Complex in memory,mind in matter: walking hand in hand

This paper aims to highlight four major points: first: a ‘Jungian attitude’ understood as a viewpoint which enables work with interconnectedness through various fields of knowledge. Second, that complexes are dynamic, as is memory, and that both are transformed by experience and develop hand in hand with each other i.e., the transformation of the complex occurs through the transformation of memory as embodied in internal working models, and vice versa. Third, complexes and archetypes are linked to each other in matrices of one form or another and lead to the complexity of the psyche, which is a developing system. Fourth, the analytical process provides an arena that enables and consolidates interconnections that foster a better intrapsychic transition. The analytic meeting promotes profound changes, redesigning our neural architecture as well as our psychic landscape.     

Response to ‘Containment lost’ by Andrew Briggs

This is a response to Andrew Briggs’ paper presented to the ACP Conference in June 2017. Briggs’ paper, sobering, pessimistic and challenging, looks at the emotional pressures on child psychotherapists in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) as a result of the imposition of the internal market in the NHS. He posits that this has caused the loss of organisational containment, not just for child psychotherapists, but for all those clinicians who work in CAMHS. Briggs writes that this loss of containment is evident in clinicians’ experience of meaninglessness in their work and that this meaninglessness may lead to the despair of the death instinct. For Briggs, this goes along with the loss of professional identity as a once favoured discipline. He compares this fall from grace to Satan’s as described in Milton’s Paradise Lost. If, as he suggests, there has been a strong sense of being the favoured discipline, then maybe a dependence had grown in the profession whereby this loss now feels like a terrible abandonment. The author of this response sees hope amidst the despondency being forced upon workers in the NHS and makes the case for us to engage and resist in a number of practical ways.     

Satisfaction of Health Science teachers with the convergence process of the European Higher Education Area

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has implied a major transformation of university studies in European countries. The aim of this study was to assess the satisfaction of university teachers in the area of Health Sciences with the convergence process to determine positive and negative aspects in their practices. The sample was composed of 1,361 teachers of Spanish public universities. They all participated in an ad hoc survey that included questions pertaining to the following issues: a) personal and professional information, b) general and institutional aspects, c) aspects related to teaching, research, and administrative work, d) methodology and the teaching-learning process, e) assessment of students, f) training of teachers, and g) coordination, organization, and resources at the school. Results reveal that teachers are not totally satisfied with the way the EHEA is being established. In conclusion, certain changes would be necessary to achieve real convergence between countries.     

The impact of presentation format on causal inferences

The impact of the presentation format of covariation information on causal judgements was examined in a fictitious virus-disease causal induction task. Six different judgement conditions were created by crossing two levels of virus-disease covariation (0, .5) with three levels of disease base rate (.25, .5, .75). The covariation information was presented differently to three groups of participants. In a first group, it was presented in propositional format summarising the frequencies of the four patient types, namely patients with or without the virus who either did have or did not have the disease. In a second group the same information was presented in a 2×2 table with the cell frequencies represented in terms of countable objects (the presence/absence of virus/disease was shown as schematic faces that varied in expression and colour). In a third group the covariation information was presented in terms of a cumulative frequency tree with the two main branches representing the frequencies of patients with and without the disease which further decomposed into subgroups of those with and without the virus. The ability to discriminate between the levels of covariation was poorest in Group 1; it was significantly improved in Group 2, and was best in Group 3. These results suggest that the format with which covariation information is presented to reasoners exerts a significant influence on causal judgements.     

Relations Between Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–A Scales and Rorschach Variables With the Scope and Severity of Maltreatment Among Adolescents

This study examined preexisting Rorschach (Exner, 2001) and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–A (MMPI–A; Butcher et al., 1992) profiles to determine if selected MMPI–A scales and Rorschach variables would jointly associate with the number and severity of maltreatment subtypes (physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and emotional maltreatment) of 157 adolescents (ages 14–17) with documented maltreatment histories. The Maltreatment Classification System was used to systematically code the maltreatment attributes. Six Rorschach variables (MOR, PER, Afr, SumY, SumC’, Human Content) were significantly correlated with the number of maltreatment subtypes, but none of the anticipated MMPI–A scales were related. MMPI–A Scale 7 and Rorschach variables Ego, MOR, and PER were jointly associated with physical abuse severity. MMPI–A Scale 0 and Rorschach variables MOR, PER, SumY, SumC’, PTI, Human Content, and Texture jointly associated with sexual abuse severity. This study supports the potential for certain MMPI–A scales and Rorschach variables to reflect the impact of adolescents’ maltreatment experiences in terms of the number and severity of types of maltreatment experienced. Because both instruments captured different aspects of adolescents’ maltreatment experiences, clinicians should consider using both when evaluating the impact of maltreatment on adolescents.     

Reactions to AIDS and Other Illnesses: Reported Interactions in the Workplace

Previous research on the public's response to AIDS has been concerned with attitudes and knowledge in relation to the disease itself. The present study investigated American students' willingness to interact in the workplace with AIDS patients and compared this with their reactions to cancer and hepatitis patients. The effects of perceived control over the cause of the disease were also examined. Exposure to the diseases was manipulated with written scenarios. Results demonstrated that the type of illness affected a willingness to interact with individuals—AIDS patients were reacted to least positively, followed by hepatitis, and cancer patients. Perceived control over the cause of the disease did not affect reactions.     

Infants’ scanning of dynamic faces during the first year

This research investigated infants’ scanning of a talking, socially engaging face. Three- to four-month-olds looked equally at the mouth and eyes whereas 9-month-olds attended more to the eyes than mouth. These findings shed light on information infants’ seek from dynamic face stimuli.     

Visual attention to emotion in depression: Facilitation and withdrawal processes

Attentional biases for sadness are integral to cognitive theories of depression, but do not emerge under all conditions. Some researchers have argued that depression is associated with delayed withdrawal from, but not facilitated initial allocation of attention toward, sadness. We compared two types of withdrawal processes in clinically depressed and non-depressed individuals: (1) withdrawal requiring overt eye movements during visual search; and (2) covert disengagement of attention in a modified cueing paradigm. We also examined initial allocation of attention towards emotion on the visual search task, allowing comparison of withdrawal and facilitation processes. As predicted, we found no evidence of facilitated attention towards sadness in depressed individuals. However, we also found no evidence of depression-linked differences in withdrawal of attention from sadness on either task, offering no support for the theory that depression is associated with withdrawal rather than initial facilitation of attention.     

The Role of Imagery in the Production of Written Definitions

This study of a literacy course begins with methodological approaches useful in the historical study of the literacy profession, its practices, beliefs, and participants. A model course is presented via “moments” in the history of literacy. Results from implementations of the model course are also presented.