Estética y constructivismo: filogenia,historia y vida humana

Resumen

Partiendo de una perspectiva constructivista se analiza el lugar de la experiencia estética en una teoría psicológica general y se discute el enfoque de la actual estética evolucionista. La psicología genética y la evolución vista a través de la teoría de la selección orgánica son dos de los pilares de este constructivismo, que no coincide con los constructivismos relativistas. Se describe primero el significado funcional y evolucionista del juicio estético, pero se subraya la existencia de rasgos específicos de la experiencia estética humana, que se focalizan en la progresiva conciencia humana de la muerte. De este modo, la experiencia de lo bello no se explicaría esencialmente a través de los “detectores de belleza” propios de la estética evolucionista, sino como proceso biográfico, históricamente contextualizado, de construcción del valor de las cosas, del sentido de los placeres y de la vida.     

Enuresis y desarrollo de la capacidad funcional de la vejiga: estudio comparativo con tres tratamientos conductuales

Resumen

Los objetivos de esta investigación eran (1) comparar la eficacia clinica de tres tratamientos de la enuresis nocturna y, (2) constatar los cambios que se producían en la capacidad funcional media de la vejiga. Los tratamientos fueron: «Método de condicionamiento con el aparato despertador» (Grupo experimental I), (B) «Mètodo de control de esfínteres» (Grupo experimental II), y (c) «Entrenamiento de la cama-seca» modificado (Grupo experimental III). Se utilizó un disefto factorial 3x2 con medidas repetidas. En cada condición experimental se emplearon 4 sujetos enuréticos de 6 años de edad. También se utilizó un grupo control de 4 niños no enuréticos de la misma edad. La duración de los tratamientos fue de SO dias. En cuanto a la eficacia clínica, los Ss tratados con el «Mé;todo de condicionamiento con el aparato despertador» mejoraron significativamente, la mejoría en el Grupo III no fue tan notable, aunque sí significativa; el Grupo II no manifestó cambios significativos. La capacidad funcional media de la vejiga se incrementó significativamente con los tres tratamientos.     

Entrevista con Julián de Ajuriaguerra

RESUMEN

En esta entrevista Julián de Ajuriaguerra describe su historia científica desde que era interno en hospitales psiquiátricos y alumno de Thomas y Lhermitte, comentando los trabajos que realizó con adultos, ancianos y dementes aunque su interés estuviese desde un principio en los niños. Responde, entre otras, a cuestiones tales como si lo biológico se complementa con lo social en el desarrollo, cómo son los vínculos de los padres con el niño, cuál es su posición respecto al psicoanálisis, si es necesaria la interdisciplinariedad para hacer psicología o qué opina del problema de los estadios. También realiza un balance del estado actual de la psicomotricidad, ejemplifica qué entiende por “diálogo tónico” y explica las diferencias entre los juegos de niños y niñas de siete, ocho y nueve años, admitiendo la distinta organización tónica de los sexos. Por último el autor se centra en el trabajo clínico, ofreciendo sugerencias para aquéllos que empiezan a llevarlo a cabo en España. Los comentarios que Ana María Pardo y Ángel Rivière realizan del autor y su obra introducen esta entrevista.     

Neuropsicología clínica: Revisión y previsión

RESUMEN

Este trabajo presenta las contribuciones originarias, actuales y potenciales de la neuropsicología clínica, defendiendo que no sólo ayuda a la comprensión de los problemas de la relación entre mente y cerebro sino que puede revolucionar el tratamiento de los pacientes que sufren diversas disfunciones del sistema nervioso superior, debido a sus implicaciones terapéuticas. Respecto a sus contribuciones actuales se destacan, entre otras, la de proporcionar medidas objetivas de la significación funcional de una lesión y líneas base para evaluar los efectos a largo plazo o el curso de rehabilitación, revisando las técnicas y resultados de varias investigaciones que exploran las funciones de estructuras corticales y subcorticales. Como contribución potencial se señala la posibilidad de reinstaurar las funciones cerebrales y de acelerar el ritmo de compensación de lesiones, diseñando programas de rehabilitación específicos para cada paciente que estén basados en la medición neuropsicológica, en estrecha colaboración con otros profesionales. Este trabajo finaliza concluyendo que la neuropsicología clínica puede constituir el foco del tratamiento interdisciplinario de los pacientes con alteraciones del sistema nervioso central.     

