Paranoia and masochism: stages on the road to despair.
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Different psychotherapeutic theories provide contradictory accounts of adult narcissism as the product of either parental coldness or excessive parental admiration during childhood. Yet, none of these theories has been tested systematically in a nonclinical sample. The authors compared four structural equation models predicting overt and covert narcissism among 120 United Kingdom adults. Both forms of narcissism were predicted by both recollections of parental coldness and recollections of excessive parental admiration. Moreover, a suppression relationship was detected between these predictors: The effects of each were stronger when modeled together than separately. These effects were found after controlling for working models of attachment; covert narcissism was predicted also by attachment anxiety. This combination of childhood experiences may help to explain the paradoxical combination of grandiosity and fragility in adult narcissism.
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The concept of empathy has become a central issue in the debate between classical psychoanalysts and self psychologists. If one recognizes that dilemma is central to the human condition and that the two competing schools of psychoanalysis emphasize opposite sides of several parameters that are fraught with dilemma, it is possible to view them both as empathic. Three levels of empathy are discussed: empathizing with the patient's story as it stands; discovering new themes hidden away in the patient's narrative; and discovering significant patterns in the patient-therapist relationship itself. The concept of therapy as a self-correcting process that approaches but never quite attains objective accuracy is emphasized.
Deliberate deception by a patient in psychotherapy is a deviation from a fundamental requirement of the patient-therapist relationship. When deceptions are discovered or admitted, it is crucial to analyze them for their value in understanding conflicts, transference relationships, and current stresses. These issues are illustrated with a case involving an elaborate deception carried out over several months by a patient in psychotherapy.
The behaviour of physicians is increasingly coming under scrutiny and attack, both from patients and from institutions that represent the public interest. This social process is partly a necessary and healthy quest for healing and partly a retaliatory response to inevitable failures on the part of physicians to live up to the standards expected of them. The process can assume such ruthless and pervasive forms that physicians are becoming exposed to impossible demands and even abuse at the hands of those they are trying to help. As a result, many physicians become defensive, withdrawing from patient care or reasserting their own needs in regressive ways that further offend or injure their patients. This increases public anxiety and outrage resulting in regressive and even violent "solutions", creating a vicious cycle in which mutual trust and respect is eroded and true health eludes our grasp. Physicians who practise psychotherapy are particularly aware of such regressive emotional pressures and therefore their experience can be taken as a bellwether of social change. Stirred by recent encounters with colleagues who have undergone public inquisition, humiliation and punishment, and drawing on personal clinical experience with patients whose regressive self-expression could at times be considered "borderline", the author attempts to understand the nature of the emotional forces being experienced by members of the profession at large. As in therapy, so in social change; the outcome depends on how well we understand, contain and channel the powerful feelings that underlie whatever actions are taken.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
This article will explore J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter (2004) literary series from a psychoanalytical perspective. The author draws out the main themes of the Harry Potter stories to see if they can be employed clinically to assist in psychotherapeutic work with children and adolescents. The article begins by discussing Bettelheim's (1976) extensive work on children's fairytales and their therapeutic value, moving on to discuss Rustin and Rustin's (2005) more recent insights into narrative therapy and children's fiction. A clinical example is given of how the storylines were implemented to enhance a psychotherapeutic group process for adolescents. The author hopes to illustrate the power of symbolism and metaphor in the Harry Potter storylines and elucidate why these books may appeal to young people with mental health difficulties.
Mystical states are common cross-culturally. Here we examine the prevalence and general characteristics of these states. We then proceed to critically examine the theories purporting to explain these states: psychoanalytic, cognitive and neurobiological, all of which attempt to explain the breakdown of the boundaries between the self and external world. We conclude by exploring the implications of mystical states for cultural psychiatry.
A 44-year-old depressed widow in psychodynamic psychotherapy suffered repeated relapses of symptoms following improvement. This was seen as a negative therapeutic reaction.
We analyzed the contemporary empirical and theoretical literature concerning the two predominant approaches for scoring formal thought disorder on the Rorschach, the Comprehensive System special scores, and the methodology of Rapaport, Gill, and Schafer (1946/1968). The psychoanalytic research related to selected special scores is reviewed, and some linkages to psychoanalytic developmental theory and psychopathology are made. Recommendations are presented to bridge the gap between these two important avenues of Rorschach research, with an emphasis on empirical rigor and intrapsychic contextual meaning.
Beginning with a review of the historical development, the current status, and the empirical foundations of Rorschach shading responses, I then explore how the 4 psychologies of psychoanalysis can help generate inferences about clinical issues suggested by these responses. The contributions and limitations of this theory-based approach to understanding shading responses are demonstrated and discussed through clinical examples and a review of theoretical concepts and empirical findings.