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The Self Under Siege: A Therapeutic Model for Differentiation
Abstract
An important addition to the area of personality development theory, The Self under Siege offers a new perspective on differentiation and the battle to separate ourselves from the chains of the past. It provides psychotherapists and other mental health professionals with the tools needed to help clients differentiate from the dysfunctional attitudes and toxic personality traits of their parents, other family members, and harmful societal influences that have unconsciously dominated their lives. This book will have a special appeal to clients and, in fact, to any person interested in his/her own personal development.
... Stern (2019) referred to patients with destructive early relational systems resulting from physical, psychological or sexual abuse, stating that they must separate from their internalized parents, and from their total relational environment. Firestone et al. (2013) admonished of the need for the patient to break with destructive fantasy bonds and parental introjects to facilitate individuation. Lebe (1997) referred to her patient's need to let go of a "punishing inner mother" (p. ...
... Many parents unintentionally hurt their children or are unattuned, despite their desire to be good parents. As Firestone et al. (2013) acknowledged, a certain amount of parental mis-attunement, failure to repair the ruptures, and "some degree of trauma" is inevitable even under the best of circumstances (p. 4). ...
An enduring state of self-criticism characterized by self-attack and feelings of worthlessness and shame has been conceptualized as an inner critic in the object relations literature. Fairbairnian object relations theory has described the inner critic as an internalized bad object often representative of an abusive or rejecting parental figure with treatment focused on helping the patient to separate from this internal bad object and the actual external object. We propose three alternative psychoanalytically oriented treatment approaches which might be more applicable for certain patients. The first is a self-psychological approach which aims to neutralize the inner critic by meeting the patient’s needs for mirroring and idealization. The second is an integrative relational approach which helps the patient to realize and accept both good and bad aspects of the bad object. The third is a modern psychological approach in which the therapist helps the patient to express their anger toward the bad object while maintaining the possibility of improving the actual relationship. Clinical case material is presented in support of these approaches.
... People with lower levels of DoS also have a more rigid attitude toward conveying their emotions (Nichols, 2013), which again may cause difficulty in demonstrating their love to others. Thus, on the basis of these theoretical assumptions, and call for further research on connecting BFST and Love Language model (Bland & McQueen, 2018;Firestone et al., 2013), we proposed that DoS can be closely related to love languages. Bowen (1978) states that higher DoS leads to better satisfaction from life and marriage, which is also supported by some other studies (Manzi et al., 2006;Peleg & Yitzhak, 2011). ...
... The current study can help inform family interventions by allowing us to test precursors and mediating relationships that operate on marital satisfaction. Thus, in response to call for further research on these constructs together (Bland & McQueen, 2018;Firestone et al., 2013), this study aims to increase empirical support for researchers interested in DoS and love language literature, and to offer a guide for family and relationship counselors in their practice. In the light of the literature mentioned above, our hypotheses are as follows: ...
The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of the components of love language on differentiation of self and marital satisfaction. The sample comprised of 161 Turkish married heterosexual couples. The Common Fate Model (CFM) analysis revealed that four of the five components of love language had a mediating role. Differentiation of self positively predicted marital satisfaction and indirectly affected marital satisfaction through physical touch, words of affirmation, quality time, and receiving gifts. The findings were discussed for family therapists and cross-cultural researchers aiming to promote better marital satisfaction based on differentiation of self and love language.
... In Lisa Firestone's book, co-authored by her father Dr. Robert Firestone and Joyce Catlett, 'The Self Under Siege: A Therapeutic Model for Differentiation' outlined that research on many groupsincluding soldiers, executives, athletes, and studentshave replicated findings: that hardiness predicts success, adaptive coping, and well-being. The outlook and coping approach of hardy individuals is consistent with the traits of a fully differentiated individual (Firestone, Firestone, & Catlett, 2013). ...
The article deals with the phenomenon of hardiness and its characteristics. The structural components of hardiness are identified as commitment, control, and challenge. It is analyzed that hardiness characterizes the ability of an individual to withstand a situation of acute or chronic stress, to maintain internal balance without reducing the success of activities. It is noted that hardiness can be considered as an analog of a person’s vitality, which reflects the degree to which he or she overcomes certain life circumstances. The purpose is to study the hardiness among Ukrainians as a holistic personal formation, which is due to the interaction of personal resources. The sample consisted of 110 people from Ukraine. The Maddi and Kobasa Hardiness Test was used to diagnose the hardiness. The results show that a high level of hardiness of Ukrainians is associated with an active attitude to life, self-acceptance, using circumstances to one’s advantage, evaluating life situations as consciously chosen, and interpreting stressful situations as an opportunity to gain new experience. It has been established that hardiness has little to do with a person’s age, i.e. the development of hardiness can occur throughout life, starting from childhood, with the help of flourishing personal resources. According to the level of hardiness, 43.6% of Ukrainians had a high level, 35.5% ‑ an average level, and 20.9% ‑ a low level. The peculiarities of developing hardiness and maintaining the optimal level of this resource for personal effectiveness are related to worldview, personal goals, self-acceptance, mental health and activity.
... ▪ Some originality, individuality, and independence from group opinions. Real self versus idealized pseudo-self (Horney, Rogers, Winnicott, as cited in DeRobertis, 2008), differentiated self versus emotional cutoff (Bowen, as cited in Firestone et al., 2013). ▪ Having achievable, realistic, and compatible goals that involve some good to society as well as reasonable persistence of effort to achieve them. ...
