Processing trauma in psychoanalysis in ‘real’ time and in dreams: the convergence of past,present and future during COVID-19

In the current collective unrest, we and our analysands are living in real time and need vantage points from which to make meaning, as subjective experience of time is collapsing. For many analysands, the past is being relived in the present, with no imaginable future. During the time of COVID-19, dreams are providing a valuable mechanism in working with atemporal emotional trauma, previously uncontextualized. Dream metaphor can provide a transitional space to move around in within the analytic framework. This paper explores a variety of dreams from individual analysands demonstrating different ways of conceptualizing personal and collective experience, bridging between the past, present, and future. Parallels between feeling states related to the current condition and unprocessed implicit memories from the past will be examined, as a vehicle for processing past trauma. Dreams expressing current states of dread for an unimaginable future, as well compensatory dreams showing a hopeful vision of the future will be considered.     

«Grados de libertad» y el estudio de casos

RESUMEN

El desarrollo de la investigación evaluativa en la actualidad tiende a reconocer, teóricamente, la necesidad de una síntesis entre la perspectiva cuantitativa y la cualitativa. En este artículo se abandona la posición cuantitativa fuerte, mantenida por este autor en trabajos anteriores, para presentar ahora la perspectiva cualitativa como complemento necesario de la cuantitativa. Se analiza la metodología cualitativa del estudio de casos dentro del ámbito de la ciencia social y los posibles problemas que se plantean, así como, sus ventajas. También se observan una serie de sugerencias con el fin de mejorar el estudio de casos, en su validez y en su interpretación.     

Modelos y procedimientos de búsqueda de un objeto escondido en función de la edad y del contexto espacial

Resumen

Se propone a 40 niños entre 6 y 12 años la resolución de un problema de índole espacial: buscar un objeto escondido en un espacio uniforme cuando van sabiendo la distancia que los separa de dicho objeto. Los mismos sujetos resuelven la misma tarea en dos contextos espaciales diferentes (un contexto gráfico y un contexto de locomoción). El análisis cualitativo de los modelos espaciales de los sujetos y de sus procedimientos de resolución de la tarea en función de la edad y del contexto permite ilustrar algunos aspectos de la compleja interacción entre la competencia cognitiva general y una cognición más contextualizado.     

Multiple family therapy for Chinese families of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): treatment efficacy from the children’s perspective and their subjective experiences

This paper reports the results of our study that assessed the treatment efficacy of multiple family therapy (MFT) from the perspective of participating Chinese children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and identified their subjective experiences. Forty‐three children with ADHD in the experimental group (EG) completed a forty‐two‐hour MFT, whilst forty‐five children with ADHD in the control group (CG) had attended two writing classes scheduled three months apart that were similar to those of the MFT. Data from the outcome study were gathered using standardized questionnaires and data from the qualitative study were drawn from thirteen children with ADHD who had completed the MFT and attended the focus group interviews (n = 5) or individual interviews (n = 8) conducted in the post‐treatment phase. The results of the Paired sample t‐test and MANOVA indicated no significant changes on the scores for the four measures adopted (perception of competence, hopefulness, parent‐child relationship and perceived social support) in the pre‐ and post‐treatment for the EG and the CG. Five themes emerged from the narratives of children with ADHD, which revealed the children’s subjective experiences with the MFT: (a) full of fun; (b) building friendships through common experiences; (c) a happy family time; (d) safe space; and (e) positive parental responses and communications.