FEMALE PARTNERS OF BISEXUAL MEN What They Don't Know Might Hurt Them

Individual interviews with 350 behaviorally bisexual men aged 18–30 revealed that 71% of their female sexual partners and 59% of their steady female sexual partners in the past 6 months had not been aware of their homosexual activity. Rates of nondisclosure were higher for African-American than White men. Compared to nondisclosers, men who disclosed to all their female partners were less self-homophobic and perceived their friends, families, and neighbors as more accepting of their homosexual behavior. Compared to men who had disclosed, the nondisclosers had more female partners and used condoms less consistently with women.     

THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF MEN?

Recently the focus of sexual harassment research on the harassment of women by men has been challenged. Treatments of sexual harassment of men, however, have generally ignored power differentials between the genders. Our analysis predicts that behaviors identified as harassing by men stem from negotiations of gender in the workplace that challenge male dominance, whereas behaviors experienced by women as sexually harassing reinforce female subordinance. Consistent with our predictions, results indicated the following: men are considerably less threatened than women are by behaviors that women have found harassing; men find sexual coercion the most threatening form of harassment; men as well as women sexually harass men; and men identify behaviors as harassing that have not been identified for women. Results also showed signs of backlash among men against organizational measures that address sexual harassment and discrimination against women. Implications for psychological and legal definitions of sexual harassment of men are discussed.     

Interpersonal conflict in group therapy: An object relations perspective

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how object relations theory can be used to understand and regulate interpersonal conflict in group psychotherapy. Such concepts as projective identification, intersubjectivity and the analytic third are used to describe how conflict emerges in group psychotherapy and how it can be worked through. Case material is also provided to illustrate concepts and techniques in promoting a group's transition from a paranoid/schizoid to a depressive position. Positive aspects of the concept of projective identification are discussed including its use as a form of communication, a method of reducing anxiety and reintegrating previously dangerous and threatening aspects of the self.The paper was funded by Evan F. Lilly Memorial Trust Grant PV 13,067.     

PET Studies of Phonological Processing: A Critical Reply to Poeppel

Poeppel (1996) raises a number of criticisms about the methods and reported results for eight studies of phonological processing from six different neuroimaging laboratories. We would freely admit that valid criticisms of PET methodology can be made and that, like any method, it has limitations; in fact, we and others have engaged in such critical commentary (Steinmetz & Seitz, 1991; Sergent et al., 1992; Démonet, 1995; Fiez et al., 1996a; Zatorre et al., 1996). Poeppel's analysis, though, falls far short of providing new insights into the limitations of PET methodology or the means by which future functional imaging studies could be improved. Many of Poeppel's criticisms derive from a failure to understand some of the fundamental issues which motivate functional imaging studies, including those he reviews. However, we are grateful to our critic inasmuch as he offers us the challenge to clarify our positions on important aspects of our experimental design, analysis, and interpretation. In our discussion of these issues, we begin with a general commentary, followed by specific comments from individual authors.     

Failure, mistakes, regret and other subjugated stories in family therapy

This paper discusses the notions of failure and mistakes in family therapy, arguing that there are insufficient accounts in the literature which reflect the untidiness and disorder of everyday practice. The idea of dominant and subjugated stories is invoked to map the influence of notions of failure upon family therapy practice. It is argued that our practice would benefit if more accounts of our work routinely included stories of failure, mistakes and regret.     

Value Crisis: Affective Organization of Personal Meanings

The focus of this article is on the specific affective organization of the self in a value crisis. Whereas the self is conceptualized as an organized system of personal meanings, a value crisis is defined as a disorganization of this system. Personal meanings were investigated using a self-confrontation method that is sensitive to the affective properties of personal meanings and their organization into a composite whole. Three groups of students were compared, one high, one medium, and one low in value crisis. Results indicate that the high crisis group had a lower level of intensity of affect referring to self-enhancement, a lower intensity level of affect referring to contact and union with the other, and a lower level of positive affect in comparison with the other groups. In addition, negative meanings were more generalizing in the self of subjects in crisis, whereas positive meanings were more generalizing in the self system of those not in crisis. Moreover, people in crisis showed more discontinuity between their past and future than those not in crisis. Special emphasis was placed on the specific affective organization of subjects in crisis. Two idiographic case studies were presented to illustrate meaningful exceptions to the rule. It was concluded that value crisis is an “in-between state” involving the risk of disorganization of the self, but at the same time including opportunities for innovative self-development.     

Kant and Husserl

This paper was presented at the Kant-Congress held in Memphis, Tennessee in March, 1995.