When Time Stands Still: The Non-Interactive Interaction in the Psychoanalytic Encounter

This paper strives to shed light on the patient–therapist encounter at times and places where emotional life has stopped, both within the patient and in the therapeutic dyad. The term non-interactive interaction is coined to describe a manner of being together that does not possess the essential features of interaction: movement, encounter, and change. The paper explores the characteristics and effects of such dead areas in one’s soul and the various motivations for the therapist’s willingness to surrender himself to such areas, both those of his patient’s and of his own. Among these, the paper suggests, are the therapist’s love and dedication to his or her patients; his deep-rooted struggle to cope with and give life to some of his own deadened and traumatic self-states; and, perhaps most important, a mythical, hubris-like, valiant, and perennial urge to fight death. Two clinical examples are presented.     

A China–New Zealand comparison of forgiveness

The present study examined the practice of forgiveness among participants from China (N = 172) and New Zealand (N = 91). We tested a theoretical model describing the relationships between collectivism, individualism, and forgiveness. Participants from China were more collectivistic and less individualistic than were participants from New Zealand. Overall, participants from New Zealand were more forgiving than were participants from China. Collectivism was positively related to decisional forgiveness in Chinese participants. Decisional forgiveness independently predicted conciliatory behaviour among participants from China, but this was not the case for participants from New Zealand. Thus, the hypothesized model received qualified support.     

Support for Self‐Censorship Among Israelis as a Barrier to Resolving the Israeli‐Palestinian Conflict

Self‐censorship, defined as an “act of intentionally and voluntarily withholding information from others in the absence of formal obstacles” often serves as a barrier to resolving intractable conflicts. Specifically, in order to protect the group, and in absence of objective constraints such as institutionalized censorship, individuals practice self‐censorship and support its practice by other society members. This prevents free flow and transparency of information, within a society, regarding the conflict and the adversary. In an attempt to investigate the factors that contribute to the functioning of self‐censorship as a sociopsychological barrier to conflict resolution, a longitudinal study was conducted among a large sample of Jews in Israel. The survey was administered in three waves: a few months before, during, and a few months after Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense in the Gaza Strip. The findings showed that armed confrontation can increase support for self‐censorship. In addition, the findings revealed that personal characteristics (e.g., authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, siege mentality) predicted support for self‐censorship, which, in turn, mediated the effect of personal characteristics on support for negotiations and for providing humanitarian aid. The theoretical as well as the applied implications of the findings are discussed.     

The effect of culture on perspective taking

People consider the mental states of other people to understand their actions. We evaluated whether such perspective taking is culture dependent. People in collectivistic cultures (e.g., China) are said to have interdependent selves, whereas people in individualistic cultures (e.g., the United States) are said to have independent selves. To evaluate the effect of culture, we asked Chinese and American pairs to play a communication game that required perspective taking. Eye-gaze measures demonstrated that the Chinese participants were more tuned into their partner's perspective than were the American participants. Moreover, Americans often completely failed to take the perspective of their partner, whereas Chinese almost never did. We conclude that cultural patterns of interdependence focus attention on the other, causing Chinese to be better perspective takers than Americans. Although members of both cultures are able to distinguish between their perspective and another person's perspective, cultural patterns afford Chinese the effective use of this ability to interpret other people's actions.     

Interventions to change well‐anchored attitudes in the context of intergroup conflict

Changing attitudes is one of the most challenging and important endeavors social psychologists have undertaken in order to promote better quality of life for individuals and collectives. However, when addressing pressing issues, such as intergroup conflict, racism, and inequality, changing attitudes is particularly difficult as individuals are often frozen in their attitudes. Based on the important work of conflict‐resolution scholars and practitioners, we report several well‐known and new socio‐psychological interventions that have been developed to unfreeze attitudes, especially in the context of intergroup conflict. These include providing contradictory information, paradoxical thinking, enlightening individual shortcomings, teaching skills, and the informative process model. We conclude by assessing the lessons learned from the research and practice of psychological interventions, focusing on their application in the field, and the value of increased cooperation between researchers and practitioners.     

Mispredicting the hedonic benefits of segregated gains

The hedonic benefit of a gain (e.g., receiving $100) may be increased by segregating it into smaller units that are distributed over time (e.g., receiving $50 on each of 2 days). However, if these units are too small (e.g., receiving 1 cent on each of 10,000 days), they may fall beneath the person's hedonic limen and have no hedonic benefit at all. Do people know where their limens lie? In 6 experiments, participants predicted that the hedonic benefit of a large gain would be increased by segregating it into smaller units, and they were right; but participants also predicted that the hedonic benefit of a small gain would be increased by segregating it into smaller units, and they were wrong. Segregation of small gains decreased rather than increased hedonic benefit. These experiments suggest that people may underestimate the value of the hedonic limen and thus may oversegregate small gains.     

The ‘Parent Circle’ Peace Education Program: Does it Make Any Change?

This study evaluated a peace education program facilitated by the ‘parents circle family forum.’ The program aims to expose Jewish and Palestinian-Arab adolescents to personal stories of bereavement as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One hundred and sixty-four Jewish twelfth-grade adolescents from schools throughout Israel filled out questionnaires before the start of the educational program, and 135 Jewish adolescents filled out the same questionnaire up to a week after it ended. Questionnaires included empathy, anger, and legitimacy toward ‘self’ and ‘others’ narratives. Results indicate that, overall, there were not any significant differences before and after the educational program with regard to adolescents’ attitudes toward ‘self’ and ‘others’ narratives. However, when examining differences between subgroups in Israeli society, significant differences between ‘secular’ and ‘traditional’ adolescents emerged. The attitudes of secular adolescents favored narratives of the ‘others,’ while the attitudes of the traditional adolescents favored the ‘self’ narratives. After the program, these differences diminished, meaning that the program had a different impact on each subgroup. The traditional adolescents became more favorable to the ‘others’ narratives, while the secular adolescents became more favorable to their own narratives. Results are discussed on the basis of the theoretical foundation of psychological impacts of intractable conflicts.