The onset of childhood amnesia in childhood: A prospective investigation of the course and determinants of forgetting of early-life events

The present research was an examination of the onset of childhood amnesia and how it relates to maternal narrative style, an important determinant of autobiographical memory development. Children and their mothers discussed unique events when the children were 3 years of age. Different subgroups of children were tested for recall of the events at ages 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 years. At the later session they were interviewed by an experimenter about the events discussed 2 to 6 years previously with their mothers (early-life events). Children aged 5, 6, and 7 remembered 60% or more of the early-life events. In contrast, children aged 8 and 9 years remembered fewer than 40% of the early-life events. Overall maternal narrative style predicted children's contributions to mother–child conversations at age 3 years; it did not have cross-lagged relations to memory for early-life events at ages 5 to 9 years. Maternal deflections of the conversational turn to the child predicted the amount of information children later reported about the early-life events. The findings have implications for our understanding of the onset of childhood amnesia and the achievement of an adult-like distribution of memories in the school years. They highlight the importance of forgetting processes in explanations of the amnesia.     

Whose Fault? The Origins and Evitability of the Analytic–Continental Rift

This is a broad survey of the chronology of the rift between continental and analytic philosophy, starting in 1899. Whereas at that time there was no discernible divide, as the twentieth century progresses we can see a gradual parting of the ways in which philosophy was done, culminating in a period of maximum separation in 1945-68, followed by some convergence. There is one substantial historical thesis proposed, and facts are adduced from the chronology to back it up: that the divide was never absolute, never purely geographical, and above all that it was not inevitable, but was largely the product of accidental historical circumstances, of which the most crucial was the flourishing of totalitarianism in Europe and the disruption caused by two world wars.     

Gender-related inequalities in the division of family work in close relationships: A social psychological perspective

We offer a social psychological perspective on gender-related inequalities in close relationships and integrate two lines of research that have focused on the intrapersonal perceptions and interpersonal consequences respectively of the gendered division of labour. We start with a brief summary of research on gender-related inequalities in the division of labour and discuss prior explanations and paradigms. We then address the extent to which spouses consider the division of labour as fair and the factors that contribute to perceptions of (un)fairness. Central to our argument is the distributive justice framework (<citeref rid="b76">Major, 1987</citeref>, <citeref rid="b77">1993</citeref>; <citeref rid="b113">Thompson, 1991</citeref>) which claims that fairness judgements are affected by people's wants and values, comparison standards, and justifications. In the following section, we address the question of whether dissatisfaction over the division of labour causes relationship conflict and how couples manage these conflicts. The main argument is that conflict over the division of labour generally comprises an asymmetrical conflict structure (with wives as complainants and husbands as defenders of the status quo), which elicits asymmetrical conflict interaction patterns (i.e., demand/withdraw interaction) that result in asymmetrical outcomes (i.e., status quo maintenance). Finally, we summarise the main conclusions and address contributions to theory and research as well as directions for further research.     

Fortalezas Familiares Program: Building Sociocultural and Family Strengths in Latina Women with Depression and Their Families

The purpose of this article is to describe Fortalezas Familiares (FF; Family Strengths), a community‐based prevention program designed to address relational family processes and promote well‐being among Latino families when a mother has depression. Although depression in Latina women is becoming increasingly recognized, risk and protective mechanisms associated with children's outcomes when a mother has depression are not well understood for Latino families. We begin by reviewing the literature on risk and protective psychosocial mechanisms by which maternal depression may affect Latino youth, using family systems theory and a developmental psychopathology framework with an emphasis on sociocultural factors shaping family processes. Next, we describe the theoretical basis and development of the FF program, a community‐based 12‐week intervention for Latina immigrant women with depression, other caregivers, and their children. Throughout this article, we use a case study to illustrate a Latina mother's vulnerability to depression and the family's response to the FF program. Recommendations for future research and practice include consideration of sociocultural processes in shaping both outcomes of Latino families and their response to interventions.     

The effects of trait and state anxiety on attention to emotional images: An eye-tracking study

Attentional biases for threatening stimuli have been implicated in the development of anxiety disorders. However, little is known about the relative influences of trait and state anxiety on attentional biases. This study examined the effects of trait and state anxiety on attention to emotional images. Low, mid, and high trait anxious participants completed two trial blocks of an eye-tracking task. Participants viewed image pairs consisting of one emotional (threatening or positive) and one neutral image while their eye movements were recorded. Between trial blocks, participants underwent an anxiety induction. Primary analyses examined the effects of trait and state anxiety on the proportion of viewing time on emotional versus neutral images. State anxiety was associated with increased attention to threatening images for participants, regardless of trait anxiety. Furthermore, when in a state of anxiety, relative to a baseline condition, durations of initial gaze and average fixation were longer on threat versus neutral images. These findings were specific to the threatening images; no anxiety-related differences in attention were found with the positive images. The implications of these results for future research, models of anxiety-related information processing, and clinical interventions for anxiety are discussed.     

Understanding Hope. Persons in the Process of Dying

Changes both within the profession of psychoanalysis and in society as a whole have affected our psychoanalytic training programs and presented new ethical challenges. Whereas in earlier decades training programs needed to be concerned primarily about the inviolability of the training analysis and the choice of appropriate analytic candidates, today there is little support for psychoanalysis as a treatment modality. Institutes are experiencing greater competition in attracting quality candidates and in providing them with adequate training experiences. This strain encourages institutes to operate in unethical ways to attract candidates. On the other hand, within the profession itself we are experiencing much theoretical ferment and the increasing feminization of the profession. These changes are affecting our training institutes and our ethical values in both positive and negative ways.     

