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S J Blatt

Publications and source records attributed to S J Blatt.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1994

A psychoanalytic appreciation of Giotto's mode of artistic representation and its implications for Renaissance art and science.

This paper applies developmental psychoanalytic and cognitive psychological principles to an evaluation of Giotto's Padua frescoes as pivotal in the transition from a medieval to a Renaissance mode of thought. The formulation stresses the importance of the emergence of triadic or operational thinking involving the coordination of multiple dimensions and the capacity for transforming them with reversibility, reciprocity, and conservation. This developmental achievement also results in an expanded sense of time and space. These concepts provide a basis for appreciating more fully the transition from the dyadic classical and medieval artistic representations to the triadic representations of Renaissance art, especially the contributions of Giotto's Padua frescoes to the development of the concept of infinity in nature, a concept central to both Renaissance art and science. The development of this concept in Renaissance thought raises a question about the relation of art and science. Two major modes of encoding or representing experiences are discussed--a sequential lexical and a nonsequential nonverbal mode (or word and thing representations). These formulations lead to the identification of a process that suggests that developments in art often precede those in science and thereby contribute to a fuller appreciation of Giotto's Padua frescoes as a landmark contribution with implications for the entirety of Renaissance thought.

Art↗
PubMed1994

Assessment of object relatedness through a lexical content analysis of the TAT.

A variety of psychological tests and scoring systems have been developed to assess object representation, including schemata using Rorschach responses, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), Early Memories, and Loevinger's Sentence Completion Test for Ego Development. This article presents an alternative approach to assessing TAT responses for possible indices of self/other schemata. In this study, we explored a lexically based, quantitative approach for assessing object relations in a sample of hospitalized psychiatric patients for whom extensive clinical, psychological test, and behavioral data were available. To test the relationship between lexical choice and individuals' representational schemata, we subjected verbatim transcripts of TAT responses to a computerized content analysis and then correlated content profiles with independent assessments of object representation and interpersonal relations derived from other psychological test assessments and from behavioral and clinical observation. These included the Urist (1977) Mutuality of Autonomy score and Blatt, Brenneis, Schimek, and Glick's (1976) Developmental Analyses of the Concept of the Object, as well as ratings of clinical behavior as expressed in independently derived clinical case reports. The findings suggest that lexical choices in TAT narratives represent a highly reliable, valid means of assessing the quality of object relations, particularly unconscious or preconscious aspects of such representations.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Dependent and self-critical depressive experiences among inner-city adolescents.

The Adolescent Depressive Experiences Questionnaire was administered to 142 inner-city ninth graders. Based on theory, several potential correlates of dependency and self-criticism were selected for study, including depression, aspects of anxiety, locus of control, and facets of social behavior. Self-criticism showed stronger associations with depression and concerns about losing others' approval, while dependency showed stronger associations with diffuse tension and worry and sensitivity to others' behavior. The two depressive tendencies had comparable associations with physiological anxiety and external locus of control. These findings are discussed in terms of current perspectives on the symptomatic heterogeneity of depressive experiences.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

The differential effect of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis with anaclitic and introjective patients: the Menninger Psychotherapy Research Project revisited.

Analyses of the data from the Menninger Psychotherapy Research Project (MPRP) have consistently indicated little difference in the therapeutic outcome between patients seen in psychoanalysis and those seen in psychotherapy. Reanalysis of the data from the MPRP, utilizing a distinction between two broad configurations of psychopathology (Blatt, 1974, 1990a; Blatt and Shichman, 1983), however, indicates that patients whose pathology focuses primarily on disruptions of interpersonal relatedness and who use primarily avoidant defenses (anaclitic patients), and patients whose pathology focuses primarily on issues of self-definition, autonomy, and selfworth and who use primarily counteractive defenses (introjective patients) differ in their responsiveness to psychotherapy and psycho-analysis. Based on recently developed procedures for systematically evaluating the quality of object representation on the Rorschach, reanalysis of the Menninger data reveals that anaclitic patients have significantly greater positive change in psychotherapy, while introjective patients have significantly greater positive change in psychoanalysis. These statistically significant patient-by-treatment interactions are discussed in terms of their clinical implications as well as the importance of differentiating among types of patients in studies of therapeutic outcome and of therapeutic process.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Psychometric properties of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire for adolescents.

Items of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ) were rephrased and simplified to make them appropriate for younger subjects. This adolescent form of the DEQ (DEQ-A) was administered to high school students; a factor analysis revealed three factors that were highly congruent in female and male students and with the three factors of the original DEQ. Internal consistency as well as short- and long-term reliability for each of the 3 DEQ-A factors were at acceptable levels. Each factor correlated highly with its counterpart factor in the original DEQ, especially the Dependency and Self-Criticism factors. Correlations of the DEQ-A factors with other measures of depression essentially replicate relationships found between these measures of depression and the original DEQ for adults. The reliability, internal consistency, and validity of the DEQ-A indicate that it could be useful in studying depressive experiences in younger adolescents.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

The analysis of descriptions of parents: identification of a more differentiated factor structure.

