Evidence for the Role of Shape in Mental Representations of Similes

People mentally represent the shapes of objects. For instance, the mental representation of an eagle is different when one thinks about a flying or resting eagle. This study examined the role of shape in mental representations of similes (i.e., metaphoric comparisons). We tested the prediction that when people process a simile they will mentally represent the entities of the comparison as having a similar shape. We conducted two experiments in which participants read sentences that either did (experimental sentences) or did not (control sentences) invite comparing two entities. For the experimental sentences, the ground of the comparison was explicit in Experiment 1 (“X has the ability to Z, just like Y”) and implicit in Experiment 2 (“X is like Y”). After having read the sentence, participants were presented with line drawings of the two objects, which were either similarly or dissimilarly shaped. They judged whether both objects were mentioned in the preceding sentence. For the experimental sentences, recognition latencies were shorter for similarly shaped objects than for dissimilarly shaped objects. For the control sentences, we did not find such an effect of similarity in shape. These findings suggest that a perceptual symbol of shape is activated when processing similes.     

Mindful Parenting: a group approach to enhancing reflective capacity in parents and infants

In this paper, the process of ending therapy is likened to the ordinary developmental task of ‘letting go’ that parents have to undertake, to help their child to grow up. ‘Letting go’ is contrasted with the process of ‘holding’ the child in mind that is so central to the therapeutic and parental task Following thoughts about some of the external issues that play a part in the decision to end a child's treatment, this developmental perspective of psychoanalytic psychotherapy is discussed through a clinical illustration of the ending of a 5-year-old boy's treatment. Different strands of the therapeutic relationship as highlighted during the ending phase of therapy are distinguished and attention is drawn to the role of the ‘new relationship’ between therapist and child and how this differs from the transference relationship. Countertransference issues in their broadest form are also considered.     

New Beginnings–an experience-based programme addressing the attachment relationship between mothers and their babies in prisons

Data about the quality of attachment between infants and parents in high-risk populations suggests that early intervention may be advantageous for positive developmental outcomes for the child. Mothers in prison represent a high-risk parenting population in terms of both attachment histories and economic and social risk factors. New Beginnings was constructed as a short term, experience-based programme for mothers and infants in the Mother and Baby Units of two UK women's prisons. It is based on the early intervention model developed at the Anna Freud Centre. The programme was piloted in 2004–5, with 27 participating dyads. This paper presents an overview of the pilot stage. Our aim is to introduce the thinking that went into the programme and to present initial observations concerning the effect of the programme. We describe the development of a framework for the programme and its preliminary evaluation using pre- and post-interview protocols concerning the mothers' thoughts and feelings about their babies. We used the Parent Development Interview, for both a qualitative analysis of the major themes in connection to child rearing and quantitative measures of reflective capacity in relation to the child on the part of mother-participants.     

Cutting the silence: initial,impulsive self-cutting in adolescence

The paper explores initial, impulsive self-cutting in adolescence and conceives of early cutting as having the most potential for a communicative function, as the adolescents themselves and those around them may be most shocked at their self-harm. The author also conceives of the symptom of early, initial cutting as an effort to ‘cut through’ an emotional and familial circumstance that has been silent, suggesting that cutting generally implies a failure in containment and symbolisation. Using Green’s (1975) discussion of the original word symbol as ‘an object cut in two, constituting a sign of recognition when those who carry it can assemble the two pieces’ (Dictionnaires Le Robert), the author demonstrates that cutting has the potential to elicit intense feelings in the analyst who can have (in Green’s terms) a homologous experience to that of the patient. This elaboration within the analyst’s feelings returns a part to the patient. The meeting of the two communications (the patient’s cutting and the elaboration in the analyst’s mind) can create a potential space between them. The paper uses clinical vignettes and extended clinical material from a 16-year-old girl to elucidate the relationship between cutting – an emotionally inarticulate state – and the development of communication, containment and symbolisation through homologous experiences in the analyst.     

‘Torturing things until they confess’: Günther Anders' critique of technology

ELSI (Ethical, Legal and Social Implications) initiatives are frequently attached to major science programmes. The expectation is that ELSI research will produce a practical advanced assessment of the impacts of technological development. Williams' overview of the field demonstrates that this encourages a mechanistic understanding of technological development leading to compressed foresight, i.e. the notion that the future is imminent in the present. The development of the ELSI domain in Canada has been characterised by an affinity between the types of knowledge valorised by the field and modes of legal reasoning, suggesting a legal variant of compressed foresight. The concept of juridification and an analysis of two related modes of legal reasoning (analogy and reflective equilibrium) shed light on the connection between legal reasoning and the ELSI field in Canada. The deployment of the aforementioned modes of legal reasoning enables law to define and operationalise difficult questions by drawing on currently existing principles and precedents. Thus, when legal modes of reasoning are brought to bear on ELSI questions, the future is made a calculable and manageable extension of the present, dovetailing with the ELSI field's requirement of pragmatic, advanced assessment.     

