A developmental perspective on psychotherapy process, psychotherapists' expertise, and “Meaning-Making Conflict” within therapeutic relationships: A two-part series

Part I (in this issue)—A Dialectical-Constructivist View of Human Development, Psychotherapy, and the Dynamics of Meaning-Making Conflict Within Therapeutic Relationships— reviews a dialectical-constructivist model of human development and articulates, in the language of that model, how psychotherapy, in general, works. It describes and illustrates three generic processes, which contribute to the frequent successes of an extremely diverse range of psychotherapy theories and practices. This view of psychotherapy focuses on both the client's meaning-making processes and the therapist's meaning-making processes and how they contribute together to effective psychotherapy. Part I also offers a way of understanding what is going on when therapeutic progress is blocked by conflict between the client's and the therapist's meaning-making processes. Part II—Dialectical Thinking and Psychotherapeutic Expertise: Implications for Training Psychotherapists and Protecting Clients from Theoretical Abuse—explores those experiences in which the therapist's own exercise of his or her meaning-making structures, and maintenance of the integrity of his or her theories, has a limiting or destructive impact on the value of therapy to the client. It considers the concept of “theoretical abuse” by psychotherapists as a way of characterizing the most destructive of these experiences. This serves as a rhetorical device for introducing comparisons between these phenomena and the phenomena of sexual abuse by psychotherapists, in terms of dynamics, prevalence, and appropriate strategies for prevention. Part II uses work on the development of dialectical thinking in adulthood to conceptualize how different understandings of the nature of psychotherapists' expertise increase or decrease the likelihood and severity of “theoretical abuse”. Finally, it derives implications for training psychologists and other psychotherapy professionals.     

Two arguments against lying

Kant and Sidgwick are at opposite extremes on whether we may tell paternalistic lies. I trace the extremism to their views about ethical concepts. Sidgwick thinks fundamental ethical concepts must be precise. Common Sense morality says we may tell paternalistic lies to children but not to sane adults. Because the distinction between a child and an adult is imprecise, Sidgwick thinks this principle cannot be fundamental, and must be based on the (precise) principle of utility, which often mandates paternalistic lies to adults. Kant thinks that ethical concepts are ideals of reason, which do not fit the world precisely because the world is imperfect. We lie to children and the insane because they are irrational, but no one is perfectly rational. We must treat all persons with the respect due to rational agents, so the pressure of the theory is toward not lying to anyone. Decisions about where to draw the line must be made pragmatically and to some extent arbitrary. But fear of this is not a good reason to abandon ethical ideals for utilitarianism.     

Emotion Regulation and Empathy: Which Relation with Social Conduct?

A shared consensus among researchers deals with the positive association between the ability to effectively regulate and manage one's emotion and the engagement in empathic behavior and morally desirable actions. This study was designed to investigate how dispositional reliance on suppression and reappraisal differently impacted on the cognitive and affective components of empathy and on social conduct, distinguishing among prosocial, internalizing, and externalizing behaviors. Two hundred nineteen middle adolescents were enrolled and fulfilled self-reports assessing emotion regulation strategies, empathy, and social behaviors. The results suggest that there are important distinctions among the emotion regulation strategies and the components of empathy as they relate to one another and to prosocial behavior and problem conduct. Specifically, cognitive reappraisal was related to prosocial behavior through empathic concern. While internalizing behavior was associated with emotion regulation strategies, externalizing behavior was only related to perspective-taking ability. Delimitations and practical implications were discussed.     

Time perspective,optimistic bias,and self-control among different statuses of university smokers in China: a cross-sectional study

Risk behavior often seems ‘self-defeating’ to the observers. Most people understand the basic health-related knowledge, but some of them still choose to continue risk behaviors, especially for the young. This study aimed to examine time perspective, optimism bias and self control correlated with smoking behavior in Chinese college students. A cross-sectional survey enrolling 3016 university students in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, China. Influence Factors were identified using multiple logistic regression analyses. Prevalence of current smoking was 20.92% (631 smokers), including 272 daily smokers (9.02%) and 359 non-daily smokers (11.90%). Future-oriented time perspective, general capacity for self-discipline, reliability and ethnicity were protective factors of smoking behavior. Possibility of self-suffering diseases and gender were risk factors of smoking behavior. Smoking in University of Chengdu, China is a severe problem. Results in this research have suggested that irrespective of the smoking level, improving health-related knowledge, time management awareness and self-control ability may contribute to reducing the prevalence of smoking behavior.     

学校正念干预的应用与特点

“学校正念干预”(School-Based Mindfulness Intervention)是将正念理论及技术应用到教育领域而形成的非医疗健康干预新策略。一方面,学校正念干预能有效帮助学生改善身心行为问题,提高认知能力;另一方面,它能够增强教师压力管理能力和幸福感。总的来说,学校正念干预是以“大健康”为目标、以“非评判接纳”为视角、以校园为干预情境、以传统学校项目为基础的校园非医疗健康干预,是学校心理健康工作者、学校专业社工可采取的策略。未来研究应注重其成效评估和测量、理论机制及应用问题的研究。     

中国理论心理学的原创性反思

理论心理学已成为一门国际性的学科。中国理论心理学在世界理论心理学的发展中具有重要地位。我国老一辈心理学家对这个学科的发展做出了较大贡献,中青年学者在这一领域取得了可喜的成果。但我国理论心理学的发展状况与社会对理论心理学的期待还很不相称,有许多值得反思的地方,集中到一点就是中国理论心理学研究的原创性水平不足,这阻碍了中国心理学的发展。研究者认为,要提高中国理论心理学的原创性水平,理论研究者至少要从以下几个方面下功夫：理论研究必须回归到人本身;理论创新最需要的是坚定的理论信念;提倡批判思维,鼓励建构思维;心理学不能走入理论与实证相互怨恨的歧途;鼓励多途径理论创新;理论心理学需要理论心理学家相互合作、共同攻关。     

A Jewish Spiritual Perspective on Psychopathology and Psychotherapy: A Clinician's View

This paper will present a Jewish Spiritual Perspective on clinical work by examining key underlying values and attitudes in Judaism that relate to human behavior, mental health and illness. Common symptom presentations and family issues that have roots in culture will be explored. Contemporary and ancient spiritual coping tools will be suggested for use in clinical work and personal growth.