Theistic existential psychotherapy.

Recently, the dichotomy between psychotherapy and spirituality has weakened as scholars and practitioners have begun to acknowledge the value of spiritual factors in clients’ lives. This article integrates I. D. Yalom’s (1980) existential psychotherapy with the theistic worldview and with the assumptions and ideas of theistic scholars such as Kierkegaard. The philosophical foundations of Yalom’s existential psychotherapy are contrasted with those of theism. A theistic reconceptualization of existential personality theory is presented, and the existential approach to treatment is reconsidered in light of theism. Finally, a case vignette involving fear of love loss is presented to illustrate how a theistic perspective can enhance the practice of existential psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The existential neurosis.

This is an attempt to clarify existential literature by distinguishing among the relevant behavioral manifestations those that are psychopathological and those that signify mental health. Existential neurosis emerges as chronic meaninglessness, apathy, and aimlessness. The premorbid identity out of which this neurosis may come involves definition of self as nothing more than an embodiment of biological needs and a player of social roles. The premorbid identity can be undermined, producing existential neurosis, by stresses such as threat of imminent death, social upheaval, and acute awareness of superficiality. Discussion of the premorbid identity leads to postulation of the ideal identity as expressive of not only the biological and social sides of man, but the psychological side as well. The psychological side includes symbolization, imagination, and judgment. Developmental hypotheses for premorbid and ideal identities are presented, and general implications of the position are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Commitment to collaboration as a prerequisite for existential commonality in psychotherapy.

Discusses the theoretical justification for commitment to collaboration (CTC) in behavior therapy. It is noted that psychotherapy for outpatient clients with problems of personal adjustment ordinarily requires the client to accept major responsibility for success. However, the importance of personal CTC with the therapist has not been adequately justified theoretically for behavior therapy in which treatment is nominally based on the learning theories of Thorndike and Pavlov. CTC helps establish existential commonality of awareness and thought between client and therapist, thus increasing the probability that later therapist behaviors will influence both client cognitions and adaptive responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The existential concept of death.

Comments on B. Vandenburg's (see record 1992-12211-001) article on epistemology and an existentialist consideration of development. If the existentialist prospects of death are to be included in a beyond-epistemic consideration of developmental issues, it is necessary to examine the status of the concept of death as an existential given, not subject to developmental changes over the life span. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The worship of food: An existential perspective.

Suggests that a religious-existential (RE) understanding of compulsive eating serves as a useful adjunct to traditional forms of treatment for this disorder. The RE approach is suggested for patients who use compulsive eating as a maladaptive form of worship. This approach combines standard cognitive-behavioral (CB) techniques with introspective-exploratory (IE) interventions. Successful dieters derive initial benefit from CB interventions and follow-up benefit from IE interventions. Patients begin by identifying and altering dysfunctional habits and follow up by identifying and transforming the values underlying those habits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implosive therapy with semiclinical phobias.

Describes a 2-phase investigation using 52 female volunteers with semiclinical phobias of insects. Ss' interview data support vicarious learning family-dependency interpretations rather than traumatic conditioning interpretations of the etiology of phobias. Compared with previous samples of phobic college students Ss showed significantly greater degrees of fear on an overt-behavior assessment test and self-report measures (e.g., Fazio's Inventory of Reported Fears). A brief course of implosive therapy was not found to be as effective as a form of treatment based on J. Andrews' suggestions. Treatment-research implications are briefly discussed. (33 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The future of psychotherapy.

This "article" contains two blank pages, as an indication of G. W. Albee's concerns about the future of psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The rape of psychotherapy.

Changes in the marketplace, along with highly negative presentations of psychotherapy in the media regarding some controversial clinical practices, are combining to pose threats to the practice of psychotherapy and the psychological profession. Five marketplace changes that the author believes pose the greatest threats to psychology are identified and possible remedies presented. This is followed by a discussion of the controversies surrounding so-called false memories, the subsequent negative depiction of psychotherapy in the media, and what the profession might do to prevent the erosion of public confidence in psychological practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cost of psychotherapy.

Examines the relationship between psychotherapy funding policies and concepts of mental health. Three levels of mental health (necessity, improvement, and potentiality) are proposed. Necessity represents basic adaptation, the current dominant level illustrated by brief psychotherapy funded through managed mental health care. Improvement is the phase beyond necessity aimed at prevention and heightened quality of life, and potentiality is the ideal. The latter 2 now receive limited funding and emphasis. At question are both economic and social policies that endorse a narrow rather than a broad conception of mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress-induced recovery of fears and phobias.

Asserts that the characteristics of human phobias resemble the kind of learning found during the amnesic period of infancy. As certain neural systems mature, conditioning begins to exhibit adult characteristics such as context dependency, sharp generalization, and rapid extinction. The adult learning system seems to be structured at least partially through the lasting influence of infantile experience. Under (hormonal) stress, residues of early experience are reinstated and incorporated into adult memory where they directly control behavior, and this control exhibits infantile characteristics. Evidence suggests that once acquired, such conditional fears might never be eliminated using traditional extinction or counterconditioning procedures. This view leads to a renewed emphasis on the role of experience in human development. (5 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The future of psychotherapy with children: Developmental psychotherapy.

