Effects of live modeling, covert modeling and rehearsal on assertiveness in psychiatric patients.

The present study evaluated the effects of live modeling, covert modeling, and rehearsal in unassertive psychiatric patients. Psychiatric patients scoring 19 or below on the Wolpe-Lazarus Assertiveness Scale were assigned to one of five conditions, with 10 subjects in each group: (1) Test-retest (no treatment). (2) Live modeling plus rehearsal. (3) Live modeling without rehearsal. (4) Covert modeling plus rehearsal, and (5) Covert modeling without rehearsal. All subjects were videotaped (pre- and post-test) while responding to eight interpersonal situations (four training scenes; four generalization scenes) requiring assertive responses. Pre- and post-test responses for all subjects were rated independently by judges on several verbal and non-verbal components of assertiveness. The results indicated that live modeling and covert modeling effected improvements in the assertive behavior of the patients, but that the two treatments were not differentially effective. Generally, the addition of rehearsal to live or covert modeling failed to enhance treatment. But on two measures, the covert modeling plus rehearsal condition was superior to the other treatments. There was evidence for transfer of treatment effects from training to generalization scenes. No differences were found among the groups on the Wolpe-Lazarus Assertiveness Scale and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The results were discussed in light of prior findings with live and covert modeling procedures.     

Perception of nonlinguistic auditory rhythms by the speech hemisphere

Two groups of right-handed young adults were tested on a series of handedness measures and on dichotic nonverbal rhythmic sequences. Cross-validated multiple regression analysis revealed that all of the cerebral-lateralization/manual-praxis measures were positively related to the degree of left-hemisphere perceptual asymmetry for nonverbal rhythms (Crawford peg, scissor, handwriting, Crawford screws, tracing, total R = .67). Seventeen of the 52 subjects manifested significant (p < .05) left-hemisphere laterality coefficients for the dichotic stimuli. More complex rhythms elicited greater left-hemisphere perceptual preference. The results are discussed in reference to the concept of cerebral lateralization.     

Penser les temporalités à l’accueil des urgences psychiatriques : paroles d’intervenants de la crise

ObjectiveTo explore the relation to times in crisis units and psychiatric emergencies by crisis stakeholders.MethodIt is in a qualitative logic that the collection and analysis of data are discussed. 9 crisis stakeholders participated in the study. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the Grounded Theory.ResultsThe Grounded Theory shows significant phenomena resulting the experience of temporality in psychiatric emergencies: plural human temporalities (1), impacts of multiple temporalities (2), reorganizing temporalities of the relationship (3), and appropriation of temporality (4). The manner of appropriating time depends essentially on the emotional control and the reflexivity of the therapeutic actions.ConclusionCrisis stakeholders are in temporality of immediacy, speed and subjective urgency and suggest us thinking in less quickly and better. Team exchanges are so many suspended moments that contribute to the resumption of a thought process and avoid acting too quickly. Participants would like the relational component to be privileged with patients.     

An abbreviated PTSD checklist for use as a screening instrument in primary care

Although the importance of recognizing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in primary care has been well-established, routine screening for PTSD remains unfeasible for many primary care clinics because of the length of the available screening instruments. Thus, the purpose of this work was to develop and validate a brief screening tool for PTSD. In Study 1, four short forms of the PTSD Checklist-civilian version were identified that captured a majority of the variance in the measure. In Study 2, the performance of these short forms was evaluated in a separate sample of primary care patients. We found that both two-item and six-item versions have adequate psychometric properties for screening purposes and suggest that the selection of one version over the other depends on the specific needs of each primary care clinic.     

The triumph of American psychiatry: How it created the modern therapeutic state

Over the past 170 years, American psychiatry has progressively asserted its authority over a larger segment of the American population. From the mid-1800s to the end of World War II, psychiatry had authority over the asylum population, which markedly increased in the first half of the twentieth century due to the influence of eugenics, an ideology that argued the ‘mentally ill’ had to be segregated from society. After the war, American psychiatry adopted Freudian conceptions of mental disorders, which enabled it to begin treating people in the community who were ‘neurotic’ in some way, which dramatically expanded its influence in society. Then, in the 1970s, when many in American society were questioning psychiatry’s legitimacy as a branch of medicine, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) responded by adopting a disease model for diagnosing mental disorders, which it set forth in the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. There were no scientific discoveries that led to this new model, but soon the APA was informing the American public that mental disorders were diseases of the brain, and that psychiatric drugs helped fix those diseases, ‘like insulin for diabetes.’ The APA, in concert with pharmaceutical companies, has successfully exported this belief system to much of the developed world. In order to break free of this ‘therapeutic state,’ the public needs to understand the history of how it came to be, and see the social injury it has caused.     

Misreadings,Clarifications and Reminders: A Reply to Hutchinson and Read

ABSTRACT

Analytic philosophy is often associated with a physicalistic naturalism that privileges natural-scientific modes of explanation. Nevertheless there has since the 1980s been a heterodox, somewhat subterranean trend within analytic philosophy that seeks to articulate a more expansive, ‘non-reductive‘ conception of nature. This trend can be traced back to P.F. Strawson’s 1985 book Skepticism and Naturalism: Some Varieties. However, Strawson has long been ignored in the literature around ‘soft naturalism’ – especially in comparison to John McDowell. One of the reasons for this is that Strawson’s account of soft naturalism is not often viewed as particularly plausible – it has come in for heavy criticism from the likes of Sebastian Gardner (2007) and Robert Stern (2003). In this paper, I argue that Strawson’s soft naturalism ought to be re-assessed: that his critics can be refuted, and that his naturalism remains a compelling alternative to the likes of McDowell’s. I attempt this through a ‘radicalisation’ of the modest Strawson’s position, demonstrating that his naturalism has implicit in it something like Marx’s conception of human ‘species-being’.     

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy in paediatric liaison: a diagnostic and therapeutic tool

Paediatric liaison work requires an appreciation of the interweaving of the different factors involved when a child has physical symptoms. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is usually viewed simply as a potential treatment option. This paper argues that its use is both therapeutic and diagnostic and that it should be valued for this breadth of contribution. The therapeutic process is conducted in a way that can promote an understanding of the child and their context and thus enhance the ability 9 to meet the child's needs by all involved in their care. This can be achieved without sacrificing the degree of privacy that the psychotherapist/patient relationship requires. Material is presented from the psychotherapy of a child who had an hereditary condition which moved unexpectedly into a terminal 2 phase after psychotherapy was started. Examples are given to illustrate the importance of the understanding gained from therapy and how, through an integrative process, it was used to assist the overall 4 care. The material also describes the potential diagnostic use of information from psychotherapy when this is formulated by consideration of conscious and unconscious mechanisms alongside mental state phenomenology. This has implications for the relationships between disciplines and for their training requirements.