Was Osler Verdeutsched?

William Osler, considered one of the preeminent American physicians at the turn of the century, studied in North America and in Europe. His later influence in molding the teaching and the specialty of internal medicine is still felt. One may ask to what extent his ideas were generated or influenced by his extensive German experiences? Most certainly his exposure to pathology in Germany was profound and lasting. While there can be no doubt that Osler was a Germanophile throughout his career, one has to conclude that his academic influences were more English and not exclusively German. He was cosmopolitan and used and promulgated good ideas wherever he found them.     

Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim--known as Paracelsus

Paracelsus' life is described biographically from his birth in Einsiedeln in Switzerland in 1493, via his education during his prolonged wanderings in many parts of Europe, until he was appointed Professor of Medicine in Basel in 1527. During the period 1524 to 1538 he wrote a number of medical and theological treatises which provide some insight into his way of thinking. He maintained that there were sides to nature and human beings that scientists had failed to explain, but which were of major importance for an understanding of human beings, and for practising medicine. The author briefly discusses some of the basic concepts which Paracelsus tried to elucidate in the light of his own experience and knowledge. Paracelsus died in Salzburg in 1541.     

Edward Jenner's Inquiry; a bicentenary analysis

Edward Jenner's famous Inquiry was published 200 years ago. Probably few now know on what evidence he based his claims but most will be aware that they initiated controversy which to some extent still continues. This paper briefly reviews the Inquiry, analysing its merits and faults. Jenner's claims were based on slender experimental evidence and some of the information presented was incomplete and misleading. However Jenner's role in the introduction of vaccination was seminal and others could only test and extend his ideas. His reputation as the initial promoter of vaccination is justified.     

Awards for Distinguished Professional Contributions 1986: Wilbert E. Fordyce.

Wilbert E. Fordyce, one of the 1986 recipients of the Distinguished Professional Contributions Award, is recognized for his "seminal work on using behavioral methods with clinical pain has revolutionized the treatment of pain and helped reshape the health care delivery system. His earlier work pioneered a new view of chronic disease and disability in behavioral terms. He reasoned that pain was not just a symptom of body damage, but could be better understood as behavior and subject to all of the influences that affect behavior. His first data paper on treating pain by applying operant principles was rejected as irrelevant. As the studies continued, and others took up the theme, specialized pain clinics emerged throughout the world; more than one thousand in the United States alone--virtually all of them utilizing the methods he first set forth. His sensitive clinical skills have made him effective as a clinician and a teacher. He has been tireless in his efforts to bring his knowledge to bear on practical problems by seminars and lectures worldwide." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pribram's ideas.

Reviews the book, Languages of the Brain--Experimental Paradoxes and Principles in Neuropsychology by K. H. Pribram (see record 1973-03824-000). Pribram's book might be better called Pribram's Ideas. In some 400 pages the author describes his ideas on memory, awareness, motivation, emotion, language, caring, association cortex--most everything and the brain. Many will hail Pribram's book as an important source of ideas. There may be some readers however, who will be upset by Professor Pribram's book. His tendency to use neologisms, the inclusion of illustrations and experiments that are indeed elegant but often irrelevant, his failure to really consider the ideas of others, the inclusion of a twentieth chapter apparently on the grounds that a round number for a book is desirable, the rather hasty application of findings from computer technology, genetics and optics to the brain, the discovery by the author of the organization of the book at the stage of the final draft, his failure to document sources of information, just might upset them. Pribram is an accomplished investigator and an acknowledged leader in the field. It is a pity that Pribram, with so many exceptional abilities, has chosen to display them in so disappointing a form. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Meehl's contribution to clinical versus statistical prediction.

Paul E. Meehl's work on the clinical versus statistical prediction controversy is reviewed. His contributions included the following: putting the controversy center stage in applied psychology; clarifying concepts underpinning the debate (especially his crucial distinction between ways of gathering data and ways of combining them) as well as establishing that the controversy was real and not concocted, analyzing clinical inference from both theoretical and probabilistic points of view, and reviewing studies that compared the accuracy of these 2 methods of data combination. Meehl's (1954/1996) conclusion that statistical prediction consistently outperforms clinical judgment has stood up extremely well for half a century. His conceptual analyses have not been significantly improved since he published them in the 1950s and 1960s. His work in this area contains several citation classics, which are part of the working knowledge of all competent applied psychologists today. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Awards for Distinguished Professional Contributions 1986: Patrick H. DeLeon.

