Pseudoquotes in psychoanalytic interventions

The syntactical structure of any psychoanalytic intervention is itself overdetermined. As such, when the syntax of an analyst's intervention seems out of the ordinary, it may mark a moment of particular difficulty. One syntactical form used frequently by psychoanalysts is a pseudoquote. In this form, the analyst speaks for the patient, uses the pronoun "I," as though he were, for the moment, the voice of the patient. Three such interventions are presented here from audio-recorded material. The interventions are examined in context, and some probable determinants are sketched. These determinants cluster around wishes and fears associated with "the difficult moment of self-other relatedness." This somewhat empirical portion of the paper is followed by a theoretical discussion in which the development of thought, speech, and the ego are related to the question of whether pseudoquotes actually serve the psychoanalytic process.     

Book reviews

Journal of Religion and Health -     

The therapist's poetry as a therapeutic incident

Poetry can be understood as an intrapsychic record of introspection, and as a means for interpretation in the therapeutic situation. In this installment (the second of a series to be eventually published at book-length) the authors examine from their personal research the uses, as well as dangers, of utilizing poetry in therapy. Poetry should not be used as a gimmick to direct the process of therapy, but as a point of spontaneous interaction, insight, and empathy. Used appropriately, poetry may bring to the client and to the therapist insight and meaning. The therapist may also use his or her own poetry as a creative means for recognizing countertransference in the therapeutic setting.Dr. Moss is an Episcopal Priest and the Executive Director of The Seabury Institute for Pastoral Psychotherapy, Atlanta, Georgia. He is also the co-author ofThe Organization and Administration of Pastoral Counseling Centers and Book Review Editor ofThe Journal of Religion and Health. Dr. Christensen is Senior Consulting Psychiatrist to the Pastoral Psychotherapy Institute, Park Ridge Illinois. In 1981 he was the recipient of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors' Distinguished Contributions Award. This paper was initially presented at the Southeast Regional Conference of The American Association of Pastoral Counselors, Hendersonville, N.C., 1983. Reprint requests should be directed to: The Seabury Institute, 2997 Piedmont Road N.E., Atlanta, 30305.     

Managing Attitudes Toward High Achievers: The Influence 0f Group Discussion

For a variety of cultural, contextual, and interpersonal reasons, individual achievement often meets with potentially demotivating resistance from the group. In groups of between three and seven members, 397 psychology and social work students, in East and Northern Australian cities (Newcastle and Darwin), indicated their attitudes toward high achievers before, during, and after a group consensus task. In each location, and at both individual and group levels of analysis, initially slightly pro-achiever attitudes, following discussion of the issues, became polarized. Such changes, across diverse settings and groups, indicate that group discussion may be a robust tool, both for empowering teams and encouraging support for individual initiative.     

Ambiguity,cubist works of art,and preference

Number of one sec views and verbal judgements of interestingness and pleasingness of Cubist paintings were found to be a function of subjective ambiguity, defined in terms of the Shannon-Wiener average information measure, especially when an expectancy had been established regarding the identity of the main object or person in the paintings. Viewing behaviour was found to increase with subjective ambiguity; verbal judgements were found to decrease. Titles corresponding to varying degrees to the content of the paintings or instructions involving guessing were used to manipulate expectancy. An attempt was made to explain these findings and those involving recall of titles by making reference to Berlyne's point of view and the experimental literature.     

Perceptual tuning and conscious attention: Systems of input regulation in visual information processing

Literature is reviewed in support of very early perceptual input regulation which can be based on higher-order conceptual or structural stimulus properties. This learning-dependent perceptual tuning takes two forms: preconscious orientation, which operates automatically in the processing of most visual information and can be observed as a strong tendency to parse scenic information in terms of conceptually meaningful distinctions, and temporary tuning, in which perceptual biases are modified on a task-specific basis with respect to either scenic information or stimuli whose conceptual properties are arbitrary or conventional such as words as opposed to nonsensical letter strings. Perceptual tuning is contrasted with conscious attention, which is primarily a task selector rather than an input selector.     

On-line Apple II for the recording and analysis of complex motor movements

The system described here was prompted by the need for a method of separately recording various components of a complex motor act. The task involved vertical, horizontal, and turn components. Our particular interest was the relation between integration of components and level of skill demonstrated. The peripheral equipment provides a separate analogue output for each component and plugs directly into the Apple’s game-paddle input. Trial data are stored directly on disk and can be retrieved for subsequent graphical plotting and analysis. The Apple II accommodates up to four inputs and returns results for movements as fast as .05 sec. The programming system can be used, without modification, for a wide variety of motor tasks. No additional interface or clock is required.