Some psychoanalytic and philosophical reflections on the signification of residence in the therapeutic care of people with schizophrenia

Last year saw the 20th anniversary of the Wagner report Residential care: A positive choice. The report tried to shift the emphasis away from the view that residential care is the last resort and to value its role as a vital part of community care. However, over the last few years there has been a move away from residential care for people suffering from mental ill-health. The rationale for this shift has been the prevailing idea that it is better to treat people in their own homes. Although this is to a large extent driven by financial constraints on the part of health and social service commissioners, running parallel is the development of policy informed by ideas of normalization, anti-stigma and the increasing drive to empower service users, and diminish the authoritarian relationship that professionals have with them. While much of this is commendable, there has been very little serious thinking about the meaning of residence or dwelling in relation to care and treatment. This has resulted in the ensuing ideological shift often amounting to little more than a fashionable mantra. In this paper the author discusses the meaning of residence and its relation to care, with reference to the work of Lacan and Heidegger, in an attempt to re-situate the debate about the therapeutic potential of residential care at a more fundamental level.     

How the mind understands other minds: cognitive psychology, attachment and reflective function

Jung's epistemological relativistic attitude was very advanced for his time and very much in line with the contemporary philosophy of science. Further, Jung states that the patient's unconscious has the capacity to represent itself by creating metaphors which give the therapist all the help he might need in treating his patient. As such, Jungian analysts have not been encouraged to embark on theoretical work and as a result, the Jungian movement has been lacking those theories that connect general psychological principles with clinical practices. In an attempt to enlarge our 'middle-range theories', we shall discuss Peter Fonagy's concept of reflective function. In our opinion, the theoretical hypothesis regarding the instinct of reading the mind (Baron-Cohen 1995) and Fonagy's idea of reflective function are extremely useful in our Jungian clinical practice and these concepts are utilizable because they are not at odds with analytical psychology's general epistemological and theoretical framework.     

Symbolic attitude and reverie: problems of symbolization in children and adolescents

In comparison to the 1970s and 1980s, we now treat more children and adolescents who, because they have had traumatic experiences of violence, child abuse, deprivation or chronic physical illness, are not able to adequately use their symbolizing function. The question is which qualities and which analytical attitude we should and can offer in analysis to help a child regain his or her capacity to symbolize, irrespective of how poorly developed or blocked this capacity may be. In contrast to Jung and some Jungians, the author argues that although the transcendent function is a 'natural process' and hence archetypally grounded as Jung maintained, the transcendent function does not work spontaneously. Rather it requires a matrix based on the child's earliest relationship, which can later be re-enacted in treatment. Jung's general concept of a 'symbolic attitude' can be complemented and focused in a specific way through the use of Bion's concept of 'reverie', which contributes in a fundamental way to symbol formation within the transference/countertransference. This idea is illustrated by clinical material from a nine-year-old boy who suffered from a severe congenital intestinal disease and was blocked in his capacity to symbolize. From the perspective of treatment technique, the author shows how the drawing of 'comic book' narratives in a reciprocal exchange was brought into the treatment. The drawings evolved in a way that he understood as a modified form of active imagination with children. The drawing process helped the boy gradually to develop a symbolic space in the therapy and to contain a psychic space in his mind.     

The evolution of epistemology and concepts in an iterative-generative reflective practice: the importance of small differences

Using a contextualist epistemology, it would be expected that regional differences in community psychology would develop over time. It is argued that the epistemology and theory of Western Australian community psychology, while largely based on North American approaches, has developed its own idiosyncracies. These developed through the integration of practice and theory in an iterative-generative fashion. The process of development is conceptualized in terms of Schön's and Altman's distinctions between foundational knowledge, and professional and socially responsive knowledge (I. Altman, 1996; D. A. Schön, 1983). It has also been characterized as an incremental development based on the reflection on tacit and conceptual knowledge. From the small differences that have developed between regions, a dialogue can emerge that will better allow understanding of how social forces shape people's actions.     

Auto-sensuous shapes: prototypes for creative forms

The author looks at some of the more normative, adaptive, and creative aspects of what have been called autistic' or auto-sensuous' shapes by Tustin and others. She explores the construct from several frameworks, including the literature on early sensory experience and that on the empathic attunement between infant and caretaker in which interpersonal rhythms and meanings are built. The views of Bion and Matte-Blanco are utilized to help explore the processes by which meaning is created from experience, while the works of Segal and Milner are used to focus more explicitly on the role of symbol formation in the creative process. Finally, it is suggested that these auto-sensuous shapes can become prototypes for creative endeavours, including the creative process we call psychoanalysis. The author uses examples from her own experience in deriving pattern from basic sensory experience, toward the creation of poetry, drawings, and the establishment of attunement and meaning-making' within the analytic setting.