Internal Representations Of Self Research Articles

A re-introduction of the psychodynamic approach to the standard clinical psychology curriculum.

There is a strong evidence-base for a psychodynamic approach, supporting primary theoretical tenets as well as the treatment effectiveness. Additionally, there are increasing calls from the field for more individualized treatment for clients, and the lack of training in multiple orientations limits the ability of students in clinical psychology Ph.D. programs in the United States to personalize their treatments. The accumulated evidence-base for contemporary relational psychodynamic theory and therapy places it in good standing to return to the standard clinical psychology curriculum, along with other evidence-based approaches. We use data from the Insider's Guide (which describes clinical Ph.D. programs in the United States) from three time points over 20 years to document the waning psychodynamic approach in clinical psychology programs. We review the scientific evidence for four primary tenets of a contemporary psychodynamic approach: three related to development-from healthy to psychopathological: (1) unconscious processes; (2) internal representations of self and other; (3) dimensional model of psychopathology, and a fourth tenet that builds on these three and is the foundation for a contemporary psychodynamic approach to psychotherapy: (4) therapeutic relationship as a primary mechanism of change. Based on the review of the evidence, we make specific recommendations for clinical psychology training programs about how to include a psychodynamic approach in the curriculum.

Object relations predicts borderline personality disorder symptoms beyond emotional dysregulation, negative affect, and impulsivity.

Many studies have determined that the traits of emotional dysregulation, negative affect, and impulsivity are the strongest predictors of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although psychodynamic, empirically supported BPD treatments (i.e., transference-focused, mentalization based) focus upon changing the internal representations of self and other, no studies have simultaneously evaluated the contribution of object relations in relation to these traits in predicting BPD symptoms. This study sought to determine the combined effects of emotional dysregulation, negative affect, impulsivity, and object relations in the prediction of BPD through the use of mediation modeling in 4 a priori hypothesized relationships among these variables. One hundred sixty-nine psychiatric outpatients and 171 undergraduate students were evaluated with self-reported trait and object relations measures and were administered 2 semistructured diagnostic interviews for BPD. Although all trait and object relations measures were correlated with BPD symptoms, the best fitting model was one in which object relations partially mediated the relationship of negative affect and impulsivity with BPD symptoms. Direct effects of the traits were also observed in mediation. Self-reported object relational quality had more of an effect on the prediction of BPD than previously recognized within a trait-framework, thus further supporting the model explicated in psychodynamic and relationally based treatments for BPD. (PsycINFO Database Record

Changing Internal Representations of Self and Other: Philosophical Tools for the Attachment-Informed Psychotherapy with Perpetrators and Victims of Violence.

Attachment research shows that the formation of unconscious, insecure representations of the self, the other, and the self-other relations is linked to perpetration and receipt of violence. Attachment-focused therapy aims to change these internal schemata to more secure, adaptive representations by therapeutic work addressed to senses, emotions, and behavior. The paper proposes a new approach to altering the self and other representations in offenders and victims: it involves intellectual reflection on self, will, action and responsibility informed by Augustine's views, facilitated by actual relational experience, and translated into a distinct self-soothing strategy. The reflective-experiential approach can complement existing methods of working with violent or traumatized individuals both within and outside an attachment theory framework. It consists in: identifying that a non-reflective nondistinction between self and behavior supports damaging self- and other- representations and interactions; proposing ways for clients to comprehend and consciously operate with the distinction between self and action.

Intersubjectivity and the Knowing of Inner Experience

This article demonstrates the synthesis of phenomenological hermeneutics and psychoanalytic case study research and proposes such a methodology as well suited for a study exploring unconscious/representational processes and internal representations of self and other. This is considered in relation to the dialectic of the dual position of psychoanalytic psychotherapist and qualitative researcher. The article emphasizes what I suggest are evident and helpful parallels between the investigative/research process and the psychoanalytic disposition, in terms of the relationship between these two. The role of the body as intersubjectively present is considered, attending to the embodied qualities of the investigative process. Crucial ethical concerns are raised through the consideration of this dialectic, which are discussed in the final part of the article. The ethical issues raised relate specifically to research into experiences of suffering, bearing in mind the condition of psychological safety which the researcher needs to cultivate.

The Persecuting God and the Crucified Self: The Case of Olav and the Transformation of His Pathological Self-Image

This case study describes the treatment of "Olav," a divorced lawyer in his mid-30's, who, at the time of treatment, had been continuously hospitalized in closed, short-term psychiatric wards for more than seven years with severe treatment-resistant depression, transient psychotic episodes, self-destructive behavior, and suicide attempts. He was about to be admitted to a long-term ward for chronic schizophrenics. A great deal of his psychopathology revolved around his feeling tortured from condemning inner voices of what he called "the Committee" that he believed were the sacred voices of God. The present case study describes Olav's treatment in our institution's "VITA" unit, a 12-week, group-based, residential day-treatment program that explicitly focuses on existential and religious issues. The VITA program includes diary-writing, affect consciousness, and regular group sessions consisting of such activities as mindfulness training; art therapy focusing on drawing or painting internal representations of self, father, mother and God; multiple group experiences; and reflection on existential issues. A standard assessment battery documents Olav's dramatic improvement over the course of treatment and at one-year follow-up.

