The impact of words on children with ADHD and DAMP Consequences for psychoanalytic technique

Children with attention-defi cit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and disorder of attention, motility control, and perception (DAMP) are often sensitive to the analyst's interventions. This is not always due to the literal import of the intervention. The children sometimes react as if the words were dangerous concrete objects, which they must physically fend off. The author traces this phenomenon to the child's unstable internal situation. A bad, un-containing internal object is easily awakened and threatens to expel the analyst's words independently of their content. This results in violent clinical situations. Infant research and psychoanalytic work with infants and mothers evince how a complex semiotic process develops between mother and baby. The prerequisite for this process to get started and maintained is a secure external object, which gradually is internalized. Findings from developmental research and clinical infant work are used to illuminate analytic work with children with ADHD and DAMP. Vignettes demonstrate how important it is for the analyst to phrase interpretations after having gauged the state of the analysand's internal object as well as his/her own countertransference. If this is overlooked, the psychoanalytic dialogue easily capsizes. The author provides some technical recommendations on the psychoanalysis of these children. As part of the theoretical discussion he raises the general question of how the representations, which the baby forms in interaction with the mother, and the analysand forms in interaction with the analyst, should be classifi ed. Rather than dividing them into bipartite thing- or word-presentations (Freud), the author suggests C. S. Peirce's tripartite semiotic classifi cation in that the baby forms representations of icons, indices, and symbols.     

The influence of visual information on auditory lateralization

Sætrevik, B. (2010). The influence of visual information on auditory lateralization. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. The classic McGurk study showed that presentation of one syllable in the visual modality simultaneous with a different syllable in the auditory modality creates the perception of a third, not presented syllable. The current study presented dichotic syllable pairs (one in each ear) simultaneously with video clips of a mouth pronouncing the syllables from one of the ears, or pronouncing a syllable that was not part of the dichotic pair. When asked to report the auditory stimuli, responses were shifted towards selecting the auditory stimulus from the side that matched the visual stimulus.     

Emotions in cognitive conflicts are not aversive but are task specific

It has been suggested that cognitive conflicts require effortful processing and, therefore, are aversive (Botvinick, 2007). In the present study, we compared conflicts emerging from the inhibition of a predominant response tendency in a go/no-go task with those between incompatible response activations in a Simon task in a within-subjects design, using the same type of stimuli. Whereas no-go trials elicited reduced skin conductance and pupillometric responses, but prolonged corrugator muscle activity, as compared with go trials, incompatible and compatible Simon trials were indistinguishable with respect to these parameters. Furthermore, the conflictsensitive N2 components of the event-related brain potential were similar in amplitude, but showed significantly different scalp distributions, indicating dissociable neural generator systems. The present findings suggest the involvement of different emotional and cognitive processes in both types of cognitive conflicts—none being aversive, however. In addition, the N2 findings call into question claims of common monitoring systems for all kinds of cognitive conflicts.     

A Psychometric Investigation of the Suicide Status Form II with a Psychiatric Inpatient Sample

We investigated the psychometric validity and reliability of the Suicide Status Form‐II (SSF‐II) developed by Jobes, Jacoby, Cimbolic, and Hustead (1997) . Participants were 149 psychiatric inpatients (108 suicidal; 41 nonsuicidal) at the Mayo Clinic. Each participant completed assessment measures within 24 hours of admission and 48–72 hours later. Factor analyses of the SSF core assessment produced a robust two‐factor solution reflecting chronic and acute response styles. The SSF core assessment had good to excellent convergent and criterion validity; pre‐post SSF ratings also demonstrated moderate test‐retest reliability. The results replicated previous research and show that the SSF‐II is psychometrically sound with a high‐risk suicidal inpatient sample.     