The analysis of spontaneous descriptions of parents has proven to be a valuable procedure for assessing an individual's perceptions of caring experiences with their parents. The procedure has been useful in a number of research investigations. Blatt, Chevron, Quinlan, Schaffer, and Wein (1988) revised the scoring procedures in a new manual for this procedure. This study examined aspects of the reliability and validity of this new scoring system. The parental descriptions of 134 female and 79 male students from two universities were scored using the revised manual. An analysis of ratings from the new scoring procedures lead to a differentiation of negative punitive items from positive ambitious items. Three factors and a Length factor emerged; the four factors accounted for 71% of the variance. Three factors-Benevolent, Punitive, and Ambitious-were correlated in meaningful ways with relevant scales of the Semantic Differential, the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (Zung, 1972), and the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (Blatt, D'Afflitti, & Quinlan, 1976). The results provide construct validity for this new factor solution for evaluating the descriptions given by individuals of significant figures in their lives.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1992

Attachment and separateness. A theoretical context for the integration of object relations theory with self psychology.

The aims of attachment and of separateness, and their experiential counterparts within the overall sense of self identity, guide the individual throughout the life cycle. Multiple forms of relatedness, based on varying degrees of self-object differentiation and instinctual drive involvement, enable the individual to establish and consolidate a sense of self both as a cohesive and autonomous entity and as inherently attached to others through loving relationships. This theoretical orientation provides a context for integrating Kohut's major conceptual contribution with classical object relations theory. The essence of this integration requires resolution of the challenges that Kohut's concept of "self-object" poses to conventional understanding of the relationship between relatedness and self development.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1991

A cognitive morphology of psychopathology.

In contrast to contemporary approaches to psychopathology that establish diagnostic taxonomies derived primarily from differences in manifest symptoms, this paper, based on an integration of cognitive and psychoanalytic developmental theory, proposes a structural cognitive morphology for understanding and assessing differences among various forms of psychopathology, from schizophrenia to the neuroses. A theoretical model based on the development of cognitive schema, consistent with clinical and research data, considers schizophrenia and paranoid schizophrenia as involving fundamental disturbances in boundary articulation and recognition constancy, and considers borderline personality disorders as involving disturbances in evocative constancy. Also, a lack of integration of object and self-schema, expressed in either a distorted and exaggerated preoccupation with interpersonal relatedness or self-definition, defines two primary personality configurations that have implications for understanding the neuroses and subtypes of depression, as well as differential response to various types of psychotherapeutic intervention.

Child↗
PubMed1991

Changes in human figure drawings during intensive treatment.

This article examines change in the human figure drawings (HFDs) of 32 seriously disturbed young adults during the course of intensive inpatient treatment. HFDs drawn at the time of admission were compared with HFDs obtained more than 1 year after intensive treatment began; both sets were scored on the Goodenough-Harris Scale (GH) and the Robins Balance-Tilt Scale (RBT). The findings indicate that the HFDs significantly improved over the course of treatment, but only for those patients judged introjective, not anaclitic. These findings are consistent with prior research on the same population that were based on analyses of clinical case records and Rorschach protocols (Blatt, Ford, Berman, Cook, & Meyer, 1988). Significant change in the HFDs over the course of treatment suggests that the HFDs provide a unique and independent dimension for assessing therapeutic change.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Differentiation of personality types among opiate addicts.

A wide range of studies indicate that although sociopathic characteristics are predominant in opiate addiction, depressive and psychotic features are also frequently observed. To test the hypothesis that there are really three types of individuals who become addicted to opiates (rather than a single, predominant personality style), fifty-three opiate addicts were given the Loevinger Sentence Completion Test, the Bellak Ego Functions Interview, and the Rorschach. Variables derived from these three procedures were submitted to cluster and discriminant function analyses. Three groups of addicts were identified--those primarily with impaired interpersonal relationships and affective lability (42%), those primarily characterized by thought disorder and impaired ego functioning (30%), and a group with diminished ideational and verbal activity (28%). Comparison of the assessment of these three groups with independently defined normal, neurotic, and schizophrenic samples provided support for three opiate-addicted personality types, each respectively characterized as character disordered, borderline psychotic, and depressed. Although there seems to be a predominance of character-disordered individuals who become addicted to opiates, the data indicate several additional types of opiate addicts with different types of psychopathology who may require different approaches to management and treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Use of the TAT to measure change in defense mechanisms following intensive psychotherapy.

