Reflections on the "unknown" in psychotherapy.

Suggests that "darkness" (in contrast to and in alternation with "light") is useful as a metaphor for representing ever-recurring periods in dynamic psychotherapy during which the therapist does not and cannot know what is occurring in the work with his/her patient. Such unfathomable "dark" periods are a fertile matrix from which central meanings in a patient's life will emerge, provided the therapist does not interfere with their unfolding. However, these "dark" periods are anxiety provoking for the therapist and often result in anxiety-instigated, growth-deflecting efforts at prediction and control. Clinical vignettes are presented to illustrate the inevitable rhythm of alternation in therapy between "darkness" and "light," the imponderability of various key therapeutic events, and the therapist's struggles with these issues. (1 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lusting for death: Unconscious fantasies in an ancient Jewish martyrdom text.

We examine the story of the martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons from Second Maccabees 7:1-42, a Greek text from the first century BCE. The story recounts the sons' refusal to eat pork, their torture at the hands of the king, the king's attempts to recruit the mother, her admonition to the sons that they should better die, and finally their deaths (all in one day). The mother and sons gain eternal life (merger) through their submission to the violent human king, an earthly father figure. Unlike animal sacrifice, which completely excluded women, the willingness to sacrifice one's life via martyrdom gives women an odd sense of agency. The mother plays a major role, but it is the role of giving away "motherhood" while instantiating the idealized object of the divine father. Martyrdom fulfills the same unconscious role as animal sacrifice, displacing the human mother in favor of a divine father, and in this case, a father who offers eternal life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The enigmatic dimension of sexual experience: the "otherness" of sexuality and primal seduction

Sexual experience has an "otherness" about it that distinguishes it from daily, habitual modes of experiencing and relating. This paper attempts to use Freud's and Laplanche's theories of primal seduction by the mother, who sends an "enigmatic signifier" or message of her sexuality to the child whom she nurtures. A tension arc is created between bodily sensations and the enigmatic other carrying over into adult life and constituting a bedrock for the sense of enigma and unfathomableness and the sense of the profound revelation that sometimes accompanies sexual experience. The author articulates links with transference and countertransference forms and offers new possibilities of understanding some clinical phenomena.     

Review of Female homosexuality: Choice without volition--A psychoanalytic study.

Reviews the book, Female homosexuality: Choice without volition--A psychoanalytic study by Elaine V. Siegel (see record 1988-97461-000). In Female Homosexuality: Choice Without Volition, Elaine Siegel makes her theoretical lineage and clinical goals explicit from the outset; she dedicates the book to Charles Socarides, MD, and credits her "immersal in and application of" his work with the fact that "some of [her] patients were able to become heterosexual." Socarides is best known for his theories about developmental deficits in male homosexuals and for his ardent work in the 1970s to persuade the American Psychiatric Association to maintain homosexuality as a psychiatric diagnosis. Siegel applies his schematization of male homosexuality to female homosexuals, with a twist. She argues that whereas male homosexuals tend to overvalue their genitals, female homosexuals have failed to "take full possession of their vaginas", a failure that both she and Theodore L. Dorpat in his introduction refer to as a "calamity." The bulk of the book consists of elaborate case presentations of eight of Siegel's analysands, preceded and followed by several theoretical chapters, one of which describes Siegel's "psychoanalytic armamentarium." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identity of two: The phenomenology of shame in borderline development and treatment.

Describes the identity of borderline individuals as being shame-based. Shame underlies anger as the major affective state, and shame creates an "identity of 2": bad self and good mother. Shame brings into focal awareness both the self and the other, with the imagery that the other rejects the self. The factors in the mother–child relationship that favor shame as the interactive matrix are discussed. Shame represents a complete mother–child system. It disallows firm boundaries between mother and child because the image of the self cannot be detached from the image of the other. There is no stable sense of self, defined by secure boundaries, and no ability to trust perceptions of self and the world. The therapist must provide the route out of shame by providing a new paradigm of nurturance that includes insistence on separation and forgiveness, as well as the identification of the system of shame. The therapist must be vigilant about his or her own shame and must be able to forgive the client's parents for the damage they have caused. The therapist's avoidance of shame, particularly as evidenced in the routine substitution of guilt as the problematic phenomenon, serves to protect him or her from powerful, painful feelings but acts as a disservice to the client who profoundly suffers shame. The goal for borderline clients is not to become shame-free, but to live lives undetermined by shame. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

To see the Thing Itself: the influence of early object loss on the life and art of Edward Weston

Using journals, letters, dreams, early memories, and anniversary phenomena as a clinical data base, an attempt has been made to demonstrate how Edward Weston sought to master the psychic trauma imposed at age 5 by the death of his mother through the medium of photography. His photographic artistry came to dominate his entire life, with nature acting as a symbolic maternal substitute and supplying him with a wealth of material for his work. The circumscribed image of his mother's eyes during her last days, the only recollection he had of her, was a crucial element in his becoming a photographer, whose camera was his one constant love attachment.     

