Short-term psychodynamic intervention in an urban health clinic: A case report

This paper describes the application of short-term dynamic therapeutic techniques to treat both symptom disturbance and character pathology in an urban mental health clinic. Short-Term dynamic psychotherapy focuses extensively on the subjectivity and inner life of the patient with emphasis on repressed anger, sadness and desire. Methods to overcome patient ambivalence and resistance to psychotherapy are presented. The clinical psychodynamics associated with early life trauma are illustrated with a case of an African-American patient.Acknowledgments for support & critical feedback are expressed to Christine Baker, Ph.D., John Swanson, ACSW, Duncan Walton, Ph.D., and Isabelle Beveridge (Graphics).     

The effect of motor preparation on changes in h reflex amplitude during the response latency of a warned reaction time task

Monosynaptic Hoffman reflexes (H reflexes) were recorded from the soleus muscle during the response latency of a warned reaction time (RT) task that required plantarflexion of the foot. The task was done under four conditions of predictability of the response signal (RS), created by the factorial combination of foreperiod duration (1 and 4 s) and variability (fixed and variable). RT varied systematically with RS predictability and was facilitated in conditions that favored prediction of the RS. The response latency was divided into two successive phases by the onset of reflex augmentation: a premotor phase of constant reflex amplitude and a succeeding motor phase marked by progressively increasing reflex amplitude. Reflex augmentation during the motor phase was coupled more closely to the imminent movement than to the preceding signal to respond. The duration of the premotor phase was unaffected by RS predictability, but the duration of the motor phase (like RT) was shorter when the RS was more predictable. The maximum H reflex amplitude reached during the motor phase was greater when the RS was more predictable. The tonic level of H reflex amplitude during the premotor phase was greater in conditions that made prediction of the RS difficult. A second experiment showed that this difference was present throughout the foreperiod. These results suggest that conditions that favor prediction of the RS enhance motor preparation. changes in motor preparation (which affect RT) affect the processes underlying reflex amplitudes in the premotor phase and throughout the preceding foreperiod, in conditions that make prediction of the RS difficult, appear to reflect heightened general arousal.     

Grading the ‘cultural literacy’ project

The essay examines the argument advanced by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., for instituting ‘cultural literacy’ as a fundamental priority of schools. A number of confusions and equivocations in Hirsch's reasoning are identified, and the propensity of his project to indoctrinate is exposed. Among the features of Hirsch's argument shown to be troubling are his shifting construal of ‘language’, his inconsistency about the requirements of cultural literacy, and his uncritical relation to traditional images of the American past and present. The upshot is to raise the question why Hirsch's project has elicited wide support and praise.     

Harming future people

Hanser examines Derek Parfit's contention in his treatise on rationalism, Reasons and Persons (Oxford University Press; 1984) that acts that are not reproductive in nature can nonetheless predictably affect the identities of future people, and that this fact has unexpected and important consequences for ethical theory. Hanser argues tht this fact is not as significant as Parfit believes it to be. The arguments of both scholars concern the morality of choices that, while causing future persons to be badly off, do not make them worse off than they would have been if the choices had not been made. Hanser concludes his essay with a discussion of responsibility for acts that will affect the health of future offspring.     

Do substance abuse and mental health clients prefer automated assessments?

In both psychiatric and substance-abuse services, clinicians have been concerned with the introduction of automated assessments and with their clients’ reactions toward those assessments. The positive reactions of psychiatric clients have been well documented, but little has been known about substance-abusing clients’ impressions of automated assessments. The impact of automated assessment on clients seeking substance-abuse services was evaluated and compared with a previously analyzed sample of clients seeking mental health services. On the whole, both groups responded similarly and positively to automated assessments. Factor analyses revealed three underlying dimensions in client attitudes toward automated assessment,Completeness and satisfaction,Ease of use and enjoyment, andNegative attitudes. In addition, statistically, though not clinically, significant differences in attitudes were found between various demographic groups. Overall, the results support the use of automated assessments with individuals seeking either substance-abuse or mental-health services.     

Clinical pragmatism: a method of moral problem solving

This paper presents a method of moral problem solving in clinical practice that is inspired by the philosophy of John Dewey. This method, called "clinical pragmatism," integrates clinical and ethical decision making. Clinical pragmatism focuses on the interpersonal processes of assessment and consensus formation as well as the ethical analysis of relevant moral considerations. The steps in this method are delineated and then illustrated through a detailed case study. The implications of clinical pragmatism for the use of principles in moral problem solving are discussed.     

Referenzsemantik in der Partnermodellierung

How can we explain that an assertion on something perceived can be understood in the same manner by somebody who cannot perceive that scene? This problem bases the interest in computational linguistics in how listener modeling could possibly be harmonized with reference semantics. Mental images substituting real perception appear as a way out. The architecture of the listener model has to be adapted to the creation and use of such pictorial data structures. Furthermore, the relation between the latter and a verbal (i. e., propositional) representation must be understood. The resulting architecture of a listener model with reference semantics can be employed to solve communicational problems from three general classes in a better way, as is demonstrated by an example implementation.     

Eyewitness testimony and memory distortion

Abstract: Do memories change as we acquire new information? Recent research on memory distortion using implicit tests along with research using confidence is reviewed and new studies are presented. Two new studies asked misinformed subjects to provide reasons for their answers. In each study 15% to 27% of subjects said they remembered seeing items they had only read about. In another study subjects were asked to identify the source of misleading items they had seen in slides or read in misleading questions. Subjects were more likely to say they had seen in slides something they read about in the questions than they were to confuse information from two nearly identical sets of slides. Recent work shows that, not only is it possible to distort memory for events, it is possible to implant an entire memory for something that never happened. The evidence is now clear that we can become mentally tricked into making large as well as small changes in the way we recall the past.