The impact of mothers' trait anxiety on their expectations of approach‐avoidance behaviour in anxious and non‐anxious children

This study investigated estimates of approach and avoidance behaviour in clinically anxious and non‐anxious children, and whether mothers' expectations of their children's avoidance differed as a function of high trait anxiety (HTA) versus low trait anxiety (LTA). Participants were 62 clinically anxious and 60 non‐anxious children aged 7–12 years and their mothers. Estimates of avoidance were obtained using an analogue task in which children and mothers were given threat and pleasant information about two novel animals and were asked to estimate children's avoidance of the threat animal's habitat when the threat animal was present (threat condition) and absent (safe condition) from the habitat and when its presence was uncertain (ambiguous condition). Contrary to expectation, anxious children did not differ from controls in estimates of avoidance in any condition. However, relative to HTA mothers of anxious children and LTA mothers of non‐anxious children, HTA mothers estimated greater approach behaviour by their non‐anxious children in the threat condition. Findings suggest that mothers' expectations of children's approach‐avoidance behaviour is influenced by both maternal and child factors.     

Bounded in a nutshell and a king of infinite space: the embodied self and its intentional world

This paper explores the implications of developments in phenomenological biology for a reconsideration of synchronicity and the self. The enactive approach of Maturana and Varela aims to reformulate the relation between biological organisms and the world in a non‐Cartesian way, breaking down the conceptual division between mind and world so that meaning can be seen as a function of the species‐specific way in which an organism engages with its environment. This leads to a view of the self as inherently embodied and engaged with the particularities of its material, cultural and social worlds, while being infinitely extended through the power of imagination; this enables humans to adapt to many different social and material environments. In order to understand these differences, we need to ‘enter into the world of the other’. Where understanding of other animals requires immersion in their environmental milieux, understanding other humans requires us also to recognize that differences in socio‐cultural milieux create significantly different worlds of meaning and experience.     

Therapeutic moments are the key: foster children give clues to their past experience of infant trauma and neglect

Foster parents often despair over the lack of information about the past experience of the children in their care, particularly with children who have experienced infant trauma and neglect. In the context of family therapy these unknowns pose both a challenge and an opportunity. The author proposes that foster children gives clues to their past experiences in therapeutic moments, which the therapist may recognize as a result of her own inner conversation. In conjunction with a sound theoretical knowledge of infant trauma and neglect, these moments have the capacity to open a dialogue in the relationships between therapist, child and foster family. This dialogical process offers an opportunity for the child's past experience of infant trauma and neglect to be expressed in silence, and the foster parent's present experience to be heard in stillness, opening for them a way to go on beyond the family therapy sessions.     

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE ARTS: THE SLIPPERY GROUND OF APPLIED ANALYSIS

The ways in which today's psychoanalysts approach art closely follow the avenues opened by Freud a hundred years ago. Drawing mainly on Freud's studies on Jensen's Gradiva (1907) and on Leonardo da Vinci (1910a), the author examines the main paradigms he used in discussing artistic activity, including his doubts and hesitations. Present‐day approaches to art are then examined via a discussion of the advantages and pitfalls of psychobiography, of the case study, and of textual approaches. The author makes a case for the type of interdisciplinary dialogue in which the goal is to establish a cross‐fertilization between psychoanalysis and other fields of knowledge while striving to avoid hypersaturation of a work of art in order to foster expansion of the mind.     

Male on-campus resident students’ social normative behaviour: Influences on lived social climate by same gender beginning-year university students

This article reports on research on antecedents of first-year male students’ experiences of senior male students’ aggression in residences at a university in South Africa. Fourteen purposefully selected first-year male student residents (black = 14%; coloured = 7%; white = 79%) voluntarily participated. Their ages ranged between 18 and 21 years. Data were on their perceived precursors to aggression and violence that were collected using photo-narratives (written) and photo-narrative-elicitation-interviews. The data were analysed by means of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Three themes emerged which indicate that precursors to aggression and violence included physical and verbal aggression in the form of hitting, shoving around, pushing and shouting, swearing, taunting others, and nasty comments. Social aggression involves acts of bullying, exertion of power, modelling dominant behaviour in which perpetrators defend their status, or signal exclusion of others. The survivors experienced pressure to conform to fellow residents’ practices, norms and behaviour in the hope that they would gain acceptance into the in-group.     

