Rumination and Impaired Prospective Memory

Prospective memory (PM), remembering to remember, is crucial to everyday functioning. Understanding factors associated with PM impairments is thus important. One likely factor is rumination: a common cognitive process comprising repetitive self-focused thoughts. We investigated whether rumination is associated with impaired PM, and whether any associated impairment is exacerbated with negative stimuli. A sentence-rating task with sentences varying in valence was used with embedded PM cues in a non-clinical sample (N = 60). State rumination, two trait rumination subtypes (reflective pondering and brooding), and mood were measured in relation to PM cue detection and response times. Results showed that state rumination was associated with impaired PM cue detection and slower response times to PM cues embedded in negative sentences (not positive or neutral). Trait brooding (not reflective pondering) was associated with slower PM response times. These findings indicate that state rumination and trait brooding are associated with dissociable PM impairments.     

Caregiving Attitudes,Personal Loss,and Stress-Related Growth Among Siblings of Adults with Mental Illness

As parents age, well siblings are often asked to assume caregiving responsibilities for their brother or sister with mental illness. However, relatively little is known about how well siblings prioritize sibling caregiving responsibilities with other life demands. We examined well siblings’ attitudes toward self-care and caregiving for their sibling with mental illness (self- and sibling-care) using two cross-sectional samples. The first sample of well siblings (N?=?242) was used to examine the psychometric properties of the self- and sibling-care measure (SSCM), designed to assess the degree to which siblings prioritize their own needs and the needs of their sibling with mental illness. A second sample (N?=?103) was used to determine the relative contribution of self- and sibling-care attitudes in accounting for variation in well siblings’ reports of personal loss and stress-related personal growth. Results support the psychometric validity of the SSCM and suggest that self- and sibling-care attitudes account for greater variance in scores on perceived personal loss and stress-related growth than demographic or caregiving factors. Our findings support the need to address family care responsibilities and resource limitations through recovery-oriented mental health policies, services, and programs.     

A Matter of Life and Death: Understanding Continuing Bonds and Post-traumatic Growth When Young Adults Experience the Loss of a Close Friend

Young adults establish networks of friends for companionship, support, assistance, and resource exchange. Friends have been found to play an essential role in promoting young adults’ health and well-being. Yet, relatively little is known about how young adults cope with the death of a close friend. Studies of grief and bereavement in adulthood focus primarily on the death of a family member. In the present qualitative study, we examined the narrative accounts of 20 young adults (ages 21–34) to describe the prevalence and nature of continuing bonds and post-traumatic growth experiences in coping with the death of a close friend. Participants completed semi-structured interviews in which they described the circumstances of their friend’s death, the nature of their friendship, whether and how they continued their relationship with their deceased friend, and the impact of their friend’s death in their everyday lives. Overall, young adults articulated ways that they continued their relationship with the deceased friend that included personal communication, personal change, and homage activities. Post-traumatic growth experiences as a result of their friend’s death included behavioral changes and personal changes in outlook. The narratives of all participants reflected their simultaneous experience of continuing relationship ties with the deceased and a sense of personal growth as a result of their friend’s death. We report areas of overlap and distinctions between expressions of continuing bonds and post-traumatic growth in the lived experience of young adults coping with the loss of a friend. Implications of findings for future research are discussed.     

The cognitive-affective neuroscience of the unconscious

There is an ongoing debate about how best to conceptualize the unconscious. Early psychodynamic views employed theories influenced by physics to explain clinical material, while subsequent cognitivist views relied on computational models of the mind to explain laboratory data. More recently, advances in cognitive-affective neuroscience have provided new insights into the workings of unconscious cognition and affect. We briefly review some of this recent work and its clinical implications.     

Music, mourning, and consolation

The attacks of September 11, 2001, prompt a consideration of the role of music in mourning and trauma. The intrapsychic functions of music in the mourning process are explored, as is music as a unique response to trauma and as a special aesthetic expression of a range of affects connected with grief. Also explored is the allied notion of consolation, a topic underdeveloped in the analytic literature.     

Some reflections on the influence of Chinese thought on Jung and his psychological theory

Jung claimed that Richard Wilhelm, whose masterful translations of Chinese wisdom literature into a European language (German) and thence into Western consciousness have brought Chinese modes of thinking to so many, was one of the most important influences on his own life and work. The contacts between the two men, which took place from the early 1920's until Wilhelm's death in 1930, were few but intense and for Jung decisive in several ways. Wilhelm's translations of the I Ching and The Secret of the Golden Flower opened new avenues for Jung that had far-reaching consequences on his research and writing after 1930. The latter opened the door to the study of alchemy as a key to the archetypal process of individuation as rooted in the collective unconscious. 'Synchronicity' is a term that grew out of his contact with Chinese thought, in particular with the I Ching. From his contact with Chinese thought, additionally, he received confirmation of the view, independently arrived at, that adult psychological development is not linear but rather circular and spiral-like. The letters between Jung and Wilhelm illuminate the great importance Jung ascribed to Wilhelm's contribution toward bridging East and West and the potential value of Chinese philosophy for psychotherapy.