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Biomedical subjects

T M Alston

Publications and source records attributed to T M Alston.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

The dreams of a cancer patient: a "royal road" to understanding the somatic illness.

In this paper we have presented the principal dreams of a 39-year-old female patient in order to demonstrate how closely the dreams were linked with the understanding of her cancerous condition. The analysis, lasting over a period of eight years, ended with the remission of the patient's cancerous condition to the point where she was without pain and symptom-free. The findings suggested that her dreams played a special role in her analysis by providing important landmarks regarding her treatment's progress and state of her cancerous condition. In a general sense, it was concluded that the patient's dreams did provide a "royal road" to understanding her somatic illness. Specifically, it was concluded that, first, the patient's dreams were able to represent quite reliably, in symbolic form, the state of her cancerous condition; second, that the cancer condition and transference-countertransference reactions were closely entwined; and third, that each of the patient's dreams seemed to be introduced by a crisis situation connected with a traumatic early memory.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Family pathology and the infantile neurosis.

In this study we have attempted to investigate the connection (in the sense of a complex interplay) between the infantile and the adult neurosis where severe family pathology has been an important determining force. In the clinical illustrations of two female patients we tried to determine the fate (i.e. in terms of the compulsion to repeat) of the early infantile conflicts and experiences within the purview of their pathological family condition. In sorting this out, we distinguished between those repetitions viewed as passive reproductions and those repetitions viewed, as re-creative; the former finding their way essentially into the adult neurosis, the latter finding their way into parts of the personality under the aegis of their ego's organizing activity. The fashion in which the family pathology impinged upon the adult neurosis made the development of the transference in the analytic situation a most difficult arena for clarification, since there was a tendency to confuse past (early) events, past fantasy, current reality and current fantasy. In concluding we noted that both Oedipus complex and oedipal drama came together in these patients, revealing the link between the tragedy of their life-long family situation and what was termed a 'fate neurosis'.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

On "action language" in psychoanalysis.

The main tenets of action language are summarized in an attempt to discern the direction in which psychoanalysis might go if action language becomes the "new metapsychology." The principal roots of action language are traced to the different linguistic/language and personality-and-culture models of anthropology and to the neobehaviorist currents of academic psychology. The authors' findings support the hypothesis that action language is a form os psychoanalytic behaviorism having idealism, logical positivism, and radical empiricism as its philosophical underpinnings. Its adoption would confound the entire motivational aspect of psychoanalysis. Specifically, the authors suggest that action language falls under the aegis of Wittgenstein's family of language games. When the action language game is said to be brought to a successful resolution, the language game disappears and, supposedly, so do the patient's conflicts.

Humans↗