Changes in the use of defense mechanisms (denial, projection, and identification) were examined over a period of approximately 15 months of intensive treatment of 90 seriously disturbed young adults who were hospitalized in an intensive, open, long-term treatment setting. Patients independently judged to have primarily an anaclitic or an introjective personality configuration (Blatt, 1974; Blatt & Shichman, 1983) were assessed for psychiatric symptoms and aspects of interpersonal behavior both on admission and after an average of 15 months of treatment. Findings based on an independent assessment of TAT protocols at these two times indicated a significant (p less than .05) decline in total use of defenses for the entire sample, but especially for introjective patients. Further, this decline in total use of defenses in the TAT was significantly associated with a reduction in psychiatric symptoms. Also, sex-incongruent patients (anaclitic men and introjective women) were found to use different defenses and to change in ways different from sex-congruent patients (anaclitic women and introjective men).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Representation of interpersonal interactions on the Rorschach and level of psychopathology.

Recent theoretical formulations emphasize the importance of the quality of interpersonal relationships in personality development and psychopathology and have resulted in the construction of methods for assessing the representation of interpersonal experiences. The Urist Mutuality of Autonomy (MOA) Scale is one of the most frequently used methods for assessing the quality of interpersonal relationships by evaluating interactions portrayed on the Rorschach between people, animals, and/or things. This study of the relationship of the MOA scale to independent assessments of interpersonal relationships and clinical symptoms in a group of seriously disturbed adolescents and young adults recently admitted to a long-term, open, residential treatment facility revealed that the average quality of interactions portrayed on the Rorschach relates significantly to the severity of clinical symptoms and the presence of thought disorder, but not to the quality of interpersonal relations. In addition, the portrayal of at least one intensively malevolent and destructive interaction on the Rorschach is correlated primarily with measures of thought disorder and impaired reality testing, whereas not giving at least one mutual and benevolent interaction response is correlated with impaired capacity for social adaptation (e.g., inappropriate interpersonal behavior and unmodulated affect). The relative failure to give at least one mutual and benevolent response is also correlated with the severity of clinical symptoms. Though the MOA scale was developed to assess object relations, it seems more consistently to assess aspects of psychopathology, such as the severity of clinical symptoms and the extent of thought disorder, and only secondarily the quality of interpersonal relationships.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Psychometric properties of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire in a college population.

The Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ; Blatt, D'Afflitti, & Quinlan, 1976) was developed to permit the study of the continuities between normal and pathological forms of depression. Since its publication over 10 years ago, the DEQ has been increasingly used in a wide range of investigations of depression in clinical and nonclinical samples and as a measure of two major personality dimensions in a number of studies of differential responsiveness to various life stressors. This study provides an analysis of the DEQ responses in a large sample of undergraduate subjects in an attempt to articulate more clearly the psychometric properties of the DEQ. The DEQ consists of 66 items describing experiences frequently reported by depressed individuals. In the original development of the DEQ, factor analyses using male and female undergraduate samples yielded three orthogonal factors, Dependency, Self-Criticism, and Efficacy (Blatt et al., 1976). Most subsequent studies have used the factor scoring coefficients from the female sample to score men and women's DEQs. The factor loadings in the new male and female samples were very similar to one another and to the original female factor loadings. Thus, the continued use of the scoring parameters from the original female sample is recommended. Factor scores for Dependency and Self-Criticism continue to be uncorrelated in both men and women. Normative data are presented from the new samples, with men scoring higher on Self-Criticism and women scoring higher on Dependency.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Attachment and separateness. A dialectic model of the products and processes of development throughout the life cycle.

Various theories of psychological development can be characterized according to whether they are primarily separation or attachment theories and whether they emphasize primarily the processes or the products of development. A full understanding of psychological development requires an integration of theories of attachment and separation and of what is attained in the course of psychological development (the products), as well as the mechanisms (or processes) by which these products are attained. Discussion of a revised model of Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial development illustrates the importance of formulating a dialectical developmental model that describes the interaction between attachment and separation and between product and process.

Humans↗
PubMed1989

Cynical Mistrust and the search for self-worth.

Cynical Mistrust was examined among 64 medical and surgical patients, 23 of whom were selected for a history of CHD and 41 for an absence of such a history. Cynical Mistrust was found to differentiate subjects with a positive history from those without such a history. As hypothesized, persons scoring high in Cynical Mistrust also scored high in Self-Worth by Social Comparison, Playing Hardball with Others and Self-Criticism. Surprisingly, high scorers in Cynical Mistrust among subjects with a coronary history also scored high in Dependency on others for validation that they were deserving of being loved. We suggest that the pathogenicity of Cynical Mistrust for CHD may be potentiated by the presence of certain other dispositions. Further investigation of dependency on others in particular appears to be worthwhile in order to determine whether consideration of this disposition can improve the identification of risk for CHD.

Adult↗