Following an overview of Maslow's theorizing on self-actualization (SA), this chapter surveys subsequent expansions of SA via incorporation of existential, transpersonal, and constructivist/postmodern theorizing. Today, SA has matured to explore cultural variations as well as co-actualization, an emerging construct in which SA is promoted and cultivated both by and in relationships. In addition, empirical research on and critiques of SA and co-actualization are reviewed, and their contemporary relevance is discussed. Throughout the chapter, misinformation about SA that commonly appears in textbooks and the professional literature is fact checked.
... Second, humanistic-existential theorizing is grounded in holistic and systemic conceptualization (Bland & DeRobertis, 2019) as an alternative to, as described by Joseph (2019), the linear, allopathic, and hedonistic assumptions of medicalized trauma treatment models built around symptom reduction. For example, Schneider (2008) proposed that nearly all clients' presenting issues could be traced to some form of unresolved trauma-which includes not only acute or chronic trauma directly experienced by clients but also implicit (i.e., intergenerational, inherited) trauma that impedes optimal functioning via one's inevitable involvement in toxic and stifling family (see also Firestone et al., 2013) and/or cultural (see also Schneider, 2013) dynamics. Thus, a primary task of therapy in general-but especially that focused on trauma-is to help clients assume and develop the role of a transitional character who serves to break vicious cycles of implicit trauma (Wolynn, 2016). ...
Review of Ilene Serlin, Stanley Krippner, and Kirwan Rockefeller's (2019) edited volume, Integrated Care for the Traumatized: A Whole-Person Approach.
... As implicated by Kegan (1982), experiaction in early infancy has an "adualistic" character, not in the sense of displaying a total inability to differentiate self from other, but in the sense that it operates outside the artificial antinomy of the inner and the outer that results when the connective bonding medium of living flesh is habitually covered over by the literal dividing boundary of the anatomical epidermis. Beginning with a highly embedded sense of experiactional organization, part-processes are increasingly differentiated (with varying degrees of rapidity and salience) and are then sooner or later reintegrated when conditions are ideal to form a more dynamically responsive world openness (see Bowen, 1978;Firestone, Firestone, & Catlett, 2013). As development unfolds, thus, one witnesses an evolving pattern wherein personal organization is repeatedly destabilized and then reorganized to create a more multifaceted style of integration, giving healthy human development the character of a diversifying connectivity. ...
Humanistic psychology has a long tradition of developmental thought. Yet, no place has been reserved for a specifically humanistic perspective in developmental psychology textbooks. This article presents a humanistic perspective to serve as a convenient guide for the potential creation of a textbook entry. A highly condensed account of Existential-Humanistic Self-Development Theory (EHSDT) is outlined and compared to the theories that most frequently garner coverage in developmental textbooks. Suggestions for further research on the major themes of EHSDT are also provided. These include the role of the imagination in shaping the trajectories of lifespan development, the inter-corporeal and multicultural embeddedness of the narrative imagination, the self-cultivation process, cooperative culture creation, thriving amid paradox, and the ways in which motivational dynamics operate within diverse social contexts. Carefully planned rollout of such research should help prevent further marginalization of explicitly humanistic developmental theory on the basis that it challenges some of the fundamental assumptions of the established theories and, accordingly, tends to be met with resistance or, at best, indifference.
... Creating big data-based applications that decrease the need for complex, logical thinking is reducing these abilities in humans, deepening dependencies upon technologies and lessening the ability to tackle crisis situations that applications do not address (Coopersmith, 2017;Firestone et al., 2012). Because technologies are making more decisions on our behalf, and because the algorithms behind them are indecipherable to us, the need for safeguards is vital (Kuang, 2017). ...
... Additional research (qualitative, quantitative, and/or mixed methods) is recommended to demonstrate the effectiveness of transformative processes associated with the employment of the LL model in therapeutic practice. Given the theoretical connections discussed above, particular emphasis should be given to applying the LL model in conjunction with humanistic-existential (see Meneses & Scuka, 2016) and Bowenian (see Firestone et al., 2013) approaches to couples' therapy. ...
Chapman identified and described Five Love Languages (LLs), principal value systems by which individuals communicate and anticipate expression of affection: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. Although Chapman’s model has become embraced by laypeople and helping professionals, it remains relatively underresearched. In this exploratory study, multivariate clustering procedures were used to identify profiles of combinations of LLs (as measured by Chapman’s Love Languages Personal Profile for Couples) in 100 couples. Emphasis was given not only to men’s and women’s primary LLs but also to differences between men and women within each couple as quantified by mean differences and Cohen’s d effect sizes thereof across the combination of all five LLs. In comparing the clustering variable means of the final cluster solution, it was found that the four profiles matched well and varied in a statistically significant manner. The relationship between the four-cluster solution and couples’ reported levels of global relational satisfaction (as measured by the Revised Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale) also was assessed. Although no significant differences were found in the distress profiles across the four clusters (likely due to insufficient variability based on a majority nondistressed sample), results did suggest
a trend whereby couples were less likely to report distress the more their combination of LL preferences was congruent. This study makes several methodological contributions to an emerging literature on the LLs, and the results provide a foundation for further research, particularly on how Chapman’s model contributes to understanding the relationships between intimate relationships, self-development, and self-expansion.
