Sibling status effects: Adult expectations.

Investigated expectations or beliefs held by 278 adults (average age 25.3 yrs) about a child based on his or her sibling status alone. Ss were asked to describe what they would expect a child without brothers or sisters, a child who was the oldest in his or her family, and a child who was the youngest in his or her family to be like. Ss seemed to have higher expectations for and give more positive ratings to oldest children than to only or youngest children. The ordinal position and parental status of the S also had an effect on the ratings given. Ss who were youngest children and Ss who were only children tended to show some bias toward their own sibling group; Ss who were oldest children actually gave their own sibling status lower group ratings than did other Ss. Ss with children tended to give higher ratings to all 3 sibling groups than did Ss without children. Results are discussed in terms of how these expectations may develop and their effects on the child's development. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new perspective on the Oedipal complex: A voice therapy session.

Presents clinical material using voice therapy, to elicit, identify, and counteract negative thought patterns. The case of a 38-yr-old man, who experienced suicidal impulses in competitive situations, illustrates the concept of "identification with the aggressor" in relation to a father's angry, rivalrous feelings toward his son. The author discusses the dynamics operating in families where immature or insecure parents compete with and show resentment toward the child of the same sex and direct overt or covert aggression toward him/her. Later, the internalized aggression emerges as a negative thought process when the individual strives to achieve personal or vocational goals. An exploration of the theoretical implications of the case contributes to an understanding of unresolved Oedipal issues that can affect young people at risk for suicide, particularly high-achieving adolescents who seemingly have everything to live for. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Love and work: An attachment-theoretical perspective.

The possibility that love and work in adulthood are functionally similar to attachment and exploration in infancy and early childhood was investigated. Key components of attachment theory were translated into terms appropriate to adult love and work. The translation centered on the 3 major types of infant attachment and exploration identified by M. D. S. Ainsworth et al (1978): secure, anxious/ambivalent, and avoidant. Two questionnaire studies indicated that relations between adult attachment type and work orientation are similar to attachment/exploration dynamics in infancy and early childhood, suggesting that the dynamics may be similar across the life span. Implications for research on the link between love and work are discussed, as are measurement problems and other issues related to future tests of an attachment-theoretical approach to the study of adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Frustration, aggression, and murder.

"… 51 male murderers and their 51 nearest-age brothers were investigated with respect to frustration in infancy, childhood, and adolescence… . The central hypothesis was: There is a significant positive relationship between the amount of frustration experienced by persons in infancy, childhood, and adolescence… and whether or not they later commit murder… . [The results showed that] significantly more murderers than control brothers scored high on the Indices of Physical, Psychological, and General Frustration." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Brotherly love II: A developmental perspective on liking, love, and closeness in the fraternal dyad.

This research examined the nature of closeness, liking, and love among 59 dyads of full biological, nontwin adult brothers and the correlations of these variables with age. Five dimensions of relational development were measured and used in stepwise regressions to determine what predicted closeness, liking, and love in these fraternal dyads. It was expected that love would be predicted by expressive relational qualities, such as self-disclosure, whereas closeness and liking would be predicted by more instrumental qualities, such as commitment or interdependence. These predictions were generally supported. Moreover, liking and love were shown to remain relatively constant over time, whereas closeness decreased as brothers grew older. Comparisons with other male–male relationships were also made, and implications for the research and therapeutic setting are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Induction kinetics of mutagenic DNA repair activity in E. coli following ultraviolet irradiation

In patients with psychosexual disturbances (impotence and ejaculatio praecox) the family constellation during childhood and the patients' occupations were compared with the Swedish population census. The parents of the patients were older, and the patients were more often the only son or the only child. A greater percentage of the patients had technical or office administrative professions than the inhabitants in Stockholm. The findings are discussed with references to a supposed focus on achievement in the upbringing of the oldest or only son. Focus on achievement may cause emotional restraint and subsequently psychosexual disturbances.     

Psychoanalytic perspectives on adoption and ambivalence.

Examines childhood adoption from a psychoanalytic perspective and suggests that particular elements of the psychopathology that is sometimes associated with adoption are simply special instances of some general phenomena that pertain to all parent–child relationships. Data are presented from history, mythology, and literature to show that all children and all parents, whether their relationships are adoptive or biological, must come to terms with warring feelings of love and hate toward one another. It is this ambivalence that lies at the center of the myth of Oedipus; although Freud chose to emphasize Oedipus's ambivalence toward his parents, the cycle began with Oedipus's parents. Parental ambivalence is an essential contributor to both the myth and the intrapsychic phenomena that are called oedipal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrospective ratings of ADHD symptoms made at young adulthood by clinic-referred boys with ADHD-related problems, their brothers without ADHD, and control participants.