Randomized controlled trial of expressive writing for psychological and physical health: the moderating role of emotional expressivity

The current study assessed main effects and moderators (including emotional expressiveness, emotional processing, and ambivalence over emotional expression) of the effects of expressive writing in a sample of healthy adults. Young adult participants (N=116) were randomly assigned to write for 20 minutes on four occasions about deepest thoughts and feelings regarding their most stressful/traumatic event in the past five years (expressive writing) or about a control topic (control). Dependent variables were indicators of anxiety, depression, and physical symptoms. No significant effects of writing condition were evident on anxiety, depressive symptoms, or physical symptoms. Emotional expressiveness emerged as a significant moderator of anxiety outcomes, however. Within the expressive writing group, participants high in expressiveness evidenced a significant reduction in anxiety at three-month follow-up, and participants low in expressiveness showed a significant increase in anxiety. Expressiveness did not predict change in anxiety in the control group. These findings on anxiety are consistent with the matching hypothesis, which suggests that matching a person's naturally elected coping approach with an assigned intervention is beneficial. These findings also suggest that expressive writing about a stressful event may be contraindicated for individuals who do not typically express emotions.     

Behavioral Approach System Sensitivity and Risk Taking Interact to Predict Left-Frontal EEG Asymmetry

The Behavioral Approach System (BAS) hypersensitivity theory of bipolar disorder (BD; Alloy & Abramson, 2010; Depue & Iacono, 1989) suggests that hyperreactivity in the BAS results in the extreme fluctuations of mood characteristic of BD. In addition to risk conferred by BAS hypersensitivity, cognitive and personality variables may play a role in determining risk. We evaluated relationships among BAS sensitivity, risk taking, and an electrophysiological correlate of approach motivation, relative left-frontal electroencephalography (EEG) asymmetry. BAS sensitivity moderated the relationship between risk taking and EEG asymmetry. More specifically, individuals who were high in BAS sensitivity showed left-frontal EEG asymmetry regardless of their level of risk-taking behavior. However, among individuals who were moderate in BAS sensitivity, risk taking was positively associated with asymmetry. These findings suggest that cognitive and personality correlates of bipolar risk may evidence unique contributions to a neural measure of trait-approach motivation. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Political and clinical developments in analytical psychology, 1972‐2014: subjectivity,equality and diversity—inside and outside the consulting room

Utilizing Jung's idea of theory as a ‘personal confession’, the author charts his own development as a theorist, establishing links between his personal history and his ideas. Such links include his relationship with both parents, his sexuality, his cultural heritage, and his fascination with Tricksters and with Hermes. There follows a substantial critical interrogation of what the author discerns as the two main lines of clinical theorizing in contemporary analytical psychotherapy: interpretation of transference‐countertransference, and the relational approach. His conclusion is that neither is superior to the other and neither is in fact adequate as a basis for clinical work. The focus then shifts to explore a range of political and social aspects of the clinical project of analytical psychology: economic inequality, diversity within the professional field, and Jung's controversial ideas about Jews and Africans. The author calls for an apology from the ‘Jungian community’ for remarks about Africans analogous to the apology already issued for remarks about Jews. The paper is dedicated to the author's friend Fred Plaut (1913‐2009).     

一期颈椎后前路手术治疗伴有后凸畸形的多节段颈椎管狭窄的临床研究

为了研究与探讨一期颈椎后前路联合手术治疗伴有后凸畸形的多节段颈椎管狭窄的临床疗效,回顾性研究2011年3月至2013年2月在我院由同一组外科医生治疗且符合标准纳入研究的患者32例,比较术前与术后的 JOA 评分,颈髓功能改善率,Borden 氏测量法的 D 值,Vas 评分,评估一期颈椎后前路联合手术治疗该疾病的临床疗效。患者术后均随访12个月,患者接受一期后前路手术治疗后双臂双手麻木、间歇性跛行、走路有踩棉花感、肢体感觉障碍症状均有明显改善。一期颈椎后前路联合手术治疗伴有后凸畸形的多节段颈椎管狭窄症,可有效地矫正颈椎的后凸畸形,恢复颈椎正常的生理弯曲,解除颈髓压迫,恢复颈椎生理曲度,是安全有效的手术方法。