“重”“错”之义与六十四卦的生成

六十四卦如何由八卦重叠而成,思想家们给出了不同的说法。本文立足“重”与“错”的同异,探讨其成卦的内在机制及其与天地万物变化的联系。孔颖达以相错解释相重,在忽略二者矛盾的前提下进行推论。邵雍立足一分为二发明相错,”重”在他是指天圆地方的天道运动,而与重卦无关。以为邵雍言先天方位的八卦相错是讲重卦的观点缺乏根据。胡宏从太极——天道的运动说明八卦与六十四卦的关系。利用“重道”去解释“重卦”,揭示了六十四卦生成的不同机理。朱熹在总结前人的基础上,按照太极生万物模式的需要发挥邵雍的理论,反映了邵雍以后易学的发展。来知德批评了邵雍、朱熹对相错与相重的混淆,但又不是胡宏的一“重”到底．而是重与错双方相互补充发明,合力生成六十四卦。尽管哲学家们对”重”与“错”的方法的把握和定位不尽相同,但易卦的生成应当是天道运动规律的概括和表现则是他们的基本的共识。     

Parent Perspectives on Family Involvement in Therapeutic Foster Care

There has been an increasing focus on family involvement in the treatment of children with serious emotional disorders, but it has received only limited attention in relation to out-of-home placements. I present the findings from a qualitative study of family involvement from the perspectives of parents whose children were placed in therapeutic foster care (TFC). Parents' perspectives on their involvement in placement decisions, relationships with professionals and TFC providers, practices related to family involvement, barriers to involvement, and strategies to enhance family involvement are described. Parents of children in TFC wanted to have contact with their children and to participate in decision making. They described relationships and practices that contributed to their involvement.     

Therapeutic alliance and progress in couple therapy: multiple perspectives

Therapeutic alliance research in couple therapy using multiple perspectives and longitudinal data has been sparse. This study used structural equation modelling to explore relationships between changes in alliance and in progress from clients' and therapists' perspective in a fairly large sample of couples (N=195) during the initial stage of therapy at an on‐campus training clinic. Self‐rated alliance was measured after sessions 2 through 4 with the Working Alliance Inventory. There was very little change in alliance over the early sessions of therapy, and changes in alliance did not always account for changes in relationship satisfaction. Husbands' perceptions of satisfaction and alliance seem to play an important role in the dynamics of the therapeutic process. Findings suggest a reciprocal relationship between perceptions of alliance and progress in therapy when combining perceptions of therapists and couple clients. Clinical implications and future research are discussed.     

What is happening in the world of therapeutic communities?

This overview of the contributions to the special edition illustrates something of how the collection of papers reflects the marginal nature of therapeutic communities, and makes parallels as to how they are forever struggling to survive, yet generate a passion of ideas and intellectual resilience that no project-managed health service can extinguish. It briefly describes the theoretical and geographical terrain covered, and signals how the cross-disciplinary incorporation of congruent ideas can be added to the traditional bedrock of therapeutic community practice. It ends by stating the context of the new, and seemingly successful, organization which assembled these contributions into its inaugural conference – and suggests that the journey could, and ultimate should, go further.     

Discomfort in the community. The place of psyche: Between zōē and bios

In this paper, the author considers the treatment of people diagnosed with a psychosis or borderline personality disorder in therapeutic communities from a psychoanalytic perspective, with a particular focus on the work of Jacques Lacan and of André Green. He discusses two key questions. First, how are these patients to recover life? – not just in the biological sense but in terms of subjectivity. Secondly, is it ever really possible to build relationships with them? In relation to this second question, the author emphasizes the importance of the training and supervision of practitioners, as well as their own analysis. Therapeutic communities, above all, he argues, can provide structure and security in a society which is increasingly fragmented and unstable.     

