Sociology and psychology within the scope of scientific dishonesty

A survey is undertaken based on qualitative analyses of the cases of scientific misconduct from the Danish Committee on Scientific Dishonesty’s first five years of collecting data, with additional information from selected international sources, in which underlying psychological motivations can be judged. An carlier version of this paper was presented at a symposium, Scientific Misconduct. An International Perspective, organised by The Medical University of Warsay, 16 November, 1998.     

On self-disclosure: The vulnerable therapist

The therapist may stimulate the family's growth by sharing his personal experiences directly with them. This helps by providing the family with a model of a real (versus symbolic) person and encouraging them to respond in new and competent ways. As a result, the emotional commitment of the therapeutic system may deepen, while unconscious conflicts that have been causing impasses may surface and be resolved. The therapist hopes that his self-disclosure will benefit the therapy, but understands that there are risks involved. Specific guidelines can help in deciding when not to share, what kinds of problems can be revealed, and what attitudes best strengthen this endeavor. Self-disclosure is discussed here in an experiential frame-work. The author illustrates the above points with examples from his own personal clinical and supervisory experiences.The author would like to thank his wife, Linda Barth Garfield, MSS, without whose sustaining support this paper could not have been written, and his partner, Ellen Berman, MD, for her valuable comments and encouragement. The masculine pronoun is used in this paper for convenience, and because the author is often referring to himself.     

Symbolic experiential journeys: An introduction

This introductory article describes the origins of this special issue on Symbolic-Experiential Family Therapy. It goes on to elaborate the basic assumptions of Carl Whitaker's approach which emerge as unifying themes in the contributors' articles. It concludes with a tribute to Whitaker.The author wishes to acknowledge Linda Barth Garfield, MSS, and Ellen Berman, MD, for their helpful assistance and editorial comments in the development of this paper.     

In defense of strategic therapy

The practice of strategic therapy has raised a number of critical issues and has stimulated criticism of various sorts. Among the criticisms leveled at strategic therapy are that it involves the taking of too many risks, that it is deceptive, that it is controlling and manipulative, that it is disrespectful, and that it is superficial and narrow. Each of these five major areas of concern is discussed and addressed with case examples to illustrate a rationale and justification for the use of these less conventional methods.     

The child sexual abuse victim: Assessment and treatment issues and solutions

Particular attention is given in this paper to the assessment process with child sexual abuse victims and recommendations are made regarding practical issues both in the assessment and the treatment phases of therapeutic work with child victims.     

Using psychodynamic concepts in strategic family therapy: A suicidal adolescent case

This paper describes the treatment of a suicidal adolescent with strategic family therapy. The cotherapists conceptualized the case psychoanalytically and systemically. They propose that their understanding of psychodynamics enhanced their ability to tailor their interventions to the family's unique style and capacities. Rather than dismiss psychodynamic concepts as irrelevant to strategic family therapy, they maintain that an appreciation of individual members' ego strengths, defenses, affects, and unacknowledged impulses leads to the construction of more effective metaphors and a set of interventions more isomorphic to family patterns.     

Physicians and obligatory social activism

This essay examines the claim that physicians have a special obligation to engage in social and political activism. Four ethical paradigms are considered. Two paradigms, the preventive medicine and the social medicine models, embody a limited professional obligation to advocate the priority of health in society; the justification for a more aggressive stance is limited by the failings of paternalism. The radical model and the heroic model speak to issues of personal virtue rather than professional obligation; they are not strictly comparable.     

The unforgivable humiliation: A Dilemma in couples' treatment

Therapists sometimes encounter cases of intense marital discord in which the disaffected spouse seems unable to specify the reason for his or her discontent except in the vaguest, most general terms. Such cases may be extraordinarily difficult to treat, as the disaffected partner may seem impervious to any attempt at negotiation, to the point of dissolution of the marriage. The reason for the disaffected spouse's intransigence may seem unclear to the other spouse, to the therapist, and even to herself/himself. We hypothesize an explanation for this phenomenon in terms of the disaffected partner's experience of having suffered humiliation at the hands of the other spouse and offer a plan for treatment, citing case materials.     

Illegality 1988

The author presents how the Holocaust appears symbolically in an obsessive-compulsive neurosis in 1988 in Budapest, through the therapy of a 16-year-old boy and his family. The behavior therapy that was first applied made the symptoms even more serious, supposedly because the index patient interpreted it as pursuit. The hypothesis supposed the appearance of the Holocaust in the third generation—as a family myth—and intervention based on this hypothesis brought an end to the neurotic symptoms. The knowledge of historical processes is very important in psychotherapeutic treatment.I would like to acknowledge my debt and my appreciation to Valeria Kiss, occupational therapist, Central National Institute, Budapest, who has had a major role in creating therapy, as co-therapist. I would like to thank Beata Susansky and Gareth Dewar for helping in translation and Andras Posman for helping with the figures of the genogram.