From the Couch to the Street: Applications of Psychoanalysis to Work with Individuals Who Are Homeless and Mentally Ill

Current-day psychiatric treatment of severely disturbed populations tends to focus on the biological, behavioral, and social dimensions of rehabilitation. This paper addresses the relative neglect of the complex psychodynamic and interpersonal aspects of treatment of individuals who are homeless and mentally ill by presenting two clinical cases that are discussed from various psychoanalytic frames of reference. Based on their clinical experiences, the authors conclude that psychoanalysis offers valuable frameworks to guide the treatment process and the structure of the treatment setting for individuals who are homeless and suffering from severe psychiatric illness.     

Modulation of aggression toward an intruder during the reproductive cycle of white king pigeons (columba livia)

For three of four mated male pigeons, intrusion of a still, two-dimensional image of a conspecific into the reproductive situation initiated aggressive behavior over months of daily testing with little habituation. There was a transient increase in aggressive contacts against the head of the target within two days prior to or following the occurrence of the second egg. Such an increase did not occur with extended daily testing of the male alone and was more closely synchronized to egg laying than time since the introduction of the female. The results are consistent with previous studies of reproductive and schedule-induced aggression in birds.     

The Effect of User Control on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing of Pictures

This paper explores psychology related to the moment that control is exercised during interactions with media. What is the difference in the thoughtful and emotional engagement of viewers with the content presented between reacting to media versus controlling its onset? Subjects viewed pictures on a computer as part of a 2 (control) × 2 (picture type) × 16 (repetitions) × 2 (order) within-subjects experiment (N = 22). In one condition, subjects controlled the picture onset with a computer mouse. In the other condition, the computer controlled the picture onset. Heart rate and skin conductance were collected as indicators of the automatic attention and arousal elicited by each manipulation of control. Results showed that subjects exhibited a cardiac orienting response when the computer controlled the onset of emotional pictures. Subjects failed to orient when they had control over picture onset. Physiological arousal, as measured by skin conductance, was higher when subjects had control over picture onset. Subjects gave higher subjective ratings on valence and arousal for pictures that were presented by the computer. These results are discussed in relation to current assumptions about interactive media and audience activity.     

Music and Language Skills of Children with Williams Syndrome

We examined music and language abilities in a group of children with Williams syndrome (WS, n = 19) and a comparison group of normal children (n = 19) equivalent for receptive vocabulary. Consistent with previous reports and the model of Nonverbal Learning Disabilities (Rourke, 1989), the children with WS scored better on verbal than performance measures of the WISC-III, and performance on simpler verbal tasks (e.g., receptive vocabulary) was superior to performance on more complex verbal tasks (e.g., comprehension). Performance on music tests was relatively good, being comparable to mental age based on receptive vocabulary and similar to that of the comparison group. Music and language abilities were moderately correlated for both groups of children. Compared to normal children, the WS group expressed greater liking of music and a greater range of emotional responses to music.     

Floridi’s Fourth Revolution and the Demise of Ethics

Luciano Floridi has proposed that we are on the cusp of a fourth revolution in human self-understanding. The information revolution with its prospect of digitally enhancing human beings opens the door to engineering human nature. Floridi has emphasized the importance of making this transition as ethically smooth as possible. He is quite right to worry about ethics after the fourth revolution. The coming revolution, if it unfolds as he envisions, spells the demise of traditional ethical theorizing.     

Heart rate and respiration in reptiles: contrasts between a sit-and-wait predator and an intensive forager

The current study investigated respiration and heart rate in two species of reptiles with distinct behavioral strategies: (1) the Sudan plated lizard (Gerrhosaurus major), a sit-and-wait predator; and (2) the Savanna monitor (Varanus exanthematicus), an intensive forager. It was hypothesized that (a) the plated lizard would not express respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and (b) the monitor, a reptile with behavioral and physiological characteristics similar to mammals, might express respiratory sinus arrhythmia, a pattern previously observed only in mammals. The data demonstrated that although there were strong vagal influences on the heart, respiratory activity was not manifested in the heart rate pattern of the plated lizards. In contrast, the monitor exhibited a reliable ventilatory influence on the heart rate pattern, although the pattern differed from the respiratory sinus arrhythmia observed in mammals. Consistent with the Polyvagal Theory (), the vagal control of the reptilian heart in both species appears to be mediated through the phylogenetically older unmyelinated system, a system that evolved to support metabolic conservation and not social behavior.     

Genetic and caregiving-based contributions to infant attachment: unique associations with distress reactivity and attachment security

In the longitudinal study reported here, we examined genetic and caregiving-based contributions to individual differences in infant attachment classifications. For 154 mother-infant pairs, we rated mothers' responsiveness to their 6-month-old infants during naturalistic interactions and classified infants' attachment organization at 12 and 18 months using the Strange Situation procedure. These infants were later genotyped with respect to the serotonin-transporter-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR). Maternal responsiveness uniquely predicted infants' attachment security. Infants' 5-HTTLPR variation uniquely predicted their subtype of attachment security at 12 months and their subtype of attachment insecurity at 12 and 18 months. The short allele for 5-HTTLPR was associated with attachment classifications characterized by higher emotional distress. These findings suggest that 5-HTTLPR variation contributes to infants' emotional reactivity and that the degree to which caregivers are responsive influences how effectively infants use their caregivers for emotion regulation. Theoretical implications for the study of genetic and caregiving influences are discussed.