... Creating big data-based applications that decrease the need for complex, logical thinking is reducing these abilities in humans, deepening dependencies upon technologies and lessening the ability to tackle crisis situations that applications do not address (Coopersmith, 2017;Firestone et al., 2012). Because technologies are making more decisions on our behalf, and because the algorithms behind them are indecipherable to us, the need for safeguards is vital (Kuang, 2017). ...
The collection of data on citizens through digital portals is viewed by organizations as an opportunity to create value, leverage competitive advantage, and maximize productivity and efficiencies in service and product delivery. As a condition of accessing digital media, individuals implicitly agree to allow the collection of data they generate while on a site, as well as content on the devices used to access the sites, unless steps are taken to limit such access. The growth in the amount of data collected has increased exponentially and has vastly outpaced awareness of or concerns about privacy; liability; ownership; property rights; and ethical issues that are emerging as citizens become aware of the consequences of trading privacy for access. While dominant in the professional press, the scholarly literature has only just begun to investigate ethical issues in the age of big data. This treatise will outline the scope of the issues; emerging problems; key ethical considerations; and areas in critical need of research and development moving forward.
... (Prince & Howard, 2002, pp. 29-30) Thus, paradoxically, a strong sense of attachment early on facilitates appropriate levels of differentiation of self (Bowen, 1978;Firestone, Firestone, & Catlett, 2013) and autonomy (Erikson, 1959(Erikson, /1994)-all of which include mindful self-regulation and approaching unfamiliar situations with curiosity and interest rather than as threatening. Accordingly, they are conducive to self-sufficiency (comfort in one's skin and with one's own beliefs, attitudes, and preferences) and assertiveness (vs. ...
Few readily identify Maslow as a developmental psychologist. On the other hand, Maslow’s call for holistic/systemic, phenomenological, and dynamic/relational developmental perspectives in psychology (all being alternatives to the limitations of the dominant natural science paradigm) anticipated what emerged both as and in the subdiscipline of developmental psychology. In this article, we propose that Maslow’s dynamic systems approach to healthy human development served as a forerunner for classic and contemporary theory and research on parallel constructs in developmental psychology that provide empirical support for his ideas—particularly those affiliated with characteristics of psychological health (i.e., self-actualization) and the conditions that promote or inhibit it. We also explore Maslow’s adaptation of Goldstein’s concept of self-actualization, in which he simultaneously: (a) explicated a theory of safety versus growth that accounts for the two-steps-forward-one-step-back contiguous dynamic that realistically characterizes the ongoing processes of being-in-becoming and psychological integration in human development/maturity and (b) emphasized being-in-the-world-with-others with the intent of facilitating the development of an ideal society by promoting protective factors that illustrate Maslow’s safety, belonging, and esteem needs. Finally, we dialogue with the extant literature to clarify common misgivings about Maslow’s ideas.
... 37 The importance of the mothers' relationships, rather than the fathers' relation-ships, for daughters may be explained by psychoanalysts. More generally, this school of thought [38][39][40][41] claims that the same-sex parent is the child's point of reference when developing his or her gender identity, and a child is more sensitive to appraisal from the same-sex rather than the opposite-sex parent, especially during adolescence. Thus, because of the psychological importance of same-sex parents, any impairment in a relationship between mothers and daughters (and fathers and sons) will have significant consequences for the child. ...
Objective:
This study examined how communication with parents is related to college students' body satisfaction.
Participants and methods:
Participants (N = 134; 58 males and 76 females) completed a survey in March 2011 assessing body satisfaction and perceptions of communication with mothers and fathers.
Results:
Daughters' body satisfaction was negatively correlated with perceptions of problematic communication with mothers and fathers. Sons' body satisfaction was positively correlated with open communication with their mothers and negatively correlated with problematic communication with their mothers.
Conclusions:
Findings indicated problematic communication with mothers was the most powerful predictor of daughters' body satisfaction, whereas open communication with mothers was the best predictor of sons' body satisfaction.
This article describes a dramatic and powerful division within the mind that exists, to varying degrees, in all people. Acknowledging this split, between self and antiself, is not only crucial to understanding human behavior in general; it is also fundamental to comprehending psychopathology. Early in life, children incorporate hurtful, rejecting, and hostile attitudes that were consciously or unconsciously directed toward them by their parents and other family members. When parents are the most traumatizing, children cease to identify with themselves; instead, they identify with the frightening parent and take on their critical, hostile, negative attitudes in the form of a self-critical, self-hating internal voice. In our initial investigations into the voice, my associates and I were shocked at the powerful outpourings of anger and vitriolic hatred that people expressed toward themselves and others when they verbalized their self-critical thoughts. I became acutely aware of the degree to which the voice undermines people’s ability to cope with life and restricts their satisfaction in personal relationships. Last, I describe Voice Therapy, a methodology that exposes and counteracts the dictates of the inner voice, and focus on the impact that this fragmentation has on the divisiveness within the individual and society.
This article outlines the basic tenets of separation theory, including the fantasy bond and the voice process. The fantasy bond is a unifying concept explaining how human beings seek security in fantasies of fusion in an attempt to heal the fracture related to interpersonal trauma compounded by death anxiety. Painful elements in parent–child interactions are incorporated in the form of a negative thought process or “voice,” creating a division in the personality between the self and the anti-self. My colleagues and I developed a methodology called “voice therapy” to expose and contend with people’s destructive attitudes and attacks on themselves. The article also describes the evolution of a group of more than 100 associates and friends who have lived in close proximity and shared their innermost feelings in an ongoing group experience for more than 40 years. These people contributed significantly to the evolution of separation theory. Together, we developed an implicit set of values based on understanding factors that hurt people in their psychological development. The article specifies the concepts learned from observing the reference population and delineates findings from research in the neurosciences, attachment theory, and terror management theory that validate the key concepts of separation theory.
