Search

Abstract. A deficit in context processing may underlie theory of mind (ToM) difficulties in schizophrenia, although few studies to date have explored the impact of contextual processing on ToM performances within the same task. We used electroencephalography to investigate the production of intentional inferences from highly versus weakly structured sentences in healthy participants with schizotypal traits. Thirty-four participants were divided into two groups according to their scores on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). The participants listened to stories that required a degree of understanding in order to produce an inference about the main character’s intention. Each story was followed by a target word that could either be highly predictable (HP), weakly predictable (WP), or incompatible with the context. The results indicate that the N400 component for WP targets was stronger in the high-SPQ group. This increase correlated with the negative dimension of schizotypy. This may reflect difficulties with generating intentional inferences when the context is insufficiently structured for high schizotypy participants.

As research has shown a consistent link between the alliance and the therapeutic success, an alliance-focused supervision was designed to help novice therapists improve their relational and collabo...

A lot of the research concerning foster children - often children who have suffered maltreatment in the family home - has focused on internalized and externalized symptoms. Few studies, however, have looked at the interactions between such children and caregivers.The purpose of this study is to explore the Emotion Regulation Strategies (ERS) of children in foster care and to highlight those most commonly employed in family or placement contexts. The parents' and foster carers' ERS are also analyzed in order to understand the co-regulatory processes at work.An in-depth analysis of observation sequences was performed. Three data collection times, spaced across a period of 6 months (t1, t2 and t3), were included in the observation protocol. Each observation, recorded using a video camera, comprised 45 min of free time and 15 min of structured tasks. Transcription and coding of ERS were performed for each sequence using a microanalytical method. Both children's and adults' ERS were coded.Children tended to be readily distracted when interacting with adults, and more particularly so with their parents. While they tended to display relatively normative processes with a foster carer, they turned to pathological avoidance mechanisms with their parents such as physical venting or self-stimulation. Interactions during structured tasks showed a significant reduction in distraction processes.This study highlights the prevalence of distraction behavior in foster children during their interactions with caregivers, and offers an insight into how structured interactions provide a framework that mitigates children's avoidance behaviors and so enhances adult-child collaboration.

Introduction Even though episodic memory is impaired in schizophrenia, semantic processing strategies can improve patients’ performance. However, it is less clear if negative schizophrenia patients can benefit from semantic strategies, and if both familiarity and recollection processes can be enhanced in patients with schizophrenia. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility for negative schizophrenia patients to enhance their familiarity and/or recollection processes in the presence of concrete images. Method A recognition memory task using concrete versus abstract images as stimuli was designed to assess the performance of schizophrenia patients for single item recognition and the recollection of spatial context, allowing us to calculate the estimates of familiarity and recollection processes. Thirty-six patients with schizophrenia and 18 healthy individuals participated to the study. Schizophrenia patients were divided into two groups according to their scores on the negative scale of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for Schizophrenia (PANSS). Results Results showed that, while healthy participants enhanced their recollection estimates in the presence of concrete images, both schizophrenia groups could enhance their familiarity estimates. Conclusion Semantic strategies are helpful to promote successful familiarity process in schizophrenia patients, independently from clinical dimension of negativity. However, recollection process seems not to respond to such strategies.

The objective of this electrophysiological study was to investigate the processing of semantic coherence during encoding in relation to episodic memory processes promoted at test, in schizophrenia patients, by using the N400 paradigm. Eighteen schizophrenia patients and 15 healthy participants undertook a recognition memory task. The stimuli consisted of pairs of words either semantically related or unrelated to a given category name (context). During encoding, both groups exhibited an N400 external semantic coherence effect. Healthy controls also showed an N400 internal semantic coherence effect, but this effect was not present in patients. At test, related stimuli were accompanied by an FN400 old/new effect in both groups and by a parietal old/new effect in the control group alone. In the patient group, external semantic coherence effect was associated with FN400, while, in the control group, it was correlated to the parietal old/new effect. Our results indicate that schizophrenia patients can process the contextual information at encoding to enhance familiarity process for related stimuli at test. Therefore, cognitive rehabilitation therapies targeting the implementation of semantic encoding strategies can mobilize familiarity which in turn can overcome the recollection deficit, promoting successful episodic memory performance in schizophrenia patients.

