The mental pain of the psychoanalyst: A personal view

Abstract

Mental pain is a common concern of psychoanalysts in their professional life. Combining her clinical experience with previous contributions by others, the author presents a personal overview of the patient-triggered mental pain of the analyst. Countertransference is considered to be the major source of the analyst's work-derived mental pain. This type of mental pain is not to be avoided or discarded by the analyst. Rather, the analyst will benefit from tolerating and even welcoming professional mental pain: in most cases, mental pain will bring with it rich clinical material that, upon interpretation, will help him or her to offer previously intolerable contents back to the patient in a transformed version that now becomes acceptable. The analyst's mental pain may emerge in his dreams; clinical examples of this phenomenon are presented. It is suggested that there is an increased chance of the analyst undergoing mental pain when treating patients suffering from severe psychopathology, and a clinical case is reported to illustrate this assertion. The author proposes that a lifelong effort is to be expected from analysts in terms of enhancing their threshold of tolerance to professional mental pain. In situations of mental pain, analysts must be particularly aware of the need to modulate their interpretations before transmitting them to the patient. The capacity of analysts to transform their mental pain (Ta, according to Bion) will depend on the plasticity of their container functions, the quality of their transformation abilities and, in particular, their threshold of tolerance to mental pain.     

Interpretation: signals from the analytic field and emotional transformations

Through numerous clinical examples and from a point of view focused on field theory the author reflects upon what are the main characteristics of ‘transformative interpretations’ and upon the mental and affective conditions that support it. He especially centers his attention on difficult patients who have experienced cumulative affective traumas in their lives.     

Computerized attention retraining for individuals with elevated health anxiety

Background and Objectives: Current cognitive-behavioral theorists conceptualize hypochondriasis as excessive health anxiety (HA). Growing evidence suggests that elevated HA is associated with attentional bias (AB) toward potential health-threat information. Design: This study aimed to examine the effects of attention retraining among individuals with elevated HA, using the established attention modification programs (AMP) designed to train participants to disengage attention from ideographically chosen health-threat words. Methods: Thirty-six randomly assigned individuals with elevated HA completed eight twice-weekly sessions of the AMP (n = 18) or the attention control condition (ACC; n = 18). Results: Despite using the well-established AMP protocol widely used within the field of anxiety disorders, we did not find evidence for change in AB following training. Further, AMP did not outperform ACC in reducing HA and other relevant emotional symptoms. However, both AMP and ACC evidenced overall significant symptom reduction in most of the outcome measures, including overall HA, anxiety sensitivity, general depression and anxiety, and somatic complaints. Conclusions: Further research is needed to better understand the effects and mechanisms of AMP as a possible cognitive intervention for HA.     

How Race Matters and Does Not Matter for White Women in Relationships with Black Men

SUMMARY

Drawing on a qualitative research study, this article provides a beginning exploration for how race both matters and does not matter in white women's relationships with black men. As a means of protecting themselves and their families from pathologizing stereotypes about interracial couples, women make claims that race does not matter. At the same time, they describe ways that stereotypes impact their self identities and their couple interactions. Different situations and relationships create shifts in racial interpretations, and contact with extended family members can change racial meanings. The article offers suggestions for how to create a therapeutic space for discussing race without over-determining its significance.     

THE “AS‐YET SITUATION” IN WINNICOTT'S “FRAGMENT OF AN ANALYSIS”: YOUR FATHER “NEVER DID YOU THE HONOR OF”… YET

The author proposes a new hypothesis in relation to Winnicott's “Fragment of an Analysis”: that as early as 1955, in the case described in this text, Winnicott is creating the paternal function in his patient's psychic functioning by implicitly linking his interpretations regarding the father to the Freudian concept of Nachträglichkeit. The author introduces an original clinical concept, the as‐yet situation, which she has observed in her own clinical work, as well as in Winnicott's analysis of the patient described in “Fragment of an Analysis” (1955).     

Handbook of adult resilience,edited by John W. Reich,Alex J. Zautra,and John Stuart Hall

This study investigated differences in adolescents’ life satisfaction (LS), apprehension of personal and non-personal events, and the influence of recalled life events on LS. The affective temperament (AFT) classification was the framework for the research. Seventy male and 65 female adolescents participated. AFTs were developed through self-reported affect, generating four temperaments: self-actualizing, high affective, low affective, and self-destructive. LS was also self-reported. Apprehension for events was assessed through two tasks: (1) life event recollection and (2) interpretation and recognition of words in a short story. High and low affectives interpreted and remembered events as both self-actualizers and self-destructives. All AFTs, with the exception of self-destructives, showed positive biases. Only individuals with high positive affect were positively primed for non-personal events. Life events predicted self-destructives’ and low affectives’ LS. Self-actualizers showed higher LS, measured for a second time in a sub-sample, than self-destructives. The importance of the AFTs is discussed.     

The Viability of Christian Same-Sex Unions: Why Scripturally Normed Faith Communities Must Support Homosexual Relationships

Abstract

This article examines the common, competing lay theologies employed to address the viability of Christian same-sex unions and critiques their problematic underpinnings. Particular attention is given to the unproductive hermeneutical dynamics that have characterized the debate over this issue. After a critical examination of the relevant biblical texts and other foundational assumptions, the author proposes a biblical theology of Christian same-sex unions as a constructive, conciliatory alternative. The author contends that Christian communities that grant a controlling influence to the Bible as Scripture must accept the biblical testimony on the identity of human beings and the calling of human beings to image God's covenant faithfulness through the gift of sexuality, regardless of sexual orientation. The article is written primarily with clergy in mind, specifically to offer resources for providing guidance in ecclesial processes of discernment on the issue of Christian same-sex unions.     

Adequate proverb interpretation is associated with performance on the Independent Living Scales

The purpose of this study was to examine proverb interpretation performance and functional independence in older adults. From the limited literature on proverb interpretation in aging and its conceptualization as an executive function, it was hypothesized that proverb interpretation would be related to functional independence similar to other executive functions. Tests of proverb interpretation, additional executive functions, and functional ability were administered to nondemented older adults. Results showed that proverb interpretation accounted for a significant amount of unique variance of functional ability scores. This supports including a measure of proverb interpretation to the assessment of older adults.     

Order in the house?

Abstract

The notion that human life at Creation had been set into a series of ordered relationships was central for the Lutheran reformers’ understanding of Church, home, and state. Expositors developed this imaginative theological construct primarily out of the narrative of the Creation and Fall, and they used it as a framework for understanding the obligations of humankind in relation to the Creator, as well as for homes and societies rightly ordered. The Christian home, however, did double duty, serving as an archetype not only of life rightly ordered (law) but also of the love and freedom given by Christ in union with the Church (gospel). Lutheran expositors struggled to balance these two, especially when they derived the coercive authority of the state from parental, or paternal power. Could the institution of marriage simultaneously provide the foundation for state authority, and image the love between Christ and the Church?