Early detection of breast and cervical cancers is one preventive behavior that may provide the adolescent daughter with a unique opportunity to provide encouragement to her mother or guardian to obtain screening. This study explored the design strategies necessary for developing an effective daughter-initiated message about screening for breast and cervical cancers. Thirty-two (N = 64) African-American mother-daughter dyads were interviewed about parenting style, goodwill, and daughters' credibility and risk behaviors that might influence receptivity toward a screening appeal. Mothers indicated that a tailored, emotional appeal combined with cancer facts delivered in a private setting would be most effective. Daughters were perceived as highly credible messengers and were perceived to have high levels of goodwill toward their mothers, regardless of risk behaviors.
1. For a more thorough discussion of this and an analysis of how TMT might help us understand the roots of what inclines individuals to terrorist violence, see Pyszczynski, Greenberg, and Goldenberg (2003).
Ideological views of 140 emerging adults (ages 20–29) were explored, using the ethics of Autonomy, Community, and Divinity. Two questions were asked as part of an interview: “When you get toward the end of your life, what would you like to be able to say about your life, looking back on it?” and “What values or beliefs do you think are the most important to pass on to the next generation?” Overall, emerging adults used Autonomy and Community in roughly equal proportions, whereas Divinity was used relatively infrequently. Use of Autonomy was negatively correlated with use of Community on both questions, but the correlations were modest, and some emerging adults were able to reconcile the two ethics. Qualitative examples are presented to illustrate the findings of the study, and the findings are discussed in the context of claims about American individualism.
The caregiving behavioral system has been identified as a vital component of adult attachment bonds, but until recently it has received relatively little attention in the adult attachment literature. In this article, we review recent theoretical and empirical developments on caregiving dynamics in adult intimate relationships, focusing on normative processes and individual differences. In doing so, we discuss the factors that facilitate or impede responsiveness in couples, and the importance of responsiveness for the development and maintenance of secure relationships. We conclude by discussing some key directions for future research.
Two studies examined whether dissociation from 9/11-related thoughts and emotions would be higher after mortality salience (MS) relative to a control condition. Because dissociation is believed to contribute to anxiety disorders, we also examined whether higher ratings of dissociation after MS would lead to higher reported anxiety sensitivity. In Study 1, MS participants reported higher levels of peritraumatic dissociation from 9/11 and higher levels of anxiety sensitivity than control participants who contemplated an upcoming exam. Furthermore, the extent to which MS induced higher levels of anxiety sensitivity was fully mediated by the extent to which MS caused greater dissociation. In Study 2, we examined whether heightened anxiety sensitivity is specifically a consequence of MS-induced dissociation or whether MS-induced worldview bolstering also causes higher anxiety sensitivity. Results indicated that MS participants reported more peritraumatic dissociation from 9/11 or bolstered support for their worldview; but, whereas higher dissociation in response to a death reminder led to higher anxiety sensitivity, worldview bolstering did not. Implications for understanding the role of mortality concerns in psychological reactions to 9/11 and other acts of terrorism are briefly discussed.
Points out the damage caused by the formation of a fantasy bond (FB) in marital and family process. The FB is formed by individuals in early childhood to compensate for emotional deprivation; imaginary fusion attempts to heal the fracture by providing partial gratification of primary needs, thereby reducing tension. The dynamics involved in forming an FB, the resulting symptomatology, and psychological damage both to the relationship and to the individuals involved are described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Presents clinical material using voice therapy, to elicit, identify, and counteract negative thought patterns. The case of a 38-yr-old man, who experienced suicidal impulses in competitive situations, illustrates the concept of "identification with the aggressor" in relation to a father's angry, rivalrous feelings toward his son. The author discusses the dynamics operating in families where immature or insecure parents compete with and show resentment toward the child of the same sex and direct overt or covert aggression toward him/her. Later, the internalized aggression emerges as a negative thought process when the individual strives to achieve personal or vocational goals. An exploration of the theoretical implications of the case contributes to an understanding of unresolved Oedipal issues that can affect young people at risk for suicide, particularly high-achieving adolescents who seemingly have everything to live for. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examined the differential nature of relations between degree of identity development (Moratorium and Achieved identity statuses) and career and psychological separation variables for men (
n = 129) and women (
n = 118). Career development variables predicted degree of identity exploration (Moratorium identity status) and identity commitment (Achieved identity status) for both genders. For men, conflictual independence from parents predicted degree of identity exploration, and emotional independence predicted degree of identity commitment, negatively and incrementally. For women, attitudinal independence predicted degree of identity commitment, negatively and incrementally. Suggestions regarding counseling and career counseling are given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examined the relationship of male gender role conflict (GRC) to attitudes about feminism and matters of attachment and separation/individuation. The Gender Role Conflict Scale, Attitudes Toward Feminism Scale, Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, and Separation-Individuation Inventory were administered to 172 male college students. On the basis of the correlational results, expected relationships were found between GRC and attitudes toward women, attachment to father and mother, and issues of separation/individuation; on the basis of the canonical results, men who held less stereotypical views about women and who were less emotionally restrictive were found to experience less differentiation and relationship problems. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, the meaning of the findings are discussed, and some possible therapy implications are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Describes an approach to psychotherapy that stresses the primary value of the unique personality of the patient, personal freedom, and potential for self-realization. The goals of the approach are to (1) challenge addictive attachments and self-nourishing habit patterns and (2) encourage movement toward gratification and real personal power in the external environment. A methodology for therapy, R. W. Firestone's (1988) voice therapy, is outlined. The application of voice therapy to the case of a 25-yr-old female patient is described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Defines microsuicide as behaviors, communications, attitudes, or life-styles that are self-induced and threatening to one's physical health, emotional well-being, or personal goals. Progressive self-denial, withdrawal, withholding, destructive dependency, and physically harmful life-styles are analyzed in terms of their function as a defense against separation and death anxieties. Rather than considering suicide and suicidal ideation as subclasses of mental illness, mental illness is conceptualized as a form of suicide. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A conception of the self as arising in narrative and sustained and transformed in dialogue carries novel implications for understanding the nature of client difficulties and resources and how change might be fostered in the counselling context. In this paper I comment on these implications, and extend their practical import by reviewing several specific tools for both reflecting upon and enacting narrative and dialogical processes that maintain and transform problem patterns. In particular, I present and illustrate a ''Chapters of our Lives'' technique whose aim is to articulate and potentially deconstruct client constructions of their experience across time, as well as a form of ''externalized problem interviewing'' that helps clients perform, and ultimately resist, the influence of the symptom or difficulty on them. These and numerous other methods more briefly described can help augment the toolbox of techniques available to counselling psychologists approaching their work from a broadly postmodern perspective.