Resume La prevalence du trouble de l’etat de stress post-traumatique (ESPT) parmi les populations refugiees victimes de torture et de traumatismes de guerre est une des plus elevees en psychotraumatologie. Cependant, parmi les etudes ayant permis de recommander la therapie comportementale et cognitive centree sur le trauma (TCC-CT) comme premiere ligne de traitement de l’ESPT, peu ont concerne cette population. Face a ce constat, l’objectif de cet article est de rechercher dans la litterature scientifique internationale l’existence de protocoles TCC-CT specifiquement adaptes a cette population et de determiner si leurs etudes d’evaluation soutiennent une efficacite therapeutique. Trois adaptations de la TCC-CT emergent depuis une dizaine d’annee : la Somatic Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, la Narrative Exposure Therapy et l’Interapy. Malgre le faible nombre d’etudes controlees et randomisees realisees pour evaluer ces approches et la presence de biais methodologiques dans celles existantes (faible taille d’echantillon, manque d’evaluation en double-insu, focalisation sur certaines communautes, etc.), les etudes montrent des resultats positifs et encourageants. D’autres etudes sont tout de meme necessaires pour confirmer ces resultats preliminaires et comparer l’efficacite therapeutique des differentes approches entre-elles.

Priming studies have revealed semantic processing abnormalities in subjects that display high schizotypal traits. The objective of the present study was to further elucidate the contribution of predictive (expectancy) and integrative (semantic matching) context processing to the semantic deficit described in schizotypy. Thirty-six participants were assigned into high or low schizotypy groups according to their score on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), and event-related brain potentials were recorded while these individuals performed semantic judgments based on asymmetrically associated word pairs. Viewed in one direction (forward), the target was highly predictable from the prime, whereas in the backward direction, the prime-to-target association was weak. It was assumed that the forward condition would be dependent on expectancy generation, while the backward condition would rely on semantic matching. In the low-SPQ group, forward and backward related words evoked a reduced (less negative) N400 amplitude compared to unrelated words, resulting in a significant forward and backward N400 priming effect, respectively. By contrast, only forward related words were facilitated in the high-SPQ group, resulting in significant forward priming and a lack of backward priming. Furthermore, the N400 amplitude for forward related words was less negative within the high-SPQ group in comparison to the low-SPQ group, which indicated easier semantic access to predictable words for high-SPQ individuals. Therefore, schizotypy may be associated with an imbalance in the use of predictive and integrative context processing strategies, namely preserved, if not over allocated, expectancy generation along with altered integration of unpredictable words due to semantic matching deficit.

Context processing abnormalities may explain thought disorder in schizophrenia/schizotypy. This study aimed to assess predictive and integrative context processing in subjects with high or low scores on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). The N400 amplitude was recorded during semantic judgment of sentence pairs ending with a lateralized expected or unexpected word from the same or a different category (related and unrelated violation). In both groups, the N400 amplitude was less negative for expected words versus unrelated violations, regardless of which hemisphere received the stimulus, and for related versus unrelated violations, but only for left-hemisphere stimuli. The N400 amplitude for unrelated violations was less negative in subjects with high SPQ scores for both hemispheres. These results indicate that subjects with schizotypal traits use context to predict or integrate congruent words, but fail to inhibit incongruent words.

Mentalizing deficits are a core manifestation of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. They contribute to the social handicap associated with the pathology, leading to disruption in autonomy, professional achievement, and interpersonal relationships. However, the underlying mechanisms of these deficits remain poorly understood. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that context processing deficits would be responsible for mentalizing difficulties in schizotypy (personality traits considered as attenuated manifestations of schizophrenic symptoms) by using an irony comprehension task. Irony processing is a mentalizing exercise that requires the ability to take into account the semantic context to understand the literal meaning of the utterance, and to integrate the pragmatic context to infer the speaker's intention. These two steps of processing can be indexed by the N400 and P600 components, respectively, of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Forty participants were assigned to high or low schizotypy groups according to their Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) score, and ERPs were recorded while they read short stories ending with a literal, ironic, or incompatible statement. In the low-SPQ group, there was a significant N400 semantic context effect (literal targets elicited less negative N400 amplitudes compared to incompatible targets) followed by a P600 pragmatic context effect (ironic targets evoked greater positive P600 amplitudes than literal targets). In contrast, there was neither a N400 nor P600 effect in the high-SPQ group. These abnormalities were associated with high interpersonal SPQ factor scores. These results show a strong association between context processing, mentalizing abilities, and interpersonal functioning in schizophrenia spectrum.

