Reflections on Contemporary Psychotherapy Practice, Research, and Training

We do not lack for criticism about psychotherapy practice, research, and training. Admittedly, there is much there that needs to change. But, thus far, what have we done right? What are some of the positive, affirming, constructive strides that have been made with regard to therapy practice, research, and training? In this paper, those questions are addressed. Ten broad-based themes about some aspects of psychotherapy are presented and discussed; while by no means exhaustive, each is considered to be quite robust and clearly reflective of some of the truly constructive facets now evident in the field.     

The relationship between induced emotional arousal and amnesia

An experiment was conducted to test a hypothesis emanating from a similarity in data pattern between studies on amnesia and studies on the effects of arousal on memory. The hypothesis was that arousal and amnesia might be related, or more precisely, that amnesia induced in the laboratory might be mediated by high levels of arousal. Subjects in this experiment were presented with a thematic, short story in pictorial form. One version of the story consisted of a traumatic, arousal-inducing event placed between neutral events. A second version of the story contained the same neutral events in the beginning and the end, but also a neutral event in the middle. Palmar skin conductance, heart rate, and subjective self-ratings were used to determine that the manipulation made had caused different degrees of emotional arousal for the two groups of subjects presented with the different versions of the story. The methods used to determine memory performance were recall and recognition. The data obtained indicate that amnesia induced in the laboratory is mediated by emotional arousal in terms of concepts of attention and reconstruction.     

Reactions to DMT as related to psychotic and borderline personality organization

Thirty-one inpatients in a psychiatric clinic were assessed with DMT and the Structural Interview. In order to assemble every relevant reaction that an individual might have to a percept-genesis, 130 DMT variables were formed. The results were first subjected to a quality control of the DMT-scores and then subjected to partial least squares in latent variables (PLS) discriminant analysis. The analysis showed that it is possible to separate patients with psychotic PO (PPO) from those with borderline PO (BPO) by means of the 130 variables. The BPO group is characterized by aggressive manifestations, sensitivity to threat, identity lability and various transformations of the Hero gestalt. The PPO group, on the other hand, is characterized by high threshold values for perception, lack of identity, denial and repression of the peripheral person at a late-phase level. There are other perceptual reactions that are important predictors of PO than the defence categories of the manual. These perceptual reactions do not correspond to the traditional psychodynamic defence mechanisms. Our conclusion is that principal component analysis (PCA) and PLS are useful methods of finding discriminating patterns of perceptual reactions to the DMT for patients with different PO.     

Historical influences on the use of assessment methods in counseling psychology

This paper considers the effects of four historical influences on the use of assessment methods in counseling psychology: the vocational guidance, psychometric, mental hygiene, and Rogerian counseling/psychotherapy traditions. Each historical influence is examined, and some of the implications each influence has had on our current use of or manner in approaching assessment methods are considered.     

Self-concepts of mountain children of Nepal

The authors explored the basis of the self-concepts of young children from impoverished villages high in the mountains of Nepal by having them respond to the How I See Myself questionnaire (A. Juhasz, 1985). The participants were 101 children, 7 to 14 years old, from the Sherpa and Tamang ethnic groups. The results provide evidence for questioning the appropriateness of the content of Western self-esteem instruments for such children. The authors argue that items about satisfying basic physical needs may be most appropriate for assessing the self-esteem of such children.     

A tactile suffix effect

Evidence for a representational tactile memory was obtained from a tactile analogue of the auditory suffix effect. In two experiments, a short sequence of tactile stimuli applied to the fingers was followed by an acoustic (control) or tactile (suffix) recall signal. The serial position curves for the two conditions were compared. They revealed similar and strong primacy effects, but recall of the last few stimuli was higher in the control condition. This terminal control advantage was attributed to the retention of raw tactile information.     

The intricacy of memory span

The effects of word frequency on memory span were explored using the “up-and-down” method. Mean spans were greatest when the sequences were of all high-frequency words (5.82), and smallest when they were of all low-frequency words (4.24). For mixed-frequency sequences, mean spans were greater when the high-frequency words were presented before the low-frequency words (5.19) than when the low-frequency words came first (4.65). The findings are discussed in terms of the primary-secondary memory distinction worked out for single-trial free recall, and the logic of this distinction is used to argue against attributing span performance to a simple unitary process.     

Initial memory deficits and subsequent recovery in two cases of head trauma

This study describes initial and one-year follow-up findings on verbal memory testing of two patients who sustained moderate head injuries. The two main purposes were (a) to capture the specific patterns of memory disorders shown by these two head-trauma patients, and (b) to explore the nature of the recovery of these disorders. Several episodic memory tests and semantic memory tests were employed as well as questions about autobiographical events having occurred prior to and after the trauma, and about various aspects of the accident itself causing the trauma. The main conclusions to be drawn from the study are that the memory disorders demonstrated are based on difficulties in memory organization, and that the two patients differ in the nature of the recovery of the deficits.