Internal working models of attachment (IWMs) are presumed to be largely unconscious representations of childhood attachment experiences. Several instruments have been developed to assess IWMs; some of them are based on self-report and others on narrative interview techniques. This study investigated the capacity of a self-report measure, the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA; Armsden & Greenberg, 1987), and of a narrative interview method, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985), to measure unconscious attachment models. We compared scores on the two attachment instruments to response latencies in an attachment priming task. It was shown that attachment organisation assessed by the AAI correlates with priming effects, whereas the IPPA scales were inversely or not related to priming. The results are interpreted as support for the assumption that the AAI assesses, to a certain degree, unconscious working models of attachment.
Psychological control is a pattern of parenting that is intrusive and manipulative of children's thoughts, feelings, and attachment
to parents. Although little is known about the determinants of psychological control, it has been linked to the psychological
status of the parent. We hypothesized that several parenting cognitions reflecting personal concerns would be associated with
the use of psychological control: low perceived control, sensitivity to hurt, and a disapproving attitude to negative emotion.
We also examined moderating associations with child temperament and child gender. Participants were 198 mothers and fathers
of 3- and 4-year-olds (106 boys, 92 girls; M age=4.10 years, SD=0.26). Parents completed self- and spouse-report measures of psychological control, rated their child's temperamental characteristics,
and completed measures of parenting cognitions. Predictions were generally supported for two of the three cognitions. Sensitivity
to hurt and disapproval of negative emotion were associated with more frequent reported use of psychological control. There
were some moderating effects of child characteristics.
Recently there has been an emphasis on biomedical and behavioral aspects of the treatment panic disorder. The symptom-based nature of these treatments may cause elements of the life context, such as systems of meaningfulness and symbolism, to be overlooked in some cases. In this paper, the successful treatment of a case of panic disorder of three years duration is presented, in which complete remission of symptoms occurred within the third week of existential psychotherapy. Prior to this therapy, the client had exhibited a deteriorating course while following a purely psychopharmacological treatment plan. Implications are discussed.
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Mind presents a guide on the philosophy of mind. The study of the mind has always been one of the main preoccupations of philosophers, and has been a booming area of research in recent decades, with remarkable advances in psychology and neuroscience. A leading international team of contributors offer forty-five critical surveys of a wide range of topics relating to the mind. The first two sections cover the place of the mind in the natural world: its ontological status, how it fits into the causal fabric of the universe, and the nature of consciousness. The third section focuses on the much-debated subjects of content and intentionality. The fourth section examines a variety of mental capacities, including memory, imagination, and emotion. The fifth section looks at epistemic issues, in particular regarding knowledge of one's own and other minds. The volume concludes with a section on self, personhood, and agency.
Attachment theory suggests, first, that patterns of dyadic behavior cohere across salient relationships and, second, that such linkages are mediated by working models, defined as cognitive/emotional representations of relationships abstracted from dyadic experience. In this longitudinal study, adolescents' (age 19) Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) coherence ratings and classifications (e.g. working model proxies) were related prospectively to their observed dyadic behaviors with romantic partners in young adulthood (age 20-21). Results demonstrated significant associations between adolescents' representations of their relationships with parents and the later quality of their interactions with romantic partners. Next, a model was tested whereby participants' working models, as inferred from the AAI, mediate the across-time correlation between a subset of observationallv assessed parent-child dyadic behaviors (age 13) and the romantic relationship behaviors of these participants eight years later in young adulthood (age 20-21). Results of mediational analyses were consistent with the fundamental tenet of the organizational-developmental model that salient parent-child experiences are internalized and carried forward into adult relationships.
