Discussion of “Nuturance and self-sabotage: Psychoanalytic perspectives on women's fear of success” by Ellen G. Ruderman

Abstract

Ruderman discusses the challenge that contemporary professional women still face in a sexist society and from their own inner critic. She shows how a relational approach to the treatment of women can empower women to overcome both external and internalized sexism. It is suggested that as patriarchy has been challenged, there has been a backlash against feminism. Urban professional men rebel against feminism by aspiring to become playboys who will never stop “playing the field.” The playboy mentality creates a challenge for contemporary professional women who may not wish their boyfriends or husbands to be spending so much time seeking sexual gratification through Internet pornography, lap dances at strip clubs, massages with happy endings, or clandestine affairs.

Lawrence Josephs. Diskussion von: ….

Rudermann diskutiert die Herausforderungen, denen heutige Frauen im Berufsleben begegnen. Einerseits haben sie in einer sexistischen Gesellschaft und andererseits gegenüber ihrer innerpsychischen Selbstkritik zu bestehen. Sie zeigt, wie eine psychotherapeutische Behandlung mit einem relationalen Ansatz, der externe und internalisierte Sexismus überwunden werden kann. Der Gedanke wird angeregt, inwiefern die Infragestellung der patriarchalen Gesellschaft eine Gegenbewegung auslöst, die auf den Feminismus zurückschlägt. Die berufstätigen Männer rebellieren gegen den Feminismus und haben den Ehrgeiz Playboys zu sein, die nicht aufhören können, das Feld zu beackern. Diese Playboy Mentalität ist eine Herausforderung für die heutigen berufstätigen Frauen. Sie sind nicht gewillt zuzulassen, dass ihr Freund oder Ehemann sich sexuelle Gratifikationen durch Internet-Pornographie, Nachtclubbesuche, Massagen und heimliche Affären beschafft.

Lawrence Josephs. Discusión de: Crianza y autosabotage: Perspectivas psicoanalíticas sobre el miedo al éxito en mujeres por

Ruderman discute el reto que las mujeres profesionales contemporáneas todavía enfrentan en una sociedad sexista y desde su propia crítica interna. Ella muestra como una aproximación relacional de tratamiento para mujeres puede fortalecer a la mujer para vencer el sexismo tanto externo como interiorizado. Se sugiere que así como el patriarcado ha sido cuestionado, existe un retroceso contra el feminismo. Hombres urbanos profesionistas se rebelan contra el feminismo aspirando a convertirse en playboys que nunca dejaran de jugar en ese campo. La mentalidad playboy representa un reto para las mujeres profesionistas contemporáneas quienes pueden no desear que sus novios o maridos, Dediquen tanto tiempo buscando gratificación sexual a través de la pornografía en internet, bailes en clubs de striptease, masajes con final feliz, o asuntos clandestinos.     

Child Support Enforcement and Father Involvement Among Victims of Intimate Partner Violence

The focus of this article will be intimate partner violence among custodial parents receiving welfare benefits and their required cooperation with the child support enforcement system to encourage the financial involvement of the noncustodial parent. The majority of the mothers in the study encouraged the father's continued emotional involvement with their child despite the violence. This article will illustrate through the use of a case study the desire of these mothers to encourage both a financial and emotional relationship with their child's father, with safety always a priority.     

Moving thoughts make for moving targets: Capturing time-sensitive effects in global/local processing

ABSTRACT

We examined the time-course of global/local processing with the goal of describing average change over time and individual differences in that change, namely, variability in level (intercept) and magnitude (slope) of change. To do so, we probed global/local processing across a broad time-course so that effects of time may be estimated from a randomly sampled set of time-points from the “true” population of time-points. Results showed that, on average, processing transitioned from global to local dominance; variation around this average, however, pointed to an ebb-and-flow in dominance rather than strict linear change.     

Traces of spirituality in the Lady Gaga phenomenon

This paper will explore the type of spiritual expression of adolescents and young people in and through current popular music culture. In particular, the paper will propose the music and industry constructed by and around the popular singer and songwriter Lady Gaga as a test case. Her incessant use of religious language and religious symbolism has equally attracted praise and criticism. This paper will acknowledge that Lady Gaga is not simply an icon of this hypermodernity, but she is a complex phenomenon which brings together various elements as well as actors. It will explore if and to what extent the main spiritual elements are traceable in this phenomenon.     