Discusses the concept of developmental psychotherapy for children as a way of integrating information about human development, basic biological processes, and psychopathology with knowledge gained from studies of therapeutic change. In developmental psychotherapy, rather than trying to provide a permanent cure, the therapist tries using a variety of methods to help the child regain a footing on a developmental pathway more likely to lead to adequate adaptation in subsequent periods of life. Research in this field should concentrate on continuing refinement of models for developmental pathways leading to specific outcomes in a number of domains, particularly those involving externalizing disorders and substance abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of existential shame in the healing endeavor.

A clinical case of a 35-yr-old male patient illustrates that the presence of therapeutic shame provides the sine qua non for a meaningful examination of the existential dilemmas of human existence by the therapeutic participants. It is argued that there is a crucial interrelationship between how the analyst uses shame and the patient's willingness to express and to work through despair. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age of onset in different phobias.

The age of onset, other background data, and measures from behavioral avoidance tests were studied in 370 phobic patients. They belonged to six different categories: agoraphobia (n?=?100), social phobia (n?=?80), claustrophobia (n?=?40), animal phobia (n?=?50), blood phobia (n?=?40), and dental phobia (n?=?60). Results showed that animal phobia had the earliest onset age (7 years), followed by blood phobia (9 years), dental phobia (12 years), social phobia (16 years), claustrophobia (20 years), and agoraphobia (28 years). The groups also differed in marital and occupational status, heart rate, anxiety experiences during the behavioral test, and general fearfulness. On the whole, agoraphobia and animal phobia stood out as the extremes on many measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear-reduction research and clinical phobias.

Reviews research concerning the behavioral treatment of clinical phobias, and compares findings with related analog studies of Ss with mild fears. Despite the frequently expressed need for caution in generalizing from one population or type of fear to another, earlier reviews based largely on analog studies have tended to ignore this problem. Conclusions regarding the effects of nonspecific treatment variables, anxiety levels during treatment, imaginal or real exposure to phobic situations, and motivational variables in changing phobic behavior are qualified by reference to research with clinical populations. These findings suggest that analog studies may give misleading impressions of the relative importance of different components operating in clinical treatments. (66 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Common phobias

Mrs. Brown, a 65-year-old woman, was terrified of being alone at night and suffered from nyctophobia. Her husband had been dead for several years, and her 40-year-old son lived in another state with his family. She often called him in the middle of the night in a state of panic, and he felt helpless about her situation. She lived in a senior housing community that never had any problems with crime. Nonetheless, she lived in a continual stage of anxiety.     

Preparedness and phobias: A review.

The preparedness theory of phobia holds that humans are biologically prepared to learn to fear objects and situations that threatened the survival of the species throughout its evolutionary history (Seligman, 1971). Biological preparedness is postulated to be responsible for the rapid acquisition, irrationality, belongingness, and high resistance to extinction considered characteristic of phobias. Psychophysiological experiments testing this theory have involved comparisons between fear-relevant stimuli (e.g., slides of snakes) and fear-irrelevant stimuli (e.g., slides of flowers) as conditioned stimuli in Pavlovian aversive conditioning paradigms. Researchers have predicted that autonomic responses conditioned to fear-relevant stimuli should mimic the aforementioned characteristics of phobias. The evidence most consistent with the theory is the enhanced resistance to extinction of electrodermal responses established to fear-relevant stimuli. Hypotheses regarding ease of acquisition, irrationality, and belongingness have received either only minimal or equivocal support. Alternative explanations are discussed for the resistance to extinction effect, the conceptual basis of preparedness theory, and its clinical implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The functional autonomy of psychotherapy.

Psychotherapy's initial function was to provide a service to troubled people who asked for help. Later evidence of its efficacy was unimpressive, but the method did not die out. "Psychotherapy had, it appeared, achieved functional autonomy." Various criticisms of the value of psychotherapy have been controverted. The efficacy of psychotherapy is not considered in the American Psychological Association ethical principles. Chapters on psychotherapy in the Annual Review of Psychology from 1955 to 1960 dismiss the question of efficacy. Experts are convinced that psychotherapy works. We "can be sure that the principle of functional autonomy will permit psychotherapy to survive long after it has outlived its usefulness as a personality laboratory." From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2IE75A. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Empirical evidence supports the efficacy of psychodynamic therapy. Effect sizes for psychodynamic therapy are as large as those reported for other therapies that have been actively promoted as “empirically supported” and “evidence based.” In addition, patients who receive psychodynamic therapy maintain therapeutic gains and appear to continue to improve after treatment ends. Finally, nonpsychodynamic therapies may be effective in part because the more skilled practitioners utilize techniques that have long been central to psychodynamic theory and practice. The perception that psychodynamic approaches lack empirical support does not accord with available scientific evidence and may reflect selective dissemination of research findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The future of psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Discusses the current status and future outlook of psychodynamic psychotherapy. Important trends include (1) increasing attention to disturbances in infancy and early childhood; (2) focusing on more difficult patients; (3) focusing on the dyadic character of the therapeutic relationship; (4) recognition of the importance of the therapeutic alliance; (5) developments in neuroscience and pharmacotherapy; (6) more use of group, marital, and family therapy; (7) emphasis on brief therapy; (8) attempts to devise specific treatments for specific disorders; (9) the appearance of treatment manuals; and (10) the continued search for the mechanisms of change in personality and behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)