Taste/tactile cue discriminations in taste-aversion learning foIIowing depletion of noradrenaIine

Four experiments were performed to investigate the effect of noradrenaline (NA) depletion, following systemic DSP4 treatment, upon a tastehactile discrimination in taste-aversion learning. In Experiments 1 and 2 , noisy bottle (A) + lithium chloride pairings were alternated with saccharin (B) + saline pairings, and vice versa, during Phase I conditioning. The particular order of reinforcement presentation in each case was then reversed, so that a noisy bottle (A) + saline pairing was now altered with a saccharin (B) + lithium chloride pairing, etc., during Phase II (reversal) conditioning. In Experiments 3 and 4 , saccharin in noisy bottle (AB) + lithium chloride pairings alternated with either noisy bottle (A) + saline or saccharin (B) + saline pairings, and vice versa, during Phase I conditioning; the order of reinforcement presentation was then reversed, as above. None of the four experiments performed offered any evidence of impairments of the discrimination task as a result of NA depletion. These results are discussed in the context of associative preparedness and of discrimination learning in operant tasks and recent findings on compound conditioning, following the loss of NA.     

Problems in contemporary psychoanalytic theory: II. Lines of advance

In the theoretical development to come in psychoanalysis, an "inclusive" strategy is recommended, allowing for conflicting points of view to exist side by side waiting for a new integrating theory to emerge. Until such a theory is at hand, the term "psychoanalysis" will remain a rather loose heading for several psychoanalytic subcultures. It is argued, both clinically and theoretically, in favour of giving the organizing function of the ego a central position in the forthcoming theory. Some consequences of this "organizational" point of view are discussed in relation to: ( a ) diagnostic classification, ( b ) the distinction between psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy, and (c) the theoretical language of psychoanalysis. In conclusion som requirements for a future theory of psychoanalysis are proposed.     

Attitudes towards the old and death,and spiritual well-being

The purpose of this research was to determine the interrelationship of attitudes towards older people, death attitudes, and the spiritual well-being of 300 nursing students. Instruments employed were Kogan's Old People Scale, the Death Anxiety Scale, the Death Depression Scale, and the Spiritual Well-being Scale. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients and multiple-regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Hypotheses were supported predicting an inverse relationship between attitudes towards older people and death anxiety and death depression (p<.01), and a positive relationship between spiritual well-being and negative attitude towards older people (p<.01). Data did not support the hypothesis that death attitudes and spiritual well-being would account for greater variance in attitudes towards older people than either single variable alone. From a step-wise multiple-regression analysis, race/ethnicity and death attitudes together accounted for 21% of the variance in attitudes towards older people. Study results demonstrated that Caucasian nursing students hold positive attitudes toward older people. Implications for health care are discussed with particular emphasis on potential strategies for education.     

Prevalence and severity of anxiety, depression and Type A behaviors in angina pectoris

The role of psychological factors in coronary heart disease was examined by administering the Bech Rating Scale (BRS) of mood disorders and the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) for Type A behavior patterns (TABP) to a consecutive sample of angina patients ( N = 94), to a consecutive sample of noncardiac patients ( N = 47), and to a random sample of adults from the general population ( N = 217). Anxiety and depression were both more frequent and more severe in angina patients than in noncardiac patients or in the general population. There was a tendency for certain components of TABP (i. e. speed, impatience, hard-driving and competitive disposition) to be elevated in angina patients, but a similar trend was noted in noncardiac patients. Although no consistent relations were observed between negative emotions and TABP scores in angina patients, their anxiety and depression scores were reliably related to their use of nitroglycerin. The findings concur with previous studies concerning the presence of anxiety and depression in patients with angina pectoris and indicate that such negative emotions are not closely related to Type A personality traits.     

Scotopic and photopic afterimages

Stabell, U. & Stabell, B. Scotopic and photopic afterimages. Scand. J. Psychol., 1973, 14, 210–212.MdashThe curves of photopic and scotopic afterimages were found to coincide, confirming the suggestion that disposition for scotopic contrast hue is controlled basically by the ratio of hue-related processes initiated upon chromatic prestimulation of cones, while the achromatic test-stimulation is a constant stimulus, regardless of test variables.