Patrick H. DeLeon, one of the 1986 recipients of the Distinguished Professional Contributions Award, is recognized for bringing "multiple skills and perspectives to his position as Executive Assistant on the staff of United States Senator Daniel K. Inouye. He has consistently worked to represent constituents and has provided a knowledgeable voice for psychology, one respected not only by his colleagues, but also by the legislators and others with whom he associates. He has actively served the profession of psychology, not only in his position on Senator Inouye's staff, but also through his extensive involvement in APA boards, councils, committees, and divisions. His numerous publications and presentations have informed, aided, and equipped psychologists and state associations with the information and the foresight needed to effectively grow and adapt to the changing context of professional practice. Dr. DeLeon displays integrity of scholarship and purpose, making him credible and respected. His willingness to serve an honorable cause leads him to give freely of his time and energy. His vision and perspective allow him to see the further vistas and to alert us all as to what might lie ahead. Patrick DeLeon typifies those attributes that lend vitality, strength, and worthiness to the profession of psychology." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Roald Amundsen--a study of personality

Roald Amundsen is the most famous of the Norwegian polar explorers. His ancestors came from a group of islands south-east of the Oslofjord. From being fishermen and sailors, they progressed to becoming captains and shipowners in the course of two generations. Amundsen's father, Jens, stayed at sea until his ship went down with all the crew. Roald was 14 years of age at the time, the youngest of four competing brothers. Jens had left the close-knit local family community before that, and bought a flat in the capital, Oslo, so that his sons could get a better education. Roald's mother wanted him to study medicine. He did as she wished for a time, but was not at all interested. When his mother died, he abruptly left the university and went to sea, which had been the tradition in his family for decades. As a young boy he was an admirer of Sir John Franklin and his explorers of the Northwest Passage. Fridtjof Nansen became his ideal. The biographies about Roald Amundsen are very diverging--some hold him a hero, others reflect a strongly critical attitude. Here, the author tries to define his personality and places him firmly within the narcissistic domain. His tendency to seek the company of married women, but to take immediate flight when they really became interested reflects an Oedipus complex from before puberty. The tragic death of his father, the sea captain, may have been a supposition; puberty can be seen as a period of coping with ambivalence towards an earlier idealized father. His genius combined ambitious goals with a sharp eye for details as regards the equipment used in his expeditions. In his travels in the Arctic and the Antartic he was driven forward by the energy of the nation. His heroic death, trying to save his earlier "enemy", Nobile, was probably caused by an urge for self-destruction.     

Some roots of persistent homosexual fantasy and the quest for father's love: conflicted parental identifications in a male patient: fragment of an analysis

This is a clinical paper, which includes material from sessions, presenting the process of the analysis of a young adult male whose narcissistic character patterns, related to and evolved from failed attempts to integrate conflicting parental identifications. These unintegrated mother and father identifications contributed to life-long latent homosexual fantasies. Rodney's analysis indicates that for a boy/man, even a mother who has the qualities of a good enough parent, is not good enough to enable him to reach a nonconflicted manhood. A mother cannot provide for the boy the male model he needs and is searching for, the male who would affirm him in his maleness. Rodney wanted a father on whose shoulders he could stand to become a man. Rodney's persistent homosexual fantasy life, his quest for father's love, and his search for a masculine object to identify with stem from a combination of several factors. Rodney's regression to the negative oedipal phase was probably stimulated when father left the family. Rodney was eleven at the time. He felt overwhelmed experiencing himself as the oedipal victor. Unconsciously, Rodney feared his exacerbated incestuous wishes. He projected them upon his mother and subsequently incorporated them in his fantasies. His regression to more infantile dependency feelings was defensive. Rodney's father was an unsuitable object for identification. He was disinterested in Rodney and emotionally unavailable. Rodney, however, sought his father, whose lack of loving acknowledgement resulted in a lack of affirmation of Rodney's masculinity. Mother provided for Rodney the loving acknowledgement he lacked in his relationship with father. She was emotionally sustaining, an energetic, vibrant personality, who was seen by Rodney as a "superior human being." Rodney consciously idealized his mother toward whom he unconsciously also had ambivalent feelings. Rodney's identification with mother was not counterbalanced by the presence of a strong, loving father figure whom he could have used as a suitable model. This led to the development in Rodney of a strong sense of effeminization. Rodney in his homosexual fantasies assumed the so-called "feminine victimized" role. The regression to the negative oedipal phase contributed to an exacerbation of erotic, father-directed feelings, intensified by the identification with mother. Rodney was fixated in his quest for father's love. In addition, Rodney's unconscious guilt related to father and mother directed incestuous impulses, and his intense aggressivesadistic feelings contributed to the masochistic cast of his masturbation fantasies. Rodney's narcissistic aims and the quality of his narcissism changed during the analysis. His grandiosity almost disappeared. Rodney's goals became realistic and he acquired the skills necessary to achieve them. Inhibitions related to the "fear of success" were worked through. This enabled Rodney to compete successfully. His healthy narcissism derives from the success of his many achievements. Though Rodney remained a basically narcissistic personality, he did derive great pleasure from being a giving person. This was one of the many ways in which he identified with his mother. At the present, Rodney's identifications are selective and do not evoke intrapsychic conflict.     