Retrospective childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms are required to diagnosis adult ADHD, but the validity of self-rated symptoms across time is questionable. Here, boys with ADHD-related problems, their brothers without ADHD, and former schoolmates rated themselves during young adulthood for ages 9, 14, and 19. Brothers rated probands retrospectively at the same ages. The young adults referred as children for ADHD (a) acknowledged childhood symptoms; (b) described improvement over time; (c) did not differ from brothers or controls on most self-ratings of young adult symptoms; (d) rated themselves as more symptomatic at age 9, but less symptomatic at age 19, than their brothers rated them; and (e) agreed only to some degree with brothers' ratings of probands' aggression (median correlation = .22). Probands' ratings showed limited agreement with judges' symptom ratings (median correlation = .16) and young adult follow-up examiners' ratings (median correlation = .14). These findings are not accounted for solely by changes in informants, nor by the course of ADHD psychopathology. They suggest some stability but limited internal consistency and validity for retrospective ADHD ratings by probands and brothers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Robert R. Zimmermann (1930-2009).

Obituary [Robert R. Zimmermann; 1930-2009]. Robert R. Zimmermann, coauthor with Harry Harlow of “Affectional Responses,” the influential article on “mother love” published in the August 1959 issue of Science, died of esophageal cancer on November 3, 2009, in Lansing, Michigan. A member of the American Psychological Association for more than 50 years, Zimmermann published 70 articles, book chapters, and reviews; was the principal investigator on numerous federal, state, and local grants; and directed nearly 20 doctoral dissertations and master’s theses. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on April 3, 1930, he was the son of William and Daisy Zimmermann. He is survived by his wife Marian Shaffer, two sisters, seven children, and seven grandchildren. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction of birth order, handedness, and sexual orientation in the Kinsey interview data.

Recent evidence indicates that 2 of the most consistently observed correlates of men's sexual orientation--handedness and older brothers--may be linked interactively in their prediction of men's sexual orientation. In this article, the authors studied the relationship among handedness, older brothers, and men's sexual orientation in the large and historically significant database originally compiled by Alfred C. Kinsey and his colleagues (A. C. Kinsey, W. B. Pomeroy, & C. E. Martin, 1948). The results demonstrated that handedness moderates the relationship between older brothers and sexual orientation. Specifically, older brothers increased the odds of homosexuality in right-handers only; in non-righthanders, older brothers did not affect the odds of homosexuality. These results refine the possible biological explanations reported to underlie both the handedness and older brother relationships to men's sexual orientation. These results also suggest that biological explanations of men's sexual orientation are likely relevant across time, as the Kinsey data comprise an older cohort relative to modern samples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Paternal determinants of female adolescent's marijuana use.

The purpose of this study was to examine the interrelationship of sets of paternal personality attributes, paternal–daughter relationship variables, and adolescent personality factors with adolescent daughters' use of marijuana. This was a follow-up of a previous study examining father–son factors related to son's marijuana use. Four hundred three female college students and their fathers took part in the study. Results indicated that, similar to the findings in the father–son study, paternal personality attributes and relationships are associated with the daughter's personality attributes, which in turn are related to her marijuana use. The results also showed that the father is more likely to act as an ameliorator with his daughter than with his son in reducing marijuana risk factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mesocyclops longisetus effects on survivorship of Aedes aegypti immature stages in car tyres

We identified a family of 4 brothers with prostate cancer. The proband was the second son who was seen at the Department of Urology, Gunma University, Gunma, Japan, in May 1995, with a chief complaint of dysuria. The serum level of PSA was high, and a prostate needle biopsy revealed a moderately-differentiated adenocarcinoma. Subsequently, a total prostatectomy was performed. The family history revealed that the fourth son had been under treatment at the Saitama Cancer Center Hospital for prostate cancer since 1994. Therefore, the other 2 brothers became healthy male family members of the familial prostate cancer line, and their serum PSA levels were examined after obtaining their informed consent. Both had a high serum PSA level and biopsies revealed moderately-differentiated adenocarcinomas in both. Human leukocyte antigen class II gene typing was conducted on 3 of 4 brothers and 4 healthy family members who gave informed consent, and revealed the DRB1*0901-DQB1*0303 haplotype in the first, second and third sons. Familial prostate cancer is well documented in Europe and the US where the incidence of prostate cancer is high, but this is the first report of prostate cancer in 4 brothers in Japan.     

