Effects of motherless rearing on basal and stress-induced corticosterone secretion in rat pups

Rearing of rat pups without a mother, artificial rearing (AR), produces substantial changes in the pups' behavior in later life. These changes are similar to those produced by the stress of repeated mother-pup separations. The predominant interpretation is that the long-term effects of disruptions to the mother-pup relationship are mediated by exposure to elevated levels of corticosterone which affect the development of neurobiological systems underlying cognition and behavior. Indeed, repeated separation of pups from the mother sensitizes the pups' corticosterone response to stress. This study examined basal and stress-induced corticosterone release in AR pups. Corticosterone levels were increased immediately following implantation of feeding cannulae. One day after the start of AR, circulating concentrations of corticosterone were not increased unless AR pups were challenged with an additional stressor (injection). Corticosterone levels were lowest when cannulation and AR started on postnatal day (PND) 5 compared with earlier PNDs. On PND 12, there was no evidence of increased corticosterone levels in AR pups at baseline or in response to stress, indicating that AR did not result in persistent sensitization of corticosterone release. The long-term effects of motherless rearing on rat behavior are mediated by mechanisms that are independent of sustained early corticosterone exposure.     

Helplessness and the exercise of power in the analytic session

This paper describes a clinical situation in which the analyst may be provoked to become overactive if he feels that his attempts to reach his patient are frustrated. Lack of tolerance for feelings of helplessness may leave him unable to sustain a receptive stance, and he may be drawn into enactments which lead to a power struggle with his patient.
I will try to describe situations where such enactments were compelling. I will also consider what enabled me to extricate myself from the activity, at least intermittently, to re‐establish an analytic attitude in which understanding and containment were priorities.
From time to time I was able to recognize and accept my helplessness and relinquish my attempts to reach the patient. These moments of recognition led to a shift of atmosphere in which a feeling of sadness replaced the more familiar confrontational mood. In these sadder moods the patient felt I was more available, and he too seemed more able to contemplate loss.
Theoretical ideas that enabled me to recognize some of the mechanisms at play included an understanding of narcissistic mechanisms, a recognition of previous ideas of power and dominance such as Freud’s Bemächtigungstrieb, and the role of dominance in the resolution of the Oedipus complex. My previous work on the dread of humiliation allowed me to be sensitive to the way helplessness can come to be associated with being looked down on and humiliated.     

A revolutionary as a “beautiful soul”: Lev Tolstoy’s path to ethical anarchism

This article discusses Leo Tolstoy’s view of the Russian revolutionary movement. Taking as a focal point the writer’s lifelong interest in the Decembrist uprising of 1825 and particularly in the personalities of the gentry revolutionaries, the article argues that Tolstoy’s fascination for these figures was due to their superior moral qualities, rather than to their political and socioeconomic doctrines. Following Alexander Herzen, Tolstoy came to regard the Decembrists as full-fledged individualities and “beautiful souls” (in Friedrich von Schiller’s sense of the term). Thus, Tolstoy’s much debated “conversion” and subsequent attempts to transform literary art into a medium of religious and moral reform (and thus a peaceful cultural revolution) can also be viewed as extensions of his project of self-understanding and self-formation according to the model of kalokagathia provided by Russia’s aristocratic revolutionaries.

     

Must "service with a smile" be stressful? The moderating role of personal control for American and French employees

Suppressing and faking emotional expressions depletes personal resources and predicts job strain for customer-contact employees. The authors argue that personal control over behavior, in the job and within the national culture, provides compensatory resources that reduce this strain. With a survey study of 196 employees from the United States and France, the authors supported that high job autonomy buffered the relationship of emotion regulation with emotional exhaustion and, to a lesser extent, job dissatisfaction. The relationship of emotion regulation with job dissatisfaction also depended on the emotional culture; the relationship was weaker for French customer-contact employees who were proposed to have more personal control over expressions than U.S. employees. Theoretical and research implications for the emotion regulation literature and practical suggestions for minimizing job strain are proposed.     

How "implicit" are implicit color effects in memory?

Processing colored pictures of objects results in a preference to choose the former color for a specific object in a subsequent color choice test (Wippich & Mecklenbr?uker, 1998). We tested whether this implicit memory effect is independent of performances in episodic color recollection (recognition). In the study phase of Experiment 1, the color of line drawings was either named or its appropriateness was judged. We found only weak implicit memory effects for categorical color information. In Experiment 2, silhouettes were colored by subjects during the study phase. Performances in both the implicit and the explicit test were good. Selections of "old" colors in the implicit test, though, were almost completely confined to items for which the color was also remembered explicitly. In Experiment 3, we applied the opposition technique in order to check whether we could find any implicit effects regarding items for which no explicit color recollection was possible. This was not the case. We therefore draw the conclusion that implicit color preference effects are not independent of explicit recollection, and that they are probably based on the same episodic memory traces that are used in explicit tests.     

Dialogue Groups in the 21st Century: An Extension of Practice

Experts in group dynamics are needed to work with societal-level identity groups to facilitate productive dialogue in lieu of destructive action or stalemate. Group therapists can promote dialogue about feelings and thoughts regarding societal-level identity issues that contribute to stuck destructive intra and intergroup relationships. After an introduction to the politics of identity and the importance of societal-level groups, the theory and practice of dialogue groups will be introduced and our own dialogue group described.