A study was conducted to assess the effects of mortality salience on evaluations of political candidates as a function of leadership style. On the basis of terror management theory and previous research, we hypothesized that people would show increased preference for a charismatic political candidate and decreased preference for a relationship-oriented political candidate in response to subtle reminders of death. Following a mortality-salience or control induction, 190 participants read campaign statements by charismatic, task-oriented, and relationship-oriented gubernatorial candidates; evaluated their preferences for each candidate; and voted for one of them. Results were in accord with predictions. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are considered.
Power dynamics in the marital dyad and systemic elements of whole-family functioning (cohesion, subsystem boundary formations) were examined in relation to each other and also in relation to child adjustment in a multiethnic sample of families. Support was found for a mediational model, such that family functioning was found to mediate the relationship between marital power dynamics and children's internalizing and externalizing behavior. Some support also was found for ethnicity as a moderator of the association between systemic family processes and children's adjustment. Disturbances in family cohesion and subsystem boundaries were more strongly related to internalizing symptomatology for children in European American families compared to children in Hispanic American families.
This study examined the relationship of male gender role conflict (GRC) to attitudes about feminism and matters of attachment and separation/individuation. The Gender Role Conflict Scale, Attitudes Toward Feminism Scale, Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, and Separation-Individuation Inventory were administered to 172 male college students. On the basis of the correlational results, expected relationships were found between GRC and attitudes toward women, attachment to father and mother, and issues of separation/individuation; on the basis of the canonical results, men who held less stereotypical views about women and who were less emotionally restrictive were found to experience less differentiation and relationship problems. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, the meaning of the findings are discussed, and some possible therapy implications are considered.
p>Empathy is a building block of social behavior and interpersonal competence. The neural mechanisms of empathy have been largely unknown until recently. The discovery of a special class of cells in the monkey brain has inspired a series of recent imaging studies that have revealed a large-scale neural network for empathy in the human brain. This neural system seems a robust biomarker of the human capacity to empathize with others.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marco Iacoboni, MD, PhD, is Director, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Lab, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Brain Research Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Address correspondence to: Marco Iacoboni, MD, PhD, iacoboni@ucla.edu .
The author disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES
Discuss the mirror neuron system in monkeys.
Describe the human mirror neuron system.
Explain neural networks for empathy and social behavior in humans. </ol
Power is often considered the central animating force of human interaction. Who has power, who is affected by power, and how that power is exercised provide the foundation for understanding human relations (Russell 1960). Although it is difficult to give both a parsimonious and a complete definition of power (Fiske and Berdahl 2007; Lukes 1974), power is often defined as the ability to control resources, own and others, a definition rooted in theories of dependency and interdependency (Thibaut and Kelly 1959). Because those who possess power depend less on the resources of others than vice versa, the powerful are more easily able to satisfy their own needs and desires. Given this asymmetric interdependence, many models of power typically describe it as an inherently social variable. Although power emerges from a specific set of social relations, the possession of power has a transformative impact on an individual's psychological state, leading the powerful to roam in a very different psychological space than the powerless (Keltner et al. 2003; Kipnis 1972). An explosion of research has demonstrated that the possession of power has metamorphic effects on the mental states of individuals and can lead to both positive and negative consequences.
This study compares the perception of adult daughters' relationship with their mothers across the European American, Asian Indian American, and Mexican American cultures, using intergenerational, feminist object relations and attachment theories. Three dimensions were used to measure the relationships: closeness, reliability, and collectivism. Each dimension was measured using two instruments: the AAS and the MAD. The latter was developed to be sensitive to cultural differences and includes a new variable called trust in hierarchy. This variable represents positive beliefs about, and an acceptance of hierarchy in intergenerational relationships. The participants were 91 women from the three ethnic groups. Cross-cultural differences in the adult daughter-mother relationship were found, with the Asian Indian American group scoring higher than the European American group on many variables. Scores for the Mexican American group tended to fall between those of the other two groups.
During the past several decades, studies on the transition to parenthood and the parent-infant relationship have investigated the role of the father in family formation. The addition of the family systems perspective focused on triadic and family-of-origin effects in early parenthood. The present reformulation introduces object relations theory and self psychology, which permit the development of the concept, the Psychic parental coalition. This concept resides at the heart of a multidimensional definition of father presence beginning at the origins of the offspring's life. It is postulated that father presence cannot be understood apart from the context of the father-mother relationship, beginning at conception. Methods for the study of father presence in family formation are discussed.
Parents are prepared for their roles with the new infant during pregnancy, the anxiety and turmoil serving as a source of energy for reorienting them to their new roles. The individuality of the neonate then shapes their responses to him and essentially creates an environment which is suitable to his particular needs. Rather than being at the mercy of the environment, the kind of infants a culture produces may perpetuate the culture and its outcome. The powerful intrauterine experiences of malnutrition, infection, and uterine depletion can seriously affect the genotype as it is reflected in neonatal behavior. When the mother can respond with expectation for his recovery, and when proper nutrition can be provided in the neonatal period, the infant is more likely to live up to his genetic potential. When the extrauterine environment does not provide necessary nutrients, and parents cannot respond to their psychological needs, the cycle of poverty and malnutrition must reproduce itself via infants who will be impaired‐‐somatically as well as psychologically. The author brings cross‐cultural observations to support these statements, and suggests a preventive out‐reach program for pregnant mothers which aims at changing the vicious cycle of poverty and deprivation reproducing themselves.
