Genders and sexualities in individuation: theoretical and clinical explorations

Abstract :  Gender assignment, as a key aspect of identity and cultural position, has existed throughout recorded time and across all cultures. An individual's biological sex and particular cultural milieu has a profound effect on their sense of themselves as a gendered being. Sexuality is a more recent marker in identity formation. In the last few decades there has emerged a great deal of interest in the psychology of gender formation, in the interplay of biological sex, culture, brain development, and attachment experiences in the formation of gender identities. Queer theory in its post-modern deconstructionist thinking has suggested that gender is a socially 'constructed' concept having no biological or psychological precursors or realities. Contemporary developmental psychoanalysis is bridging the gap between concepts of gender as purely biological and gender as non-existent. In this paper I explore the emergence of same-sex desire at mid-life, presenting two case histories with extensive dream material. The impact of sexual desire on gender identities is examined through the lenses of culture, dynamic systems theory, neuroscience, and depth psychology. The use of dream analysis as a window into the body/mind movement of gender emergence reflects my sense of gender as a fluidly shifting reality of mind, neither hardwired nor fictional.     

OPEN-MINDEDNESS

Abstract: Open-mindedness is typically at the top of any list of the intellectual or "epistemic" virtues. Yet, providing an account that simultaneously explains why open-mindedness is an epistemically valuable trait to have and how such a trait is compatible with full-blooded belief turns out to be a challenge. Building on the work of William Hare and Jonathan Adler, I defend a view of open-mindedness that meets this challenge. On this view, open-mindedness is primarily an attitude toward oneself as a believer, rather than toward any particular belief. To be open-minded is to be aware of one's fallibility as a believer, and to acknowledge the possibility that anytime one believes something, one could be wrong. In order to see that such an attitude is epistemically valuable even to an already virtuous agent, some details of the skills and habits of the open-minded agent are elucidated.     

EPISTEMIC MALEVOLENCE

Abstract: Against the background of a great deal of structural symmetry between intellectual and moral virtue and vice, it is a surprising fact that what is arguably the central or paradigm moral vice—that is, moral malevolence or malevolence proper—has no obvious or well-known counterpart among the intellectual vices. The notion of "epistemic malevolence" makes no appearance on any standard list of intellectual vices; nor is it central to our ordinary ways of thinking about intellectual vice. In this essay, I argue that there is such a thing as epistemic malevolence and offer an account of its basic character and structure. Doing so requires a good deal of attention to malevolence simpliciter . In the final section of the essay, I offer an explanation of our relative unfamiliarity with this trait.     

The Most Agreeable of All Vices: Nietzsche as Virtue Epistemologist

It has been argued with some justice by commentators from Walter Kaufmann to Thomas Hurka that Nietzsche's positive ethical position is best understood as a variety of virtue theory – in particular, as a brand of perfectionism. For Nietzsche, value flows from character. Less attention has been paid, however, to the details of the virtues he identifies for himself and his type. This neglect, along with Nietzsche's frequent irony and non-standard usage, has obscured the fact that almost all the virtues he praises are intellectual rather than moral. The vices he most despises include dogmatism, intellectual partisanship, faith, boredom, the desire for certainty and pity. The virtues he most appreciates include curiosity, honesty, scepticism, creativity, the historical sense, intellectual courage and intellectual fastidiousness. These tables of values place Nietzsche squarely among so-called responsibilist virtue epistemologists, such as Lorraine Code and Linda Zagzebski, who emphasize that knowledge is infused with desire and affect. I argue that curiosity construed as the specification of the will to power in the domain of epistemology is the cardinal Nietzschean virtue, and that the others – especially intellectual courage and honesty – are presupposed by curiosity. Thus, Nietzsche turns out to accept his own peculiar brand of the thesis of the unity of virtue.     

Ethical Challenges in the Treatment of Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities

The effective provision of psychotherapy services to individuals with intellectual disability requires consideration of ethical issues related to clinical competence, access to services, obligations to multiple parties, guardianship, and appropriate assessment practices. This article provides an overview of major ethical considerations with guidance for clarifying and resolving common ethical concerns. Psychologists are encouraged to expand access to psychotherapy services for this population while maintaining awareness of potential modifications, training needs, and boundaries of professional competence. The authors provide recommendations and resources for effective and ethical treatment of psychotherapy clients with intellectual disabilities.     