Cet article traite des therapeutiques heterodoxes dans le champ de la sante et rend compte de l’evolution du soin conventionnel dans le recours aux medecines complementaires et alternatives (MCA) chez les patients. Depuis plusieurs annees, dans les centres de soins se developpent de nombreuses pratiques non conventionnelles, communement nommees MCA. Ce constat repond a une demande grandissante des patients et interroge sur les benefices et les limites de ces pratiques complementaires dans le domaine de la medecine standard. Bien que la communaute scientifique oppose les therapeutiques conventionnelles et non conventionnelles, l’integration de ces dernieres dans le champ de la sante montre l’evolution du concept du soin et la meilleure prise en compte des aspects psychologiques des maladies somatiques. Cependant, le champ des MCA n’est pas structure, sans doute, parce qu’il s’agit d’un domaine de recherche recent et pluridisciplinaire. Les principaux resultats de la revue de la litterature seront articules avec le vecu des patients. Trente-deux patients atteints de cancer utilisant ou non les MCA ont ete rencontres. Une analyse des entretiens semi-directifs et du livret de questionnaires remis a chaque patient a ete effectuee. L’analyse du contenu des 32 entretiens semi-directifs repose sur les classes de discours definies par la methode de type Alceste (Iramuteq). Une liste de 24 MCA a ete proposee et repertoriee en cinq categories (MCA par le toucher, l’alimentation, pratiques spirituelles et/ou energetiques, pratiques psychologiques, nouvelles pratiques psychocorporelles). Sur les 32 patients, 22 utilisent les MCA, dont 8, de facon alternative. Ces pratiques temoignent de nouveaux besoins des patients comme la necessite d’integrer des valeurs personnelles dans leur trajectoire de soin, que ces valeurs soient de nature religieuse, spirituelle, intellectuelle, etc. Comprendre ce mouvement est essentiel afin de ne pas opposer deux modeles de soins au risque d’une rupture de l’alliance therapeutique, voire d’un abandon des traitements curatifs. Ainsi, il convient de ne pas oublier que le choc de la maladie et les repercussions des traitements rendent les personnes vulnerables. Elles sont alors plus en risque de se trouver prises dans une derive confinant a l’embrigadement sectaire et/ou a l’arret des traitements standard.

OBJECTIVE: Few studies have examined the impact of weight gain on body image disturbance (BID) in patients suffering from anorexia nervosa (AN). This study aims to explore the evolution of body distortion and body dissatisfaction following inpatient treatment. METHOD: Sixty-four women suffering from AN enrolled in our inpatient Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy programme and undertook a body image perception test and completed the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI). Thirty-four participants completed a total of four evaluations over a three-month period. RESULTS: Patients’ weight gain following treatment was significant. Weight regain was accompanied by significant reductions in both body distortion and body dissatisfaction. These reductions were complemented by improved scores for both EDI Drive for Thinness and Body Dissatisfaction. Perceived body image differed significantly between the onset and the completion of inpatient treatment whereas ideal body image did not. DISCUSSION: The high severity of the included patients and the significant attrition rate should limit our conclusions for a subgroup of patients. New approaches are needed to facilitate changes in the way patients assess their ideal body image.

Cette etude qualitative de type clinique porte sur l’impact de la prise en charge psychologique de deux patients atteints de cancer dans les etapes de la remission et de la recidive. Il s’agit ici, pour une stagiaire-psychologue, de « s’immiscer » dans la relation deja instauree d’un patient avec son psychologue et de mettre en exergue les difficultes methodologiques liees au statut de psychologue stagiaire. Le premier cas (contexte de remission) va illustrer le vecu psychologique, la tentative de « mise a distance » de la maladie et la « relation asymetrique » vis-a-vis du psychologue stagiaire. Le second cas (contexte de recidive) decrit « le deni » comme un mecanisme de defense presque necessaire au patient pour maintenir une stabilite interne et la difficulte, voire l’impossibilite a etablir un « lien » patient-psychologue-stagiaire. La relation patient-psychologue est discutee en lien avec l’intervention d’une stagiaire psychologue.

Les avancees medicales et psychosociales dans la prise en charge de la schizophrenie ainsi que la place grandissante accordee aux mouvements d’usagers ont profondement modifie les conceptions evolutives du trouble schizophrenique. La notion de retablissement en constitue le paradigme le plus recent. Nous proposons de developper une reflexion theoricoclinique autour de la conception processuelle du retablissement qui met en lumiere, au travers d’etudes qualitatives, le vecu subjectif de la maladie et de son evolution. Nous tentons de degager une meilleure comprehension des processus de remaniements identitaires propres au retablissement dans la schizophrenie. Nous en declinons deux modalites : le rapport au trouble et le rapport a soi que nous illustrons par les propos de patients issus d’entretiens cliniques. Enfin, nous envisageons les implications cliniques de ces elements de comprehension.

Resume Les notions de remission et de retablissement dans le champ de la schizophrenie semblent renvoyer a deux formes d’evolution favorable du trouble : l’une psychiatrique, l’autre davantage psychologique. Au sein de cet article, nous souhaitons mieux comprendre et caracteriser les liens entre ces continuums evolutifs. Nous presentons ainsi le discours de deux sujets atteints de schizophrenie, presentant des profils cliniques differents du point de vue de la remission symptomatique et fonctionnelle. Nos resultats mettent en evidence un rapport au trouble different chez ces deux patients, renvoyant au processus de retablissement. Cette evolution psychologique apparait relativement independante du critere psychiatrique de la remission symptomatique. Au regard de notre analyse qualitative, les etapes du processus de « retablissement du moi » peuvent se decliner en la reconnaissance de la maladie, d’une part, et l’integration de son vecu experientiel a la personnalite, d’autre part.

Resume L’objectif de cette etude etait de tester l’impact du deficit contextuel sur l’activation et la mise a jour de la representation des etats mentaux d’autrui dans la schizophrenie. Dix-sept participants atteints de schizophrenie et 17 participants temoins ont complete une tâche de comprehension comprenant 72 histoires se terminant par une phrase litterale ou ironique en fonction du contexte. Chaque histoire etait suivie d’une question portant sur le contenu factuel ou sur l’etat mental du personnage. Les analyses ont montre que les performances des participants atteints de schizophrenie aux questions mentales portant sur des histoires litterales etaient comparables a celles des participants temoins, indiquant qu’ils etaient capables d’utiliser le contexte pour activer une representation coherente des etats mentaux d’autrui. Cependant, les participants atteints de schizophrenie faisaient plus d’erreurs que les participants temoins aux questions mentales portant sur des histoires ironiques, traduisant des difficultes dans les situations ambigues dans lesquelles un retour au contexte est necessaire pour mettre a jour l’etat mental represente. Ces resultats designent les processus de contextualisation retroactifs comme une cible pour la remediation cognitive.

Le but de cet article est d'evaluer la vivacite des images mentales sur trois populations differentes : un groupe d'etudiants/es (n = 48), un groupe d'experts en techniques reposant sur la modification des etats de conscience (n = 24) et un groupe de danseurs/euses contemporains (n = 24). Il montre que le groupe d'experts utilisant les images mentales dans un etat de vigilance basse a des scores de vivacite avec les yeux ouverts plus eleves que le groupe d'etudiants. La vivacite des images mentales pourrait representer un trait cognitif qui permettrait de diminuer l'influence exteroceptive, favoriser une plus grande flexibilite mentale et faciliter l'integration des suggestions hypnotiques. Une traduction et une adaptation francaise du questionnaire, le VVIQ [Br. J. Psychol. 64 (1973) 17–24], a ete necessaire pour notre etude, le VVIQ etant un questionnaire tres utilise, voire incontournable en psychologie cognitive et en psychopathologie clinique dans l'evaluation de la vivacite des images mentales. © 2008 Societe francaise de psychologie. Publie par Elsevier Masson SAS. Tous droits reserves. Abstract The aim of this article is to evaluate the vividness of visual imagery from three different sample groups: a contemporary dance group (n = 24), a group of modified state of consciousness experts (n = 24) and a group of students (n = 48). We argue that the mental imagery activity into low vigilance level and into a modified state of consciousness has a closed link mechanism with vividness of visual imagery. We show that the modified state of consciousness experts reached a significantly higher level of vividness open-eyes score than the group of students. This could mean that higher open-eyes score is a cognitive trait of hypnotic susceptibility linked to specific training. These results stem from research into the close relationship between imagery and perception. We present a French adaptation and a French translation of Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire, too. The VVIQ [Br. J. Psychol. 64 (1973) 17–24] is a questionnaire very used in clinical psychology and in cognitive psychology.

Cette étude présente une nouvelle méthode pour analyser les discours des psychothérapeutes. Construite à partir d’une connaissance formelle des processus langagiers, l’analyse linguistico-pragmatique se démarque des méthodes d’analyses traditionnelles qui se centrent sur les contenus. L’analyse linguistico-pragmatique des états mentaux dans le discours des psychothérapeutes est un exemple d’application de cette méthode d’analyse. Elle permet d’identifier et de dénombrer les indices langagiers renvoyant à l’expression verbale des états mentaux. Cette méthode a été appliquée à 32 retranscriptions d’entretien (16 entretiens thérapeutiques et 16 entretiens de recherche). Les résultats ont montré que les psychothérapeutes utilisent davantage d’indices langagiers d’états mentaux que les chercheurs et qu’ils font référence à tous les types d’états mentaux. Les psychothérapeutes Centrés sur la Personne ont plus recours aux indices langagiers d’impression-sensation; et les thérapeutes d’inspiration psychanalytique à ceux d’émotion. Ces résultats invitent à poursuivre l’investigation des discours thérapeutiques à l’aide de l’analyse linguistico-pragmatique.

Resume Cette etude methodologique vise a identifier et valider des indicateurs de la conscience reflexive du psychotherapeute. Les indicateurs langagiers ont ete construits a partir des manuels de grilles d'analyse existantes (la grille d'analyse du contre-transfert, la grille d'elaboration verbale de l'affect et l'experiencing scale) et grâce a un modele linguisticopragmatique des etats mentaux dans le discours. Une etude empirique portant sur 1762 propositions cotees avec les trois grilles et les indicateurs langagiers a permis de confirmer la validite de ces indicateurs. Comme attendu, les propositions cotees reflexives par les grilles sont caracterisees par la presence d'indicateurs langagiers. Cette methode d'analyse linguistique de type indicateurs langagiers s'avere donc concluante. Elle est presentee comme une alternative aux grilles d'analyse de contenu habituelles. Elle permet d'accroitre les qualites metrologiques des instruments fondes sur le langage en ameliorant, en particulier, la fiabilite de la cotation.

Resume Dans cette etude, nous nous sommes interesses a la coherence textuelle des discours delirants. Nous avons procede a deux experimentations en utilisant des entretiens cliniques de type diagnostique realises avec trois groupes de patients (schizophrenes, paranoiaques et sujets presentant divers troubles delirants). Dans la premiere experimentation, nous avons compare les corpus non delirants aux corpus delirants chez un meme patient et nous avons etudie si les phases delirantes de son discours montraient une coherence textuelle plus importante ou moins importante que la coherence textuelle des phases non delirantes. Cette premiere experimentation nous a montre que les phases delirantes pouvaient apparaitre comme davantage coherentes que les phases non delirantes. Dans la seconde experimentation, nous avons analyse les conditions d’usage d’un marqueur de coherence textuelle qui est apparu comme particulierement saillant en phase delirante : le pronom relatif. Les resultats ont montre que le pronom relatif semble apparaitre comme un marqueur de construction delirante dans sa fonction d’attribution de propriete des objets indefinis.

Schizophrenia is associated with severe episodic retrieval impairment. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility that schizophrenia patients could improve their familiarity and/or recollection processes by manipulating the semantic coherence of to-be-learned stimuli and using deep encoding. Twelve schizophrenia patients and 12 healthy controls of comparable age, gender, and educational level undertook an associative recognition memory task. The stimuli consisted of pairs of words that were either related or unrelated to a given semantic category. The process dissociation procedure was used to calculate the estimates of familiarity and recollection processes. Both groups showed enhanced memory performances for semantically related words. However, in healthy controls, semantic relatedness led to enhanced recollection, while in schizophrenia patients, it induced enhanced familiarity. The familiarity estimates for related words were comparable in both groups, indicating that familiarity could be used as a compensatory mechanism in schizophrenia patients.

