The 'black hole' in the inner universe

Summary The metaphor of the 'black hole' has been borrowed from astronomy in order to describe certain phenomena occurring in work with autistic and psychotic children. This metaphor is different from Tustin's concept of the 'black hole'. I shall attempt to describe another phenomenon: not that of the hole in the self, resulting from premature separation, but the hole in the object that the autistic or psychotic child is relating to - or, rather, turning away from. I describe an autistic boy's need to protect himself against the catastrophic experience of relating to an object with such a hole in its mind. That is a particular kind of a depressed object which emits deadness, instead of the lively, responsive affect that the child should get in communication. It is not an intrusive object, but it sucks in and drowns energy. If the experience of relating to the 'black hole' in the object happens early and in such a powerful way that the child's energy feels insufficient to defend against it in any way, then the fear of annihilation becomes so strong that it may lead to the wiping out of the whole internal universe in order to escape its deadly gravitational pull. Only when a different kind of relationship gets internalized, through therapy, with an object that contains and returns life and energy, can the mind grow enough to be able to communicate the other, darker side of the relationship from which it has closed itself away.     

Induction in variants of White's effect: common or separate mechanisms?

In White's display the gray target surrounded more by black than white appears darker than the target of the same physical luminance surrounded more by white than black. Several subsequent studies have shown that this effect occurs only when the luminance of the test regions lies between the minimum and maximum luminance values of the inducing stripes. With targets either lighter or darker than both inducing stripes, the direction of the effect is reversed and the effect is known as the 'inverted' White's effect. Views differ on whether the classical and inverted White's effects are mediated by common or separate underlying mechanisms. We varied the aspect ratio of the test and inducing regions in the classical and inverted White's effects. Consistent with previously reported findings, we found that the direction of the classical effect did not depend on the amount of black or white border in immediate contact with the test patch. On the other hand, perceived lightness in the inverted White's effect was affected by such variations, suggesting that induction in classical and inverted White's configurations is governed by different mechanisms. These results confirm the critical importance of the interaction between luminance and geometric relationships in induced brightness.     

Modal completion in the Poggendorff illusion: support for the depth-processing theory

The Poggendorff illusion is one of the most prominent geometrical-optical illusions and has attracted enduring interest for more than a hundred years. Most modern theories explain the illusion by postulating various kinds of distortion of the "test" component of the figure by the context or the inducing component. They make no reference to the importance of processes involved in three-dimensional scene perception for understanding the illusion. We measured the strength of the Poggendorff illusion in configurations containing solid inducing surfaces as opposed to the usual parallel lines. The surface, oblique-line, and background luminances were manipulated separately to create configurations consistent with modal completion of the obliques in front of the surface. The marked decrease in the size of the illusion in conditions favoring modal completion is consistent with claims that perceived spatial layout is a major determinant of the Poggendorff illusion.     

Long-term improvement in coping skills following multimodal treatment in war veterans with chronic PTSD

Due to the long-lasting and resistant symptoms characteristic of chronic combat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), its treatment is complex and often requires a tailored therapeutic approach incorporating both psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. A multimodal approach of psychoeducative, sociotherapeutic, and dynamically oriented trauma-focused groups is described. We assessed the short- and long-term effectiveness of this therapeutic program by monitoring its impact on PTSD symptoms, depression, neurotic symptoms, coping skills, and quality of life for three years. The findings revealed short-term reduction in the symptoms of PTSD and depression, while the long-term results were manifested as the increased use of all coping mechanisms and a greater level of obsession.     

Lightness,brightness, and brightness contrast: 1. Illuminance variation

Changes of annulus luminance in traditional disk-and-annulus patterns are perceptually ambiguous; they could be either reflectance or illuminance changes. In more complicated patterns, apparent reflectances are less ambiguous, letting us place test and standard patchesjnpxsurrounds perceived to be different grays. Our subjects matched the apparent amounts of light coming from the patches (brightnesses), their apparent reflectances (lightnesses), or the brightness differences between the patches and their surrounds (brightness contrasts). The three criteria produced quantitatively different results. Brightness contrasts matched when the patch/surround luminance ratio of the test was approximately equal to that of the standard. Lightness matches were illumination invariant but were not exact reflectance matches; the different surrounda of test and standard produced a small illumination-invariant error. This constant error was negligible for increments, but, for decrements, it was approximately 1.5 Munsell value steps. Brightness matches covaried substantially with illuminance.     

Fractal-Scaling Properties as Aesthetic Primitives in Vision and Touch

Axiomathes - Natural forms, often characterized by irregularity and roughness, have a unique complexity that exhibit self-similarity across different spatial scales or levels of magnification. Our...     

Characteristics of the Group Process in Long-Term Psychodynamic Group Psychotherapy for Patients with Psychosis

This study aimed to investigate the development of the group process through group climate parameter dynamics during long-term psychodynamic group psychotherapy for 30 outpatients with psychosis. The group process in four groups was monitored using MacKenzie’s Group Climate Questionnaire-Short Form (GCQ-S) that was completed by the therapist after each session over the two-year period. The trends of engagement, avoidance and conflict parameters differed between groups, and no clear indicators of the development phases were found. The results suggested that these groups remained in the first developmental phase during the observation period, and highlighted the characteristics of resistance and difficulties in establishing social relations in patients with psychosis.     

The structure of working memory abilities across the adult life span

The present study addresses three questions regarding age differences in working memory: (1) whether performance on complex span tasks decreases as a function of age at a faster rate than performance on simple span tasks; (2) whether spatial working memory decreases at a faster rate than verbal working memory; and (3) whether the structure of working memory abilities is different for different age groups. Adults, ages 20-89 (n = 388), performed three simple and three complex verbal span tasks and three simple and three complex spatial memory tasks. Performance on the spatial tasks decreased at faster rates as a function of age than performance on the verbal tasks, but within each domain, performance on complex and simple span tasks decreased at the same rates. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that domain-differentiated models yielded better fits than models involving domain-general constructs, providing further evidence of the need to distinguish verbal and spatial working memory abilities. Regardless of which domain-differentiated model was examined, and despite the faster rates of decrease in the spatial domain, age group comparisons revealed that the factor structure of working memory abilities was highly similar in younger and older adults and showed no evidence of age-related dedifferentiation.