The Ferenczi cult: its historical and political roots

I examine how Sándor Ferenczi has survived in the cultural memory of psychoanalysis, and why myths and legends have been created around his life and work. It seems that he could not escape the fate of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis, most notably, that of Freud and Jung: their life and work have become an object of cultic respect for the followers, diabolic figures for the enemies. Quasi-religious cultivation of the “great man” is an often observable phenomenon in literature, politics, history and in science, and it has several political and ideological functions. These functions may help to increase the inner cohesion and the group identity of the cultic community, to defend the group against external threats. Psychoanalysis has always been vulnerable to myth formation; first, for obvious sociological reasons, and, secondly, for reasons originating in the nature of therapy. The cultic functions can be realized in several ways, such as, for example, the ritualization of the transmission of knowledge, and the “biography as passion” that is, attempts to create a biographical narrative in which all life history moments crystallize around the great man's central theme. Most of the biographies on the life of great psychoanalysts are of this kind – and Ferenczi is no exception. A historiography of psychoanalysis must follow the path of modern historiography in general, which attempts at deconstructing both myths and counter-myths about persons, events and processes, in political, as well as in cultural and intellectual history. By examining the structure of myth formation about psychoanalysts we can learn a lot about how ideas are operating in changing social contexts.     

The intergenerational transmission of need for closure underlies the transmission of authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice

Previous research has identified need for closure (NFC) as an important motivational-cognitive basis of authoritarianism and prejudice. However, to date, the role of NFC in the intergenerational similarity in authoritarianism and prejudice has remained unclear. In a sample of 169 parent–child dyads, we investigated the similarity between parents and children in NFC and tested whether this intergenerational similarity may account for the intergenerational similarity in authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice. Our results revealed that parental levels of NFC were indeed concordant with the levels of NFC in their children. Even more importantly, parental NFC was indirectly related to child authoritarianism and prejudice in two ways. The first pathway proceeded through the direct relationships between parental and children’s levels of authoritarianism and prejudice. The second pathway, however, bypassed parental levels of authoritarianism and prejudice and proceeded through the intergenerational similarity in NFC. Our findings thus indicate that a significant portion of children’s levels of authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice can be explained by parent–child similarity in motivated cognition. Implications for developmental theories of prejudice acquisition are discussed.     

Intergenerational occupational transmission: Do offspring walk in the footsteps of mom or dad,or both?

The purpose of this research was to apply the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in order to investigate intergenerational occupational transmission between parents and their children. A sample of 260 undergraduate students completed a questionnaire measuring TPB variables, and congruence was calculated between the parents' occupations and their offspring's chosen profession. Intention to work in the parents' occupations was predicted by attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. Congruence between parents' and their children's occupational choice was predicted by intention and perceived behavioral control. The findings provide support to the relational approach in career choice. Implications of the findings for career counselors and young people's career choices are discussed.     

Women’s spiritually mediated stories about recovery from Alcohol Use Disorder: A brief report

This study explored women’s lived recovery experiences from alcohol use disorder (AUD) facilitated by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The women (n?=?10; age range 30–62 years; married?=?6) completed life story interviews regarding their recovery from AUD with AA participation. Discourse analysis of the interview data yielded themes to suggest the women characterise their recovery as spiritual growth, a healing process with reliance of a higher authority, renewed purpose of life, and actively engaging rehabilitation. Spirituality appears a key resource in women’s AUD recovery.     

Children's Moral Emotions,Narratives, and Aggression: Relations With Maternal Discipline and Support

ABSTRACT. Children who attribute more positive emotions to hypothetical moral victimizers are typically more aggressive and have more behavior problems. Little is known, however, about when individual differences in these moral emotion attributions first emerge or about maternal correlates of these differences. In this study, 63 4–6-year-olds judged how they would feel after victimizing peers for gain and enacted event conclusions using narrative methods adapted from the MacArthur Story Stem Battery. In addition, children's mothers completed assessments of their disciplinary styles and social support, and children's aggressive tendencies were assessed based on ratings from mothers and a second familiar adult. Results revealed that most preschoolers expected to feel happy after their victimizing acts, but variations in happy victimization were unrelated to children's aggression. Several of children's narrative themes, including making amends (e.g., apologizing, reparations), aggressive acts, and mentions of death/killing, however, were related to children's aggression. Moreover, two maternal disciplinary dimensions, higher warmth and reasoning, as well as greater social support were also related to lower child aggression. Children's emotion attributions and moral narratives, however, were unrelated to maternal disciplinary practices or social support.     

Down on the upside: redemption,contamination, and agency in the lives of adult children of alcoholics

We investigated differences in the nature and implications of Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOAs; n?=?53) and non-ACOAs’ (n?=?80) narrative identities. Participants described six autobiographical narratives and completed measures of emotional functioning. Narratives were coded for redemptive (bad things turning good), contaminated (good things turning bad), and agentic (perceived control) imagery. ACOAs exhibited similar levels of redemptive and contaminated imagery, and lower levels of agency in their narratives, relative to non-ACOAs. In addition, themes of redemption, contamination, and agency corresponded divergently with emotional functioning. Among ACOAs, narrative redemption and agency were related to poorer emotional functioning whereas, among non-ACOAs, narrative contamination predicted poorer emotional functioning. These findings provide indication of the manner in which ACOAs story their lives. They also align with the emerging area of research noting that, among certain vulnerable populations, redemptive and agentic imagery serve as predictors of maladaptive functioning.     

The ethics of intergenerational relationships

Abstract

According to the relational approach we have obligations to members of future generations not because of their interests or properties but because, and only because, they are our descendants or successors. Common accounts of relational duties do not explain how we can have obligations to people who do not yet exist. In this defence of the relational approach I examine three sources of intergenerational obligations: the concern of parents for their children, including their future children; the desire of community members to pass on a heritage to their descendants; and the relationship of citizens in an intergenerational polity.     

Tomboyism or Lesbianism? Beyond Sex/Gender/Sexual Conflation

To illuminate questions of sex/gender/sexual conflation the researcher focused on the relationship between reported tomboyism and lesbianism. Narratives of childhood and adolescence were collected from 32 women who were grouped into four gender/sexual status combinations: “lesbian/bisexual butch,” “straight butch,” “lesbian/bisexual femme,” and “straight femme.” The effects of participants’ sexual and gendered statuses on their retrospective accounts of two aspects of tomboyism—“choosing masculinity” and “rejecting femininity”—were examined. Chi square and qualitative analyses suggest that stage in the life cycle, gender, and sexual status influence distinct mergings and separations of sex, gender, and sexuality in women’s retrospective reports. The researcher concludes that attention to sex, gender, and sexuality as both distinct and connected clarifies the relationship between tomboyism and lesbianism.Part of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association in Atlanta, Georgia in 2003. Interview data for this study were originally collected for an unpublished dissertation (Carr, 2002).