Context processing abnormalities may explain thought disorder in schizophrenia/schizotypy. This study aimed to assess predictive and integrative context processing in subjects with high or low scores on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). The N400 amplitude was recorded during semantic judgment of sentence pairs ending with a lateralized expected or unexpected word from the same or a different category (related and unrelated violation). In both groups, the N400 amplitude was less negative for expected words versus unrelated violations, regardless of which hemisphere received the stimulus, and for related versus unrelated violations, but only for left-hemisphere stimuli. The N400 amplitude for unrelated violations was less negative in subjects with high SPQ scores for both hemispheres. These results indicate that subjects with schizotypal traits use context to predict or integrate congruent words, but fail to inhibit incongruent words.

We assessed whether re-nutrition and weight gain have an influence on comorbid depression and anxiety in patients hospitalised for chronic eating disorders (ED). Seventy-five inpatients agreed to participate by completing the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT- 40), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-13), and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y) before, during and after three months of treatment. Patients suffering from either anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa successfully regained weight during treatment. This weight gain was accompanied by statistically significant reductions in ED symptoms. Anxiety and, to a lesser extent, depressive symptoms diminished, but remained at pathological levels, with between diagnostic subtype differences. Improvement of depressive (r=0.77) and anxiety (r=0.64) levels were significantly (p

This study investigates the effect of the environment factor on discourse mode and content in an interview situation. Fifteen eight-year-olds were interviewed in three specific and different locations in their school (classroom, doctor's office and playground) that formed the three experimental groups. Analysis of the interview data (propositional discourse analysis) shows that each experimental group produced a specific type of speech characterized by the occurrence of particular language markers.

International audience; Abstract: During hypnosis, the authors tested repeated weight-related,literal and metaphorical suggestions about the heaviness ofthe subjects’ arms. The purpose was to determine if linguisticallyvaried hypnotic suggestions produced significantly different motorreactions—involuntary pressure forces of the forearms—as assessedby a linguistic biomechanical system. Classic, literal (L) suggestionssuch as “your right arm is heavy” were used, as well as metaphorical(M) suggestions, such as “your right arm is made of lead.” Aspecific effect on the progressive increase of pressure forces only inthe temporal sequence L-M for each forearm (literal suggestions followedby metaphorical suggestions) was found. This effect, termedcrescendo image metaphor effect, conceptualized within context-limitedsimulation theory, explains the findings.

International audience

Thought and language disorders in schizophrenia and schizotypy are thought to result from hemispheric dysfunction during semantic processing. Left hemisphere (LH) abnormalities are well established, but little is known about right hemisphere (RH) semantic processes. We explored hemispheric processing in 50 healthy volunteers assigned to high (h-SZT) or low schizotypy (l-SZT) group using the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Subjects were asked to make semantic judgments on sentence pair ending with a target that was either expected word (EW) or an unexpected word from the same (related violation, RV) or a different category (unrelated violation, URV). Targets were presented in a dichotic manner to the left or right ear. Analyses of reaction times in the l-SZT group showed semantic compatibility effect (URV-EW) in the LH and semantic memory activation effect (RV-URV) as well as semantic compatibility effect in the RH. The h-SZT group showed semantic memory activation but no semantic compatibility effect in the LH, the RH pattern resembling that of the l-SZT group. The magnitude of the LH semantic compatibility effect was inversely correlated with SPQ total scores and SPQ Cognitive-perceptual factor. Thus, RH semantic processes are effective and there is a deficit in LH focused activation in schizotypy.

International audience

Resume L’auteur discute le role de Daniel Widlocher dans les debats sur l’unite de la psychologie. Il souligne son action constante pour maintenir cette unite, en depit des chapelles et des obediences. A travers des exemples tels l’empathie ou differentes sortes de memoire, il montre l’exigence de Daniel Widlocher pour developper une approche comprehensive et scientifique de l’experience psychanalytique.

In order to examine the nature of body image distortions, we studied their perceptual and idealised components using a video distortion technique to create photographs of dancers, anorexics and controls that made their bodies look larger. Each subject was then asked to adjust the photograph until it reflected her estimated and desired body size. The results show that: 1) all three groups perceived themselves to be heavier than they actually are, but the dancers had a more realistic perception of their body weight; 2) the dancers would have liked to be thinner, whereas the controls and anorexics were satisfied with their body weight; 3) the scores of the anorexic subjects were characterised by a lack of correlation between their perceptual and idealised distortions, whereas those of the dancers — and even more so those of the controls — were characterised by consistency between the two types of distortion.

International audience