Heterosexuality and home: Intimacies of space and spaces of touch

This paper uses the notion of touch to understand further the production of heterosexual bodies and home spaces. Specifically, it argues that the everyday geographies of heterosexual touch are an important constituent of homemaking. Considering the ordinary acts of heterosexual touch and home encourages a more nuanced reading of the mutually constitutive relationship between bodies and space. It challenges normative notions about the naturalness and normality of heterosexuality. Drawing on data from joint semi-structured interviews, solicited diaries and self-directed photography with 14 women in heterosexual relationships who live in Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand, I offer an in-depth, critical and nuanced analysis of sexualised touch. Building on suggestions that touch is more than simply cutaneous contact, I show that heterosexual bodies touch and feel bodies, spaces and objects in a variety of ways.     

Institutional Productivity Ratings Based on Publications in Nine Literacy Journals: 1992–2005

This study extended the work of three previous studies that compared the scholarly productivity of faculty members in universities as represented in nine literacy journals. The top 25 universities were identified and this study shows that several institutions have remained consistent through the years as those that produce the largest amount of scholarship. As in previous studies, the University of Georgia ranked first by a substantial margin. This ranking was adjusted according to faculty size, resulting in a reordering of institutions—the University of Georgia remained first. The top 22 universities publishing in two leading literacy research journals—Reading Research Quarterly and Journal of Literacy Research—were also identified. This study also indicates an increase in scholarly work by multiple authors from collaborating institutions, including those from public schools.     

The use of imagery in cognitive therapy for psychosis: A case example

There has been a long tradition of studying imagery in relation to psychotic symptoms. Recent studies have suggested that imagery may be involved in the development and maintenance of psychotic symptoms (hallucinations and delusions in particular). Following a review of this literature, including work conducted by the author and colleagues, a case study is used to illustrate the clinical applications of this work. Working with images that were associated with persecutory delusions appeared to contribute to a reduction in distress, preoccupation, and conviction in relation to these beliefs, which were assessed using a standardised measure (PSYRATS). The implications for theory, practice, and future research are considered.     

The breadth and boundaries of a self‐psychological immersion in shame a one‐and‐a‐half‐person perspective

Shame colors other feelings and perceptions about the self. From reflections about his own personal experiences and observations regarding a particular manic‐depressive patient, the author discusses the evolution of his current clinical and theoretical understanding of shame. The framework of analytic self psychology is offered as a particularly useful perspective from which to consider shame, with its emphasis on the concept of selfobject to account both for shame's development (through selfobject misattunement and unresponsive‐ness) and for its amelioration (through empathic mirroring, idealization, and twinning). A developmental sequence for shame is advanced reflecting limitations in selfobject responsiveness, and problems are noted in the ability of current self psychology theory to fully account for the alleviation of shame. The self plays its part in the construction of those selfobjects needed to ease shame, representing the “one‐and‐a‐half‐person psychology”; of the paper's subtitle. Finally, the important role of countertransference shame is considered through a clinical example of therapist disclosure of his own shame to his patient, utilized in order to repair an interrupted kinship selfobject transference.     

THE WANDERING JEW IN SAMUEL BECKETT'S WAITING FOR GODOT

Very little attention has been focused on tracing evidence of the myth (or legend) of the Wandering Jew in Samuel Beckett's mould-breaking play Waiting for Godot (completed 1949), Rosette C. Lamont (1990) being the exception. This article suggests that Beckett used at least three disparate versions of the legend to derive much of the raw material in Godot. A good deal of the two vagabonds' dialogue may be derived from the generic myth of the Jewish carpenter whom, the day of the Crucifixion, Christ damned to a miserable life wandering the earth until the Second Coming. But the pair's predicament also fits perfectly with a little known version of the myth from Podolia (Ukraine) published as an annotation in English by Avrahm Yarmolinsky in 1929. Furthermore, important elements of Lucky's character may have been derived from Le Juif Errant, trois acts, prologue et intermède (1946), by the relatively unknown Alsatian surrealist Maxime Alexandre (1899–1976). Alexandre portrays Jews as bearing a heavy burden for mankind as guardians of humanity and of higher aesthetics, who will (exactly like Lucky) under no circumstances put down their heavy load. Although the origins of the myth are anti-Semitic, this reading appears to underline Beckett's reputation as a philo-semite.     

Group cognitive-behavioral therapy for hoarding disorder: an open trial

Although cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) appears to be a promising treatment approach for hoarding disorder, treatment to date has been quite labor intensive. The goal of this study, therefore, was to assess the potential effectiveness of group CBT for hoarding, without home visits by the clinician. Forty-five individuals with hoarding disorder enrolled in either a 16 or 20 session program of group CBT; 30 (67%) completed treatment. Using mixed-effects models to account for missing data, we report data from 35 (78%) participants who provided enough data for analysis. Participants demonstrated significant improvements in hoarding symptoms, as well as symptoms of depression and anxiety, and quality of life. Improvements in hoarding symptoms were comparable to two published clinical trials on individual CBT for hoarding disorder. Results of this study suggest that group CBT for hoarding, without home discarding sessions by the clinician, may be an effective treatment option with the potential advantage of increasing treatment access by reducing clinician burden and cost of treatment.     

The detrimental effects of power on confidence, advice taking, and accuracy

Incorporating input from others can enhance decision quality, yet often people do not effectively utilize advice. We propose that greater power increases the propensity to discount advice, and that a key mechanism explaining this effect is elevated confidence in one’s judgment. We investigate the relationships across four studies: a field survey where working professionals rated their own power and confidence and were rated by coworkers on their level of advice taking; an advice taking task where power and confidence were self-reported; and two advice taking experiments where power was manipulated. Results consistently showed a negative relationship between power and advice taking, and evidence of mediation through confidence. The fourth study also revealed that higher power participants were less accurate in their final judgments. Power can thus exacerbate the tendency for people to overweight their own initial judgment, such that the most powerful decision makers can also be the least accurate.