Effects of the nursing mother-infant dyad on the family.

The voluminous literature on breast-feeding is characterized by a narrow, if not exclusive, focus on the mother-infant dyad. This paper describes how the dynamics of the nursing couple can best be understood within the broader context of the family. One father's conflictual reactions to breast-feeding, and the subsequent effects on his nursing wife, are described.     

Early disruption of the mother-infant relationship: effects on brain plasticity and implications for psychopathology

Early environmental manipulations can impact on the developing nervous system, contributing to shape individual differences in physiological and behavioral responses to environmental challenges. In particular, it has been shown that disruptions in the mother-infant relationship result in neuroendocrine, neurochemical and behavioural changes in the adult organism, although the basic mechanisms underlying such changes have not been completely elucidated. Recent data suggest that neurotrophins might be among the mediators capable of transducing the effects of external manipulations on brain development. Nerve growth factor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor are known to play a major role during brain development, while in the adult animal they are mainly responsible for the maintenance of neuronal function and structural integrity. Changes in the levels of neurotrophic factors during critical developmental stages might result in long-term changes in neuronal plasticity and lead to increased vulnerability to aging and to psychopathology.     

The mother-child dyad facing trauma: a developmental outlook

The effects of trauma in children are amply documented. This paper investigated the relationship between children's age and posttraumatic clusters of symptoms 30 months after the end of the Gulf War and the mother's reaction to the trauma 6 and 30 months after the war. Fifty-one children aged 6 to 8 years (3 to 5 years during the war) and their mothers were interviewed. Results showed no age differences in the various posttraumatic symptoms of the children. Correlations between the children's posttraumatic symptoms and both the general and the specific posttraumatic symptoms of their mothers were positive and significant in the 6-year-olds, positive and nonsignificant in the 7-year-olds, and nonsignificant and mostly negative in the 8-year-olds. These findings may reflect the developmental changes that render the older child more autonomous and the younger child rigidly attached to the mother after a traumatic event.     

The negotiation of intelligibility in an aphasic dyad

Employing conversation analysis as a research technique, this study investigates the ways that unintelligibility is accounted for and overcome within a therapeutic encounter between an individual with aphasia and dysarthria and his clinician. The results emphasize the collaborative nature of intelligibility negotiation and demonstrate how both the individual with the impairment and his clinician employ various interactional strategies and knowledge resources to turn unintelligibility into intelligibility so that the therapeutic encounter may continue.     

The negotiation of intelligibility in an aphasic dyad

Employing conversation analysis as a research technique, this study investigates the ways that unintelligibility is accounted for and overcome within a therapeutic encounter between an individual with aphasia and dysarthria and his clinician. The results emphasize the collaborative nature of intelligibility negotiation and demonstrate how both the individual with the impairment and his clinician employ various interactional strategies and knowledge resources to turn unintelligibility into intelligibility so that the therapeutic encounter may continue.     

The psychopathology of choice

The important, often neglected factor of choice, learned in childhood, is examined in detail and illustrated by clinical examples. The primary etiological factors in psychopathology of choice are: (1) Too much choice allowed before integration is possible; (2) Too little choice allowed and (3) Distortions of choice due to racial, sexual, and religious prejudices or cognitive distortions.     

The psychopathology of 'late schizophrenia'

We investigated the clinical features of schizophrenic syndromes first manifested after the age of 50. By comparison with the schizophrenic syndromes first manifested before the 50th year of life we found: late schizophrenia is characterized by rich psychotic productive syndromes (delusions and hallucinations); disturbances of thought are rare; depression, euphoria and anxiety show no difference between the two groups; females are much more represented than males; social isolation is not more common in late schizophrenia than in non-late schizophrenia.