Asian American Intermarriage

SUMMARY

This paper describes the therapeutic process of an interracial couple: an Asian American woman and a White American man. The intent of this therapy was to broaden the conversational space and encourage the couple to explore the effects of cultural beliefs and practices on their relationship. The therapist introduced two approaches for evoking the couple's interest in sharing narratives about their individual and couple racial identity. One approach was to have the couple interview their partner's “internalized other.” The other approach used two research studies to stimulate conversation about outmarriage with Asian Americans. This case study offers an account of two different ways individual narratives and shared conversational space can be expanded.     

Christian Perspectives on Spiritual Needs of a Human Being

SUMMARY

Each human being, independent of culture, time, and age has three fundamental needs. A need for biophysical exchanges, a need for psychosocial exchanges, and a need for spiritual-integrated exchanges. Spiritual needs are not separated from biological, social, psychological, and material aspects of life. Christian spirituality today is oriented toward responding to life, to its beauty and injustices, to the universe, and is responsive and responsible to the poor. Some specific tasks for older people today are commitment to the great causes of justice, peace, and environmental protection, and a deeper bond of love for God and fellow man.     

Effects of Racial Discrimination,Childhood Trauma,and Trauma Symptoms on Juvenile Delinquency in African American Incarcerated Youth

To understand racial disproportionality in juvenile delinquency, we studied relationships between 2 possible contributors: effects of manifestations of a structural factor (racism) and psychological consequences of trauma. Informed by Carter’s (2007) theory of race-based trauma, we explored the role of experiences of racial discrimination, childhood trauma, and trauma symptoms in juvenile delinquency through self-reported experiences of incarcerated African American youth. We found that childhood trauma, trauma symptoms, and racial discrimination experiences all significantly contributed to juvenile delinquency, but participants who experienced greater racial discrimination had higher posttraumatic stress symptoms and elevated delinquency rates. Considering the well-documented effects of trauma symptoms on juvenile delinquency, race-based trauma experiences might help us understand one aspect of racial disproportionality in juvenile delinquency.     

Visual working memory retains movement information within an allocentric reference frame

What frame of reference do we use to remember observed movements? One possibility is that visual working memory (VWM) retains movement information using a retinotopic frame of reference: A coordinate system with respect to the retina that retains view-dependent information. Alternatively, VWM might retain movement information using an allocentric frame of reference: A coordinate system with respect to the scene that retains view-invariant information. To address this question, I examined whether VWM retains view-dependent or view-invariant movement information. Results show that (1) observers have considerable difficulty remembering from which viewpoints they observed movements after a few seconds' delay, and (2) the same number of movements can be retained in VWM whether the movements are encoded and tested from the same viewpoint or from different viewpoints. Thus, movement representations contain little to no view-dependent information, which suggests that VWM uses an allocentric reference frame to retain movement information.     

Taking counselling and psychotherapy outside: Destruction or enrichment of the therapeutic frame?

This paper will explore emerging issues in the practice of counselling and psychotherapy in the outdoors, which the authors encountered when they took their clients outside of the traditional therapy room. The outdoors is defined as natural areas and spaces, such as woods and parks which have been termed ‘nearby nature’ (Kaplan &; Kaplan, 1989 Kaplan, R. Kaplan, S. (1989). The experience of nature a psychological perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press [Google Scholar]) and also more remote areas such as mountains and moors which are more isolated from civilisation, what some have termed wilderness (Mcfarlane, 2007). Particular emphasis will be given to the ‘frame’ of psychotherapy and how aspects of this are affected by moving outdoors, in particular contracting in relation to confidentiality and timing. The relationship in psychotherapy will be explored in relation to issues of mutuality and asymmetry alongside the role of nature in the therapeutic process. Lastly the challenges and therapeutic potential of psychotherapy in nature will be explored.     

