What is the Accordion Effect?

In "Action and Responsibility,' Joel Feinberg pointed to an important idea to which he gave the label "the accordion effect.' Feinberg's discussion of this idea is of interest on its own, but it is also of interest because of its interaction with his critique, in his "Causing Voluntary Actions,' of a much discussed view of H. L. A. Hart and A. M. Honoré that Feinberg labels the "voluntary intervention principle.' In this essay I reflect on what the accordion effect is supposed by Feinberg to be, on differences between Feinberg's understanding of this idea and that of Donald Davidson, and on the interaction between Feinberg's discussion of the accordion effect and his critique of the voluntary intervention principle.     

Fred Plaut in conversation with Andrew Samuels

Abstract :  This is a reprint of an interview of Fred Plaut (who died in June 2009) conducted by Andrew Samuels in mid-1988 and first published in April 1989 in the  Journal , 34, 2, pp. 159–83. The interview covers Plaut's early life, his career, and historical observations of the development of the Society of Analytical Psychology from its beginnings, and of the wider community of Jungian analysis. Plaut reflects uninhibitedly on such topics as the role of leadership in analytical psychology, discussing the parts played by Michael Fordham in London and Hannes Dieckmann in Berlin. Plaut explains his thinking concerning individuation.     

James Astor in conversation with Warren Colman

In this interview with Warren Colman, James Astor speaks about his development as a Jungian analyst from his own experience of personal analysis in the 1960s to his recent retirement from clinical practice. The discussion covers his long association with Michael Fordham, the child analytic training at the SAP, the infant observation seminars with Fordham and Gianna Henry through which Fordham was able to make new discoveries about infant development, his experience of supervision with Donald Meltzer and the development of his own thinking through a series of papers on the analytic process, supervision and the relation between language and truth. The interview concludes with reflections about the legacy of Michael Fordham and the future of analytic work.     

Hostilidad,patrón de conducta tipo A y reactividad cardíaca

Resumen

La presente investigación tuvo como objetivo estudiar el efecto de la hostilidad autoinformada en la reactividad cardíaca de sujetos Tipo A/B. Los sujetos fueron 40 estudiantes varones repartidos en cuatro grupos: (1) Tipo A con alta Hostilidad, (2) Tipo A con baja Hostilidad, (3) Tipo B con alta Hostilidad y (4) Tipo B con baja Hostilidad. Todos ellos pasaron por tres pruebas de reactividad psicofisiológica: El Test de la Respuesta Cardíaca de Defensa ante estimulación auditiva intensa, una Tarea de Aritmética Mental y una Tarea de Juego de Vídeo Competitivo. La variable dependiente registrada fue la tasa cardíaca. Los resultados indican que en las tres pruebas no se observan diferencias en la reactividad de la tasa cardíaca entre sujetos Tipo A y B con alta Hostilidad autoinformada. Sin embargo, sí se observan diferencias entre sujetos Tipo A y B con baja Hostilidad autoinformada, siendo los sujetos Tipo A los que muestran mayores incrementos en tasa cardíaca durante la Respuesta Cardíaca de Defensa y el Juego de Vídeo Competitivo. En la Tarea de Aritmética Mental se observa esta tendencia, aunque no llegan a ser diferencias significativa s. Estos resultados sugieren que la supresión o negación de la hostilidad en sujetos Tipo A está asociada con un incremento en la reactividad cardiovascular.     

‘With healing in her wings…’: Integration and repair in a self-destructive adolescent

This paper describes certain Jungian concepts related to integration and repair. Fundamental to this is Jung's concept of the self, which Fordham has made the basis of his model of development. To Jung's notion of the self as an integrator and organizer of experience, Fordham has added the idea that the self divides up, or deintegrates. Three corollaries of Fordham's model, pertaining to whole and part objects and the depressive position, are amplified through infant studies.

Clinical material from the treatment of a pigeon-phobic adolescent is presented, which attempts to demonstrate that a significant part of what the phobia represented was an infantile state of projective and introjective identification with an anxious mother. Treatment facilitated actions of the self that contributed to the integration of the experiences represented by the pigeons, so that what had been split off became a deintegrate capable of being reintegrated.

The focus of this paper is on the developmental as well as the pathological. Both are conceived in relation to the treatment.     

Self objects and development: Infant states of mind in an adolescent girl

In the context of Fordham's model of the deintegrating-reintegrating self, the paper discusses the total quality of the baby's earliest deintegrations and the nature of what Fordham terms the self object. The use of the term ‘whole object’ in Klein's and Fordham's terminology is explored and the self object is placed in the context of Jung's construct of the self and the archetypes. The paper illustrates how residues of the self object permeated a rule-making defensive structure in a 14-year-old girl and how the therapy provided an opportunity for the defence to loosen and for elements that had been locked, as potentials, in a ‘bump car’ self object, to unfold and develop. These elements included the possibility of enjoying the feminine qualities of being a girl and exploration of the mother-infant couple and its confusions in her inner world. In addition, they included getting in touch with an infant, vulnerable part of her personality and modifying a habitual defence which was to take refuge in projective identification with an aggressive, omnipotent phantasied brother. Another important element unfolded through the separation of herself from the idealized, precept-daughter in her mother's mind. A fixed projective identification with a self object became more flexible as the object was explored and developed, and its archetypal absoluteness modified, in the therapeutic relationship.     

