Themes in Therapist Development During the First Three Months of Clinical Experience

The results of a qualitative research study designed to better understand the developmental processes active in beginning therapists during the first three months of clinical contact is reported. Thirteen beginning therapists were asked to complete a monthly log describing experiences impacting their clinical work and themselves as therapists during their first three months of client contact. Data analysis revealed that the primary developmental theme active during this period of time is the development of therapist confidence. Two additional themes, the development of an internal gauge on which to evaluate current experiences and the development of boundaries around the self as a professional, were also found to be active during this time. These additional themes support the development of therapist confidence. Implications for training and research are identified.     

THE EFFECTS OF ALIGNABILITY ON MEMORY

Abstract— According to structure-mapping theory, the process of comparison in one of alignment and mapping between representational structures. This process induces a focus on commonalities and alignable differences (i.e., those related to the commonalities). Non-alignable differences (i.e., those not related to the commonalities) are held to be neglected. The theory thus predicts increased focus on the corresponding information, Whether these are commonalities or differences. In this article, we explore the implications of this claim for memory: Specifically, we test the prediction that alignable differences are more likely to be processed and stored than nonalignable differences.
We present a study in which people made similarity comparisons between pairs of pictures and then were probed for recall. The recall probes were figures taken from the pictures and were either alignable or nonalignable differences between the pairs. The alignable differences were better memory probes than the nonalignable differences, suggesting that people were more likely to encode and store the corresponding information than the noncorresponding information.     

EXAMINING THE THEORY AND CLINICAL UTILITY OF WRITING ABOUT EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES

Abstract— Pennebaker's (this issue) intervention for writing about emotional experiences shows promise as a module for inclusion in therapeutic packages. There are conceptual, methodological ant practical issues to be considered, however. These issues are discussed, and parallels are drawn from the literatures on the moodregulatory function of dreams and on the effects of social support on health. Although there is evidence that anything about emotional experiences has beneficial effects on health, it is premature to recommend writing intervention as a treatment component for specific problems. What is needed at this point is systematic research to evaluate to clinical utility.     

New Roles for Rhetoric: From Academic Critique to Civic Affirmation

The classical conception of rhetoric as the method of reasoned political judgment survived into the Renaissance but was reduced to academic critiques of style and "empty" public rhetoric with the rise of modern science and its representationalist theories of language. Recently, however, rhetoric, textuality, and the "linguistic turn" generally, have become central metaphors in the human sciences. This renewed rhetorical perspective not only fosters a critique of positive philosophy and of scientism in public discourse, it also offers affirmative methods by which persons can construct their civic lives.     

Dialektik Und Formalisierung

Dialectics and Formalization. In an appendix to his article Can the concept of dialectic be made clear? (JGPS 27: 131–165) the author critically examined an attempt by D. Wandschneider of reconstructing Hegelian dialectical logic by displaying antinomic structures. The main steps of this reconstruction were formalized within the framework of second order predicate logic. In his reply (JGPS 27: 347–352) Wandschneider argues that formalization is the wrong way of interpreting and judging his reconstruction project on the ground that the understanding of predication is already presupposed by predicate logic and, therefore, cannot be formalized. In the present contribution it is shown that Wandschneider's criticism is based on a fundamentally mistaken conception of formalization and formal logic and that the problems posed by his project remain completely unresolved.     

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.     

Correspondence

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -