Search

The acting-out adolescent expresses his feelings by acts and deeds. He sees the therapeutic relationship as a contest in which he attempts to outwit and manipulate the therapist. The therapist sees...

— Two groups of psychiatric subjects listened to instructions telling them that projected visual afterimages (Ah) are apt to reflect one's inner personal life, either openly (group UE) or only after suitable controls have been applied (group CE). Thereafter all subjects produced AIs of a schematic red face during 16 trials. The anxiety and defensive systems of the subjects were mapped by means of the Meta-Contrast Technique. As expected, the UE instructions produced more open anxiety in the A1 situation than did the CE instruction. It also tended to facilitate repressive-projective defenses, resulting in primitive or evasive A1 reactions, while the CE instructions in combination with compulsive-inhibitory defenses often led to reactions of an all-or-none type, i.e. either an unimpaired AI or no AI at all.

Charisma ascription, described sociologically by Max Weber, can be explained psychologically through the mechanism of projection triggered when the individual is forcibly separated from a loved object. Such separation produces an ambivalence of attitudes based on conflict between opposite feelings, i.e., love and hate. Conflict is resolved by projecting one of the pair of opposites into the external world—onto an individual or object—whence it is perceived as exerting uncanny power through such carriers as charismatic heroes, totems, and spirits. Freud's totem theory provides the basis for this explanation.

This is a review of psychosomatic literature which touches on the relationship between patterns of illness and aspects of family interaction. An attempt is made to reconstruct the links in the chain which lead from family patterns of interaction to the occurrence or intensification of physical illness in family members. The central construct proposed is that of the “family emotional system.” The influence of emotional factors and certain types of critical events on the family system is traced in relation to the precipitation of both psychological and physiological patterns of disruption. The nature of the family system and its functioning are discussed and questions are raised in areas requiring further study and elucidation, particularly relating to the process of symptom distribution and specificity of illness.

Summary One hundred subjects were asked to rate themselves and others whom they had known for at least six months on the possession of four traits: Stinginess, Stubborness, Messiness, and Bashfulness. From these ratings it was determined whether or not the subjects possessed insight into their own personalities, with regard to these four traits. Information was then given to the subjects indicating to them their “true” possession of the traits. For those without insight, this information was dissonant. A second rating showed that those subjects receiving dissonant information responded to the dissonance by increasing their projection of that trait to others. These results supported the hypotheses that projection was due to a lack of insight, and that dissonance is reduced by increases in projection.

The author discusses the correlative nature of projection and introjection, their early roles in development and differentiation, and their later defensive uses. He describes how, in paranoid states, the interplay between projecting and introjecting leads to conflicted ambivalence between preserving and annihilating significant objects.

In these days we expect a good deal of a painter with claims to originality—a good deal more than most of them can give. We are habituated to pictorial representation as a major means of communication of ideas and we are surrounded by technically proficient work in the competitive field of advertising. Work of this kind is evocative too—at least to the variety of emotions which may determine the act of buying—and the poster that does not come off soon comes down. Except in the esoteric field of prestige-advertising, the sales-curve is the sole judge of the efficacy of this kind of appeal and the consumer—the indirect and unwilling patron—is rarely himself able to judge the effects of such hidden persuaders as the artist has built into his work.

A group of 9 patients in chronic hemodialysis was intensively studied for a year. The main findings were that the patients were content, functioned well in everyday life, and were nearly free of psychiatric symptoms. Uniform defenses--denial, displacement, isolation, reaction formation, and projecti

A model of ego functioning including processes identified as, coping, defensive and fragmenting is described along with research which has evaluated its assumptions and usefulness. The values embedded in this model are examined in the context of an argument that processual rather than outcome criteria of positive human functions permit greater generality of understanding across the diversity of people and social conditions. Examples of the ego model's use in research generally, in stress research particularly, and in psychotherapy are presented.

The projection apparatus is placed on the floor and tilted upward at an angle of about 30° so that the image is formed on a sheet of rigid, transparent plastic. This sheet is supported by a frame held between two tables and aligned so that it is perpendicular to the axis of the projection beam. The paper for tracing the image is placed on the side of the plastic sheet opposite the projection apparatus. Thus, the operator is able to make the tracing of the image without annoyance by heat from the light source or encumbrance from shadows of the hand and pencil cast on the image.

(1947). Projection, Extrajection and Objectivation. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly: Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 357-377.

Summary To see whether more apperceptive responses could be elicited, the Children's Apperception Test (CAT) was used in a way which required the child to become motorically involved with the pictures. It was found that more children give significantly more apperceptive responses to a puzzle form of the CAT than to the regular form. Therefore, it was felt that the puzzle form was a more valuable instrument. It was suggested that any projective technique for very young children should be designed so that the response from the child results from his being actively involved in the situation.

Primitive thinking patterns reinforced by group membership underlie the false beliefs which are central in the psychodynamics of racial conflicts in the United States. The destructive alteration of Negroes to fit false beliefs about them has tended to maintain the psychological forces that originated the false beliefs. In this context the author analyzes the Black Power movement as an attempt to institute a massive therapeutic process.

Thirteen school-age children with meningomyelocele and their families underwent intensive social service interviews and psychiatric evaluation. A good to fair adaptation was found in 7 of the children and in 5 of the parents. Divorce or separation occurred in 6 of the families studied. Both parents and children used a wide variety of adjustment mechanisms. Social and emotional factors appeared to be stronger determinants of adaptation than severity of physical impairment. Communication between the physician and the family was crucial in the adjustment process. The data indicate a need for initial and long-term family support. Psychiatric screening is valuable in identifying patients in need of help. Timely intervention could serve to modify psychopathology and improve the chance for a more successful adaptation.

Summary The Jungian concepts of archetypes and psychic reality are utilized to explain the difference between illusory and real psychic phenomena. Myths are defined as unconscious projections of archetypal material upon the environment, which assume definitive shapes as objects or persons having an archaic character. Only by an analysis of the meaning and value of the various mythological heros, motifs, or ancient objects depicted in a myth can an approach be made in comprehending the original archetypes from which they emerged. The difficulty of applying external scientific criteria of validity and reliability to a psychic event is explored at some length. In accordance with Jungian theory, “mental illness” is described as a myth which tends to isolate the observer from the one observed in a significant manner. Another way of looking at the “mentally ill” person is offered in terms of a common bond of humanity that exists between that person and one that is labeled as “mentally healthy.”

Summary Single electrical shock stimuli delivered alternatively to various somatic areas of paralyzed cats evoked electrical activities, contralaterally and ipsilaterally, in the territories of: the spinal trigeminal nucleus (V), the posterior funicular nuclei (PF), the reticular formation (RF), ventral region of the lateral funiculus, the anterior funiculus, and the lateral pyramidal tract. In the territories of V and PF at the inferior olivary level the initial latencies of the contralateral responses were mostly less than 2 or 4 msec, while those of the ipsilateral responses ranged widely from 2 msec or less to over 10 msec. In the territories of V at the pyramidal decussation level the initial latencies of the contralateral responses were mostly 2 msec or less, while those of the ipsilateral responses were almost 4–10 msec. On the contrary, in the territories of PF at this level, no latency difference was seen between the contralateral and the ipsilateral responses. The initial latencies were 2 msec or less at both sides. At the inferior olivary level, the latencies of the responses in the contralateral RF and in the interior part of the ipsilateral RF were mostly 4 msec or less, while those in the lateral part of the ipsilateral RF were mostly 2–10 msec. It is confirmed that somatic areas send many fibers directly though the contralateral RF to the contralateral territories of V and PF. It also seems possible that somatic areas appear to send many fibers ipsilaterally to the interior part of RF from which fibers terminate transsynapti-cally to the territories of V and PF, although the possibility that direct ipsilateral fibers of very small diameter might exist is not excluded.

Staff members handling hospitalized borderline patients are challenged to offer them a new kind of experience rather than reconfirming the projections they are so expert in eliciting from people. The author describes an approach to treatment of these patients in which the staff attempts to handle its own retaliatory fury toward these patients because of their provocative behavior and is able to set limits in a nonpunitive way.