Emotional awareness,gender, and peculiar body-related beliefs

Research has broadly established that emotional disturbances are associated with body image disturbances. This is the first study to examine links between facets of emotional awareness and peculiar body-related beliefs (PBB), or beliefs about an imagined or slight defect in one's appearance or bodily functioning. In a sample of college students (n=216), we found that low emotional clarity (the extent to which the type and source of emotions are understood) was associated with higher PBB in both women and men, and the relation between emotional clarity and PBB was further moderated by attention to emotions (the extent to which emotions are attended to) and gender. Men with low attention to emotions and women with high attention to emotions both experienced higher levels of PBB if they also reported low levels of emotional clarity. This interactive effect was not attributable to shared variance with body mass index, neuroticism or affect intensity.     

A pre-suicide state in an adolescent female 1

Abstract

During a pre-suicide state, the enactment of a suicide fantasy is the motive force. The nature and function of a suicide fantasy is explored in this paper in the context of the impact of puberty on the female body image and against the background of the pre-Oedipal and Oedipal father's relationship with his daughter. Case material from the analysis of an adolescent girl is presented to illustrate the crucial role of the father, in the transference, prior to a suicide attempt.

La force motrice qui sous-tend l'état pré-suicidaire est la mise en acte d'un fantasme suicidaire. Cet article explore la nature et la fonction du fantasme suicidaire dans le contexte de l'impact, chez une adolescente, de la puberté sur son image du corps avec, en toile de fond, la relation que le père, pré?dipien et ?dipien, entretient avec sa fille. Un matériel clinique extrait de l'analyse d'une adolescente est présentée afin d'illustrer le rôle crucial du père au sein du transfert avant la tentative de suicide.

Mots-clés: État pré-suicidaire, fantasme suicidaire, puberté et image du corps chez la fille, père pré?dipien et ?dipien, transfert, contre-transfert

Riassunto: Durante lo stato pre-suicidio, il motivo forza è la messa in atto di una fantasia di suicidio. Nell'articolo viene esplorata la natura e la funzione della fantasia di suicidio considerando l'impatto della pubertà sull'immagine del corpo femminile e sullo sfondo di una relazione pre-edipica ed edipica del padre con sua figlia. Viene presentato il materiale dall'analisi di una adolescente per illustrare il ruolo cruciale del padre, nel transfert, precedente al tentato suicidio.

Parole chiave: stato pre-suicidio, fantasia di suicidio, immagine corporale femminile e della pubertà, padre pre-edipico ed edipico, transfert, contro-transfert

Während eines prä-suiziden Zustands, ist das Ausagieren einer Suizidphantasie die motivierende Kraft. Die Eigenschaft und Funktion einer Suizidphantasie wird in diesem Artikel im Zusammenhang mit dem Einfluss der Pubertät auf das weibliche Körperbild und mit dem Hintergrund der prä-ödiplaen und ödipalen Beziehung des Vaters zu seiner Tochter exploriert. Es wird Fallmaterial aus der Analyse eines adoleszenten Mädchens vorgestellt, um die wichtige Rolle des Vaters in der Übertragung vor einem Suizidversuch zu illustrieren.

Keywords: Prä-suizider Zustand, Suizidphantasie, Pubertät und das weibliche Körperbild, prä-ödiplaer und ödipaler Vater, Übertragung, Gegenübertragung     

MODES OF IDENTIFICATION: FREUD'S CONCEPTS REORGANIZED

The author examines Freud's conceptualizations of identification, Melanie Klein's projective identification, and Anna Freud's identification with the aggressor and altruistic surrender of one's own instinctual impulses. After demonstrating that Freud's concept primary identification refers not to a process but to the state of being identified, he suggests the substitution of it with Sandler's term “oneness”. He notes that hysterical identification, narcissistic identification, and introjection are unconscious processes that lead to a state of oneness and that they can be distinguished clinically in terms of the emotional meaning that an object holds for the individual. Furthermore, it is shown that the concept of identification with the aggressor represents a defense mechanism of its own and a specific mode of narcissistic identification, which together with projections and hysterical re-identification play a decisive rôle in projective identification and altruistic surrender of one's own instinctual impulses.     

Value Differentiation Between Enemies and Allies: Value Projection in National Images

The current study aimed to investigate value projection between Palestinians, Israelis, Americans, and Swiss as a function of their group's stance toward the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict. Drawing on image theory, we assumed that images—operationalized by value projection—would be a function not just of features of the target group, but of the rater group's relationship with the target group. Value projection can be seen as an indicator of (de)humanization as values represent goals and desirable behaviors of a person. We therefore expected higher projection to ally than to enemy groups, whereas we expected no difference in projection to out‐groups with neutral relations. Results show that allies did indeed project Security and Power to a higher degree to each other than to enemies, and enemies showed no, or even negative, projection onto each other. The ally of the enemy (Americans) was projected less negatively by Palestinians than vice versa, pointing to the higher complexity of third‐party images as opposed to the more classical ally and enemy images. As expected, Swiss students showed almost no difference in projection to the different out‐groups. These results confirm that the relationship between groups (e.g., alliance, enmity) rather than a consensual view of particular nations determines images.     