The Symbolic Object

Abstract

The term “symbolic object” is introduced as a way to understand the moments between analyst and patient where “something” new and dynamic emerges within the dyadic relationship. The symbolic object is the bridge between the idealized, all-good object and symbolization proper. The intrapsychic atmosphere between self and object representations is in a relatively non-conflicted state during this process. By reformulating the Nirvana principle and the principle of constancy as ways in which the organism economically strives for the most organized and homoeostatic state possible, the infant or adult can be seen to be searching for the position of lowest unpleasure possible. This is the optimum balance between the libidinal and aggressive forces in the self and object representational field. These moments of “truce” between often highly conflicted phantasies usher in a more refined use of projective identification as a form of intrapsychic/interpersonal communication. This is a particular atmosphere from which both parties, within the projective/introjective, back-and-forth dyadic world, can begin to co-create and rediscover assorted amalgams of self and object functioning. This newly awakened psychic entity is the symbolic object. This outgrowth of something fresh to the dyadic orbit is a mutative moment that propels the relationship into a different direction. Within the pairing of minds, a novel and mutual understanding is produced. Both parties share this new symbolic object and each is shaped by it.     

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.     

Sexual metaphor and the language of unconscious phantasy

This paper investigates the attempt to find a 'bedrock' for psychic life in the idea of unconscious phantasy. Through a detailed examination of the development of the concept of unconscious phantasy, especially in Kleinian discourse, it is argued that unconscious phantasies are inherently metaphorical and have no 'concrete' existence in the unconscious. The use of unconscious phantasy as metaphor enables a 'two-way' form of interpretation that describes sexual behaviour and fantasy in terms of object relations (interpreting 'away from sex', while simultaneously describing object relations in terms of the sexual body (interpreting 'towards sex').     

The challenge of characterizing operations in the mechanisms underlying behavior

Neuroscience and cognitive science seek to explain behavioral regularities in terms of underlying mechanisms. An important element of a mechanistic explanation is a characterization of the operations of the parts of the mechanism. The challenge in characterizing such operations is illustrated by an example from the history of physiological chemistry in which some investigators tried to characterize the internal operations in the same terms as the overall physiological system while others appealed to elemental chemistry. In order for biochemistry to become successful, researchers had to identify a new level of operations involving operations over molecular groups. Existing attempts at mechanistic explanation of behavior are in a situation comparable to earlier approaches to physiological chemistry, drawing their inspiration either from overall psychology activities or from low-level neural processes. Successful mechanistic explanations of behavior require the discovery of the appropriate component operations. Such discovery is a daunting challenge but one on which success will be beneficial to both behavioral scientists and cognitive and neuroscientists.     

The Self, the symbolic and synchronicity: virtual realities and the emergence of the psyche

Jung's theory of synchronicity is seen as a step in the development of a complete theory of the symbol. In so doing, a number of proposals are made for modelling the symbolic process along lines already in use for modelling a variety of other phenomena, ranging from language to the behaviour of earthquakes. These modelling techniques involve processes of self-organization, and raise issues of scaling in systems including symbolic systems. The proposal is made that symbolic systems obey the same rules of scaling that these other systems obey, and that symbolic systems can therefore be understood as exhibiting the characteristics of a power law distribution-a concept that is explained and developed in the paper. It is finally proposed that synchronicity is an aspect of the symbolic that can be characterized as exhibiting a high degree of 'symbolic density'.     

Adult attachment as a predictor of maternal gatekeeping among new parents

This study examined the associations between expectant couples' adult attachment styles and new mothers' gatekeeping (i.e., maternal behaviors that may inhibit or encourage father involvement in parenting) at the transition to parenthood. Data were drawn from a study of 182 different-gender dual-earner couples followed from the third trimester of pregnancy through 3 months postpartum. In the third trimester, expectant parents reported their attachment anxiety and avoidance. At 3 months postpartum, mothers and fathers reported on mothers' gate opening and gate closing behaviors. Also, at 3 months postpartum, maternal gate opening and gate closing were coded during mother–father–infant interactions in play and caregiving. Actor–Partner Interdependence Models were conducted in IBM SPSS AMOS 21.0. Findings indicated that higher maternal anxiety predicted higher mother-reported maternal gate closing, whereas higher paternal avoidance and higher paternal anxiety predicted lower father-reported maternal gate opening. During caregiving, higher paternal anxiety predicted higher observed maternal gate closing, and higher maternal anxiety predicted lower observed maternal gate opening. Findings reveal the importance of attachment in coparenting relationships among new parents, as attachment anxiety and avoidance may shape maternal behaviors encouraging or hindering father involvement in parenting.