Musical pitch perception with electrical stimulation of the cochlea

Studies were undertaken to investigate the ability of a user of the Nucleus multi-electrode cochlear implant to judge pitch in the context of musical intervals. The subject had qualified as a musical instrument tuner before he received his implant, and was able to judge the intervals between electrical sensations with neither training nor the guidance of familiar melodies. The procedures used were interval estimation, and interval production by the method of adjustment. The pitch of the electrical stimulation was controlled by varying the pulse repetition rate, the active electrode position, or two combinations of these parameters. Further studies employed sinusoidally amplitude modulated pulse trains with varying modulation frequency. The results showed that rate or modulation frequency could convey musical pitch information over a limited range (approximately two octaves). The data were directly comparable with the relationship between musical intervals and frequency for normal hearing. The pitch related to electrode place varied in accordance with the tonotopic organization of the cochlea, and also appeared to be able to support musical intervals. When both place and rate varied together, the place-related pitch was generally dominant. In all cases, the judgement of intervals tended to diverge from their acoustic counterparts as the intervals became larger.     

Review of Self inquiry.

Reviews the book, Self inquiry by M. Robert Gardner (1983). Gardner's fundamental insight is "that the psychoanalyst's main aim, now as in Freud's time, is, or might well be, to advance his or her own self inquiry to help his or her patients to advance their self inquiry to help him or her to advance his or hers. And so on. And so on" (pp. 7-8). Consequently, one of his key concepts, when describing the psychoanalytic work, is mutuality. It should be noted that what Gardner terms "self inquiry" is a rather humble activity, whether it is carried out by analysts or other human beings. Still, this kind of humble activity is ubiquitous, unavoidable, and pervasive. Self inquiry turns out to be written by a psychoanalyst of the purest water, in spite of the author's unconventional way of reasoning. I think that most experienced analysts will find such paradoxical formulations provocative but, above all, profoundly true. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identity confusion, bisexuality, and flight from the mother

This paper deals with the effects of an oral-sadistic annihilating mother on her male and female offspring. The all-powerful nature of these mothers, and the corresponding helplessness of the fathers, produce in their offspring a sense of identity confusion, a struggle with their bisexuality, and a need to distance themselves from their mother. Everything unwanted in the mother is externalized onto and into the child, particularly suffering and pain, which are necessary for the maintenance of the (pathological) mother-child relationship. Positive movement (i.e., success) on the child's part threatens the balance of this relationship, is perceived by the child as a hostile and destructive triumph over the mother, and causes the Negative Therapeutic Reaction in therapy. The child's inherent masochism acts to preserve the early infantile omnipotence and leads to his/her assumption of all responsibility for the mother's affective states. The child's self-destructiveness also functions as a release for unconscious aggression toward the mother, due to the lack of boundary differentiation between the two.     

Microchimerism and the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis

OBJECTIVES: To ascertain the state of a mother's depression three months after childbirth and to what sort of or to whose social support it is related. METHOD: In October 1993, a questionnaire survey was conducted on the attributes, state of depression by Zung Self-rating Depression Scale, and social support of 300 mothers who received health examinations of their 3 to 4 months' old infants at five health centers in Tokyo. Relationship between depression and social support of 256 mothers (rate of valid answer 85.3%) was examined by one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: The depression score averaged 37.3 points, with 73 persons (28.5%) scoring 40 to 47 points (light) and 27 persons (10.5%) scoring 48 or more points (medium level or higher). The following were the variables which individually showed a significant relationship to the depression score after controlling for age, education, number of children, type of family, and whether or not the mother was working: The emotional support score from the husband and his parents, such as the frequency in which the husband "listened to the mother's worries and anxieties" "was attentive or considerate to the mother" and "helped in feeding the child", the frequency in which the husband's parents "could be consulted on worries the mother had about childbirth, child care and child development" and "nursed and played with the child". It was found that the better the state of such support, the less the state of depression. On the other hand, support from the mother's parents, neighbors, and friends had no bearing on depression. CONCLUSION: The level of depression of the surveyed group was the same as that of the general female public. Postpartum depression was related to emotional support from the husband and emotional and practical support from the husband's parents. Therefore, from the aspect of preventing depression, we believe it is important that, firstly, the mother and family should understand the importance of support and improve the support by the family, and, secondly, the mother herself should improve her ability to cope.     