Cosmetic Surgery: Feminist Perspectives

Cosmetic surgery is gaining popularity not only in the U.S., but worldwide. The sheer number of procedures being performed makes it seem “normal,” and in the statistical sense it is. Feminist therapists are likely to have clients who are contemplating undergoing one or more of these procedures. Therapists ought to help their clients to understand the motivations underlying a decision to undergo surgery for the sake of improving on nature. In the final analysis, the decision belongs to the woman who may be placing her life at risk to achieve some desired end. The therapist can play a role in helping her to weigh the risks and what will be accomplished in the end.     

Feminism's Third Wave

Summary

“Third wave” feminists, raised in the wake of an established feminist movement as well as a strong anti-feminist backlash, are beginning to define their own feminist agenda. “Third wave” feminists are exploring the contradictions in their lived experience as feminists, and examining the inter section of feminism with their other identities. Young feminists' self-expression has been characterized (by feminists and non-feminists) as “self-obsessed” and “divorced from matters of public purpose” (Bellafante, 1998, p. 57 & 60). In this essay, we provide an alternative view of “third wave” expression, seeing young feminists' honesty in their struggles with various identities as a resurgence of grass roots activism; a return to “the personal.” In this essay, we call for an intergenerational dialogue between second and third wave feminists, and encourage feminist therapists to support and validate young feminists.     

Effects of a physical exercise session on state body image: The influence of pre-experimental body dissatisfaction and concerns about weight and shape

The effects of a physical exercise session on state body image and mood were examined. In a cross-over design, participants were randomised to two groups starting either with physical exercise (PE; experimental condition) or with reading a newspaper (RN; control condition). Before and after PE and RN, participants (N = 65) rated their body dimensions using a digital photo distortion technique and indicated their attitudinal body image and mood. Participants’ judgements of their ‘felt’ body dimensions and attitudes toward their own body were affected differently by PE and RN, indicating that participants felt slightly slimmer and were more satisfied with their bodies after PE. Exercise-induced changes in body perception were greater, the higher the pre-experimental drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction and weight/shape concerns were. Especially in those participants with higher body image disturbances, physical exercise can have a reinforcing effect on immediate body image and mood improvement.     

A Theoretical Framework for Defining,Understanding, and Treating Internet Infidelity

Abstract

We offer a theoretical framework for treating Internet infidelity that employs concepts from postmodernism and transgenerational therapy. With this framework, clinicians will better understand some of the definitional issues and system dynamics involved, which should support more informed, coherent treatment of Internet affairs.     

‘Wholeness,Dignity and the Ageing Self’: A Conversation Between Philosophy and Theology

SUMMARY

Winifred Wing Han Lamb: My philosophical interest straddles the areas of education, religion and theology. As a teacher involved in school philosophy programs, I have also been interested in the philosophy of childhood and particularly in the recurring notion of the ‘whole child’ in education. In considering what ‘wholeness’ could mean for children's education, I have also been led to consider what meaning it holds for the self through the ‘changing scenes’ of life, especially in the face of the challenges of ageing.

The notion of ‘wholeness’ holds an intuitive appeal and invites articulation of the deep truths of our faith with respect to persons in all ‘sorts and conditions.’ In section one of this chapter, I attempt that articulation. But this conversation needs to be complementary. Our chapter is the beginning of a dialogue between philosophy and theology in which both affirm the ageing self in the light of the human search for wholeness and dignity.

Heather Thomson: My theological research into humanity as an image of God led me to inquire about the way in which we could speak meaningfully of ageing and dying in terms of imaging God. This challenged how God-likeness was to be understood in relation to glory, honour and power, terms associated with imaging God and exerting dominion. In searching for a theological view of the self that would confer dignity on the ageing, I was led into conversation with various philosophies of the self, some very helpful for my task.

It seems to me that, if ageing people are to be counted as having dignity and worth, and not discounted, then one's theory of the human person was significant. In pondering the issue, it appeared that a conversation between philosophy and theology would be fruitful. Hence, this joint paper. We each speak from our own discipline but find resonance with each other's work. We see this as a first step in a constructive conversation.     

Strength of faith and body image in Muslim and non-Muslim women

A questionnaire was completed by 98 Muslim and 91 non-Muslim Australian women to examine the relationship between Islam and body image. Path analyses revealed that for Muslim women (but not non-Muslim women) strength of religious faith was inversely related to body dissatisfaction, body self-objectification, and dietary restraint. These relationships were mediated by increased use of modest clothing and by reduced media consumption. These results are consistent with the proposition that adherence to Islam can indirectly protect women's body image from appearance-based public scrutiny and from exposure to Western media.