Supportive expressive therapy--Parent child version: An exploratory study.

Currently, there are no empirically supported psychodynamic treatments for disruptive behavior in young children. Supportive Expressive Therapy--Parent Child (SET-PC) is a newly developed brief psychodynamic psychotherapy that focuses on a parent's internal representations of self and others, particularly as they manifest in problematic parent-child relationships. It is a manualized dyadic therapy that uses videotaped parent-child play sessions followed by parent-therapist discussions. This exploratory study is the first randomized controlled study of SETPC. SET-PC was compared with the Incredible Years Parenting Program (IYPP; Webster-Stratton, 2001), an empirically supported group parent training intervention for child disruptive behavior. Treatment completers were 37 consecutive referrals of parent- child dyads (children ages 30-72 months) to an outpatient psychiatry clinic. SET-PC produced treatment outcomes that were equivalent to IYPP. Both treatments were associated with large effect sizes for decreases in externalizing behavior and for the positive quality of observed parent- child interactions and small effect sizes for improvements in parents' psychological functioning. Treatment gains were maintained at 1-year follow-up regardless of treatment condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Young children traumatized by organized violence together with their mothers – The critical effects of damaged internal representations

Three examples of young Kosovar children who were exposed to brutal violence together with their mothers are presented to illustrate how important it is to understand the impact of traumatic events on young children's development from the perspective of the parent – child relationship. The traumatized mothers' internal representations of self and self-being-together-with-child were damaged, and this in turn led to their care-giving system and internal representations of the children being negatively affected. No longer being able to see themselves as protective and loving parents, the mothers were unable to respond to their children with care-giving behaviour. The traumatized children's increased attachment behaviour and posttraumatic symptoms functioned as a trigger for posttraumatic symptoms in the mothers and contributed to a disengagement of the care-giving system. The on-going process disrupted the previous attachment pattern in mother – child interaction and a disorganized attachment pattern developed.

Personality, Shame, and the Breakdown of Social Bonds: The Voice of Quantitative Depression Research

Scheff's argument (2001), whereby shame and the breakdown of social ties are causality implicated in depression, has potential to inform quantitative research on depression, particularly research focused on determinants of personality vulnerability. In the present article, I relate Scheff's argument to more than two and a half decades of theory and research on the interpersonal nature of depression, and on personality vulnerability to depression. The focus of this review is on the personality theories of Blatt (1974) and Beck (1983), in which an introjective/self-critical/autonomous personality dimension and an anaclitic/dependent/sociotropic personality dimension are each conceptualized as a marker of vulnerability. Reviewing empirical research on these two dimensions, I then point out a certain puzzle emerging from previous findings: The introjective personality dimension appears to confer considerably more vulnerability than the anaclitic personality dimension. An attempt is made to reconcile this puzzle by drawing from Scheff's discussion of shame, as well as from psychosocial research on internal representations of self and others (Blatt, Auerbach, and Levy 1997), and from sociological work on the depressogenic conditions of modernity (Giddens 1991; Seligman 1990).

Factors influencing maltreated children's early adjustment in foster care.

Internal representations of self and primary attachment figures may be one mechanism by which maltreatment affects children's interpersonal behavior and relationships with others. Research on the continuity and influence of maltreated children's attachment representations, however, has not included youngsters removed from abusive or neglectful home environments. This paper examines the influence of maltreated children's maternal and self-representations on subsequent relationships with foster mothers and behavioral adjustment in foster care. Participants included 32 children, ages 9-13 years, who entered foster placement for the first time after a sustained relationship with a maltreating biological mother. Upon initially entering foster care, children's maternal and self-representations were significantly related to each other and to severity of maltreatment history but not to other factors believed to influence the quality of parent-child relationship (e.g., maternal mental health, partner stability). In addition, these representations significantly predicted children's subsequent views of their relationships with foster mothers. Finally, children's behavior in their foster homes was associated with maltreatment severity, internal representations assessed at entry into foster care, and to concurrent perceptions of their new foster mothers. These findings advance our understanding of foster placement's role in maltreated children's development and provide preliminary insight into the processes associated with the formation of potentially compensatory relationships.

Internal Representations: Predicting Anxiety From Children's Play Narratives

This research uses children's story-stem play narratives to examine whether certain specified internal representations of self and experiences will predict later childhood anxiety. Thirty-five nonclinical children were studied from 5 to 6 years of age. Narratives of the 5-year-old children were coded for negative expectations of self, others, and experiences. Parents and teachers completed the Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher's Report Form when the children were 5 and 6 years of age. Mothers completed the anxiety section of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children when the children were 6 years of age. Parental anxiety and child temperament were also measured. Five-year-old child negative expectations significantly predicted mother/father/teacher reports of internalizing and anxiety symptoms and mother reports of separation anxiety, overanxious, and social phobia/avoidant disorder symptoms in the children at 6 years of age, even when anxiety and internalizing symptoms at 5 years of age were entered first in the regression equations. Child negative expectations predicted later anxiety in these analyses better than parental anxiety and child temperament. Child negative expectations may be a risk factor or a mechanism for the development of later anxiety. Children's narratives may be useful for examining such representations and identifying children at risk.