Implications For Psychotherapy Research Articles

Relationship patterns of never-married men and their implications for psychotherapy.

Relationship patterns of never-married men and their implications for psychotherapy.

Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel: Historical images of Black women and their implications for psychotherapy.

Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel: Historical images of Black women and their implications for psychotherapy.

If a Self Is a Narrative: Social Constructionism in the Clinic

Abstract The articles in this special issue indicate that the self is best understood not as an empirical and transhistorical entity, but as a narrative, inextricable from its location in history and culture. This view has significant implications for psy-chotherapy. It suggests that therapy is a moral discourse, that its claim to authority is better understood as ideological than as scientific. But because it generally takes a reificationist stance on such matters as emotions, therapy is currently ill-equipped to take account of the self as a social construction and of itself as a moral practice. (Clinical Psychology)

Reviewing Frankl's Will to meaning and its implications for psychotherapy dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Recent research has shown that people who have gone through war experiences in one way or the other tend to manifest reactions classified as post-traumatic stress disorder. Viktor Frankl, the founder of logotherapy, manifested PTSD reactions when he was in a concentration camp. This paper attempts to sketch how he lived through his traumatic experiences by relying on the principle of Will to Meaning as his survival mechanism. Two implications will be outlined derived from this principle for psychotherapies dealing with disaster survivors.

Treating the Catholic patient: Unique dynamics and implications for psychotherapy

The Catholic patient presents a unique challenge to the therapist because of the special psychological dynamics they present. Issues such as shame, guilt, masochism, anger, sex, and magical thinking, take on a unique significance when applied to Catholic patients. These issues are a constant struggle for the Catholic because they represent “mortal sins.” Committing these sins will result, in the patient's mind, in spending an eternity in the tortures of Hell unless they can be erased by confession and appropriate penance. The therapist must actively work to “exorcise” this punitive superego in a way that may differ from psychotherapy with other patients.

Attachment theory and its implications for psychotherapy with maltreated children

The implications of attachment theory for clinical work with maltreated children are examined with particular emphasis upon the therapeutic relationship. Psychological and behavioral problems related to an insecure attachment often emerge in the relationship between the child and therapist. The clinician can intervene in the context of the relationship to enable the child to modify negative and pessimistic beliefs and expectations of others and of the self. The article describes a number of therapeutic strategies, as well as other issues relevant to therapists who utilize this theoretical and clinical orientation in their work with this population. A focus upon the therapeutic relationship is just one component of an overall plan to help abused children remediate some of their significant problems.

Southeast Asian Refugee Adolescents: Implications for Counseling

Historically, unaccompanied Southeast Asian refugee adolescents have been inadequately served by mental health professionals. The authors of this article report research findings on self‐perceived depression and isolation and implications for psychotherapy. Results indicate significant differences regarding sex, English language skills, work involvement, and self‐disclosure.

Relationship patterns of never-married men and their implications for psychotherapy.

Relationship patterns of never-married men and their implications for psychotherapy.

A thematic analysis of the addictive experience: Implications for psychotherapy.

A thematic analysis of the addictive experience: Implications for psychotherapy.

An appraisal of constructivist psychotherapies.

Predicated on a postmodern epistemology, constructivist theories emphasize the proactive, self-organizing features of human knowing and their implications for psychotherapy. This article outlines the potential contributions of 4 clinical lineages sharing a constructivist philosophy--personal construct theory, structural--developmental cognitive therapy, narrative reconstruction, and constructivist family therapy--and briefly reviews emerging trends in psychotherapy research compatible with this perspective. Although current constructivist approaches confront problems as well as prospects, they represent a growing force within psychotherapy, contributing to the sophistication of psychological theory, the diversification of clinical research, and the extension of therapeutic technique.

Symmetry and Complementarity: Implications for Psychotherapy and Couple Counseling

Explicates and speculates on the notions of symmetry and complementarity as developed by Gregory Bateson; and illustrates through case examples their relevance for understanding couple interactions, religious stances, and for the doing of psychotherapy.

Self-rated inhibited anger, somatization and depression.

In order to examine the relationship of self-rated inhibited anger to somatization, the authors administered several self-rating scales, including the SCL-90 and a Likert scale pertaining to inhibited anger, to psychiatric patients and family practice patients of both sexes. In a linear stepwise regression, depression predicted inhibited anger in all four groups. Previous studies have reported an association of inhibited anger and somatization; the present study suggests that depression is the link between the two in the majority of patients. The relationship of inhibited anger to depression may have implications for psychotherapy.

The feminization of psychology: Implications for psychotherapy.

The feminization of psychology: Implications for psychotherapy.

Psychiatry without walls: Some psychotherapeutic reflections

SUMMARY Community care, despite its many benefits, can result in fragmentation and confusion. Bion's and Bowlby's notions of containment and attachment are applied to the difficulties inherent in trying to practise psychotherapeutic psychiatry in a community setting. The treatment of a ‘difficult’ patient, which ended in suicide, is described. The implications for psychotherapy of the new arrangements in the National Health Service are discussed. Psychotherapeutic supervision for all mental health workers is essential if community care is to become effective, and this needs to be recognised by the development of adequately funded psychotherapy services.