This study focused on maternal reports of gender differences in weekday father involvement with 12-month-olds in 47 dual-earner households utilizing full time infant day care. Three involvement variables were considered: father's time alone with the infant; father's time available to the infant; and father participation in caregiving tasks. The results showed fathers to be available to sons significantly more than daughters. Fathers were also significantly more involved in caregiving tasks with sons than with daughters. There was no difference in father time alone with sons and daughters. Examination of these three involvement measures in relation to demographic, family environment, and infant temperament measures revealed that mothers' reported fathers as being available more to sons than to daughters. In addition, mothers reported fathers to be more available to temperamentally easy sons than to temperamentally difficult sons. Recommendations are made for future research. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Faculty and Supervising Analyst, Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis; Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. Projective identification is a clinical enactment and part of the common currency of the psychoanalytic process that occurs especially around the difficult nodal points at the deepest levels of our psychic organization that seem resistant to change. Neurophysiological studies of pre-symbolic, unconscious emotional systems offer a biological explanation for the clinical experience of resistance to change. In addition, recent findings in affective neuro-science and infant research help us to understand how the spontaneous matching of emotional states between patient and analyst that occurs in projective identification and the system of mirror neurons that is fundamental to the observation and communication of intention contribute to change. Furthermore, the capacity for self-reflective thought, embedded in feeling and language, offers the potential for consolidating change. Thus, change at the deepest, affect-laden levels of psychic organization involves both pre-symbolic and symbolic levels of self-organization that neuroscience can help us to understand and ground in empirical research.
Purpose
The objective of this article is to explore and challenge the concept of leadership by presenting a perspective on leadership as identity construction. The perspective presented is based on premises from the complexity sciences.
Design/methodology/approach
The article is based on a conceptual discussion.
Findings
Leadership is better understood as identity construction. This is because leadership emerges in the interaction between people as the act of recognising and being recognised. Leaders' images of themselves are therefore social constructions and the development of a leadership self (and thereby leadership) is coupled to the interaction between leaders and followers.
Research limitations/implications
The research is limited to a conceptual discussion. The findings need to be further explored and challenged by other methods. The discussion is focused on organisational leadership.
Practical implications
Leaders do not always have the control that mainstream leadership theory suggests. The act of leadership is therefore better understood as identity construction. In the article the authors suggest a conceptual framework for reflecting on leadership identity because self‐images influence people's acts as leaders. The concept of leadership is hence the ability to mobilise the discipline necessary to develop one's self by reflecting on identity in different contexts and coupling this to the acts of leadership.
Originality/value
The principal contribution is a conceptual discussion on the concept of leadership. This contribution provides managerial ideas and insights into the act of leadership in organisations faced with increasing complexity.
Professor Anzalone introduces servant leadership, an approach to leadership whose principles have been successfully employed in the management of both profit and nonprofit organizations. She suggests that servant leadership, conceptualized almost forty years ago and now enjoying a renaissance of interest, may be the ideal approach for today's law libraries.
Terror management theory is a social psychological theory that draws from existential, psychodynamic, and evolutionary perspectives to understand the often potent influence that deeply rooted concerns about mortality can have on our sense of self and social behavior. The present article presents a brief introduction to the theory, comments on critiques and alternative explanations, and highlights where the theory came from, where it has been, and a few places that it might be going. Research is reviewed that uses this analysis to understand conscious and unconscious processes of psychological defense, the role of relationships and basic structuring of reality for managing existential distress, the integration of these ideas with motives for creativity and psychological growth, as well as a number of applied directions that help to make sense of pressing social problems.
This paper considers the psychological and social consequences of an ascendant global capitalism and its resultant cultural impositions from the perspective of current social psychology theory. Terror Management Theory (TMT) suggests that culture serves as a psychological defense against the terror inherent in human existence. TMT proposes that cultures serve the vital psychological function of making anxiety-buffering self-esteem available to humans by providing world-views and standards of value to achieve within that description of reality. Persons whose faith in that world-view is strong and who see themselves as living up to its standards of value achieve the anxiety-buffering effects of self-esteem needed in an existentially terrifying world. Because a hegemonic global capitalism and its cultural impositions guarantee that in a cultural meaning system that affords anxiety-buffering self-esteem to only the winners of the great competition, most people will perceive themselves as losers. TMT predicts increased anxiety and social distress because a global capitalist system and culture will offer psychological sustenance to a minority of the world's people. This paper will review the theory, its empirical supports, and offer a set of hypotheses derived from the predictable psychological, social, and behavioral consequences of a global capitalist system and culture.
The ostensibly prosaic fact of the inevitability of death is, in actuality, one of the supremely potent sources of man's anxiety, and the feeling-responses to this aspect of reality are among the most intense and complex which it is possible for us to experience. The defense-mechanisms of psychiatric illness, including the oftentimes exotic-appearing defenses found in schizophrenia, are designed to keep out of the individual's awareness—among other anxiety-provoking aspects of inner and outer reality—this simple fact of life's finitude. Various characteristics of our culture serve to maintain our obliviousness to this fact of inevitable death, and the psychodynamics of schizophrenic illness, in particular, serve as strong defenses against the recognition of it. Although the earliest roots of schizophrenia may antedate the time in the individual's life when death's inevitablity tends to confront him, it is the writer's impression that this particular deeply anxiety-provoking aspect of reality is one of the major threats which the schizophrenic process is serving to deny.
