Variables which differentiate placement of adolescents into juvenile justice or mental health systems

Studies of the variables that determine whether an adolescent is placed in the mental health or juvenile justice system for treatment have led to conflicting conclusions based on impressionistic data. The primary hypothesis of this study--that demographic variables would and personality/psychopathology variables would not differentiate into which system a youth will be placed--was supported. Adolescents were studied at intake into both the juvenile justice system and the mental health system. Data were collected on demographics (structured interviews), personality/psychopathology (MMPI), social adjustment (CAAP), and academic achievement (PIAT). A discriminant function analysis identified eight statistically significant variables which differentiated the two groups. In order of decreasing importance they are: ethnicity, gender, MMPI-depression, previous mental health history, CAAP-productivity, drug use, parental marital history, and parental religious preference.     

Perceiving, imaging, and preferring physiognomic stimuli

Physiognomic color responses in perception, imagery, and affect were investigated. Maluma and taketa, nonsense stimuli defined by many investigators as physiognomic, were utilized as prototypical physiognomic stimuli, along with eight other stimuli of various sorts. In Experiment 1, 22 subjects matched the colors of the stimuli; in Experiment 2, 27 subjects reported their imagery to the stimuli; and in Experiment 3, 16 subjects gave their color preferences for the stimuli. The Munsell sets of colors were employed throughout. Significant differences between the physiognomic and other stimuli were found on the brightness and saturation of color matches, images, and preferences. Other differences (e.g., the latency of color images) were also present. Distinctions were also noted between the two physiognomic stimuli. These results support the priority of innate and perceptual processes in physiognomy over those of learning and memory, although some ambiguities still remain.     

Recognizing people seen in events via dynamic "mug shots"

This study examined effects of an event and dynamic mug shots on facial recognition. Witnesses saw either a film of a liquor store holdup staged by six perpetrators, slides of the same targets, or freeze-framed views from the filmed event. Slides of different facial views of targets among 12 foils, or dynamic 180 degrees mug shots of the same men, or multiple static views were administered 24 hr later in yes-no recognition tests. Recognition (d') was poorer for the same men seen in the event than in slides, but better for dynamic than for static mug shots. Nondynamic event characteristics were responsible for poor recognition of people seen in events, whereas dynamic aspects of facial transformations, not multiple views, seemed responsible for the superiority of dynamic mug shots. The implications of these results for issues of ecological validity of traditional face recognition methodology and for static feature models vs. dynamic transformation models of face recognition are discussed.     

Three visits to eternity: Freud, Wiesel, and Patient X

Freud's experience on the Acropolis is reviewed and reappraised. Also, the experience of Elie Wiesel at the Wall in Jerusalem and Patient X's reaction visiting an Egyptian temple are examined. Carl Jung's wish to go to Rome and his inability to do so are noted. The aim of the paper is to offer deeper understanding about intense reactions many sensitive and creative people experience over travel to special places. These places are treated as idealized and ambivalently loved transference objects. Normal anticipatory pleasure prior to the trip is impaired and reality pleasure at the site cannot be enjoyed. When these spots are reached, ego regression is initiated by the intolerably intense narcissistic pleasure mobilized by the gratification of fantasies that were felt to be unrealizable. The fantasies can be conscious or unconscious and from oedipal as well as preoedipal and postoedipal developmental levels; however, they always involve the fulfillment of overwhelmingly powerful wishes. The deep ego regression, archaic fantasies, and the complex defenses mobilized are frightening since there may also be concern about ego dissolution or irreversible transformation. One highly adaptive solution which helps master these conflictual and developmental experiences is creative ego activity. While maintaining integrity for the individual ego and enhancing the self, creative work and accomplishment also enrich and advance the cultural process.     

The revival of "Dora": advances in psychoanalytic theory and technique

For nearly six decades after its publication in 1905, Freud's remarkable case of Dora remained untouched by critical comment. However, beginning in the early 1970's, an abundance of articles began to appear, which focused exclusively on the Dora case. The present paper reviews the literature of this so-called "Dora revival" in order to explain the historical and theoretical reasons leading to this extraordinary burst of research. Above all, two vital developments in the psychoanalytic discipline created the climate that fostered the Dora revival. First, there was a revolutionary change in attitude toward the phenomenon of countertransference: in contrast to the classical view of countertransference as a disruptive interference in treatment, analysts increasingly regarded countertransference as a pervasive and natural process, which could be potentially utilized to enhance understanding of the patient's unconscious conflicts and defenses. Second, there was enormous and rapid growth of a comprehensive psychoanalytic theory of adolescence and its treatment. Thus, based on a more favorable attitude toward countertransference, and a much improved understanding of the unique problems of adolescence, psychoanalysts could reexamine and better understand the decisive events that contributed to Freud's abortive analytic treatment of Dora.     

Psychoanalytic observations on the pathology of depressive illness: selected spheres of ambiguity or disagreement

This paper has two general sources: my own clinical psychoanalytic work extending over about four and one half decades; and consideration of certain outstandingly influential ideas in our literature: first, those of the pioneer contributors, and then those of certain more recent writers, whose views have sometimes exhibited important differences from those widely held in the past. I try to evaluate the two groups--in their occasional overlapping and important divergences, in relation to my own clinical experience. A certain general position of my own emerges from such process inevitably; but it is far from "revolutionary." Indeed, the contrary is more largely true. In extreme anticipatory condensation--what I do propose, from my own reflections, is the preeminent importance of an archaic characterological core in depressive illness.