Introduction: Man's changing hypotheses of his internal universe.

The McMaster University Brain and Behaviour Research Programme was initiated in 1977 with the purpose of facilitating inter-departmental and inter-faculty discussion and collaborative research concerning brain-behaviour relationships in a broad perspective. In planning the lecture for 1983, it seemed that a topic in the area of cognitive neuroscience might be suitable, preferably one of a general nature that would be of interest to several disciplines. This article discusses the history of and planning for the lecture and how the invitees were chosen. The symposium was transcribed, and what follows are edited versions of the presentations by the authors and editors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Storytelling in psychotherapy: The client's subjective experience.

14 adult therapy clients were asked to report their recollections of their experience of therapy sessions. Among their recollections were reports on the subjective experience of storytelling. It was found that storytelling is primarily a way of dealing with inner disturbance. When prepared in principle to enter into the disturbance, clients may use a story to delay the entry. When reluctant in principle to make contact with the disturbance, they may tell a story as a way of managing their beliefs associated with the disturbance. Regardless of the motivation giving rise to a story, once engaged in it, clients frequently contact the inner disturbance whether they intend to or not. The subjective experience of telling a story in therapy sheds a different light on what has been referred to in the literary criticism literature as the functions of narrative, and raises implications for the practice of psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory influences subjective experience: Noise judgments.

The influence of memory on the subjective experience of later events was investigated in two experiments. In one experiment, previously heard sentences and new sentences were presented against a background of white noise that varied in intensity. In a second experiment, a cue set of words was presented either before or after a target set that was embedded in noise. The cue set was either the same as or different from the target set. In both experiments, one of the tasks was to judge the loudness of the noise. The data show that subjects were unable to discount the contribution of memory to perception when judging the noise level. Subjects appeared to base their noise judgments on ease of interpretation of the message presented through noise, with differences in ease being misattributed to a difference in noise level. The advantages of subjective experience as a measure of memory, and the role of subjective experience and misattribution in confusions between cognitive and physical deficits are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The current impact of Freud upon psychology.

The impact of Freud's ideas on contemporary psychology are evaluated for several subfields on a scale of from 0 (none) to 6 (very great). Physiological psychology and intelligence are rated 0; learning, thinking, perception, comparative psychology and vocational psychology 1; drive, feeling and emotion, memory, child and adolescent psychology 2; social psychology and industrial psychology 3; imagination 4; abnormal psychology 5; clinical psychology and personality 6. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The life satisfaction chart: perceptions of the course of subjective experience

The Life Satisfaction Chart is presented as a method for studying perceptions of the course and determinants of life satisfaction. Analyses of reports from forty-five men and forty-six women in the Oakland Growth Study indicated the following: (1) Early-maturing boys, particularly in the working class, recollected their early adolescence as more satisfying than did the late-maturing boys, while early-maturing girls remembered early adolescence as less satisfying. (2) Upward social mobility was associated with an increase in reported life satisfaction for both sexes, but at a statistically significant level for men only. Unexpectedly, both men and women who were upwardly mobile recollected their childhoods as less satisfying than did the downwardly mobile. (3) Women rated above the mean in physical attractiveness during high school did not recall their teen-age years as more satisfying than those below the mean. The top quartile, however, did recollect these years as more satisfying than the bottom quartile. (4) Both men and women rated high on use of the defense mechanism of denial reported higher levels of retrospective life satisfaction.     

Measuring change in the subjective experience of hypnosis

The authors indexed the subjective experience of hypnosis through the use of a continuous behavioral measure of the strength of the participant's experience at the time of the suggestion. Specifically, subjects turned a dial to indicate changes in their experience of the suggested effect during that experience. Thirty-three high, 47 medium, and 28 low hypnotizable subjects were asked to use the dial during the suggestion, test, and cancellation phases of three hypnotic items: arm levitation, arm rigidity, and anosmia. The pattern of ratings differed according to the nature of the suggestion. Also, across the items, subjects who passed according to behavioral criteria experienced the suggested effect to a greater degree than those who failed. Notably, whereas the ratings of highs and mediums did not differ for any item, they differed from lows on all three items. The authors discuss the implications of these findings in terms of the potential for this method to provide insight into the experience of hypnosis.     

The "defense" of Sigmund Freud.

