Some Costs of American Corporate Capitalism: A Psychological Exploration of Value and Goal Conflicts

Evolutionary psychology has been proposed as a metatheoretical framework for psychology. We argue that evolutionary psychology should be expanded if it is to offer new insights regarding the major issues in psychology. Evolutionary developmental biology can provide valuable new insights into issues such as the domain-specificity of the human mind, the nature–nurture debate, stages in development, and the origin of individual differences. Evolutionary developmental biology provides evidence for the hypotheses that domain-general and domain-specific abilities co-occur, that nature and nurture interact in a dynamic and nonadditive way, that stages occur in development, and that individual differences are the result of pleiotropic effects during development.     

“What Do These Analysts Want?” A Response to Levine and Wilson on Desire and Influence

The target paper had the purpose of drawing attention to something “beyond countertransference”—the impact of the therapist’s psychology on the treatment, not in reaction to the patient, but as desires and defenses that operate throughout. The illustrative issue was a speculation that my development and analytic engagement carried elements that led me to interact with women patients in a way that increased the likelihood of their conceiving. The respondents reacted differently to the provocative aspect of this idea, but have in common a recognition of the analyst’s desire as an important part of the relationship. A further case vignette is introduced in this reply to examine some of the points raised by the respondents, in particular how the analyst’s desire may be expressed in a form that is modulated by the analytic role and at the same time has an impact on the patient’s life decisions. In sum, we are players in the drama of analytic work, and the more we think about what and how we are ourselves in treatments, the more informed our inevitable impact will be.     

Assessing At‐Risk Youth Using the Reynolds Adolescent Adjustment Screening Inventory With a Latino Population

Factor analyses were conducted on scores from the Reynolds Adolescent Adjustment Screening Inventory (RAASI; Reynolds, 2001 ) representing at‐risk Latino youth. The 4‐factor model of the RAASI did not exhibit a good fit. However, evidence of generalizability for Latino youth was noted.     

Tarski ‐ a dilemma

Tarski's correspondence theory of truth (which he spells out in his semantic conception of truth) is open to two interpretations. This ambiguity in the theory has led philosophers to find support in it for metaphysical reali sm. In fact, Tarski's theory turns out to support a form of ontological relativism. In different passages Tarski himself gives support to each of these interpretations. The first interpretation leads to ontological relativism, while the second sacrifices the connection between language and the world. I clarify the dilemma that I see in having to choose between these two interpretations, explain how these interpretations have their source in different problems which occupied Tarski, and consider a possible solution to the dilemma. Finally, finding good reasons to claim that Tarski's theory is indeed a correspondence theory of truth, I argue in favour of the first interpretation with its relativistic implications.     

AIDS Group Psychotherapy

Abstract

Clinical data are presented from a day spent at a New Jersey high school severely impacted by the World Trade Center disaster. Dissociation, a sense of numbness, anger, and guilt about feelings induced by the tragedy are all common dynamics in adolescents responding to trauma. The developmental issues that adolescents are confronting are described and discussed in terms of the challenges they present to the healing process. An argument is made that using groups to aid in the long recovery process with our young people should be a top public health priority.     

The Effect of Group Psychotherapy in Reducing Resistance to Individual Psychotherapy: A Case Study

Abstract

Cohesion in group treatment of spouse abusers plays an important and often overlooked role. Involuntary abuser groups can benefit from cohesion, but due to their unique structure, cohesion may develop differently than in voluntary psychotherapy groups. Initially, abuser groups may develop premature levels of cohesion that can make group members unwilling to express conflict, develop intimacy, and take responsibility for their actions. Understanding the abuser personality and the unique characteristics of involuntary abuser groups can shed light on why cohesion develops the way it does and the importance it plays in abuser groups. Developing effective interventions that target premature cohesion can help the group members express conflict, develop intimacy, and take responsibility for their actions, thus bringing about therapeutic levels of cohesion.     

Commonsense about Psychoanalysis by Rudolph Wittenberg

Obstacles are described that constrain or block the full implementation of Yalom's model of inpatient group psychotherapy. These obstacles include situational constraints that are imposed by the temporal, spatial, and organizational structures of many treatment settings, and attitudinal constraints that consist of therapist and patient resistances to the implications and demands of the model. Recommendations are provided that have proven useful for overcoming these obstacles. They address such issues as: (1) patient confusion with here-and-now focus, (2) tendencies toward therapist-centered interaction, (3) the apparent irrelevance of interactional groups for many patient presenting problems, (4) insufficient time to accomplish interactional goals, and (5) the inability of patients to engage in group processing.