The self and involuntary memory: Identifying with the victim increases memory accessibility for stressful events

Autobiographical memory is intimately linked to the self. However, the relation between the self and involuntary recall has been understudied. Theoretically, the more relevant an event is to the self the more accessible the memory should be. In line with this prediction, the present study tested the hypothesis that self-relevance of a stressor modulates involuntary recall. Healthy student participants viewed distressing film clips and were presented with information that defined the main characters as more or less similar to them, or without any information about the characters. In line with predictions, participants in the high self-relevance condition reported more involuntary memories of the film clips after one week compared to participants in the low self-relevance and control conditions. The findings support the theoretical relation between the self and memory accessibility and extend findings from previous research to the domain of involuntary recall.     

The Good-in-Bed Effect: College Students’ Tendency to See Themselves as Better Than Others as a Sex Partner

Self-enhancement refers to the finding that people tend to see themselves as better than others. The present research tested whether people display self-enhancement with regard to beliefs about their competency as sexual partners (the good-in-bed effect). Participants were asked to list good and bad sexually related behaviors more frequently performed by the self or by others. Study 1 demonstrated that people selectively associate themselves with good and others with bad sexual behaviors. In Study 2, independent raters judged bad behaviors associated with the self as less negative than bad behaviors associated with others. Study 3 replicated the good-in-bed effect and also found that when the salience of the comparison between good and bad traits is increased, men are more likely than women to demonstrate the effect. Implications of the results for relationship satisfaction are considered.     

Trauma and the transference‐countertransference: working with the bad object and the wounded self

This paper focuses on the transference‐countertransference dynamics that manifest in work with those individuals who experienced severe early relational trauma and, in particular, childhood sexual abuse. The literature is surveyed from Davies and Frawley's (1992a) seminal paper through to more current trauma‐related and sensorimotor approaches, which deepen our understanding greatly. The rapidly shifting, powerful, conflicting and kaleidoscopic transference‐countertransference dynamics are explored in the light of these views and in relation to a lengthy clinical example. The author elucidates the dual‐aspect of the traumatic complex, whereby the abuser figure, which is disavowed by the patient, becomes manifest in prosecuting the analyst for the ‘wounds’ that the analysis evokes. The paper also explores the particular nature of the splitting processes, whereby pressure is put on the analyst to adopt an idealized role, in particular to act as a self‐object, in order to enable the patient to safely express and ‘be’ themselves in an attempt to make up for what was not possible in childhood; the analyst will necessarily fail in this task. In the context of powerful masochisto‐sadistic dynamics, the analyst's masochism is likely to be called up in the spirit of caring ‘humanity’ (another inevitable enactment), which can impede the progress of the analysis if not addressed. The extreme woundedness, intense affect and moral outrage associated with these dynamics are characteristic and compelling. Issues relating to disclosure, enactment and analytic attitude are also discussed.     

The Mechanisms Involved in the Behavior of White Rats on the Inclined Plane

Semantic tasks, such as lexical decision making and word recognition, have not produced a mood priming effect. Earlier studies have been criticized because they included (a) mood induction techniques that required instruction to feel the mood, and (b) the use of overleamed tasks that did not require controlled processing. In this pair of experiments, the authors attempted to address these criticisms. However, the results of this study did not demonstrate a mood priming effect for happy and sad subjects who appraised sentence content as being happy or sad. The results of this study supported the dissociation of semantic and episodic memory.     

MOURNING,DREAMING, AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX

The author argues that the structure of mourning and the structure of the Oedipus complex are triadic, the latter being obvious and easy to conceptualize, while the former is quite subtle. When it is the father who is mourned, the son must repeatedly invoke the dead object so that libidinal cathexis can be reinvested in living objects. Such was the situation in which Freud found himself in 1896 when his father died—the triadic nature of the Oedipus complex ironically not yet discovered by him. In the author's belief, Freud's mourning and his attendant rich dream life occurring between 1896 and 1897 gave him access to the unconscious raw material that would eventually help him conceptualize the triadic structure at the instinctual core of the Oedipus complex.     

From the Roots of Psychosocial Practice-Therapeutic Use of Self in the Classroom: Practical Applications for Occupational Therapy Faculty

The roots of occupational therapy stem from psychosocial practice and embrace concepts of humanism, client-centered practice and therapeutic use of self. These concepts are integral to both clinical and academic settings. As the profession has moved toward graduate level education, increased numbers of non-traditional students are entering the field. Models of teaching that incorporate principles of active learning and therapeutic use of self within the classroom provide a consumer-learner-based model of education that is uniquely suited to students of diverse backgrounds, lifestyles, and educational needs. This article presents a brief overview of andragogical principles and the development of the student-faculty relationship. Mosey's concepts of conscious use of self are introduced as a means by which positive faculty-student relationships can be formed in order to enhance student learning and educational outcomes.     

POETRY

ABSTRACT

This article presents a pilot project in which reminiscence group members read mystics from several religious traditions to select imagery about the mystical theme of an unconditionally accepted “Core Self.” The perspective from “Core Self,” in turn, reframes unforgiving judgments some members have made about their personal history, ameliorates meager levels of self-esteem through which they have reviewed their life, and draws from their reminiscences more functional ways of managing current issues. The article concludes with examples of members offering additional insights into the life review of three colleagues that enhance the benefits of the project.