Comment on Natterson (2003).

The author views J. M. Natterson's (2003) article as a return to Freud's emphasis on the centrality of love in psychoanalysis freshly conceptualized within a contemporary intersubjective perspective. Natterson's definition of love is viewed by the author as consisting of 3 independent components (attachment, recognition, and mutuality) that may harmonize or conflict. The author notes the rarity of Natterson's intimate disclosure of the specifics of his own subjectivity to the reader, and their value in advancing the understanding of psychoanalytic process and theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The selfobject function of Freud's Specimen (or Irma) Dream.

Post-Kohutian self psychological literature has suggested that all dreams, not just self-state dreams, are influenced by the selfobject needs of the dreamer and can contribute to the restoration or enhancement of the dreamer's overall functioning. Freud's Specimen Dream was analyzed from a self psychological perspective with the aim of demonstrating how the disruption of Freud's selfobject attachment to Fliess precedes and fuels the dreamwork described by Freud. The article concludes with a discussion of the genetic origins of the Specimen Dream, focusing on Freud's struggle with feelings about his Oedipal victory at a time when he was anticipating the death of his father. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The creation of the fetish, as illustrated by Nikita Mikhalkov's (1994) Burnt by the Sun.

A psychoanalytic interpretation of the film Burnt by the Sun (N. Mikhalkov, 1994) reveals the admiration and the homosexual love of Dimitri for Sergei Kotov. Out of castration anxieties and fear of dependency, Dimitri transforms his love object Sergei into a fetish. This makes him feel as if he could handle his relationship with the love object. When Dimitri is confronted with the fact that he has no power over Sergei, he decides to destroy his creation (i.e., himself). There no longer exists the possibility to establish human relations, maintain them, and feel empathy with the other. The narcissistic cathexis of the object and the dissolution of object love is one of the powerful psychological presuppositions for Stalinist terror. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

William James and the art of human understanding.

Proposes (1) that William James (1842–1910), one of the founders of philosophical pragmatism as well as psychological science, developed a distinctive theory of human understanding, according to which all knowledge, including scientific knowledge, is ultimately based on "the finding of analogy"; (2) that this theory of human understanding underlay both his psychological and philosophical thought; and (3) that this theory depended on his artistic sensibility and experience. James's native artistic ability and interests are discussed, and his period as an artist's apprentice in the early 1860s is depicted as particularly salient to the development of his system of thought. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process.

This article explores the possibility that romantic love is an attachment process—a biosocial process by which affectional bonds are formed between adult lovers, just as affectional bonds are formed earlier in life between human infants and their parents. Key components of attachment theory, developed by Bowlby, Ainsworth, and others to explain the develoment of affectional bonds in infancy, were translated into terms appropriate to adult romantic love. The translation centered on the three major styles of attachment in infancy—secure, avoidant, and anxious/ambivalent—and on the notion that continuity of relationship style is due in part to mental models (Bowlby's "inner working models") of self and social life. These models, and hence a person's attachment style, are seen as determined in part by childhood relationships with parents. Two questionnaire studies indicated that (a) relative prevalence of the three attachment styles is roughly the same in adulthood as in infancy, (b) the three kinds of adults differ predictably in the way they experience romantic love, and (c) attachment style is related in theoretically meaningful ways to mental models of self and social relationships and to relationship experiences with parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Brief psychotherapy for unresolved grief in an 82-year-old-man

This man experienced in old age the torment that occurs when early fantasies that underly anxieties are enacted in real life. His elderly wife, when she became confused, ordered their son to drive him from the marital home. When the wife died, the son kept the news from the husband until after the burial. These acts created in reality the fantasy of a reversed oedipal situation, with the son succeeding as a competitor for his father's wife. If the father had resolved his own oedipal strivings satisfactorily, presumably he would not have feared such competition. But there seemed to have been some early environmental failure that had prevented him from integrating in the process of maturation his own wishes for his mother and his fears of his father. Yet, despite the patient's advanced years, the early failure situation seemed to fade as he used the therapy not only to work through his grief, but also as an opportunity to experience anew in the transference a more facilitating environmental adaptation to his needs.