Wilhelm Reich and Anna Freud: His expulsion from psychoanalysis

This article describes the growth of hostility towards Wilhelm Reich in the psychoanalytic community over his Marxist ideology and activism as well as disagreements over the death instinct. It brings to the fore the behind the scenes political manipulations between Ernest Jones and Anna Freud to effect the expulsion of Reich both from the Vienna and Berlin local psychoanalytic societies and from the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). It describes Reich's reactions to these events and the pressure placed on other psychoanalysts to stop supporting him and also the revision of history about the expulsion. It discusses the use of the term "crazy" as it was used in the psychoanalytic movement. Further the article discusses personality attributes of Anna Freud leading to counter-transference possessiveness to children and women, especially patients. It briefly touches on the attitudes of both Sigmund and Anna Freud toward sex and how this furthered the clash with Reich. It discusses the similarity between Anna's actions toward the Burlingham children and what happened to the children of Reich.     

Some thoughts about thought disturbance in adolescence

One of the principal aims of adolescence is the development of the capacity to think for oneself. The authors explore the difficulties caused by disturbances of thinking in borderline adolescents, pointing out the role that the analyst can take in promoting better functioning of their patients' mental processes. Two cases are explored, one through a supervision and the other through direct clinical experience. Both illustrate the efforts of the analyst to carry out 'management in the area of thinking' with those borderline patients who have not received help from their parents to think, and still need to be shown how mentation takes place. The authors propose some changes in technique in order to implement this improvement, including sharing with the patient the way in which the analyst thinks about him. Thinking itself can be an important integrating factor for these patients.

Une des tâches principales de l'adolescence est de développer la capacité à penser par soi-même. Les auteurs explorent les difficultés occasionnées par des troubles de la pensée chez des adolescents borderline et soulignent le rôle que peut jouer l'analyste pour favoriser un meilleur fonctionnement des processus psychiques chez ces patients. Deux cas sont étudiés dans cet article ; dans l'un, le matériel est extrait de séances de supervision, dans l'autre, il est tiré directement de la situation thérapeutique. Ces cas mettent en évidence les efforts de l'analyste pour aider le patient à mieux fonder ses processus de pensée ; dans les états limites, le patient bien souvent n'a jamais pu bénéficier de l'aide de ses parents dans ce domaine et devra encore apprendre comment mettre en ?uvre l'idéation. Les auteurs proposent quelques modifications techniques afin de faciliter l'activité mentale chez ce type de patient, visant notamment à lui faire part de la manière dont son analyste pense à lui. La pensée en elle-même peut être un facteur important qui favorise l'intégration psychique chez ces patients.

Uno degli scopi principali dell'adolescenza e' lo sviluppo della capacita' di pensare per se stessi. Le autrici esplorano le difficolta' causate dai disturbi del pensiero in adolescenti borderline, sottolineando il ruolo che l'analista puo' avere nel promuovere un miglior funzionamento dei processi mentali dei loro pazienti. Vengono riportati due casi, uno attraverso l'esperienza di supervisione e l'altro attraverso l'esperienza diretta del lavoro clinico. In entrambi i casi viene illustrato lo sforzo dell'analista di portare avanti il 'management nell'area del pensare' con quei pazienti bordeline che non sono stati aiutati dai loro genitori a pensare, e che ancora hanno bisogno di capire come prende luogo il processo del pensare. Le autrici propongono dei cambiamenti nella tecnica per poter implementare tale miglioramento, compreso il condividere con il paziente il modo in cui l'analista pensa a lui. Il pensare puo' essere di per se' un importante fattore di integrazione per questi pazienti.

Eines der Hauptziele der Adoleszenz ist die Entwicklung der Fähigkeit, für sich selber zu denken. Die Autorinnen betrachten die Schwierigkeiten, die durch Denkstörungen bei Borderline- Jugendlichen verursacht werden, und stellen die Rolle heraus, die Analytiker einnehmen können, um ein besseres Funktionieren der mentalen Prozesse ihrer Patienten zu fördern. Es werden zwei Fälle betrachtet, einer durch Supervision und der andere durch direkte klinische Erfahrung. Beide illustrieren die Bemühungen der Analytikerin, 'Management im Bereich des Denkens' auszuführen mit diesen Borderline-Patienten, die von ihren Eltern keine Unterstützung zu denken erlangt hatten, und denen noch gezeigt werden muss, wie Denkprozesse stattfinden. Die Autorinnen schlagen einige Veränderungen in der Technik vor, um diese Verbesserung zu implementieren, einschliesslich dem, dass man dem Patienten mitteilt, wie die Analytikerin über ihn denkt. Denken selbst kann ein wichtiger integrierender Faktor für diese Patienten sein.     

The 'black hole' in the inner universe

Summary The metaphor of the 'black hole' has been borrowed from astronomy in order to describe certain phenomena occurring in work with autistic and psychotic children. This metaphor is different from Tustin's concept of the 'black hole'. I shall attempt to describe another phenomenon: not that of the hole in the self, resulting from premature separation, but the hole in the object that the autistic or psychotic child is relating to - or, rather, turning away from. I describe an autistic boy's need to protect himself against the catastrophic experience of relating to an object with such a hole in its mind. That is a particular kind of a depressed object which emits deadness, instead of the lively, responsive affect that the child should get in communication. It is not an intrusive object, but it sucks in and drowns energy. If the experience of relating to the 'black hole' in the object happens early and in such a powerful way that the child's energy feels insufficient to defend against it in any way, then the fear of annihilation becomes so strong that it may lead to the wiping out of the whole internal universe in order to escape its deadly gravitational pull. Only when a different kind of relationship gets internalized, through therapy, with an object that contains and returns life and energy, can the mind grow enough to be able to communicate the other, darker side of the relationship from which it has closed itself away.