Acknowledging the wind and a child's unconscious: Creative therapy with trance experience

The wind has been the subject of fascination throughout the ages, yet little has been written about its implications for psychotherapy. The myth of the wind sack bound by a cord in order to control it is inherent in many mythologies of the world from Scandinavia to Africa (Stromberg, 1950). In some cultures the wind is seen as the spirit, as the vital breath of the universe (Cirlot, 1971). Furthermore, the wind is frequently credited with the power to sustain and regenerate life, to hold it together. Navajo cultures and philosophy emphasize the archetypal significance of the wind. In fact, they say that “a thought, whether for good or ill, never occurs without cause, a Wind is always behind it” (McNeeley, 1981, p. 29). In Navajo tradition, the wind is seen as being sent by the Holy One to provide guidance and instruction, to influence human thought and conduct. “Mother Earth” speaks of four winds that affect life, but it is the one from the East (the right) that is the teacher, directing life, passing on warnings and advice. According to Navajo philosophy, when life is formed the East wind is already inside the mother connecting her to the unborn child. This conception of the regulatory function of the wind is similar, perhaps, to Jung’s (1969) idea of the self-regulatory function of the unconscious. The spirit and force of the wind can be projected in drawings. It has long been known that artwork is a very powerful reflection of the inner representation of psychological experience, and that personal drawings can access memories from the unconscious. Jung saw pictures as a projection of the psyche, and Furth (1988) has discussed the importance of using drawings psychotherapeutically. Analytically, the wind should be understood in drawings as a projection of forces that affect one’s life. The major projections of self and inner world feelings are drawings of houses and trees. Buck (1977) suggested that drawings of houses depicting movement are reflective of “collapse of the ego under the assaults of extra-personal or intra-personal pressure, or both.” He further stated that when “wind is blowing from page-right to page-left, it is presumed that the S views the future pessimistically,” and that when the house is depicted in motion, as tilting, it is pathological (p. 118). Hammer (1958) as well as Buck suggested that when it is obvious that a strong wind is placing force on trees the person is subjected to extreme environmental pressures, while still trying to maintain balance. Thus, the literature culturally, analytically, and psychologically supports the notion that the wind is reflective of forces that affect one’s life, Therefore, drawings from someone suffering from anemophobia (literally the fear of the wind) should project these forces. It is also important to further develop the significance of the cord that binds the wind. The rope is often seen symbolically as the umbilical cord and, as such, it has special significance as it reflects the mechanism by which one attaches to mother. It is this

Wildest dreams: Aspiration, identification, and symbol-formation in depressed children

Summary This paper explores some technical and theoretical implications of psychotherapy with deprived and severely depressed children. Phantasies about the future, and dreams of nobility, are seen to play a vitalising part in normal development. Grandiose lies may be similar to, but far more tentative and communicative than, the declarative communications of the manic child. The phantasies may sometimes need to emerge first in the mind of the therapist through a process which may be termed ‘anticipatory identification’. The need for a grammar of such communicative identification processes is discussed; so also are implications for processes of symbol-formation.

Capitation payment systems and public mental health care: Implications for psychotherapy with the seriously mentally ill.

The evolution, rationale, and implications of capitation payment systems in public mental health are discussed. These systems will unify the clinical, administrative, and fiscal structures of state and community mental health providers. Psychotherapeutic practice may shift to more action-oriented, problem-focused, brief and crisis interventions. The diminishing prospects for long-term intensive psychotherapy and the need to demonstrate its clinical efficacy and economic feasibility are discussed.

Cultural Patterns and the Family System in Asian Indians: Implications for Psychotherapy

Cultural Patterns and the Family System in Asian Indians: Implications for Psychotherapy

A Therapeutic Conceptualization of Adult Children of Alcoholics

This study revealed that problem drinking and an elevated need to control hinder college student ACoAs more than their non-ACoA peers. A multivariate analysis, using the Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (MAST) and Ego Grasping Orientation (EGO) as measures of the dependent variables of problem drinking and control, was used with a college freshman sample. Based on the results, routine problem drinking assessment of ACoAs by student services personnel was suggested. The manifestation of an elevated need to control was thought to range from the popular ACoA styles to the personality disorders. A method for determining an ACoA's place in this range, as well as the implications for psychotherapy, was outlined.

Internal conflict, language, and metaphor: Implications for psychotherapy

The term “conflict” has only metaphorical validity when applied to internal dynamics, because an organism can never actually be “at war with itself.” Drawing upon Maturana's theory of living systems, we argue that the concept of conflict has been taken too literally by therapists and clients. Instead of “eliminating conflict,” we urge therapists to focus on the interpersonal implications of language habits and to explore with clients the options for more effective action in the social community.