THE PATIENT'S OBJECTS IN THE ANALYST'S MIND

In every analysis, the analyst develops an internal relationship with the patient's objects—that is, the people in the patient's life and mind. Sometimes these figures can inhabit the analyst's mind as a source of data, but at other times, the analyst may feel preoccupied with or even invaded by them. The author presents two clinical cases: one in which the seeming absence of a good object in the patient's mind made the analyst hesitate to proceed with an analysis, and another in which the patient's preoccupation with a “bad” object was shared and mirrored by the analyst's own inner preoccupation with the object. The use and experience of these two objects by the analyst are discussed with particular attention to the countertransference.     

The Impact of Disputants’ Expectations on Mediation Testing an Interventionist Model

This investigation extends previous work in mediation by developing and testing an interventionist mediation model using 91 mediated roommate disputes. A key assumption of the interventionist model is that effective mediators assume active, highly participatory roles in the mediation process. This control based model for mediation presumes that a critical function of a mediator is to orchestrate the interaction by developing and extending the information resources, enforcing the rules for the session, and encouraging disputants to make constructive proposals to reach an agreement collabora lively. The theoretical model examined the impact of expectations for reaching agreement on the mediation process using both mediators’ and disputants assessments of their sessions. The data were not inconsistent with the hypothesized model. The level of participants expectations, however, added little predictive power to the model.     

Faith‐Based Decisions? The Consequences of Heightened Religious Salience in Social Service Referral Decisions

Previous research suggests that clergy members are often an initial contact for people seeking advice or social services and clergy often refer such individuals in need to outside agencies. Recent "faith-based initiatives" seek to engage churches and religious groups more deeply in social service delivery, potentially changing the mix of organizations to which clergy might refer people in need. In addition, public debates about faith-based social services have drawn attention to religion, often in politically divisive ways. Using semi-structured interviews and vignettes in which key characteristics of outside agencies are experimentally varied, we explore the implications of this heightened attention to religion on clergy referrals. We find that increasing the salience of religion affects clergy referral choices, with some clergy even willing to sacrifice quality care and resources for an individual in need when religious options are available as referral choices. We argue that this occurs at least in part because making religion salient in policy and referrals makes religious differences salient as well.     

Family and Workplace Conflict Examining Metaphorical Conflict Schemas and Expressions Across Context and Sex

This investigation examined 620 metaphorical conflict expressions generated by 169 participants who either were employed full-time or had previous work experience. First-order metaphorical (schema) analyses indicated that participants predominately used “conflict is impotence” schemas. No sex differences emerged in either schemas or in second-order (linguistic) analyses of metaphorical expressions. However, participants reported different schemas, depending on the conflict context, but particularly for the supervisor and departmental member contexts. The supervisor context also exhibited a pattern of linguistic choices, suggesting that male and female respondents objectified their supervisors. Finally, respondents reported greater frequency and intensity of conflicts in family contexts than in any of the work contexts.     

Responding to problems: The roles of severity and barriers

In even the most satisfying relationships, couples face specific problems, varying in severity. Partners may strategically devote more time and effort to actively working on their most severe problems. However, actively addressing problems comes with risks, especially for partners who perceive barriers to leaving the relationship. Two studies of partners in seriously dating, cohabiting, and marital relationships examined responses to problems of varying degrees of severity and the role of barriers. In each, a positive association was found between the severity of problems and use of various strategies to address the problems. However, barriers to leaving the relationship moderated these associations, such that partners with more barriers to leaving were less likely to actively address their more severe problems.