MORTALITY,INTEGRITY, AND PSYCHOANALYSIS (WHO ARE YOU TO ME? WHO AM I TO YOU?)

The author narrates her experience of mourning her therapist's sudden death. The profession has neglected implications of the analyst's mortality: what is lost or vulnerable to loss? What is that vulnerability's function? The author's process of mourning included her writing and her becoming an analyst. Both pursuits inspired reflections on mortality in two overlapping senses: bodily (the analyst is mortal and can die) and character (the analyst is mortal and can err). The subject thus expands to include impaired character and ethical violations. Paradoxically, the analyst's human limitations threaten each psychoanalytic situation, but also enable it: human imperfection animates the work. The essay ends with a specific example of integrity.     

SOME REFLECTIONS ON IAN MCEWAN'S ATONEMENT: ENACTMENT,GUILT, AND REPARATION

Recognizing that enactments have been discussed in psychoanalysis primarily as occurrences in the treatment setting, the author proposes a new application of the term enactments: that it may pertain to the actions of some individuals in their efforts to cope with bad things that they have done to others. That is, enactment can be a substitute‐for‐atonement mechanism. The author illustrates this view of enactment through a discussion of Ian McEwan's novel Atonement (2001), and in particular by examining the behavior and motivations of one of its central characters, Briony Tallis. Included are explorations of the relationships between enactment and guilt and between enactment and reparation.     

ANALYTIC MIND USE AND INTERPSYCHIC COMMUNICATION: DRIVING FORCE IN ANALYTIC TECHNIQUE,PATHWAY TO UNCONSCIOUS MENTAL LIFE

Developed from established psychoanalytic knowledge among different psychoanalytic cultures concerning unconscious interpsychic communication, analysts' use of their receptive mental experience—their analytic mind use, including the somatic, unconscious, and less accessible derivatives—represents a significant investigative road to patients' unconscious mental life, particularly with poorly symbolized mental states. The author expands upon this tradition, exploring what happens when patients unconsciously experience and identify with the analyst's psychic functioning. The technical implications of the analyst's “instrument” are described, including the analyst's ego regression, creation of inner space, taking mind as object, bearing uncertainty and intense affect, and self‐analysis. Brief case vignettes illustrate the structure and obstacles to this work.     

Creative Problem Solving in Small Groups: The Effects of Creativity Training on Idea Generation,Solution Creativity,and Leadership Effectiveness

This investigation evaluated the degree to which creativity training, idea generation instruction, and creative process impacted idea production, creativeness of solutions, and leadership effectiveness. Three sets of hypotheses were tested with a 114 groups of adults. First, groups whose members had some (i.e., one CPS course) or advanced training (i.e., graduate-level study in creativity or creativity professionals) were significantly more effective at idea generation than groups without training. Furthermore, leaders with some and advanced training were perceived to be significantly more effective than those with no creativity training. With respect to creativeness of solutions, the advanced training groups outperformed all others. The second set of hypotheses focused on the effectiveness of idea generation instruction (i.e., instructions without brainstorming, brainstorming, and brainstorming with criticism). Analysis revealed no significant difference for idea generation instruction relative to idea production or creativeness of solutions. The final set of hypotheses examined the use of a simple process structure for groups without prior creativity training (i.e., distinct phases for idea generation and solution development). Analysis revealed that those meetings that followed a simple process structure out performed groups that did not follow a process for both idea generation and creativeness of solutions. Further results are presented and implications discussed.     

Teaching worldviews through creative drama for religious education in Turkey

Abstract

Over the last two decades, Worldview Approach has been mentioned in the field of religious education and spirituality. This article aims to determine the effects of creative drama on teaching worldviews and religions. The main purpose of Worldview Education is to assist individuals to have a broader and deeper understanding on self-identity, worldviews of others, and on the meaning and purpose of life. It also helps individuals to think on ontological, epistemological and ultimate questions about life, values and beliefs. The spiritual development of individuals has a need for several guidelines from the fields of philosophy, theology, and education. As an educational tool, creative drama increases imagination, creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking skills and assists students’ personal and emotional development. Combining Worldview Education with creative drama creates a multidimensional educational environment for a meaningful learning on religions, worldviews, and spirituality.     

Madhouse and the whole thing there

This article presents an autoethnography in the form of a short story of the experiences of a mental breakdown, and subsequent involuntary detainment, alongside the experiences of conducting PhD research outside the mainstream of the discipline of psychology. In response to criticisms of narrative approaches that they are methodologically solipsistic and present a socially atomised self, this narrative combines patient medical records with narrative recollections and reflections on the research process from a contemporary perspective. In doing so, the narrative explores and interrogates themes relevant to creative practice in psychological research, including the notion of authenticity, methodological issues of researching personal experience, the problem of subjectivity and, ultimately, the nature of madness and psychological distress, including its nonlinearity and otherness.     

Using Artist Trading Cards as an Expressive Arts Intervention in Counseling

Artist trading cards (ATCs) are miniature works of art that are created within the dimensions of standardized trading cards or playing cards (2.5 inches × 3.5 inches). ATCs can be made with a variety of media—everything from pen and ink to oil paints, collages, mosaics, stamping, and altered photos. Using this compact art format as an expressive arts intervention in the therapeutic environment provides the counselor with most, if not all, of the same therapeutic benefits of larger art media (e.g., expressive release, creativity, artistic communication, symbolic self-expression, self-exploration, etc.). The unique benefit of the ATC format is that ATCs allow for traditional expressive arts interventions to be “better, faster, and cheaper” in many ways.     

创新思维中原型激活促发顿悟的认知神经机制

创造性是人类智能的高级表现, 创新思维则是个体创造性的核心过程。我们以创造性问题解决中的顿悟过程为研究对象, 提出并验证了创新思维中原型激活促发顿悟的理论构想; 综合运用事件相关电位(ERP)和功能性核磁共振(fMRI)的技术优势, 初步揭示了原型激活促发顿悟的大脑机制。具体表现为, 楔前叶的激活可能与原型激活和关键信息提取有关; 左侧额下回/额中回的激活可能与与思维定势打破和新异联结形成有关; 同时研究也表明大脑的特定准备状态(额中回/扣带前回的激活)对顿悟的产生有积极的促进作用。