A Longitudinal Study of Semantic Grouping Strategy Use in 6–11-Year-Old Children: Investigating Developmental Phases,the Role of Working Memory,and Strategy Transfer

This two-cohort longitudinal study on the development of the semantic grouping strategy had three goals. First, the authors examined if 6–7-year-olds are nonstrategic before becoming strategic after prompting at 8–9 years of age, and if 8–9-year-olds are prompted strategic before spontaneous strategy use at 10–11 years of age. Children 6–7 and 8–9 years old performed two sort-recall tasks (one without and one with a grouping prompt) at two time points separated 1.5 years from each other. Second, the authors investigated whether short-term or working memory capacity at time point 1 predicted recall in children who did or did not use the semantic grouping strategy 1.5 years later. Third, the authors investigated whether prompted strategic children and children who used the strategy spontaneously differed in strategy transfer to a new task. Developmental results confirmed previous cross-sectional results, but in a longitudinal two-cohort study 6–7-year-olds were nonstrategic, and became prompted strategic around 8–9 years of age, followed by spontaneous strategy use at age 10–11 years. The authors found that memory capacity was not predictive of later use of the strategy. New findings were that prompted strategic children were as equally able as spontaneously strategic children to transfer the strategy to a new task, albeit with smaller recall benefits.     

Learning Under Conditions of Action Information Feedback

Methodological and empirical issues in research on action information feedback (AIF) are discussed, with particular reference to the procedures and results of Annett (1970). Positioning responses practiced under conditions of AIF training are learned, though generally less well than under terminal IF conditions. Effects obtained as a result of AIF training may be subject to variations in movement extent required, gain and other transformations, frequency, temporal locus, and mode of augmentation, many aspects of which remain to be systematically studied.     

“My graduation is my mother's funeral”: Transformation from the paranoid-schizoid to the depressive position in fear of success,and the role of the internal saboteur

Abstract

Freud's conflation of neurotic and existential guilt is challenged in this paper. A study of fear of success in a female analysand is presented that illustrates the resolution of this syndrome through a mourning process in which the neurotic guilt of Melanie Klein's paranoid-schizoid position is transformed into the existential guilt of Klein's depressive position. An evolution within the depressive-position existential guilt is seen as the analysand mourns and separates from an internal mother and father, who are hostile to her developmental needs. This evolution involves the transformation of an idealizing transference, symptomatically enacted through gradations of vicarious living through the analyst, being profoundly transformed into the analysand's active creation of an identity in the world. Simultaneously, the internal world becomes alive in psychic fantasy. This transformation also involves the modification of an internal sabotaging psychic structure, which had been compelled by the dissociated punitive reaction of an internalized angry mother of separation trauma, employing the unconscious re-enactment of an early infant illness. Split-off envy and split-off self-sabotage become consciously owned through the grieving of existential guilt, as visceral experience is converted into symbolization.

Susan Kavaler-Adler. “Meine Graduierung ist das Begräbnis meiner Mutter”: Transformation von der paranoidschizoiden zu der depressiven Position in der Furcht vor Erfolg – und die Rolle des innerenSaboteurs.

Freuds Verschmelzung von neurotischer und existentieller Schuld wird in dieser Arbeit in Frage gestellt. Eine Studie der Furcht vor Erfolg bei einer weiblichen Analysandin wird dargestellt und sie zeigt die Auflösung dieses Syndroms durch einen Trauer-Prozess in dem die neurotische Schuld von Melanie Klein′s paranoid-schozoider Position in die existentielle Schuld von Klein′s depressiver Position umgewandelt wird. Eine Evolution innerhalb der depressiven Position und existentieller Schuld wird gesehen als die Analysandin trauert und sich von der inneren Mutter und dem Vater trennt, die gegenüber ihren Entwicklungsbedürfnissen feindlich eingestellt sind. Bestandteil dieser Evolution ist die Umwandlung einer idealisierenden Übertragung, symptomatisch inszeniert durch Abstufungen vikariierenden Lebens durch die Analytikerin und gründlich umgewandelt in die aktive Schöpfung einer Identität in der Welt der Analysandin. Simultan wird die innere Welt in psychischer Phantasie lebendig. Diese Umwandlung involviert auch die Modifikation einer inneren seelischen Struktur, die durch die dissoziierte strafende Reaktion einer internalisierten ärgerlichen Mutter eines Trennungs Traumas aufgezwungen worden war, wobei eine unbewußte Reinszenierung eines frühen kindlichen Traumas eingesetzt wurde. Abgespaltener Neid und abgespaltene Selbst Sabotage werden dem Bewußtsein zugänglich durch ein sich Grämen in existentieller Schuld so wie viszerale Erfahrung in Symbolisierung umgesetzt wird.