Individual Differences in Race Schematicity as Predictors of African American and White Children's Race-Relevant Memories and Peer Preferences

Race schematicity, memories for racially stereotyped portrayals, and race-based peer preferences of 70 young children (32 African American, 38 White) were assessed. Consistent with schema-based models of stereotyping, race schematicity was positively and significantly associated with memory distortions of racial stereotype-inconsistent drawings into stereotype-consistent ones. Conversely, race schematicity was negatively and significantly associated with accurate memories for racial stereotype-inconsistent content, and with memory distortions of racial stereotype-consistent portrayals into stereotype-inconsistent ones. As predicted, race schematicity was positively and significantly associated with same-race peer preference bias, as was children's age in months. Results support application of the schematicity construct and relevant social psychological research with adults to the study of young African American and White children's racial stereotyping and processing of race-relevant information.     

The paternal function in Winnicott: The psychoanalytical frame

My first aim has been to identify the implicit assumptions underlying Winnicott's detailed notes on a fragment of an analysis dating from 1955 and published after his death. The importance given by Winnicott to the father figure as early as 1955 is one of my discoveries; another is the deep Freudian roots of his thinking. In this essay I propose a new way of linking together the concepts of ‘paternal function’ and the ‘psychoanalytical frame’. Developing my hypothesis, I compare my reading of Winnicott and my way of reading José Bleger's study on the frame. Like Winnicott, I explore in detail a process of discovery, focusing on what the analyst and the patient are nor fully aware of …'as yet'. I am not proposing to unify Winnicott's and Bleger's thinking. My aim is to avoid the pitfall of eclecticism and, in so doing, to recognize both the related depths they sound in their thinking and their otherness. I want to share with the readers their ‘meeting’ in my mind.     

Neighborhood Racial Composition,Racial Discrimination,and Depressive Symptoms in African Americans

While evidence indicates that experienced racial discrimination is associated with increased depressive symptoms for African Americans, there is little research investigating predictors of experienced racial discrimination. This paper examines neighborhood racial composition and sociodemographic factors as antecedents to experienced racial discrimination and resultant levels of depressive symptoms among African American adults. The sample included 505 socioeconomically-diverse African American adults from Baltimore, MD. Study data were obtained via self-report and geocoding of participant addresses based on 2010 census data. Study hypotheses were tested using multiple pathways within a longitudinal Structural Equation Model. Experienced racial discrimination was positively associated with age and sex such that older individuals and males experienced increased levels of racial discrimination. In addition, the percentage of White individuals residing in a neighborhood was positively associated with levels of experienced racial discrimination for African American neighborhood residents. Experienced racial discrimination was positively associated with later depressive symptoms. Neighborhood-level contextual factors such as neighborhood racial composition and individual differences in sociodemographic characteristics appear to play an important role in the experience of racial discrimination and the etiology of depression in African American adults.     

Ethical breaches and deviations of method in psychoanalysis: A heuristic model for the differentiation of boundary transgressions in psychoanalytic work

The boundary concept has been central to discussions on ethics and psychoanalysis over the past few decades. The main distinction has been between less malignant boundary crossings and more harmful violations. More recently, the concept has been criticized as not discriminating between technique and ethics. The author argues that these problems are connected to the way the boundary concept is defined. He suggests that it is specified to indicate a delimitation of an analytic area of conduct. In an analogous manner, an area of ethical conduct is framed by a boundary between ethical and unethical actions in the treatment situation. The analytic area has a narrower limitation than ethics and a stricter articulation of its concept of attitude; not all unanalytic actions are unethical. This simple model of interpersonally specified boundaries allows us to discriminate between different kinds of transgression in analytic work. In addition to violations and crossings, a third instance is described denoting a transgression of the analytic but not the ethical boundary. These can be called boundary stretchings, and are either intended or unintended deviations of method. The slippery slope mechanism of ethical misconduct is an imminent risk if boundary stretchings are ignored and not subject to scrutiny and analysis.