Groups to Resolve Conflicts Between Groups: Diplomacy with a Therapeutic Dimension

The group self, an individual's self-perception as a member of a group, is distinguished from the group's self, a personification of the group as a person with a self. The perceived group's self of an opposing other group is often a repository for attributes group members are not ready to recognize in their own group's self. Theoretically, the need for an adversarial other to hold one's own group's unwanted attributes—and thus to complete one's own group's self—contributes, however unconsciously, to the apparent intractability of intergroup disputes. In dealing with these issues, I compare intergroup conflict resolution (ICR) groups with therapy groups, on the one hand, and advocacy groups on the other. All of this sets the stage for a presentation of two ICR projects and their analysis in group-developmental terms.     

The little puppet: working with autistic defences in mother-infant psychotherapy

This paper outlines a constellation around birth in our society that is related to advanced western medicine and the way that families move around the globe. It describes a brief therapy with a three-year-old child who was diagnosed as autistic, and a mother who resorted to 'heroic' defences against the anxiety of being unsupported in a strange country. The therapist undertook to process the catastrophic experiences of the birth as expressed in the child's play and transform the accompanying monstrous fantasies into human experiences and thoughts. By providing a maternal container for both mother and child, the therapist was able to dissolve the couple's negative enmeshment and help create a space in the mother's mind in which she could process her own feelings, and thereby process and understand the child's feelings and communications.     

Testing the ability of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to accurately report the effects of medication on their behavior

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are often treated with central nervous system stimulants, making the evaluation of medication effects an important topic for applied behavior analysts. Because assessment protocols emphasize informant reports and direct observations of child behavior, little is known about the extent to which children themselves can accurately report medication effects. Double-blind placebo-controlled procedures were used to examine whether 6 children with ADHD could recognize the effects of their medication. The children were given math worksheets to complete for 15 min during each of 14 sessions while on medication and placebo. Children completed a self-evaluation form at the end of each session, and ratings were compared to observed behavior and academic performance. Results indicated that 3 children were able to accurately report their medication status at levels greater than chance, whereas the accuracy of reports by all children was related to dosage level, differences in behavior, and the presence of adverse effects. The implications of these results for placebo-controlled research, self-monitoring of dosage levels, and accuracy training are discussed.     

Therapeutic Implications of a Social Interaction Model of Posttraumatic Stress

Out of the many aspects of posttraumatic adaptation the role of self-process is emphasized, where self is conceptualized as the representation of social interaction: Not only the messages conveyed by others, but also a person's inner response to that messages, forms ongoing self-processes. Traumatic experiences lead to distorted self-processes, to a great extent due to posttraumatic inner dialogues. Therapeutic implications and experiences from Bosnia are discussed, where this model has been applied.     

Joyce's Argument with Himself/Or, Reading Joyce's Inside Narrative

James Joyce's argument with himself about where he should practice his art and with what literary tradition he should identify—Irish, British, or European—is represented by several of the characters and episodes in his short story The Dead.In the main character, Gabriel Conroy, Joyce represented the conflicts that he himself experienced. But in many of the minor characters Joyce also reflected parts of his own wishes and fears.In this story, Joyce rejects the possibilities of artistic identification with Ireland and England, and, in the dynamics of the tale, arrives at the understanding that to fulfill his artistic aspirations, he must make an identification with the great European tradition, and also live in Europe; if he stays in Ireland or attempts to be an English author, he will be, as he portrays Gabriel to be, paralyzed, imitative, and a failure as an artist. Joyce himself took the decisive path that Gabriel could not choose.     

Reverie: between thought and prayer

Abstract:  Taking inspiration from a quotation by Lao Tzu, this paper considers 'reverie' as a dynamic process of containment as well as a state of mind. Reverie as a quality of thought akin to prayer is explored in the relationship between self and other. In infant observation, the paper contemplates the development of a baby's capacity to reach beyond the personal world to an archetypal experience of being held, where the creation of an internal space in mind could indicate the beginnings of spiritual awareness. 'Maternal/analytic reverie' views the passage of unconscious communication between patient and analyst as the result of a 'window' opening in the meniscus of the analyst's self. 'Paternal/supervisory reverie' reflects on the impact on a patient of an extra containing mind of a supervisor. 'Archetypal reverie' considers the transforming impact of numinous dreams on the psyche, and reflects on the power of prayer. Drawing on clinical examples from these four areas, the aim is to demonstrate the usefulness of the 'void within' and the perceptive function of emptiness in the 'doors and windows' of our mind.     

Care of the Self and Patient Participation in Genetic Discourse: A Foucauldian Reading of the Surgeon General's “My Family Health Portrait” Program

Critics of genetic discourse are concerned that deterministic and discriminatory views of genetics are increasingly becoming adopted. These views argue that current genetic discourse becomes a source of power whereby powerful institutions harm people with so-called “bad” genes. This essay argues that current analyses of the power of genetics discourse are grounded in an improper reading that disempowers patients. Deploying Michel Foucault's concept “care of the self,” this essay claims that genetics discourse is better understood as a way that patients take on power through rhetoric rather than a force that has power over patients. Through a close reading of the “My Family Health Portrait” program, this paper argues that patients experience a process of “subjection” wherein they become agents of and objects of genetics discourse both. This alternative mode of analyzing the power of genetics discourse has implications for our collective understanding of the operations of the care of the self and the uses of genetic information that we propose.     

自我面孔识别的独特性

与识别他人的面孔相比,自我面孔识别在行为反应、种系发生、个体发展以及脑机制等方面都具有很大的独特性。行为指标方面,自我面孔识别在速度上快于识别他人的面孔;种系发生方面,只有人类和大猩猩等高级灵长类动物才具有识别自己面孔的能力;个体发展方面,儿童出生后不久即能识别他人面孔,但要在18个月左右才能表现出自我面孔识别能力;脑机制方面,神经心理学和脑成像研究结果表明自我面孔识别可能主要是右脑的功能。该领域的研究进展将为深入了解自我的形成机理提供一个新的探视“窗口”。     

内隐联想测验中他人重要性对自我心理表征的影响

联合采用联想匹配任务和内隐联想测验（IAT）任务,考察了自我—他人分类中的他人重要性对自我—高奖赏相似性的影响。研究将中性的几何图形与自我、不同重要性的他人（实验一为陌生人,实验二为朋友）建立联结,并将自我（暂时建立联结的图形）高奖赏联合任务与自我低奖赏联合任务下的反应差异（即IAT值）作为自我—高奖赏相似性的指标,结果表明：（1）联想匹配任务中自我和朋友以及自我和陌生人之间都存在显著的自我优势效应;（2）IAT任务中,自我和高奖赏只在他人为朋友的自我—他人分类判断时才具有相似性,而他人为陌生人时二者不具有相似性。这说明他人重要性改变了自我的心理表征。     

Identity, narcissism and the emotional core

This paper describes the course of an analysis which demonstrates how borderline and narcissistic functioning can be understood in terms of a struggle with issues of identity. It shows how such functioning can come to exert a profound hold on the individual and why it seems, at times, a matter of life and death to the patient to avoid states of separation from the analyst. The paper suggests that these complex phenomena can be understood, perhaps surprisingly, in the simple terms of the nature of affect itself. The concept of the emotional core is introduced to embody and highlight that which lies beneath both Jungian and Freudian models (offering a potential bridge between the two models)--namely the psyche's essentially affective nature. It is suggested that the emotional core can serve as an organ of perception giving the individual both their primary relation to reality and an emotional attachment to others. This emotional core is understood to function in a narcissistic manner to preference experiences of sameness and in aversion to experiences of difference--a view consonant with Stern's understanding of infant development where the infant is able to distinguish self from other from the beginning of life (as Fordham also held); taking up Stern's terminology, it gives the individual a 'core' sense of being. There is, however, no stable, on-going sense of 'I' associated with this form of functioning as the individual is immersed in the latest affect to enter consciousness (as in the borderline state of mind) and consequently the individual comes to rely intensely on the other to determine their sense of being (the other becomes a self-regulating other in Stern's terms). The development of ego-functioning gives a more stable and on-going sense of 'I' to the individual, giving contact with the broader personality, allowing the individual to be less reliant on the other and orientating them to reality in a way more fitting to their overall needs. The paper describes how consciousness, which is not seen as identical with the ego, moves between the mode of functioning of the ego and that of the emotional core, i.e., shifting in and out of states where projective identification predominates. It elaborates the range of self-experience encompassing spiritual experience and states of disintegration (which are understood to have a similar structure) on one side, to ego-based experience (which can itself be defensive and rigid at times) on the other. It explores the consequences of such a view for analytic technique and relates it to the Jungian view of the self and the Freudian unconscious.