Susan Kavaler-Adler. “Mi graduación es funeral de mi madre”: La transformación desde la posición esquizoparanoide a la depresiva en el miedo al éxito, y el rol del saboteador interno.

La combinación de la culpa neurótica y la culpa existencial de Freud is puesta en duda. Se presentará un estudio sobre el miedo al éxito de una analizanda mujer para ilustrar la resolución de este síndrome a través de un proceso de duelo en el cual la culpa neurótica de la posición esquizo-paranoide de Melanie Klein se transforma en la culpa existencial de la posición depresiva de Klein. Como una evolución dentro de la posición depresiva la culpa existencial es vista mientras la analizanda hace el duelo y se separa de su padre y madre internalizados, quienes son hostiles hacia sus necesidades de desarrollo. Esta evolución involucra la transformación de una transferencia idealizada actuada sintomáticamente a través de gradaciones de formas de vida sustitutivas a través de la analista, para pasar a ser una de transformación profunda en la activa creación de la identidad de la analizanda en el mundo.Simultáneamente su mundo interno toma vida en la fantasia psíquica. Esta transformación también involucra la modificación de la estructura psíquica interna saboteadora, que había sido impuesta por la reacción punitiva disociativa de una madre enojada internalizada por el trauma de separación, empleando la reactivación inconsciente de una enfermedad de la infancia temprana. La envidia y el autosabotage escindidos se vuelven conscientes a través de la aflicción de la culpa existencial, así como la experiencia viceral es convertida en simbolización.     

Seduction,date rape,and aborted surrender

Abstract

This paper clarifies the dual-layered nature of the “demon lover complex,” with its background of both pre-Oedipal trauma and Oedipal-level desire. It draws on an object relations understanding of the unconscious and dissociated addiction to an internal demon object that has derivations in the personalities of the actual parents, and in the internalization of these parents. The dramatic case of early trauma compounded by adult date rape trauma serves to illustrate how a “developmental mourning process” in treatment can resolve such trauma. It also illustrates how reparation with the mother that partially heals pre-Oedipal trauma cannot immunize anyone against Oedipal-level attractions to a “demon lover” father, as represented in a displacement, resulting in victimized behavior, and in an aborted surrender to heterosexual desire. However, this victimization can be resolved, as seen in the clinical illustration, when the psychoanalyst has an understanding of the mourning process in developmental terms, working with a natural interaction between mourning and transference evolutions in treatment. The case also demonstrates the transitional object role of the psychoanalyst who is involved with the healing of pre-Oedipal trauma through mourning.     

Cerebellar Tasks do not Distinguish Between Children with Developmental Dyslexia and Children with Intellectual Disability

This paper explored the claim that only children with developmental dyslexia, whose reading ability is discrepant from their average general reasoning ability show specific deficits in motor tasks assessing cerebellar functioning (Fawcett et al., 2001 Fawcett, A. J. and Nicolson, R. I. 2001. “Dyslexia: The role of the cerebellum”. In Dyslexia: Theory and good practice, Edited by: Fawcett, A. J. 89–105. London: Whurr.  [Google Scholar], Cerebellar tests differentiate between groups of poor readers with and without IQ discrepancy. J. Learning Disabilities, 34, 119) and rapid serial naming (RAN, Wolf & Bowers, 1999 Wolf, M. and Bowers, P. 1999. The double deficit hypothesis for the developmental dyslexias. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91: 1–24. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], The double deficit hypothesis for the developmental dyslexias. J. Educ. Psychol., 91, 1). All available children between the ages of 11 and 14 were recruited from two special schools for children with either (a) formally-diagnosed intellectual disabilities (N?=?18); or (b) formal diagnoses of developmental dyslexia (N?=?25). These two groups of children did not differ on gender, age, pseudoword decoding abilities, or on 7 of 8 literacy measures, but did differ significantly, as expected on verbal and non-verbal reasoning tasks. Importantly, there were no deficits in bead threading ability or postural stability in the children with developmental dyslexia compared to the children with intellectual disabilities. There were also no between-group differences in rapid naming measures. The present results therefore provide no support for the claim that cerebellar deficits or RAN distinguish between children with dyslexia and children with intellectual disabilities that include reading.