Chilled to the bone: embodied countertransference and unspoken traumatic memories

Starting from a deeply challenging experience of early embodied countertransference in a first encounter with a new patient, the author explores the issues it raised. Such moments highlight projective identification as well as what Stone (2006) has described as ‘embodied resonance in the countertransference’. In these powerful experiences linear time and subject boundaries are altered, and this leads to central questions about analytic work. As well as discussing the uncanny experience at the very beginning of an analytic encounter and its challenges for the analytic field, the author considers ‘the time horizon of analytic process’ (Hogenson 2007 ), the relationship between ‘moments of complexity and analytic boundaries’ (Cambray 2011 ) and the role of mirror neurons in intersubjective experience.     

Symbolic objects and the analytic frame

With reference to two patients who brought material objects to their sessions (previously discussed in Colman 2010a, 2010b), this paper reconsiders the pre-eminent role of verbal communication in analysis. I suggest that the privileging of words over action derives from Freud's view of the mind in which only that which can be put into words can become conscious. Following Stephen Mitchell (1993), I discuss the way that this view has become relativized by the shift away from an instinctual drive model to a more relational, meaning-making view of the mind. This is then linked to Jung's emphasis on the importance of symbols and the transcendent function and Milner's view of the therapeutic frame as a space for symbolic meaning. Drawing the boundaries of the therapeutic frame in this way allows for symbolic actions within the frame rather than as boundary-crossing deviations from a more narrowly defined frame which allows only for verbal communications.     

Buddhism and Science: Allies or Enemies?

Buddhist teachings and modern science are analogous both in their approach to the search for truth and in some of the discoveries of contemporary physics, biology, and psychology. However, despite these congruencies and the recognized benefits of science, Buddhism reminds us of the dangers of a tendency toward scientific reductionism and imperialism and of the sciences' inability to deal with human moral and spiritual values and needs. Buddhism and science have human concerns and final goals that are different, but as long as the boundaries between them are not trespassed, they can be mutually corrective and allied to benefit humankind. Buddhism must be open to the discoveries of science about the physical world as must all religions today, but no matter how much it may have to modify some of its ancient beliefs, its basic truths—the truths about human suffering and its release—will remain untouched.     

Mother-to-Daughter Disclosure After Divorce: Are There Costs and Benefits?

To investigate the association between post-divorce mother-to-daughter disclosure regarding sensitive topics and adolescent daughters' adjustment and closeness to mother, we collected data from 62 adolescent girls within the first two years after their mother's divorce. Analyses revealed that most mothers in the current sample have disclosed to their daughters to some degree about the five sensitive topic areas studied. In accordance with structural family systems theory, we found that detailed mother-to-daughter disclosures regarding financial concerns, negativity toward ex-husband, job ups-and-downs, and personal concerns were clearly associated with greater daughter psychological distress, but not with greater feelings of mother-daughter closeness, as existing retrospective research would have predicted. Daughters' worrying about their mothers explained (mediated) the link between maternal disclosure and daughter's distress to some extent. We discuss methodological issues as well as the valuable contributions that future, more contextualized research could make to understanding the conditions under which detailed mother-to-adolescent disclosure may be more or less risky.     

Monitoring syllable boundaries during speech production

This study investigated the encoding of syllable boundary information during speech production in Dutch. Based on Levelt's model of phonological encoding, we hypothesized segments and syllable boundaries to be encoded in an incremental way. In a self-monitoring experiment, decisions about the syllable affiliation (first or second syllable) of a pre-specified consonant, which was the third phoneme in a word, were required (e.g., ka.No 'canoe' vs. kaN.sel 'pulpit'; capital letters indicate pivotal consonants, dots mark syllable boundaries). First syllable responses were faster than second syllable responses, indicating the incremental nature of segmental encoding and syllabification during speech production planning. The results of the experiment are discussed in the context of Levelt's model of phonological encoding.     

The painter and the cameraman: boundaries in clinical relationships

The issue of boundaries in clinician–patientencounters is considered through narrativeanalysis of four clinical stories in whichboundaries crossings are a self-conscioustopic. One story is by a physician as patient,two are by physicians, and one is by apalliative care nurse. The stories arediscussed using Walter Benjamin's distinctionbetween the painter, who maintains distance andsees the whole, and the cameraman, who usestechnology to penetrate realities and thenreassembles fragments. The essay argues thatdistance and closeness are ethical issues thatconstitute the possibility of clinicalencounters but the encounter also changes theclinician's sense of boundaries. The relevantethics of boundary decisions in most clinicalencounters are not procedural ethics but anethics of self-creation: in orienting toboundaries as doctors do, they createthemselves in their relations to others.     

Diversity of learning psychoanalysis and analytical psychology

As the subject of this Conference is 'Diversity and its Limits: New Directions in Analytical Psychology and Psychoanalysis', I would like to investigate some aspects of education at our Institute--the East European Institute of Psychoanalysis--from the point of view of the meeting of West and East. I will look at the influence of this diversity on the formation and development of psychoanalysis and analytical psychology in Russia.     

记叙文中时间信息的事件边界效应

运用视知觉研究中经典的事件切割程序,探讨记叙文中时间信息的事件边界效应.结果发现记叙文中的时间信息会被读者外显地知觉为事件边界,并且,跨度长的时间信息比跨度短的时间信息更易于被知觉为事件边界.这和视知觉研究中的发现是一致的.研究在一定程度上支持了记叙文理解过程中情境模型建构的过程依赖类似于事件知觉中所发现的切割过程的观点,为知觉研究和认知研究领域提供了可供沟通的实证支持.     

The analyst in action: An individual account of what Jungians do and why they do it1

This paper describes some similarities and differences between contemporary approaches to analysis as practised by ‘Freudians’ and ‘Jungians’ in London today. It aims to contribute to mutual understanding between different schools of analysis by showing how the analyst’s interventions can only be understood in terms of the theoretical context from which they arise (cf. ‘the analyst’s preconscious’, as discussed by Hamilton [1996] ). A discussion of five key themes of Jungian theory is followed by an account of clinical work with a patient who enacted her inner world through the use of material objects brought to the consulting room, presenting difficult technical dilemmas concerning boundaries and enactment. The paper aims to shows how these Jungian themes influenced the analyst’s response, particularly in relation to ideas of symbolic transformation, the unknowable nature of unconscious processes and the purposive orientation of the self towards wholeness and integration.     

A School Psychologist's Self-Study Guide to Sport Psychology

SUMMARY

School psychologists may find the field of sport psychology beneficial to them in extending their skills and effectiveness. As trained psychologists, they are likely to already have some of the knowledge and skills necessary for working in the area of sport psychology. However, without additional training, this may not be sufficient for ethical and effective practice. This article enumerates the necessary knowledge and skills for working in sport psychology according to APA's recent proficiency standards. It then details a plethora of available resources and methods for entering into the domain of sport psychology. The article emphasizes self-study while continuing to practice ethically within the ‘boundaries of one's competence.’