Paranoid character and the intolerance of indifference.

This paper suggests that aspects of paranoid character are structured around fantasies of magical and concrete connectedness to objects; these fantasies serve to avoid the terrors of object inconstancy. The authors describe how these fantasies are expressed in the psychoanalytic situation and explore their relation to common paranoid phenomena. The paranoid person must maintain these fantasies of connectedness at all cost or risk experiencing unbearable indifference between self and object. Paradoxically, the sacrifice of self and object boundaries inherent in these fantasies makes object constancy even more difficult to achieve because of the secondary defensive use of anger mobilized to protect the boundaries of the self.     

Neutrality, interpretation, and therapeutic intent.

Neutrality is a central concept within the theory of psychoanalytic technique. We spell out the major controversies in which the concept has become embroiled, and provide a definition that we believe coincides with actual psychoanalytic practice. We discuss its merits and weaknesses, noting also the negative consequences of relying on older definitions. We relate neutrality to the interpretive process, indicating ways interpretation protects neutrality and is made more effective by it. We discuss the complex and controversial relation between neutrality and the analyst's therapeutic intent.     

The analyst's style and its impact on the analytic process: overcoming a patient-analyst stalemate.

Analysts have characteristic styles in working with their patients. At times of crisis or stalemate, an alteration in style may facilitate the progress of the treatment. To illustrate the impeding effects of an analytic style at a particular phase of analysis, I describe a stalemate in the analysis of a severely self-critical patient. Recognition of the limiting effects of style on the treatment became apparent in a countertransference enactment, influenced by the patient-analyst match. Self-analysis and alteration in the characteristic style of the analyst resolved the stalemate and enabled the analytic work to progress.     

Selecting a best multiattribute alternative with partial information about attribute weights

Use of approximate weights would greatly simplify decision analysis under certainty since detailed weight elicitation could be avoided. This paper examines the degree to which rank order information about weights can be used to identify a best alternative, or falling uniqueness prescribes an easily implemented rule for selecting a ‘best’ alternative. The prescribed rule uses as weights the centroid of the feasible region defined by the rank order information. In conjunction with the rule, the value of the rank order information can be determined using an ‘expected gain from weight precision’ (EGWP) measure, analogous to ‘expected value of perfect information’ in decision analysis under uncertainty.     

Risk and behavior: The mediating role of risk appraisal

The main issue of this paper concerns the mediating role of risk appraisal in the relation between past and future behavior. We expected previous risky behavior to heighten risk appraisal, which, in turn, should stimulate preventive behavior. Results ofthree tests of this mediation hypothesis showed that past behavior was strongly related to future behavior; people who behaved hazardously in the past indicated that they tend to do so in the future. Generally, the expected relation between past behavior and risk appraisal was supported. More risky behavior in the past was associated with a heightened risk appraisal. Results also indicate a relation between risk appraisal and future behavior, but in the opposite direction as predicted. Heightened risk appraisal was related to increased levels of risk in future behavior. When predicting future behavior by both risk appraisal and past behavior the effect of risk appraisal on future behavior disappeared, while past behavior remained a strong predictor of future behavior. In a few cases risk appraisal still predicted future behavior when past behavior was controlled for. Unfortunately, these cases showed the opposite relation; i.e., heightened risk appraisal was related to more risky future behavior. Implications of these findings for research on the role of risk appraisal will be discussed.     

Psychopathology in incarcerated juvenile delinquents: does it extend beyond externalizing problems?

The present study attempted to delineate factors that are associated with and may contribute to juvenile delinquency. Delinquents were compared to a matched control group of nonoffenders on a measure of mental health problems. Twenty-four male and female incarcerated juvenile offenders and 24 nonoffending adolescents were evaluated on the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist (RBPC). As expected, the offenders scored higher (an indication of more psychopathology) on the subscales of the RBPC which represent externalizing types of problems. The offenders also scored significantly higher on the subscales reflecting internalizing problems and psychotic behavior. The results of this study point to the importance of assessing and treating offenders, especially those who are incarcerated, for difficulties other than externalizing problems.     

Malevolent object representations in borderline personality disorder and major depression.

To study malevolent representations, earliest memories were reliably coded on scales of affect tone. Ss were diagnosed with borderline personality disorder: 31 without and 30 with concurrent major depression. Nonborderline comparison subjects had either major depressive disorder (n = 26) or no psychiatric diagnosis (n = 30). Borderline subjects were discriminated from comparison subjects by their more malevolent representations; they more frequently produced memories involving deliberate injury; and they portrayed potential helpers as less helpful. Results suggest the diagnostic significance of malevolent representations, which need to be explained by any theory of borderline personality disorder.     

Perceptual asymmetry in psychosis-prone college students: evidence for left-hemisphere overactivation.

The hypothesis that psychosis-prone students demonstrate a pattern of exaggerated perceptual asymmetry across both left- and right-hemisphere dichotic-listening tasks (consonant-vowel [CV] and tonal contour discrimination) was investigated. Subjects who scored high on the Perceptual Aberration or Magical Ideation scale or both (n = 20) demonstrated a significantly exaggerated right-ear advantage on a CV task in relation to normal control subjects (n = 27) but showed a reduced left-ear advantage on a tone task. The hypothesis of exaggerated functional lateralization across hemispheres in the psychosis-prone subjects was not supported, but the results are consistent with a hypothesis of left hemisphere overactivation in this sample.     

Hypnosis, reporting bias, and suggested negative hallucinations.

We examined the role of reporting bias in hypnotic negative hallucinations by using a paradigm in which reporting bias was assessed independently of perceptual change. In Experiment 1, highly hypnotizable subjects reported significant loudness reductions when tested for hypnotic deafness. Later, however, these subjects biased their reported loudness reductions in the absence of perceptual change, and their reporting bias scores were almost as large as their hypnotic deafness reports. Subjects also biased their ratings of strategy use. In Experiment 2, ratings of blindness given in response to a hypnotic negative visual hallucination suggestion were significantly correlated with reporting bias scores obtained in this paradigm. Although hypnotic blindness and hypnotic deafness correlated significantly, the partial correlation between these variables was nonsignificant when reporting bias scores were statistically controlled. Theoretical implications are discussed.