A microprocessor-based psychopathology laboratory: I. Why bother?

The greater than usual need for stimulus control, closed-loop design to control for organic state variables, and the acquisition of complex data on thought disorders makes on-line microprocessors especially important in psychopathology research.     

A microprocessor-based psychopathology laboratory: II. Research goals and design prerequisites

The design of a microprocessor-based psychopathology laboratory is influenced by (1) special procedures in many experimental paradigms and (2) some theoretical considerations about psychopathological data. In terms of design prerequisites, these are summarized as flexibility and power to control a spectrum of experiments, large data-processing capacity, ability to provide clinically relevant data on short notice, mobility, and simplicity of operation and programming.     

Savoring interventions for mothers of young children: Mechanisms linking relational savoring and personal savoring to reflective functioning

Parenting interventions can improve parenting outcomes, with widespread implications for children's developmental trajectories. Relational savoring (RS) is a brief attachment-based intervention with high potential for dissemination. Here we examine data from a recent intervention trial in order to isolate the mechanisms by which savoring predicts reflective functioning (RF) at treatment follow-up through an examination of the content of savoring sessions (specificity, positivity, connectedness, safe haven/secure base, self-focus, child-focus). Mothers (N = 147, M_age = 30.84 years, SD_age = 5.13; Race: 67.3% White/Caucasian, 12.9% other or declined to state; 10.9% biracial/multiracial, 5.4% Asian, 1.4% Native American/Alaska Native, 2.0% Black/African American; Ethnicity: 41.5% Latina) of toddlers (M_age = 20.96 months, SD_age = 2.50; 53.5% female) were randomized to four sessions of RS or personal savoring (PS). Both RS and PS predicted higher RF, but through different means. RS was indirectly associated with higher RF through greater connectedness and specificity of savoring content, while PS was indirectly associated with higher RF through greater self-focus in savoring content. We discuss the implications of these findings for treatment development and for our understanding of the emotional experience of mothers of toddlers.     

How the Anthropocene Changes Religious Ethics

Humans are remaking the planet, with the planetary human imprint so profound that all planetary systems are being changed: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and cryosphere (water and ice), the lithosphere (Earth's crust), and the biosphere (the community of life). The changes are so deep and far reaching that a new geological epoch, the first effected by humans, has set in, the Anthropocene. It succeeds the only geological epoch human civilizations have known, the late Holocene. The tattoo of the Holocene, climate stability, is replaced by climate volatility, mass eco-social uncertainty, and extinction. Because the Anthropocene is itself the outcome of cumulative human choices, everything in response also turns on ethics. In this case, that entails rethinking and reforming human responsibility. This essay pursues that, after making the case for climate and the Anthropocene as a new prism for Religious Ethics, one that changes the work of Religious Ethics itself.     

Self-regulation processes and health: the importance of optimism and goal adjustment

This article discusses how self-regulatory models can be used to understand people's response to health threats. The article begins with a general discussion of the principles and assumptions of self-regulatory models of behavior. Two distinct lines of research are then presented addressing two important processes of adaptive self-regulation. First, we provide a brief overview of the literature on optimism and adjustment to chronic disease and other health outcomes. Second, we present an overview of the process of disengagement from unattainable goals, focusing on recent research. We close by making recommendations for future research.     

Constructive Thinking and Burnout among Secondary School Teachers

The present study investigated the relationship between Epstein’s (1998, Constructive thinking: The key to emotional intelligence. London: Praeger publisher.) components of constructive thinking and burnout as experienced by a sample of Dutch secondary school teachers. A postal questionnaire was sent to teachers from randomly selected secondary schools. The response rate was 54.1% (N=433). Four components of constructive thinking significantly contributed to the explained variance in emotional exhaustion (17%), depersonalization (21%), and personal accomplishment (20%). The results of the study suggest that secondary school teachers’ maladaptive thinking processes prevent them from rational thinking during their work, which significantly contributes to the onset of burnout. Burnout intervention programs for teachers are likely to be more effective when the participator’s maladaptive thinking system is taken into consideration. This stems from the idea that personality factors are a probably easier point of departure to tackle burnout symptoms than organizational factors.     

Die Handhabung der Übertragung

Zusammenfassung. Freud hat die Handhabung der übertragung als das schwierigste wie das wichtigste Stück der analytischen Technik bezeichnet. Mit Handhabung meinte er nicht den Umgang mit der übertragung im allgemeinen einschlie?lich der übertragungsdeutungen, sondern etwas Spezifischeres und Zupackendes, das sp?ter den Ruch des Nicht-Analytischen bekam. Der Autor zeigt den wichtigen Stellenwert des Terminus bei Freud und untersucht seine Entwicklung von der Ichpsychologie über Ferenczi und A. Balint bis hin zu Gill und Thom?. Er konstatiert eine erhebliche Bedeutungsverschiebung und -erweiterung. W?hrend Freud damit das energische Eingreifen des Analytikers an dramatischen Wendepunkten der Analyse gemeint hatte, schl?gt der Autor vor, die Handhabung der übertragung heute als eine ubiquit?re Dimension des analytischen Arbeitens zu betrachten. Sie bezieht sich auf den Handlungsaspekt des analytischen Tuns und nicht auf das Deuten im engeren Sinn. Damit wird der Beitrag des Analytikers zur Interaktion thematisiert. Wenn wir diesen Beitrag, d.h. alle Aspekte des Analytikerverhaltens, als Handhabung der übertragung qualifizieren, so erschlie?en wir sie als Elemente des intersubjektiven Geschehens und der übertragungsbeziehung und machen sie der Deutungsarbeit zug?nglich. Die Handhabung der übertragung ist der genuin Freud’sche Ausdruck für das, was Balint und Loch die psychoanalytische Beziehungskunst genannt haben – komplement?r zur Deutungskunst.

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The handling of transference

Summary. In Freuds opinion the handling of transference is the most difficult and important part of psychoanalytic technique. By handling he did not mean dealing with transference and transference-interpretations in general but something more specific and grasping, that has been regarded as non-analytic later on. The author shows, how important the term was to Freud, and explores its development from ego psychology, Ferenczi and A. Balint to Gill and Thom?. He finds a lot of changes and conceptual clarification. Whereas Freud used the term for the vigorous interventions of the analyst at dramatic turning points of analysis, the author suggests to consider the handling of transference as a ubiquitous dimension of analytic work. It refers to the aspect of action in analysis, not to interpretation, and therefore means the contribution of the analyst to interaction. In qualifying this contribution, that is all aspects of the analysts be- haviour as a handling of transference, we make them accessible as elements of the intersubjective process and the transference relationship, and with that we become able to analyse them. The handling of transference is the genuine Freudian term for what Balint and Loch called the art of relating (Beziehungskunst) – complementary to the art of interpretation (Deutungskunst).