Effects of the function-specific instruction approach to neurofeedback training on frontal midline theta waves and golf putting performance

A recent meta-analysis has shown inconclusive results on the effectiveness of traditional electroencephalography (EEG) neurofeedback training (NFT) protocols in changing EEG activity and improving sports performance. To enhance the effectiveness of EEG NFT protocols, we explored a new approach to EEG NFT, namely the function-specific instruction (FSI) approach. The basic tenet underpinning effective verbal instruction is to induce mental states as the verbal instructions consider the meaning of the brainwave function in the target region and the EEG power magnitude. This study aimed to test whether a single session of FSI is efficacious in improving frontal midline theta (FMT) activity and putting performance. Method: Thirty-six skilled golfers with a handicap of 14.05 ± 9.43 were recruited. A consecutive sampling method was used to form three groups: an FSI group (n = 12), a traditional instruction (TI) group (n = 12), and a sham control (SC) group (n = 12). In the pre- and post-tests, each participant performed 40 putts from a distance of 3 m, and the number of holed putts was recorded. The participants were asked to perform 50 trials in a single session of NFT. Putting performance improved significantly from before to after NFT in the FSI group. Moreover, the FSI group demonstrated a significant decrease in FMT power, whereas the SC group demonstrated a significant increase in FMT power from before to after NFT. These findings suggest that the FSI approach is more effective in enhancing sustained attention and putting performance in skilled golfers than TI.     

Therapeutic Relationship

This article addresses the important role of the therapeutic relationship in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). As has been noted from the inception of CBT, there are critical features of both the therapist and the relationship that optimize the likelihood of therapeutic success, and this article briefly describes these features. It is further argued that a successful therapeutic relationship in CBT is not static but is flexible and adaptive both across and within clients, as their needs and concerns vary. A positive therapeutic relationship is viewed within CBT as a necessary but insufficient condition for change, as the relationship serves as a foundation upon which interventions are scaffolded, but that the client’s response to various interventions itself shapes the interactions between therapist and client. Finally, it is argued that the key therapeutic ingredients of CBT are largely teachable, and the article provides several suggestions to promote an effective therapeutic relationship in CBT.     

The sandwich model: The ‘music and dance’ of therapeutic action

My premise is that a ‘layered’ approach is necessary to understand the process of exchanges that result in therapeutic change. I imagine these processes occurring in three layers – although the number of domains in which change is taking place is actually infinite – such as in a sandwich. The top layer, or top slice of bread of the sandwich, represents a broad view of the change process; it is non‐linear and includes the feature of uncertainty, a general principle of dynamic systems theory. The middle layer, or the meat of the sandwich, is explained by theories that are immediately and clinically useful to a therapist, such as psychoanalytic theories. These are primarily linear theories and use language and symbols to ‘tell a story of what happened’. The bottom layer, or bottom slice of bread of the sandwich, is the micro‐process; this layer includes the moment‐to‐moment patterns of coordinated rhythms that both communicate meaning and provide the essential scaffold for all higher‐level change processes. The micro‐process also requires a non‐linear theory to make sense of its variability and emergent properties. Taking a bite out of the sandwich will include a ‘polysemic bundle of communicative behaviors’ (Harrison and Tronick, 2011). I will illustrate the ‘sandwich model’ with the clinical case of the analytic treatment of a 5 year‐old boy.     

The Evolution of Mindfulness‐based Cognitive Therapy

Metcalf and Dimidjian (this issue) present a timely review of the evolving evidence base and mechanisms of mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy (MBCT). The present commentary extends the discussion on the current evidence base for MBCT based on findings from recent meta‐analytic reviews in this field which attest to the promising outcome for mindfulness‐based therapies, particularly for depressed populations. However, the specific effects of MBCT as applied to anxiety, health and developmental populations is still very much in its infancy. The second objective of this commentary extends discussion on the transdiagnostic applications of MBCT versus traditional cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). It is recommended that with the continuing expansion of MBCT, the effects of this therapeutic approach needs to be evaluated against other empirically supported therapies, including traditional CBT.     

Converting a Freudian analysis into a Jungian one: obsession,addiction, and an answer from Job

In his analyses of obsessional patients, Sigmund Freud suggested that they suffered from intrusive cognitions and compulsive activities. Early psychoanalysts delineated the phenomenology of obsessionality, but did not differentiate what is currently termed obsessive‐compulsive disorder from obsessional personality. However, it was widely recognized that the success of psychoanalysis with obsessional patients was limited due to rigid characterological defences and transference resistances. The present paper examines the case of a middle‐aged obsessional academic who had been treated for nearly twenty years in a ‘classical' Freudian psychoanalysis prior to entering Jungian analysis. It examines how persistent focus on Oedipal conflicts undesirably reinforced the transference resistance in this obsessional man, and suggests that focusing instead on diminishing the harshness of the super‐ego via the therapeutic alliance, and fostering faith in the salutary aspects of unconscious processing has led to salutary results in this case. The biblical book of Job is adopted as ancient instruction in how to address the scrupulosity and addictive mental structuring of obsessionality in analysis.