Termination as Necessary Madness

The author offers an intensive clinical study, in which the paradox of termination is illuminated. For this patient, termination repeats the schizoid problem for which he arrived in treatment. The fear of closeness is confirmed by the knowledge that closeness will inevitably lead to loneliness and loss. This treatment dilemma opens up an inquiry into the original formulation of the analytic situation. The author proposes that the structure of psychoanalysis—intimacy entwined with the severing of intimacy—may conceal a need-fear dilemma which lies at the heart of our practice. I propose that this dilemma has always been gendered. Resistance to termination has been “feminized,” and a willingness to terminate has been “masculinized.”     

Masked stimuli modulate endogenous shifts of spatial attention

Unconscious stimuli can influence participants’ motor behavior but also more complex mental processes. Recent research has gradually extended the limits of effects of unconscious stimuli. One field of research where such limits have been proposed is spatial cueing, where exogenous automatic shifts of attention have been distinguished from endogenous controlled processes which govern voluntary shifts of attention. Previous evidence suggests unconscious effects on mechanisms of exogenous shifts of attention. Here, we applied a cue-priming paradigm to a spatial cueing task with arbitrary cues by centrally presenting a masked symmetrical prime before every cue stimulus. We found priming effects on response times in target discrimination tasks with the typical dynamic of cue-priming effects (Experiments 1 and 2) indicating that central symmetrical stimuli which have been associated with endogenous orienting can modulate shifts of spatial attention even when they are masked. Prime–Cue Congruency effects of perceptual dissimilar prime and cue stimuli (Experiment 3) suggest that these effects cannot be entirely reduced to perceptual repetition priming of cue processing. In addition, priming effects did not differ between participants with good and poor prime recognition performance consistent with the view that unconscious stimulus features have access to processes of endogenous shifts of attention.     

Abstract: Genome-Wide Complex Trait Analysis of Shared Genetic Effects Between Brain Electrophysiology Measures and Alcohol Dependence

Multilevel analysis is an appropriate tool for the analysis of hierarchically structured data. There may, however, be reasons to ignore one of the levels of nesting in the data analysis. In this article a three level model with one predictor variable is used as a reference model and the top or intermediate level is ignored in the data analysis. Analytical results show that this has an effect on the estimated variance components and that standard errors of regression coefficients estimators may be overestimated, leading to a lower power of the test of the effect of the predictor variable. The magnitude of these results depends on the ignored level and the level at which the predictor variable varies, and on the values of the variance components and the sample sizes.     

Growth in emotional intelligence. Psychotherapy with a learning disabled girl

This paper describes the once-weekly psychoanalytic psychotherapy of a girl, called Ellie, aged eight at the start of her treatment. Ellie had a learning disability and displayed difficult behaviour at school and at home. In her therapy, Ellie grew in emotional intelligence, more in touch with and able to express her feelings. Her behaviour improved and so did her capacity to learn. In the therapy there were certain limitations to progress and this is discussed in terms of how Ellie's disability affected the basic achievements of emotional development, including a mind with a solid ‘reality ego’, able to contain anxiety, and able to maintain depressive functioning. The importance of parallel parent work, to share observations and understanding of the child's functioning is discussed. Difficulties for both child and parents in dealing with the pain of difference and how this limits emotional intelligence are discussed. The author hopes that this paper will encourage the offering of psychoanalytic psychotherapy to children and young people with learning disabilities, who are significantly more likely to suffer from mental health problems than their peers.     

Distancing and Solidarity as Resistance to Sexual Objectification in a Nude Dancing Bar

ABSTRACT

Drawing on observation and interviews in a mid-Atlantic nude dancing bar, I examine front-stage customer-dancer relations as well as dancers' discourse among themselves backstage. I use James Scott's theoretical framework regarding subordinate group resistance strategies to analyze dancers' attempts to resist customers' harassment. On the micro-level dancers exercise agency, reconstructing their identities within the larger context of macro-level oppression. Dancers' front stage tactics include spatial distancing, verbal one-liners, physical aggression, calling on customers, and united action with other dancers. Backstage, dancers reframe the public text, articulating their own identity construction by creating a social site for solidarity and desexualizing the body.     

The creative process and psychoanalytic insight

The paper looks at the prevalence of audio-visual culture and how it is endemic in our everyday lives. It explores how popular culture emerges in the consulting room and some of the dilemmas posed for the therapist. It goes on to consider how popular culture connects to narratives, dreams and the formation of images in the clinical context. Some clinical vignettes explore audio-visual material in relation to their possible therapeutic message. One suggestion is made that the prevalence of popular culture could intensify anxieties associated with watching and looking and at the same time increase our desires to dismiss and submerge these anxieties. Popular culture in the consulting room reflects a world outside. Psychodynamic psychotherapy and the Media Arts can bring each other into ‘mutual illumination’.     

Psychodynamic counsellor training integrating difference

Abstract

Psychodynamic counselling has been criticized for being inflexible, authoritarian, antiquated and unresponsive to the issues of modern-day society. Psychodynamic counsellor training is sometimes seen as a poor relation of ‘proper’ psychotherapy therapy training. This article is written by two psychodynamic counselling course trainers who have wresded with the above criticisms and who have striven to deliver a training course that is coherent in its adherence to a psychodynamic counselling model but which embraces equal opportunities issues and takes account of a diverse society. The article focuses on ways in which sexual identity, race and culture are integrated into the course curriculum and indeed into the course philosophy and community. Traditional psychoanalytic interpretations of homosexuality are challenged and multicultural counselling ideas are merged with psychodynamic counselling theory and skills.     

Reflections on a psychiatric placement

Abstract

During a seminar last year, I was teaching a group of counselling students on the subject of depression. One of the students asked me what I thought of referring a depressed client to a psychiatrist. I replied that in my opinion it was better to keep a person out of the psychiatric services as much as possible. This was an opinion I began to reconsider over the course of a six-month psychiatric placement, undertaken as part of an analytic psychotherapy training.     

Associations between psychological characteristics and indicators of metabolic syndrome among Chinese adults

Current knowledge about the relationship between psychological characteristics and metabolic syndrome (MetS) components is limited in Asian populations. The purpose of this study is to investigate linkages between physiological markers of MetS and life satisfaction, hostility, and depression in Chinese adults. Secondary analyses were conducted using cross-sectional data from parents of randomly selected middle school students participating in a pilot study in Qingdao, China. Among 440 parents who consented to participate (237 women, 203 men), 368 provided valid responses in all three categories of psychological characteristics, and only those subjects were included in these analyses. General linear models and logistic regressions were run separately by gender, controlling for covariates. Among women, life satisfaction was inversely associated with triglyceride levels (p = .04), LDL-C (p < .01), risk of hypertriglyceridemia (OR[.53], p < .01), HDL-C (OR[.78], p = .03), and MetS (OR[.52], p = .03). No associations were found between life satisfaction and any psychological characteristics among men. Among women, hostility was positively associated with triglyceride level (p = .04) and risk of hypertriglyceridemia (OR[2.12], p < .05). Among men, hostility was positively associated with waist circumference (p = .04), waist-hip ratio (p < .05), and fasting plasma insulin (p < .01). Depression was not associated with any physiological measurement in either gender. These findings indicate that relationships exist between certain psychological characteristics and physiological indicators of MetS among Chinese adults, although there may be important differences between genders.