Psychoanalytic practice in the early postgraduate years

As a pilot investigation for a longitudinal study of psychoanalytic careers, a survey was conducted of analysts who graduated during the last fifteen years from the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Graduates were asked to describe both their analytic practice and their interest in pursuing appointment as training and supervising analysts. The 23-item questionnaire was completed by 67 of 102 potential respondents (66%). The study identified two subgroups of graduates: those who were not certified and were not training analysts (GAs), 78% of the sample, and certified and training analysts (CAs, TAs), 22% of the sample. GAs started a mean of 1.4 new analytic cases since graduation, as compared to CAs and TAs, who started a mean of 5.4 and 8.3 new cases, respectively. CAs and TAs also saw more twice-weekly therapy cases than did GAs. Once-weekly therapy was the most commonly practiced treatment for all subgroups. Interest in becoming a TA was highest during the first five postgraduate years and was lower among non-TAs five to fifteen years after graduation. Only one of the CA respondents met current APsaA immersion criteria for training analyst appointment.     

Linking Substance Use and Problem Behavior Across Three Generations

This study examined patterns of between-generation continuity in substance use from generation 1 (G1) parents to generation 2 (G2) adolescents and from G2 adult substance use and G1 substance use to generation 3 (G3) problem behavior in childhood. Structural equation modeling of prospective, longitudinal data from 808 participants, their parents, and their children showed low levels of G1 to G2 cross-generational continuity in the general tendency to use drugs. This effect was fully mediated by G2 early adolescent behavior problems. Drug-specific residual effects were observed across generations for cigarette smoking. Once established in adolescence, substance use in G2 showed stability over time. G2 substance use at age 27 significantly predicted G3 problem behavior. G1 substance use also was related to G3 problem behavior indirectly. These findings highlight the importance of interrupting intergenerational cycles of substance use and problem behavior.     

Service Needs of Foster Families with Children who have Disabilities

We examined the service needs of foster families with children who have disabilities. Foster parents in a large Canadian city were asked “What services or supports would be helpful to you?” The responses to this question were edited for clarity and to eliminate redundancies, and sorted into piles of like statements by a group of 15 foster care professionals. Two types of statistical analysis were applied to the sorting of the statements to describe the relationship between statements and their groupings. The major concepts were identified according to the contents of the cluster and a map was constructed to provide a graphic representation of the conceptualization process. The major services and supports identified in this study were: support in the community, financial support, accommodating school system, good relationships with social workers, responsive professionals, information, comprehensive medical care, services for aboriginal children and families, transitional services, and respite.     

Increase in Syntaxin 1B mRNA in Hippocampal and Cortical Circuits During Spatial Learning Reflects a Mechanism of Trans-synaptic Plasticity Involved in Establishing a Memory Trace

It has long been proposed that the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for LTP may well involve the mechanisms that lead to the type of synaptic modification that occurs during learning. However, it is also known that a single memory trace is encoded in spatially distributed networks; implying that alterations of synaptic strength occur at multiple sites along circuits of connected cells. Recent evidence suggests that regulation of the gene encoding syntaxin 1B, a presynaptic protein involved in exocytosis, plays an important role in the mediation of trans-synaptic LTP, a candidate mechanism for the propagation of plasticity in neural circuits during learning. Using in situ hybridization to measure the mRNA levels at different time points after learning a spatial working or reference memory task, we show that expression of the gene encoding this protein in the hippocampal and corticoprefrontal circuits increases linearly with performance at a critical window of learning when rats are reaching between 75% and 100% of their maximal performance. No changes were observed during the early phases of learning or when rats where overtrained. The correlational analysis indicates that coordinated increases in syntaxin 1B expression occurs in hippocampal circuits during working memory and in more widespread hippocampocortical circuits during reference memory. These results suggest that a form of trans-synaptic plasticity mediated in part by regulation of the expression of syntaxin 1B may play an active role in configuring specific spatially distributed circuits during the laying down of memories.     

Does Teaming Obscure Low Performance? Exploring the Temporal Effects of Team Performance Diversity

Organizations are increasingly using team-based projects to achieve goals. As such, it is important to understand how team members (e.g., their differences) influence team outcomes such as effectiveness. In the present study, we examine performance diversity, differences in members’ past performance, as an antecedent to team effectiveness. In addition, we assessed the length of time the group performed together as a moderator and social loafing among members as a mediator of the performance diversity—team effectiveness relationship. Using multisource data for 673 individuals in 139 project teams, we found that performance diversity had an increasingly negative effect for groups that were together longer. Specifically, greater diversity resulted in more social loafing, thereby diminishing team satisfaction and supervisor-rated team performance.     

‘Murder by Milligrams’: Enhancement Technologies and Therapeutic Zeal in Timothy Findley’s Headhunter”

In his 1993 novel Headhunter, Canadian author Timothy Findley describes the tendency of some medical practitioners to put scientific interests above the therapeutic needs of the individual. As the book's title and name of the main character Dr. Kurtz attest, Findley reflects the colonialist teleology found in Heart of Darkness as an analogue for the therapeutic zeal shown by many of the physicians in Headhunter. In the novel, such zeal is especially problematic when it is combined with so-called enhancement technologies, since enhancement, like colonialism, can be based in the prejudices of the practitioner and/or the dominant society, rather than in the needs of the patient. To counter therapeutic zeal, Findley, like Conrad, proposes an ethics of restraint in which the practitioner's empathy outweighs his or her desire for scientific discovery.