Argues that Freud abandoned his seduction theory, not (as J. Masson [1984] asserted) owing to his colleagues' hostility, but because he could not accept the strong possibility that he and his siblings had been seduced as children, possibly by their father. Freud developed the Oedipus complex as an acceptable defense against such a realization; however, the defense was not completely effective, and he persisted in many of his neurotic symptoms. Freud's belief that he suffered from hysteria was most pronounced during self-analysis, which corresponded to the period during which he abandoned the seduction thesis. Eventually Freud (1931) was able to state that seduction causes neurosis, and that sexual abuse of children is not uncommon, but the seduction theory never regained the status of primary causal agent for many of the neurotic disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Vietnam warrior: his experience, and implications for psychotherapy

The psychodynamic experience of the Vietnam trooper is described and emotionally evoked by the author, who is both a psychiatrist and a combat veteran of that war. It is shown how that experience continues to affect the lives of these men. The special implications of that experience for psychotherapy are then discussed.     

Flat affect in schizophrenia does not reflect diminished subjective experience of emotion.

Although accorded historical significance, affective features of schizophrenia have only begun to receive systematic empirical attention. Interestingly, both early psychopathology writers and more recent investigators have reported frequent discrepancies between schizophrenics' feelings and outward expressions of emotion. Using a more comprehensive assessment of emotion, the present study examines the relationship between emotional experience and expression in a sample of medication-free schizophrenics. Compared with their normal counterparts, schizophrenics were indeed much less facially expressive of both positive and negative emotions during emotion-eliciting films, yet they reported experiencing as much positive and negative emotion. Therefore, the blunted affect typical of some schizophrenics misrepresents their underlying emotional experience. Future research into an inhibition hypothesis is recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Questions for Freud: The secret history of psychoanalysis.

Review of book: Questions for Freud: The Secret History of Psychoanalysis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997, xiv + 239 pp. Reviewed by Hannah S. Decker. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overestimated relationships with subjective well-being.

This article is about relationships between subjective well-being (SWB) and variables such as demographics, intentional activities, personality traits, and personal characteristics. Causal interpretation of these relationships is usually asymmetric from the variable to SWB, although the literature also contains interpretations of reverse or bidirectional causality. Evidence reviewed here suggests that heritable personality traits may underlie some of these relationships. A consequence is that covariance may be lower than lower than indicated by phenotypic (within individual) correlations. The article discusses some implications for positive psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The phenomenology of fit: Linking the person and environment to the subjective experience of person-environment fit.

The authors distinguished 3 approaches to the study of perceived person-environment fit (P-E fit): (a) atomistic, which examines perceptions of the person and environment as separate entities; (b) molecular, which concerns the perceived comparison between the person and environment; and (c) molar, which focuses on the perceived similarity, match, or fit between the person and environment. Distinctions among these approaches have fundamental implications for theory, measurement, and the subjective experience of P-E fit, yet research has treated these approaches as interchangeable. This study investigated the meaning and relationships among the atomistic, molecular, and molar approaches to fit and examined factors that influence the strength of these relationships. Results showed that the relationships among the approaches deviate markedly from the theoretical logic that links them together. Supplemental analyses indicated that molar fit overlaps with affect and molecular fit gives different weight to atomistic person and environment information depending on how the comparison is framed. These findings challenge fundamental assumptions underlying P-E fit theories and have important implications for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hormone therapy of spontaneous abortion. Our experience with treatment with Gravibinan

The results of the treatment of 151 pregnancies with threatened and/or habitual abortions by using high hormonal dosages (Gravibinan "Alkaloid") are presented. Eight pregnancies were in primigravidas, the remaining 143 patients having previously had 47 interruptions of pregnancy, 66 deliveries, and 313 spontaneous abortions. Disregarding artificial abortions in 379 previous pregnancies there were 313 or 82.5 per cent spontaneous abortions. The treatment was performed by i. m. applications of Gravibinan, during the first week every two days, during the following two weeks every three days, and until the accomplished 16 weeks of pregnancy every five days. Besides hormonal therapy, all patients were on bed rest; in the following course of pregnancy tocolysis and in the case of opened cervix the cerclage cervicis were performed. The vitality of the ovum and the fetus, as well as the efficacy of the treatment were evaluated by clinical findings, HCG and estriol urinary eliminations, and by ultrasonography. Out of 151 treated pregnancies, 21 (13.91%) resulted in early abotion, 17 (11.26%) in mid-trimester abortion, 6 (3.97%) in pre-term, and 107 (70.86%) in term deliveries. There were two (1.77%) perinatally dead premature infants. HCG urinary eliminations were significantly lower in pregnancies resulting is missed abortion or first-trimenon miscarriage, whereas no difference was established between pregnancies resulting in delivery or mid-trimester abortion. The authors recommend hormonal treatment in early threatening and/or habitual abortions by administering high dosages of estrogens and gestagens. Such a treatment stimulates secretory transformation of the endometrium at the beginning of pregnancy, and this allows early placentation and the uterine growth with a simultaneous quiescence of the myometrium, which, in turn, makes the growth of the ovum possible. The authors stress the importance of a complex procedure in the establishment of the etiology and in the treatment of spontaneous and/or habiutal abortion.     