This study explored the relations between nonverbal accuracy, relationship satisfaction, and adult attachment in early marriage. Thirty-three couples were assessed at three points in time across the first two years of marriage. On all three occasions, they engaged in an encoding and decoding task using the standard content paradigm (Kahn, 1970) and completed the Quality Marriage Index (Norton, 1983). At Times 2 and 3 subjects also completed a measure of adult attachment which provided scores on Comfort with closeness and Anxiety over abandonment. Nonverbal accuracy increased over time for all message types and husbands were more accurate than wives at decoding positive messages. Accuracy did not predict later relationship satisfaction, but satisfaction predicted later accuracy, mainly for. husbands. Attachment dimensions also predicted later accuracy, with Anxiety over abandonment being more related to accuracy for husbands, and Comfort with closeness being more related to accuracy for wives. There was evidence of increased communication awareness over time for encoders, particularly in terms of the accuracy with which they predicted their spouses' decoding. In addition, husbands and those high in relationship satisfaction were more likely to expect their partners to decode their communications correctly. With regard to communication awareness for decoders, the main finding was that all groups except wives in unhappy marriages were more confident on correct than incorrect messages.
A physician recalls her transformation by 2 years spent with the Public Health Service — in an Arkansas town where the janitor ran the EKG machine, epidemics were initiated by drug detailers, violence was endemic, and many people still lived without running water.
The present study examined factors associated with harmony in adolescent girls' relationships with their mothers and their best friends. A framework was proposed in which relationship harmony was expected to be related to individual characteristics of each partner and the match between the individual characteristics of each partner. 60 adolescent girls, their mothers, and their best friends participated in self-report and observational tasks. Harmonious mother-daughter partners (vs. disharmonious ones) had more similar needs, felt their needs were better met, perceived their partners as more socially skilled, and had more similar interests. Harmonious friends (vs. disharmonious ones) had more similar needs, and target adolescents perceived partners to be more socially skilled and better at meeting their needs. Observational ratings of attunement, positive affect, and power negotiation were greater in harmonious relationships with both mothers and friends. Discussion focuses on the value of a common framework for studying different relationships.
The authors describe Fairbairn's view of the personality as a system of parts of self and object in dynamic relation, formed in the context of dependent early relationships and replayed in the intensely intimate and physical relationship of marriage. Through Klein's concept of projective identification, a spouse finds lost parts of the self in the partner, where they may flourish and be reintegrated into the self or they may be held hostage. Marriage is an opportunity for reworking the dynamic relation of parts of the self as they are modified through mutual unconscious interaction with the spouse, but it may become a closed system that inhibits growth of the individual partners. Object relations couple therapy aims to breach the closed system of the unhappy marriage, and offers an enlarged space for understanding that encourages the spouses to provide a better holding environment for each other. Not directive, didactic or symptom-focused, object relations therapy values affect, silence, body language, fantasy, dreams, and transference phenomena as necessary for reaching the unconscious in order to achieve insight. The object relations therapist interprets defenses against anxieties that underlie repetitive patterns of unhelpful behavior, and works toward understanding. As the clinical vignettes show, therapists use countertransference to understand the couple's shared transference from inside their experience. The engine of therapeutic change in this model is the therapist's self. The process of therapy improves the couple's capacity for containing each other's projections instead of refusing to resonate with them or being overtaken by them to the detriment of the self. A cycle of regression and progression in the couple's ability for containment is found as therapy proceeds. The goal of therapy is to enable the projective and introjective identificatory system of the marriage to function with greater concern for the other and respect for the self.
This article aims to integrate the two separate bodies of literature in Psychotherapy Integration (PI) and the Scientist-Practitioner (S-P) model. Based on an examination and synthesis of the main ideas from the two fields, it illustrates that, although developed separately, these movements are compatible and they complement each other. After describing the historical, empirical, and conceptual relationship of the two movements, the implications of this relationship for psychotherapy are outlined and recommendations are offered. PI is conceptualized as a key ingredient in the optimal expression of the S-P model, which can address several difficulties in the actualization of the model.
The current study examined the intergenerational transmission of role reversal within a developmental psychopathology framework. Role reversal is a relationship disturbance in which a parent looks to a child to meet the parent's need for comfort, parenting, intimacy, or play, and the child attempts to meet these needs. In a normative sample, n=138, fathers and mothers reported on childhood role reversal with their mothers as part of the Adult Attachment Interview, AAI (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1984). Mother-child role reversal was then assessed in an observational paradigm when children were 2 years of age. Based on theories of dyadic and family systems internal working models we hypothesized gender specific replications of role reversal in the next generation. Indeed, mothers who reported role reversal with their mothers during the AAI tended to engage in higher levels of role reversal with their toddler-aged daughters. Furthermore, when fathers reported role reversal with their mothers during the AAI, mothers tended to engage in higher levels of role reversal with their toddler-aged sons. The importance of the inclusion of fathers in family research, the relationship between role reversal and attachment, and implications for preventive interventions are discussed.
Testing predictions derived from attachment theory, this research investigated how adult attachment orientations are associated with selective exposure to information about the self, one's partner, and one's relationship. The results of two studies revealed that (a) more avoidantly attached individuals have limited interest in knowing their partner's intimate thoughts and feelings, (b) more anxiously attached individuals selectively prefer information on intimate topics pertaining to their partner and relationship and focus on information that highlights their own as well as their partner's shortcomings, and (c) regardless of attachment orientation, individuals express interest in learning about the negative relationship behaviors and characteristics of their insecurely attached partners. These findings suggest that selective information seeking may have important effects on relationships and may help explain how attachment orientations affect important relationship outcomes.