The Milan Approach,History, and Evolution

The two authors intend to underline the continuities and discontinuities that organize the Milan Approach, after the splitting from Selvini Palazzoli and Prata; they intend to tell the teachings of Luigi Boscolo and Gianfranco Cecchin from the beginning of training in 1978 till nowadays. After having spoken of some important stages in the work till the death of the two masters, the article underlines two major new aspects. 1. We speak about the corporeal turn: embodied experience as preconceptual know‐how from which concepts are structured. We speak about the connections between bodies and social issues that enact forms of knowledge and understanding. 2. In this period of war, violence, and tyranny, we speak about epistemology and ontology as complementary stances: the need to let others disclose themselves, by allowing them to speak their own terms of engagement. The therapeutic effort is one of deactivating the dangers of one’s own presuppositions and prejudices that limit one’s capacity to describe and make hypothesis. There are social ontologies, communities with strong moral intensity, historical and social realities that need therapists to take position, since they need to take side and be aware of the categories they utilize. Historical and social ontology deals with the continuous change of symptoms in connection to the continuous change of the social panorama in the context we live in. We live by the bodies we are.     

The Critical Need to Recognize That Families Matter for Adult Health: A Systematic Review of the Literature

A systemic approach to researching families and health should capture the complex network within which family members are embedded, including multiple family relationships and larger systems of health care. However, much of the families and health research focused on adult family members has focused solely on intimate partnerships, usually the marital relationship. This neglects the remainder of the powerfully influencing family relationships adults retain, and may increasingly focus on as they age. We conducted a systematic review of the families and adult health literature, retaining 72 articles which were subsequently thematically coded to highlight main foci of this area of research. Results highlight six themes, which include family relationship quality, family composition, behavioral factors in health and health care, psychophysiological mediators, caregiving, and aging health. Findings support an underrepresentation of family members, other than the intimate partner, in research on adult health.     

Moving from “I” to “We”: A Grounded Theory Analysis of Couple Therapy with Liver Patients and Their Partners

Prior research indicates that couples who cope with chronic illness from a relational “we” orientation experience more positive outcomes than couples that cope individually; however, little prior research identifies clinical processes that promote reciprocity or how societal gender processes are involved. This grounded theory analysis of 25 videotaped therapy sessions with six heterosexual couples coping with chronic liver disease (LD) used a feminist-informed relational lens to focus on the clinical processes involved in shifting from an individual to a relational orientation. Findings identified three contextual barriers to attaining a “we orientation”: (a) autonomy discourse, (b) illness-related power, and (c) gendered power. Analysis detailed therapist actions that decreased the impact of barriers to reciprocity and fostered relational coping. Clinical implications attend to complex intersections among gender, caregiving, and contextual barriers to reciprocity.     

Prevalence and treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and co-morbid severe health anxiety

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) is a debilitating condition that affects 0.2–0.4% of the population. Health focussed anxiety is common across medical conditions, and may be relevant in CFS/ME. This study sought to identify the prevalence and impact of health anxiety (HA) in CFS/ME and evaluate the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for HA in CFS/ME. Cross-sectional questionnaire methods and case-series design were used to achieve study aims. Analysis indicated that 41.9% of the CFS/ME clinic sample experienced threshold levels of health anxiety, which was associated with elevated symptom severity across several dimensions. Stepwise multiple regression indicated physical functioning and depression accounted for 23.8% of variance in fatigue; depression, fatigue and HA, accounted for 32.9% of variance in physical functioning. Large effect sizes and clinically significant changes were generated in the treatment study. HA is common in CFS/ME and likely to exacerbate fatigue and physical functioning. This study identifies HA as an important target for treatment, trial findings should be further replicated on a larger scale.     

Effectiveness of Couple Therapy in Practice Settings and Identification of Potential Predictors for Different Outcomes

Even though couple therapy is efficacious, there is no improvement in up to 50% of the couples. Also effect sizes found in effectiveness studies in real-world settings are considerably lower than those found in efficacy studies. There is a need to understand more about couple therapy effectiveness in practice settings and the factors responsible for different outcomes. A German nationwide study on the effectiveness of couple counseling including 554 couples applied the same methodology as two earlier studies in the same field. A remarkable consistency was found over the three independent studies in the burden with individual and relationship distress as well as in the rates of improvement. This supports the insight that the improvements reached through couple therapy in practice settings are only about half of the effect sizes reached in efficacy trials. Additionally this study investigated 64 factors, which were found to be influential for relationship quality and stability in earlier studies, for their impact on outcome. Factors present at initiation and termination of therapy were found, which correlate significantly with outcome and with separation of the couple in the follow-up. These factors could be included in prediction models for improvement and separation of the couple. The implications for the practice of couple therapy and for future research are discussed.