The relevance of Sigmund Freud for the 21st century.

This special issue of Psychoanalytic Psychology celebrates the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sigmund Freud on May 6, 1856. The 15 papers and one book review in different ways address the question of Freud's continued relevance. The contributors to this special issue approach the topic in multiple ways. Some authors stay close to the question, while other authors write on topics dear to them. All are, nonetheless, distinguished contributors to contemporary psychoanalysis and most need no introduction to the readership of this journal. Individual contributions to the special issue are summarized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The values problem in subjective well-being.

Comments on the special issue of the American Psychologist (2000[Jan], Vol 55[1]) on positive psychology. The author states that the special issue presents a wonderful first attempt at exploring the potentials for research in positive psychology. However, the fact that conceptualizations of well-being are inexorably tied to values presents psychology with a fascinating challenge. This unavoidable issue will require a different approach to research, one that will most likely not be entirely empirical. Historical, hermeneutic, phenomenological, and other modes of inquiry must inevitably be added to the research mix if this research area is to remain both valid and relevant to real-life struggles toward happiness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A childhood letter of Sigmund Freud.

Analyzes a childhood letter written by Freud in an attempt to discover early evidence of lasting personality characteristics. It is deduced that the letter was written when Freud was between 11 and 12 yrs old. Aspects of the letter reveal Freud's neatness and exactness, general conservatism, egocentricity, and deep emotional attachments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud and the intentionality of affect.

Freud implicitly adopted F. Brentano's (1874 [1973]) thesis that the essence of the mental is intentionality (i.e., mental representation), while rejecting Brentano's Cartesian assumption that intentionality must be conscious. But, how can a feeling like free-floating anxiety, which does not seem to represent or be about anything, be fitted into Freud's representational framework? Several possible answers are examined, including: (1) affects are ideas, (2) affects are always attached to ideas, (3) consciousness is perception of internal mental states, and (4) affects are perceptions of internal bodily processes. Only the "bodily perception" account is systematically developed by Freud, is consistent with Freud's other doctrines, and is intrinsically plausible even in the context of contemporary debate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud and the image of man.

Discusses Freud's contributions to the modern image of man. Two figures stand out massively as the architects of our present-day conception of man: Darwin and Freud. Freud's was the more daring, the more revolutionary, and in a deep sense, the more poetic insight. Freud presented the image of man as the unfinished product of nature: struggling against unreason, impelled by driving inner vicissitudes and urges that had to be contained if man were to live in society, host alike to seeds of madness and majesty, never fully free from an infancy anything but innocent. What Freud was proposing was that man at best and man at worst is subject to a common set of explanations: good and evil grow from a common process. It is our heritage from Freud that the all-or-none distinction between mental illness and mental health has been replaced by a more humane conception of the continuity of these states. Freud's sense of the continuity of human conditions, of the likeness of the human plight, has made possible a deeper sense of the brotherhood of man. It has in any case tempered the spirit of punitiveness toward what once we took as evil and what we now see as sick. We have not yet resolved the dilemma posed by these two ways of viewing. Its resolution is one of the great moral challenges of our age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-regulation and extended now: Controlling the self alters the subjective experience of time.

These studies investigated self-regulation and subjective experience of time from the perspective of the regulatory resource model. Studies 1-2 showed that participants who were instructed to regulate their emotions while viewing a film clip perceived that the film lasted longer than participants who did not regulate their emotions. In Study 3, participants provided time estimates during a resource-depleting or nondepleting task. Subsequent task persistence was measured. Time perceptions mediated the effect of initial self-regulation on subsequent self-regulated performance. In Study 4, participants performed either a resource-depleting or a nondepleting thought-listing task and then performed a different regulatory task. Compared with nondepleted participants, depleted participants persisted less on the 2nd task but estimated that they had persisted longer. Subjective time estimates statistically accounted for reduced persistence after depletion. Together, results indicate people believe that self-regulatory endeavors last overly long, a belief that may result in abandonment of further self-control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)