Does repression exist? Memory, pathogenic, unconscious and clinical evidence.

The current dispute regarding the existence of repression has mainly focused on whether people remember or forget trauma. Repression, however, is a multidimensional construct, which, in addition to the memory aspect, consists of pathogenic effects on adjustment and the unconscious. Accordingly, in order to arrive at a more accurate decision regarding the existence of repression, studies relevant to all three areas are reviewed. Moreover, since psychoanalysis regards repression as a key factor in accounting for the development and treatment of neurotic disorders, relevant research from these two domains are also taken into account. This comprehensive evaluation reveals little empirical justification for maintaining the psychoanalytic concept of repression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Scientist-practitioner perspectives on test interpretation.

Reviews the book, Scientist-practitioner perspectives on test interpretation edited by James W. Lichtenberg and Rodney K. Goodyear (see record 1998-06400-000). As Lichtenberg and Goodyear clearly state, the purpose of this book was not to ingrain a scientific perspective towards the entire psychotherapy process, but rather to challenge readers to adopt a scientific attitude when critiquing the utility a particular tests has for a client, as well as appropriately interpreting the results. This book is suitable as a supplement to texts in a graduate psychotherapy course. It reminds the reader of the most important considerations when interpreting and sharing test results with clients. It shapes a novice's perspective by offering practical suggestions for the process of test interpretation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rating group therapist interventions: The validation of the Group Psychotherapy Intervention Rating Scale.

The present study seeks to establish the validity of the Group Psychotherapy Intervention Rating Scale (GPIRS), an observer-rated measure of the quality of group leader interventions. Concurrent validity was tested by comparing GPIRS results to 2 group gold standard process measures, the Hill Interaction Matrix and the Group Climate Questionnaire. Significant correlations between leader intervention scores and group member perceptions of group climate, as well as verbal interaction scores, were found. In addition, results indicated correlations between interventions aimed to gain balance between confrontation and warmth and member-rated levels of cohesion. Results lend support for the concurrent validity of the GPIRS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sources accounting for alliance and cohesion at three stages in group psychotherapy: Variance component analyses.

This study examined patient, therapist, and group variability accounting for alliance and cohesion over three stages in a sample of 145 patients attending short- and long-term psychodynamic group therapy. G-study variance components were estimated for the 14 sources of variation identifiable by the research design. Results indicated that patient variability represented the strongest clinically relevant contribution to both alliance and cohesion. Therapists were important for alliance at all stages, but for cohesion only in the middle stage. The therapist × group interaction was important to the alliance in early therapy and for cohesion within the two first stages, but this contribution then decreased. Group length did not account for any variability in the process measures. Theoretical implications were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical practice as natural laboratory for psychotherapy research: A guide to case-based time-series analysis.

Both researchers and practitioners need to know more about how laboratory treatment protocols translate to real-world practice settings and how clinical innovations can be systematically tested and communicated to a skeptical scientific community. The single-case time-series study is well suited to opening a productive discourse between practice and laboratory. The appeal of case-based time-series studies, with multiple observations both before and after treatment, is that they enrich our design palette by providing the discipline another way to expand its empirical reach to practice settings and its subject matter to the contingencies of individual change. This article is a user's guide to conducting empirically respectable case-based time-series studies in a clinical practice or laboratory setting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive emotions in psychotherapy theory, research, and practice: New kid on the block?

This article introduces the Special Section, which explores the potential importance of positive emotions in our theory, research, and practice. The authors propose that the peripheral role that psychotherapy theory, research, and practice has allotted to the variable "positive emotion" can be understood in terms of the foundational axioms of our discipline. The authors argue that psychotherapy has implicitly adopted an attitude of caution and suspicion toward the potential therapeutic value of experiencing positive emotions, an all embracing attitude toward the therapeutic value of experiencing negative emotions, and an identity focused on healing psychological wounds at the expense of promoting psychological well-being. The authors trace the adoption of these axioms to Judeo-Christian ideas of human nature and to the identity formation process of psychotherapy, and the authors speculate on the sociopolitical forces that have promoted a shift in our theorizing in the last few decades. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Allen E. Bergin.

A brief overview of the career and contributions to the field of psychology of Allen Bergin. Allen Bergin has established himself as a leading expert in psychotherapy research, and has challenged psychological orthodoxy to emphasize the importance of values and religion in therapy. Besides his own original research, Bergin has led in integrations of the literature on effectiveness of therapy. His Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change, edited with Sol Garfield in three editions, is the authoritative source in the field. In addition, through his teaching at Columbia and Brigham Young, consultations, colloquia, and national and international convention presentations, Bergin has had a distinctive impact on a generation of practitioners, critics, and consumers of psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relational psychoanalytic enactments and psychotherapy integration: Dualities, dialectics, and directions: Comment of Frank (2002).

Dualities embedded within the relational psychoanalytic enactment concept encourage dialectical thinking and intervention. K. A. Frank's (2002) conceptualization of enactments as entailing structural, functional, and consequential interactions between the intrapsychic and the interpersonal valuably obviates the need to choose between these 2 domains (J. C Anchin, 1985). His incorporation of systems conceptions and the schema construct also renders boundaries between psychoanalysis and other paradigms increasingly permeable. Frank highlighted intrasession and extrasession enactments as intermutual contexts for collab6ratively synthesizing relational analytic and cognitive-behavioral techniques and their respective emphases on insight and action, thereby potentiating integration of structural and behavioral changes. His perspective also converges with contemporary interpersonal theory, research, and practice, fostering superordinate idiographic-nomothetic dialecticism, and with constructivist psychotherapy, spawning additional integrative directions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The experience of shame in psychotherapy supervision.

Notes that shame is a complex and powerful experience that is difficult for therapists to address. The purpose of this article is to help therapists on both sides of the supervision dyad have a better understanding of shame and its defenses. In order to elucidate the inevitable shame that arises in supervision, this article first describes the nature of shame, beginning with its early manifestations in interpersonal relationships with primary caregivers. It also includes a short section on the adaptive nature of shame. Because individuals develop characteristic ways of coping with it, it is suggested that shame may be concealed from oneself and others through withdrawal, avoidance, attack on self, and attack on others. These characteristic reactions to shame are discussed in detail because they influence how shame is manifested. Four vignettes illustrate how each defensive reaction may be manifested in supervision, and suggestions for minimizing the adverse impact of shame are proffered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does interpersonal psychotherapy protect women from depression in the face of stressful life events?

The present study compared the role of life events in predicting time to index episode onset under conditions of no or variable treatment versus the role of life events in predicting time to recurrence during maintenance interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT). Eighty-three women with recurrent major depression participated in acute IPT treatment followed by 2 years of maintenance IPT. Life events were assessed using contextual interview and rating methods. Cox regression survival analyses indicated that, although severe life events were significantly associated with time to index episode onset, there was little evidence of an association between events experienced during maintenance treatment and time to recurrence. These results provide evidence that IPT may decrease the potency of life events in provoking recurrence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)