环境雌激素双酚A对成年小鼠学习记忆和突触结构的影响*

双酚A (bisphenol, BPA)是一种广泛存在的环境内分泌干扰物,它可与雌激素受体结合干扰内源性雌激素对中枢神经系统的调控作用。本研究通过将10周龄小鼠灌胃染毒BPA (0.4、4、40 mg/kg/day)3个月,研究长期BPA暴露对成年小鼠记忆行为和突触可塑性的影响。开场行为测试结果表明, BPA (0.4、4、40 mg/kg/day)增加雄性的站立次数和理毛频率, BPA (4 mg/kg/day)却显著减少雌鼠的站立次数。水迷宫和被动回避行为模型检测显示, BPA主要损伤雄鼠的空间学习记忆和被动回避记忆。通过制备海马CA1区超薄切片后,电镜观测发现, BPA (0.4、40 mg/kg/day)暴露降低雄鼠海马CA1区突触数密度,缩短雄鼠突触前活性带长度,减小雄鼠突触后致密体(PSD)厚度,增加雄鼠突触间隙宽度。进一步用Western blot方法检测突触前、后的标志性蛋白Synapsin I和PSD95以及兴奋性氨基酸NMDA受体NR1亚基和AMPA受体GluR1亚基蛋白的表达,发现BPA暴露致雄鼠Synapsin I、PSD95、NR1蛋白表达水平下调。而BPA对雌鼠的记忆行为、突触形态、突触蛋白和受体蛋白均没有明显作用。以上结果提示长期B PA暴露性别特异性地影响成年小鼠的活动性和探究行为,损伤雄鼠的学习记忆,这些作用可能通过下调突触蛋白和NMDA受体的表达而负性影响突触结构可塑性,最终影响雄鼠的学习记忆功能。     

Gender differences in type a behavior and hostility within an organizational setting

Abstract

Recent investigations suggest that the hostility component of the Type A behavior patter (TABP) is a greater detriment to health than the overall pattern. Some researchers suggest that certain Type A characteristics (e.g., job-involvement) are actually adaptive. This study compared the relative relationship of the TABP and hostility to career-related achievement and psychosocial adjustment among 223 service-delivery employees. Male and female participants completed the Jenkins Activity Survey and the MMPI Hostility Scale as part of a cardiovascular disease risk factor screening. The TABP was positively associated with managerial status for both men and women. However, the TABP was positively related to psychosocial adjustment variables among men only. Hostility was significantly related to undesirable outcomes including lower job status, life dissatisfaction, and unfavorable perceptions of the workplace for both men and women. Discussion addresses organizational factors which might perpetuate hostility and the TABP, as well as gender differences in the experience of these constructs.     

Response of the pituitary-adrenal axis in terms of type a behaviour,hostility and vital exhaustion in healthy middle-aged men

Abstract

Pituitary-adrenal axis was studied in terms of Type A behaviour, hostility and vital exhaustion among 69 healthy middle-aged men. The results showed that psychological factors could explain a significant proportion of the biologically manipulated responses of HPA axis, but they worked in different ways. Type A behaviour was related to a high level of mean basal ACTH and a low level of cortisol response to ACTH stimulation after dexamethasone suppression; hostility was related to a high level of mean basal cortisol and a high cortisol in cortisol/ACTH ratio, while vital exhaustion was characterized by a low level of mean basal ACTH and a decreased ACTH in relation to cortisol. The adrenocortical patterns, i.e. a high ACTH-low cortisol; a high cortisol; and a low ACTH-low mean basal cortisol, as related to Type A behaviour, hostility and exhaustion, respectively, are in line with the traditional physiological stress model and suggest that different adrenocortical responses might be able to identify different mental stress processes. Sense of control has been suggested to be a key concept for psychological understanding of this finding.     

Neuropsychological Functioning in Children with Medium Chain Acyl Coenzyme A Dehydrogenase Deficiency (MCADD): The Impact of Early Diagnosis and Screening on Outcome

Children with medium chain acyl coenzyme A dehydrogenase deficiency (MCADD) have been reported to be at high risk for neurocognitive deficits. However this has not been systematically studied and little is known about the exact nature of neuropsychological sequelae or of the impact of early diagnosis and screening on outcome. We examined cognitive and adaptive outcome in children with MCADD (N?=?38, age range: 2 years, 2 months – 10 years, 3 months) diagnosed either through a newborn screening program (tandem mass spectrometry/MSMS) or upon clinical presentation. There was no evidence of overall intellectual impairment in either groups but there was some suggestion of poorer verbal and specific executive functioning (i.e., planning) abilities in the unscreened cohorts. Adaptive functioning was relatively intact with the exception of reduced Daily Living Skills in both our screened and unscreened groups. Early diagnosis and greater number of hospitalizations were related to higher verbal, communication, and socialization skills. Overall, our results highlight the importance of early diagnosis and management for children with MCADD.