Language and the body: The talking cure in the new century.

This panel was the second plenary meeting entitled "History and Psychoanalysis." The 3 invited speakers were Robert Wallerstein, Charles Spezzano, and Hanna Decker. Dr. Wallerstein discussed his current views of psychoanalysis, pointing out that there are areas of common ground within contemporary psychoanalytic theories. Dr. Spezzano suggested that there are 3 sites in the analytic situation: free association, reveries, and enactments in which the analyst gathers information that structures his or her understanding of technique. Professor Decker spoke about hysteria from a historical perspective and discussed its manifestation in somatic patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the cover.

Highlights the life and artistic abilities of Jessica Park, whose life was chronicled in the book The Siege, written by Jessica's mother Clara Claiborne Park in 1967. Jessica's artwork is featured on the cover of this issue of American Psychologist. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On "Criteria of Adjustment": Comment.

Comments on Robert Hoppock's article, "Criteria of Adjustment" (see record 2005-07923-015.) The author of this comment argues that there is a logical fallacy in Hoppock's criteria for well adjusted individuals. The author presents arguments against the criteria Hoppock outlines in his article and suggests thinking of adjustment in terms of intelligence and freedom of choice first as necessary conditions; furthermore, in terms of awareness, self-realization, and fulfillment; in terms of the development, cultivation, and use of one's capacities to best advantage; also in terms of harmony, balance, purposeful striving and growth, and that ubiquitous monster of ethics: happiness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Awards for distinguished professional contributions: Robert D. Weitz.

Presents the citation, biography, and selected bibliography for Robert D. Weitz, this year's (1994) winner of the American Psychological Association's Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions--Distinguished Professional Contributions to Applied Psychology as a Professional Practice. From Weitz's citation: "Dr. Robert D. Weitz has filled a lifetime of energy, enthusiasm, and achievement into his 50-plus year career in professional psychology. As a clinician, educator, editor, and activist, he has been an inspiration and role model for generations of clinical and applied psychologists who have benefited from the efforts of the early pioneers of the profession. More than a dreamer, Bob has manifested the ability to turn ideas into reality, with the development of his own successful clinical practice, the evolution of two professional schools of psychology, a scholarly journal for practitioners, and the significant advances for the profession in the political arena. Of his greatest accomplishment, he has obtained these goals while earning and maintaining the love and respect of his colleagues and preserving an unmatched zest for life and people." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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.     

MELAS syndrome in a five year-old child: clinical, biological and genetic characteristics

BACKGROUND: MELAS syndrome is a rare mitochondrial cytopathy; its diagnosis can be difficult. CASE REPORT: A 6-month-old boy presented with febrile seizures, possibly due to viral meningitis. At 7 months, he developed myoclonia and "brain attacks" and, subsequently, myoclonical attacks, regression of psychomotor and mental acquisitions, and progressive visual loss. The ratio of lactatorachia/lactacidemia was increased. The molecular genetic analysis showed an heteroplasmic point mutation with A-to-G mutation at nucleotide 3243 of the mitochondrial tRNA(leu) (UUR) gene. He was the second child of a mother having frequent headaches. His great aunt, a sister of his maternal grandmother, was mentally retarded and had frequent epileptic seizures and hemiparesy since her childhood. CONCLUSION: Any unusual neurological symptom, particularly when combined with "illegitimate" symptoms, should lead to search for a mitochondrial cytopathy.     

"With a little help from my friends I get by": self-help books and psychotherapy. Essay review

A Bosnian mental health professional told the following story: Her village had been under siege for months, and she had worked around the clock in her community using all her personal and professional resources. She was offered a few days break in Zagreb and went to the city; she welcomed the chance to be out from under fire and to rest. A bookstore was the first place she wanted to go, to browse, to expand her vision, to read about other places and peoples. In the shop, the shelves were lined with American best-selling self-help books with titles like "Getting rid of the shoulds in your life in 24 hours," "How to stop being angry and guilty in 12 steps," etc. She looked at these and felt so unreal that she fled back to her village, preferring the reality of her people and her problems.