Rudolf Julius Arnheim (1904-2007).

Presents an obituary for Rudolf Julius Arnheim. Arnheim died on June 9, 2007, in Anne Arbor, Michigan, at the age of 102. His wife (née Mary Frame) died in 1999. He is survived by his stepdaughter Margaret Nettinga, of the Netherlands, two grandchildren, and a great-grandchild. His life spanned the social cataclysms that swept the last century. Of Jewish descent, he first fled the Nazis and then the Italian fascists before he came to America from England in 1940. On this continent, his skills as a scholar and teacher brought him much success. He applied his formidable knowledge of philosophy, literature, art history, and perceptual psychology to central questions about the visual arts. His work has fundamentally influenced practitioners in many related fields: the psychology of art, art history, aesthetics, art education, and the study of popular culture. His books and essays are known around the globe. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

J. Wilbert Edgerton.

J. Wilbert Edgerton's career has been devoted to the development of rural mental health services and the enhancement of mental health services in the public sector. His extensive studies on mobilizing citizen advocates and developing community programs have greatly influenced the community mental health movement in this country. His advocacy for the profession led to the passage of licensure for psychologists in North Carolina. He is a tireless volunteer advocate and is widely known for his development of residential living arrangements for the mentally ill. An articulate man of high integrity, he has used his skills to do something concrete and practical about human problems and has devoted his life to making a difference in the lives of those affected by mental illness (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Space perception and William James's metaphysical presuppositions.

William James's overtly philosophical work may be more continuous with his psychological work than is sometimes thought. His Essays in Radical Empiricism can be understood as an explicit statement of the absolute presupposition that formed the basis of Jamesian psychology: that direct experience is primary and has to be taken at face value. An examination of James's theory of space perception suggests that, even in his early work, he presupposed the primacy of direct experience, and that later changes in his account of space perception can be understood as making his view more consistent with this presupposition. In his earlier view of space perception, James argued that sensations were directly experienced as spatial, though he accepted that spatial relations between sensations may be constructed by higher order thought. In his later view, however, James argued that spatial relations were just as directly experienced as sensations. The work of T. H. Green may have prompted James to recognize the full consequence of his ideas and to realize that taking experience at face value required that spatial relations be thought of as intrinsic to experience rather than the result of intellectual construction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vaclav Havel: one man disturbing the peace

In summary, I believe that the qualities that Havel exemplifies in his leadership style, namely, his sense of the absurd, his altruism in reluctantly assuming the responsibility for something he started, his amateurish political style, his apologetic stance, and his apolitical ideologies all serve to make him a flexible and idealistic leader who can, indeed must, be trusted and admired by his followers. Despite these personal and leadership qualities, it was fateful that Vaclav Havel was born in a place where his exemplary qualities could be used. Perhaps if he were born in another nation that did not have such a strong tradition of philosopher-kings or a peace-loving nature, he would not have been able to attain such political and idealistic heights. Also, if he had been born just a few decades earlier, he may not have been the recipient of such benevolent treatment from the Soviet system. In another time and place we may have never had the luxury of basking in the ideas and using the courage and fortitude exemplified in his deeds, which inspired his country to greater plateaus. Vaclav Havel and what he symbolizes are inseparable from his history and his cultural experience. We, as the audience in his absurd play, are forever linked to the author and are grateful for the chance to watch the play unfold. It will be interesting to examine the way in which his leadership style changes as a consequence of his illness. Already, those close to him have noticed personality changes that indicate a shift toward a more direct and abrasive demeanor. Post (1980) has written extensively about the critical role played by aging and illness among leaders. Part of what makes this work exciting is that Vaclav Havel is a contemporary leader whose life continues to undergo strange and unexpected twists and turns.     

Emory L. Cowen.

