the profession are discussed.     

How much of a loss is the loss of self? Understanding Vygotsky from a social therapeutic perspective and vice versa

Using the example of Fred Newman’s social therapy, a methodology that works with the human capability of growing as social units, the contemporary self is explored as an impediment to human development and learning. Following Karl Marx in political philosophy and Lev Vygotsky in child psychology, it is the group/the collective/the mass that engages in developmental activity. In losing the self, we gain the opportunity to create collectivity and in that process come to sense the social-relational-collective quality of creativity and development. By getting rid of the self, we are more able to see the group, which is—developmentally speaking—the important unit of study. In this article I share the role that Marx, Vygotsky and Ludwig Wittgenstein played in the creation of this understanding and critical practice.     

Two Careers, One Employer: Couples Working for the Same Corporation

Advances in career development research require scholars to move from analysis of the career paths of individuals to a life course approach to the interlocking career paths of couples. Increasingly, not only are U.S. workers married to other workers, but significant numbers of couples work for the same employer. Drawing on a subsample of employees in dual-earner households in five corporations in upstate New York (and their spouses), this study examines both the direct and indirect effects of being a coworker on career development, work circumstances, and spillover. Being part of a coworking couple positively predicts men's job prestige, tenure, and commitment to work (in terms of working long hours, heavy workload, etc.). These effects, as well as spillover, are most pronounced for younger men without children. For wives, coworking corresponds with increased income and increased spillover between work and family, especially for younger coworking women without children.     

Postmodernizing the Unconscious with the Help of Derrida and Lyotard

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -