Movement experience (ME): A context of inquiry for professional development

Abstract

This article advocates the incorporation of a model for learning witnessing and moving to explore authenticity¹ as it unfolds through and within the nonverbal language of the body, into the initial education and ongoing professional development of psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, regardless of the school of thought they follow. It argues for the expansion of the verbal/intellectual focus in professional educational experience, to include a focus on Movement Experience (ME) ‐ a context of inquiry, a process which can teach us of presence and clarity, and may lead to an unfolding of the Self and of self‐knowledge, that rest in the wisdom and the mystique of the human existence as body and movement becomes conscious. It presents a working model as a tool for raising self‐awareness, and for reflection in‐action and on‐action (movement supervision). In Movement Experience (ME)² and Authentic Movement (AM)³ participants consciously engage in a heuristic act, in the search, and re‐search, for a deeper understanding of the meaning of experience. A personal journey toward professional growth and development.     

Living Politically: An Irigarayan Notion of Agency as a Way of Life

This paper formulates Luce Irigaray's notion of agency as a political way of life. I argue that agency, within an Irigarayan framework, is both the outcome and the condition of a political life, aimed at creating political transformations. As Irigaray hardly addresses the topic of agency per se, I suggest understanding Irigaray's textual style as implying specific “technologies of self” in the Foucauldian sense, that is, as self‐applied social practices that reshape social reality, one's relations to oneself, and enhance one's freedom and pleasures in these relations. This interpretation aims to extract concrete transformative practices, which, by shaping one's sense of self in relation to others, create oneself as a free and active subject.     

Decision making at a crossroad: why to go straight ahead,retrace a path,or turn sideways?

In order to uncover processes in the acquisition of spatial representation, we tested voles, jirds, and mice in a dark grid maze—a relatively homogenous environment comprising 16 identical equispaced crossroads and similar choice of paths at each crossroad. The three species initially displayed a tendency to retrace sections of their recently traversed path, perhaps indicating exploration and learning of an unfamiliar environment by virtue of repetition. All three species displayed the same decision making at crossroads. They had an equal tendency to progress forward, turn sideways, or turn back to retrace their path upon the first arrival at each crossroad. Over repeated visits to the same crossroad, however, progressing forward increased along with a decrease in turning back, but there was no change in the incidence of turning sideways. It is suggested that progressing forward is easier than making turns, since the latter oblige the navigator to remember the location of turning in order to retrace or integrate the path and remain oriented. The incidence of turning sideways, in being more difficult than forward progression and retracing, yet necessary in a restricted maze space, did not change over repeated visits to crossroads. Altogether, decision making at a crossroad may be described as going straight ahead for simplicity, retracing a path to memorize it, or turning sideways at a constant rate. The present tests in the grid maze illustrate how tangible entities (crossroads, paths) are integrated during the early phase of acquiring an abstract representation (map) of the maze.     

Finding the authentic self in a communal culture: developmental goals in emerging adulthood

Finding and cultivating a sense of authentic self is an important life goal for emerging adults. In collectivist cultures, youngsters might need to distance themselves to find and discover their authentic selves separate of the expectations of society and significant others. Creating an autonomous time bubble that focuses on the present allows youngsters to forge a sense of personal meaning and authenticity that subsequently paves the way to reintegration into long-term life goals. The results focusing on Israeli emerging adults demonstrate that a sense of authentic self plays a central role in their well-being and socioemotional functioning.     

Sustained withdrawal behavior in clinic‐referred and nonreferred infants

To examine the relations between infants' sustained withdrawal behavior and children's mental health status and maternal and child relational behavior, 36 clinic‐referred and 43 control infants were evaluated. Families were visited at home, mother‐child free play and feeding interactions were videotaped, and mothers completed self‐report measures. Interactions were coded for sustained withdrawal using the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB; Guedeney and Fermanian, 2001) and for global relational patterns with the Coding of Interactive Behavior (CIB; Feldman, 1998). Higher ADBB scores were found for the referred group, with many infants (38.9% ) scoring above the clinical cutoff (vs. 11.6% in the control group). More negative relational patterns were found for the withdrawn group in terms of higher maternal intrusiveness, lower reciprocity, and lower child involvement. Associations were found between maternal and child behavior during play and feeding and child sustained withdrawal behavior at play. Sustained withdrawal also was associated with unpredictable child temperament and lower sense of parental self‐efficacy. Maternal depressive symptoms were higher in the referred group and correlated with maternal and child relational patterns. The findings contribute to the construct and discriminant validity of the CIB and the ADBB coding systems, and suggest that sustained withdrawal may serve as a risk indicator for early socioemotional disorders.     

Mothers' insightfulness regarding their children's internal worlds: The capacity underlying secure child–mother relationships

This article introduces a new method to assess mothers' insightfulness regarding their children's inner world. Maternal insightfulness involves the capacity to see things from the child's point of view, and is based on insight into the child's motives, a complex view of the child, and openness to new information about the child. Insightfulness is seen as the capacity underlying positive parenting and providing the context for secure child–parent attachment. In the assessment of insightfulness mothers view video segments of their interactions with their children and are subsequently interviewed regarding their children's and their own thoughts and feelings during the segments. This article describes how the maternal interviews are coded and provides vignettes of both insightful and noninsightful mothers. Empirical findings supporting the validity of the insightfulness assessment are reviewed, and the implications for children's development are discussed. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

The emotional quality of childcare centers in Israel: The Haifa study of early childcare

Data from an Israeli project shows higher proportion of insecurely attached infants in center care as compared with noncenter care (Sagi, Koren‐Karie, Gini, Ziv, & Joels, 2002). The present study was designed to assess structural and emotional aspects characterizing infants' experiences in center care, aiming to explain, in part, the high incidence of attachment insecurity among center‐care infants. In the present study, we focus on 151 center‐care infants who were observed in the Ainsworth Strange Situation (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978) with their mothers. Sixty‐one percent of them were coded as securely attached to their mothers while 39% were coded as insecurely attached. In addition, 56 directors and 120 caregivers in 56 centers were videotaped throughout a full‐day observation. The Assessment Profile of Early Childhood Program (Abbott‐Shim & Sibley, 1987) was also employed. Results indicated that the centers in Israel are of low standards: Large group size, high caregiver–infants ratio, inadequate professional training, and minimal attention to individual emotional needs. No associations were found between infants' attachment and various aspects of the settings. The low quality of the Israeli settings may explain the higher rate of attachment insecurity in center‐care infants. ©2005 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Geophysical variables and behavior: XCI. Ambulatory behavior in rats following prenatal exposures to complex magnetic fields designed to interact with genetic expression

A total of 45 litters were exposed during their entire prenatal development to one of two complex patterns of magnetic fields whose strengths varied within one of four intensity ranges between 10 nT and 1,000 nT or to sham-field conditions. The litters exposed to the most complex pattern, composed of 50 200-msec. presentations of different pulses for 10 sec. every 50 sec., displayed more ambulation in an open field at 21 days of age than the litters that had been exposed continuously to a repetitive frequency-modulated field or to sham-field conditions. This treatment explained 25% of the variance in the numbers of squares traversed. The results suggest that complexity of the applied magnetic field during prenatal development may be more important than intensity for permanently affecting neuronal organization and behavior.     

Injury increases the risk for PTSD: an examination of potential neurobiological and psychological mediators

A growing number of common traumatic events involve both physical and emotional injuries. In contrast to previously held beliefs, the rapidly growing body of literature shows quite convincingly that physical injury, over and above exposure to the traumatic event itself, increases rather than decreases the risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A pertinent question becomes how bodily injury contributes to the risk of developing PTSD. In this article, we review contemporary findings regarding the neurobiological and psychological mechanisms by which bodily injury may augment or independently contribute to chronic posttraumatic stress. In addition, we propose three theoretical pathways through which physical injury can increase the risk for PTSD. These pathways are: additive, unique, and recovery impeding. Finally, we highlight unresolved issues pertaining to each one of these pathways and propose directions for future research to address them.