Presents an overview of the career contributions of Emory L. Cowen. For his remarkable contributions to conceptual, empirical and human service advances in the fields of community and clinical psychology, community mental health and education. He has been instrumental in the creation of a field for an entire generation of psychologists. His work has changed public schools throughout the United States. His ideas, research, model programs, program evaluations, and workshops have inspired others to generate new programs that provide affordable human services to thousands of children who are otherwise unlikely to receive help. He pioneered early detection and secondary prevention research. His clear thinking and conceptual challenges have fostered the study of primary prevention and wellness in mental health, both as a field for research and as a social policy. His tireless efforts as President of APA's Division of Community Psychology, a member of the Prevention Task Panel of the President's Commission on Mental Health, and the APA Task Force on Promotion, Prevention and Intervention Alternatives in Psychology are examples of his energetic contributions to psychology in the public interest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear and social comparison.

Schachter (1959) had found a positive relationship between fear and the desire to be with others (affiliation). Schachter concluded, following Festinger (1954), that a person will attempt to reduce cognitive dissonance with regard to his self-picture in terms of information obtainable from others. This investigation attempts to determine the validity of this hypothesis by focusing on the dimension of the intensity of the emotion. "If a person is uncertain as to the intensity of his emotional reaction, he should seek information from others that will help him measure it. To the extent that he has information from others regarding the intensity of their reactions, his desire to be with them prior to the impending experience should be reduced." The hypothesis was supported; however, factors such as sex and order of birth were seen to affect S's reaction to threat. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GE86G. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Wendell Richard Garner (1921-2008).

Wendell Richard Garner was born on January 21, 1921, in Buffalo, New York, and died quietly on August 14, 2008, in Redding, Connecticut. He was an experimental psychologist who changed the way researchers study human perception and cognition. He provided new knowledge about how people process information and structure and about how to ask scientific questions. Three classes of his contributions are particularly noteworthy. His concept of converging operations, that outcomes of different studies converge on a common concept, paved the way to powerful analytic techniques, such as additive factors modeling. His information and structure ideas shaped research in perception and cognition and pattern recognition. His perceptual independence notions set the stage for hundreds of studies of dimensional independence and interaction, of perceptual integrality and separability, and of dimensional attention that are still actively pursued. Life for Tex was not all science and administration. He collaborated on Earnshaw Cook's Percentage Baseball (1964) and briefly consulted with the Baltimore Orioles baseball club. I asked why he did not similarly analyze football for the Baltimore Colts. He said it might spoil his love for that game. After his death, nonsolicited kudos circulating on the Internet included such comments as "I wish I had known him" and "I didn't know him, but I did know his elegant and insightful work." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Colleagues and Criticism.

The author discusses the need for serious criticism of ideas and research in psychology, noting how papers circulated to colleagues for comment are often returned untouched. Several suggestions are provided as possible antidotes for this audience apathy. The writer must inform his colleagues whether a paper is being circulated simply as information, for evaluation, or for criticism. Professional meetings can be improved to encourage serious criticism about a paper read at a convention. The use of mimeographed newsletters for areas of research may be another solution. Ultimately, the responsibility for editing a paper remains with the author, and the author must state in clear language the implications of his results if he expects others to read his paper thoughtfully. Although too much criticism in a young science is unhealthy, too little criticism is even worse. Controversy brings forth a clarification of ideas and a resolution of conflicting data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The complex secret of brief psychotherapy.

Reviews the book, The complex secret of brief psychotherapy by James Paul Gustafson (1986). This book attempts to synthesize the major findings of the last century in the field of psychotherapy, and to make these findings available to the clinician who is doing brief psychotherapy. Gustafson uses the major portion of the book to review briefly the work of nineteen individuals and groups who have contributed to his thinking about the effective doing of and the effective teaching of brief psychotherapy. Most theorists or schools are presented through the prism of one case study, followed by a brief discussion of the method employed, and then the presentation of a case in which this particular approach was utilized. This book has a number of things to recommend it. The author is engaged in psychotherapy research, and the appendix contains extensive material on his formulations of cases, work with patients, and follow-up interviews. All of the case material in the book, including the author's own cases and those he chooses to present from the work of others, is very valuable. For the advanced clinician, this material forms a solid resource. For the beginning clinician, case material of this kind can be very intriguing and very helpful. The book might be somewhat difficult conceptually for the beginning clinician, though, or for the clinician beginning to do brief psychotherapy. In addition, the writing style is problematic. Gustafson's ideas are generally sound and worthy of consideration, but are at times presented poorly. His conceptualizations can be difficult to follow, and his writing style does not adequately convey such difficult material. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)