Alexithymia, Irrational Beliefs, and the Rational-Emotive Explanation of Emotional Disturbance

In recent discussions of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Ellis has argued that unconscious processes supplement irrational beliefs in explaining psychopathology. The hypothesis of this investigation was that these unconscious processes reflect alexithymia. University students responded to the three factors from the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Malouff and Schutte Belief Scale (MSBS), 5 subscales from the Survey of Personal Beliefs, and instruments recording depression, anxiety, and neuroticism. As hypothesized, alexithymia and irrational beliefs predicted greater emotional disturbance while also displaying some small positive correlations with each other. In multiple regressions, both types of variables combined to predict emotional disturbance, with alexithymia explaining the greater amount of variance. Alexithymic difficulties in identifying emotions had uniquely negative mental health implications. The MSBS and the Low Frustration Tolerance subscale were the most noteworthy measures of a pathogenic irrationality. These data supported the claim that the unconscious processes of REBT could be conceptualized in terms of alexithymia.     

Transformations of early infantile experiences: A 6-month-old in psychoanalysis

The aim of the paper is to study the theoretical and technical tools for psychoanalysis adapted to an infantile analysand's requirements. The author presents the case of a 6-month-old boy with his mother in psychoanalytical sessions four times a week; the analysis was terminated after six weeks. After the fi rst two sessions the disturbances between the infant and the mother disappeared from everyday life but continued with increasing intensity as an emotional storm in the sessions during three weeks up to a 12-day break. During and after the break everyday life continued without disturbances. After the break the emotional storm continued in the sessions but abated and was replaced by playing. The infant's creation of a fort-da game with his pacifi er indicated a transformation of the mental functioning. The analysis could then be terminated. The study of the process indicates good reasons to adapt psychoanalytical concepts to the prerequisite of the infantile personality and to use the concepts of unconscious, infantile repression, substitute formation, return of the infantile repressed, infantile transference, splitting, xKy, reverie and containment as some of the theoretical tools for understanding the infantile personality in a clinical psychoanalytical setting.     

内隐学习和无觉察知觉辨析

在无意识研究的热潮中,无觉察知觉、内隐学习相继得到很大发展。这两种认知过程都涉及到无意识加工,相互之间有非常密切的联系。本文介绍了这两种无意识加工过程,并对其联系、区别进行了辨析。     

无意识情绪启动研究新进展

本文对目前无意识情绪启动的两种方式、无意识情绪启动在认知领域和人格领域实证研究、无意识情绪启动的神经生理的研究以及无意识情绪启动模型理论研究进行理论的综述;同时对无意识情绪启动研究不足之处以及今后研究方向作了简评。     

Repression, transference and reconstruction

Whereas Peter Fonagy almost dismisses the importance of repression and the recovery of repressed and suppressed memory, the author believes that the analysis of repression retains importance in clinical psychoanalysis. Transference is a return of the repressed, with repressed memories embedded within a fundamental unconscious fantasy constellation. Moreover, transference is an essential, but not the only, route to the understanding and analysis of the patient. Nor should transference be confused with the real or new analytic relationship. The author does not regard the dynamic unconscious as definitely registered and retrieved in procedural memory, awaiting further research. A focus on the present 'self with other' model of therapeutic action neglects pathogenesis and the importance of childhood and its psychoanalytic reconstruction.     

Response to Peter Fonagy

Peter Fonagy highlights the therapeutic efficacy of new experience, 'a way of being with the other', while the author gives priority to interpretation, insight into and the working through of unconscious conflict. The recovery of the repressed memories and fantasies of childhood is now an intermediate goal of psychoanalysis, largely superseded by transference interpretation and genetic reconstruction. Transference, like symptoms, is a return of the repressed. The author believes Fonagy's theoretical and technical focus on the non-conscious, rather than the dynamic unconscious, devalues the persisting influence and pathogenic significance of the infantile unconscious.     

积极想象的理解与应用

本文探讨了积极想象的含义、运用条件、操作步骤、本质特征、应用拓展, 并对积极想象、催眠、自由联想三种无意识心理治疗技术进行对比。积极想象技术已经发展出多种形式, 与艺术疗法、身体因素相结合, 应用范围也从个体形式发展到团体形式, 还应用于理解和处理医患之间移情、反移情关系等问题。理解和应用积极想象时, 应从方法论意义上运用, 把握其本质特征, 并同时加强荣格分析心理学与中国思想文化之间的理论联结。     

连贯性对文本表征意识性的影响

采用独立记得-知道范式(IRK)和加工分离范式(PDP)探讨了整体连贯和局部连贯条件下连贯性高低对文本表征意识性的影响。实验1使用独立记得-知道范式(IRK), 通过分析被试对再认项目判断为“记得”或“知道”的比例(击中率), 探讨连贯性对文本表征意识性的影响。实验2使用加工分离范式(PDP), 通过分析被试在包含、排斥测验中的击中率和虚报率, 探讨连贯性对文本表征意识性的影响。总的实验结果表明, 在整体连贯条件下, 连贯性只影响有意识加工, 不影响无意识加工; 而局部连贯条件下, 连贯性对有意识加工和无意识加工都有影响, 证明了不同连贯条件下连贯性高低对文本表征的加工过程有着不同的影响。     

Decisions Under Temporal AND Emotional Pressure: The Hidden Relationships Between the Unconscious,Personality, and Cognitive Styles

The existence of an unaware psychic space that influences the way we think, perceive, and decide has been known for over a century. This space, defined by Freud as the “unconscious,” contains in itself unaware psychic contents. Its sophisticated adaptive functions, implicit and unaware, allow individuals to transform an enormous amount of information into explicit behaviors, influencing their behaviors. In this article, we advance the hypothesis that there is a strong relationship between the unconscious, personality styles, and decisions under conditions of temporal and emotional pressure. The fact that an increase in the quality of a performance follows an increase in excitation, at least up to a certain threshold, clarifies the concept. Beyond this level of activation, not only are the benefits starting to diminish, but we also notice the onset of dysfunctional conditions that consist of anxiety, inner tension, difficulty in concentration, and inability to decide.