Revisioning Fordham's ‘Defences of the self’ in light of modern relational theory and contemporary neuroscience

This paper explores the evolution of Michael Fordham's ideas concerning ‘defences of the self’, including his application of this concept to a group of ‘difficult’ adult patients in his famous 1974 paper by the same name. After tracing the relevance of Fordham's ideas to my own discovery of a ‘self‐care system’ in the psychological material of early trauma patients (Kalsched 1996 ), I describe how Fordham's seminal notions might be revisioned in light of contemporary relational theory as well as early attachment theory and affective neuroscience. These revisionings involve an awareness that the severe woundings of early unremembered trauma are not transformable through interpretation but will inevitably be repeated in the transference, leading to mutual ‘enactments’ between the analytic partners and, hopefully, to a new outcome. A clinical example of one such mutual enactment between the author and his patient is provided. The paper concludes with reflections on the clinical implications of this difficult case and what it means to become a ‘real person’ to our patients. Finally, Jung's alchemical views on transference are shown to be useful analogies in our understanding of the necessary mutuality in the healing process with these patients.     

Représentations sociales des compétences et processus d'évaluation

In this paper, the results of two sets of studies show the impact that social representations of competences may have on professional assessment processes. People who belong to different occupational categories make different inferences about the competences required by activities submitted to them for analysis. Differences are also found when respondents analyse the activities of their own occupational category vs another category. The assessment of motivation letters to get a job is correlated with the beliefs of the writer that intrinsic or extrinsic motives would be better assessed. These beliefs are supposed to be some kinds of representations of competences. Implications of these results for assessment practices are given.     

Le modèle d’acceptation des technologies depuis 1986 : 30 ans de développement

This article is a theoretical analysis of the use of the technology acceptance model (TAM) and synthesizes the results of twelve literature reviews and meta-analyses. We analyzed their content according to four thematic axes: the validity of the TAM, the evaluation of the role of each of its variables, the influence of external variables and moderators and the intellectual development of the TAM. The literature globally confirms the reliability of each of the variables in the TAM and the relevance of the relationships between these variables. However, weaknesses are noted and recommendations made for future research, such as the inclusion of more contextual information on the use of technologies and on participant characteristics, as well as additional various measurement methods of use and their benefits. A notable difference has been identified in the relationship between TAM's variables and the objective and subjective measures of the actual use of technologies. In addition, objective measures have been included in few practical studies, but have generally included small samples. Another weakness of the TAM is its significantly lower capacity to predict the volume (time spent on use over a given period), as well as the frequency of use (number of uses over a given period) of a technology, compared to the simple prediction of use.     

Le bien-être psychologique au travail des professionnels du médical et du paramédical : rôles des échanges leader-membres,du soutien organisationnel perçu,du sentiment d’efficacité et médiations par la satisfaction des besoins psychologiques

This research aims to study the relationships between the perceived organizational support, the leader-member exchange (LMX), and the feeling of general self-efficacy with the psychological well being at work (PWBW) in the medical and para-medical environment. We also tested the indirect effects of satisfaction psychological of autonomy, competence and affiliation in the relationship between these predictors and PWBW. A total of 175 participants from the medical and para-medical sectors completed a questionnaire. The results showed that all predictors positively correlated with PWBW. Mediation analyzes showed that need satisfaction had a mediating effect on the relationships between inductors and PWBW. Finally, leader-member exchanges (LMX) and general self-efficacy promoted PWBW, and the satisfaction of the three psychological need systematically played a mediating role.