Hitler's “Table Talk” as Psychoanalytic Source Material

Treating traumatized patients famously takes its toll on the treating therapist. This process has most often been called “vicarious traumatization,” although other terms have been used. The author proposes a more interpersonal term, “countertrauma.” Although countertrauma is a common occupational hazard when working with trauma victims, it is rarely discussed in depth from a personal perspective. Drawing from the author's experiences working with sexually abused men over almost three decades, he tracks his emerging conflicts and reactions to his work. These constitute his own countertraumatic as well as counterresilient reactions to engaging intimately with patients’ trauma experiences.     

Psychopathy and Human Evil: An Overview

The term “psychopath” usually conjures images of serial killers or acts of genocide. Less frequently considered are those who are intelligent enough to avoid detection by the criminal justice system while hiding in the boardrooms of corporations or lurking in the halls of government institutions. This article provides an overview of psychopathy and human evil by exploring the personality characteristics, organization, and cognitive style of the psychopath, the role of superego pathology, contributions from the field of attachment, and ways in which dissociation plays a role in psychopathy and the potential for confusing this with the dissociative structuring of the mind. The article closes with a brief discussion about “corporate” or “successful psychopaths” and how they have a negative impact on culture and society.     

Perceptions of aging among middle-aged offspring of traumatized parents: the effects of parental Holocaust-related communication and secondary traumatization

Objectives: Traumatized parents may transmit anxieties of physical deterioration and demise to their offspring. These anxieties can amplify negative perceptions of the aging process when the offspring enter old age. The current study examined how middle-aged offspring of Holocaust survivors (OHS) recount trauma-related communication by their parents, and how these reports are related to offspring's perceptions of their aging process.

Method: The study included 450 respondents at the age range of 50–67 (mean age = 57.5, SD = 4.6): 300 OHS and 150 comparisons. Participants reported parental communication of the Holocaust, completed measures of subjective successful aging, aging and death anxieties, and reported secondary traumatization assessing symptoms, developed as a result of a close and continuous relationship with a traumatized parent.

Results: Latent profile analysis identified two profiles of parental Holocaust-related communication: intrusive and informative. Offspring who reported intrusive parental communication about the Holocaust perceived themselves as aging less successfully and were more anxious of aging and death than comparisons. Offspring who reported informative parental communication and comparisons did not differ in perceptions of aging. Secondary traumatization mediated these group differences, meaning, intrusive parental communication was related to higher secondary traumatization, which in turn was related to less favorable perceptions of aging.

Conclusion: These findings allude to the possibility that secondary traumatization mold negative perceptions of the aging process among middle-aged offspring of traumatized parents. Mental health practitioners may help OHS process fragmented and intrusive remnants of parental trauma, thereby diminishing secondary traumatization, and promoting more adaptive perceptions of aging.     

Stress in the Courtroom: Call for research

Recent acts of violence against judges highlight the growing number of occupational stressors that judges encounter. In addition to threats of violence, judges often deal with substantial workloads, traumatic cases, and the pressure of making significant decisions. It is important to understand these stressors, because they could negatively affect judges' abilities to handle evidence, protect jurors, and make decisions. Approaches (work-related burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious traumatization) to assessing work-related stress, and their corresponding scales (Maslach Burnout Inventory, Compassion Fatigue Self-Test, Traumatic Stress Institute Belief Scale), are presented, as a first step in developing a scale to assess the extent and prevalence of judge stress. Following assessment research, researchers should develop intervention strategies to alleviate problematic sources of stress for judges.     

Dissociation and alexithymia among men with alcoholism

Aim:  The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between alexithymia and dissociation among men with alcoholism.
Methods:  Participants were 176 patients consecutively admitted to the inpatient unit of a addiction treatment center. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Symptom Checklist-Revised, the Dissociative Experiences Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Spielberger State–Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test were administered to all participants.
Results:  Fifty-three patients were considered as having alexithymia. The alexithymic group had a significantly higher rate of dissociative taxon members (patients with pathological dissociation; 62.3%) according to Bayesian probability. Trait anxiety, overall psychiatric symptom severity, and pathological dissociation predicted alexithymia on covariance analysis. A multivariate analysis of covariance demonstrated that these predictors were related only to difficulty of identifying feelings, whereas trait anxiety was a significant covariant for difficulty of expressing feelings as well.
Conclusion:  Alexithymic phenomena are interrelated with dissociation and chronic anxiety among men with alcoholism. The relevance of this triad for prevention and treatment of alcoholism deserves interest in further research.     

Dissociation of frog olfactory epithelium

We report a method for producing cell suspensions from frog olfactory epithelium. The tissue is incubated for 45 min at room temperature in a solution which causes dissociation of the epithelium. The solution is an isotonic saline buffered to maintain a pH of 10.3 and a free Ca²⁺ ion concentration of 10^?6 M. The method uses no degradative enzymes, except for a brief DNase treatment. The resulting cell suspension contains single olfactory receptor neurons, sustentacular cells, glandular cells, and respiratory epithelial cells. The cells are viable as judged by vital staining, ciliary motility, and synthesis of RNA. Some types of cells lose their normal columnar shapes and become rounded in the suspension.     

Dissociation between facial and bodily expressions in emotion recognition: A case study

Objective: Existing single-case studies have reported deficit in recognizing basic emotions through facial expression and unaffected performance with body expressions, but not the opposite pattern. The aim of this paper is to present a case study with impaired emotion recognition through body expressions and intact performance with facial expressions. Methods: In this single-case study we assessed a 30-year-old patient with autism spectrum disorder, without intellectual disability, and a healthy control group (n = 30) with four tasks of basic and complex emotion recognition through face and body movements, and two non-emotional control tasks. To analyze the dissociation between facial and body expressions, we used Crawford and Garthwaite’s operational criteria, and we compared the patient and the control group performance with a modified one-tailed t-test designed specifically for single-case studies. Results: There were no statistically significant differences between the patient’s and the control group’s performances on the non-emotional body movement task or the facial perception task. For both kinds of emotions (basic and complex) when the patient’s performance was compared to the control group’s, statistically significant differences were only observed for the recognition of body expressions. There were no significant differences between the patient’s and the control group’s correct answers for emotional facial stimuli. Conclusions: Our results showed a profile of impaired emotion recognition through body expressions and intact performance with facial expressions. This is the first case study that describes the existence of this kind of dissociation pattern between facial and body expressions of basic and complex emotions.     

A trans-theoretical training designed to promote understanding and management of countertransference for trainee therapists

Objective: There is evidence that awareness of countertransference (CT) in combination with a conceptualization of CT facilitates its management. This study examines the impact of a trans-theoretical training designed to make the construct of CT accessible to trainee therapists in programs oriented towards cognitive-behavioral therapy. The training aimed to enhance trainees’ awareness, understanding, and management of CT. Method: Academics at five New Zealand universities introduced the training into their curriculum. Five academics and 54 clinical psychology trainees evaluated it, responding to open-ended questions on the impact of the training on awareness, understanding, and management of CT. They also rated the training’s effectiveness. Results: The majority of trainees reported increased awareness and conceptualization of CT. They rated the training as useful for professional practice and reported increased commitment to monitoring CT. Academics also observed trainees’ increased awareness and understanding of CT and openness to discussing it. Trainees and academics were less confident in trainees’ abilities to manage CT in clinical practice, although trainees reported gains in this area. Conclusions: The training appeared to enhance awareness and conceptualization of CT, processes that support its management. However, future research into training models needs to examine the impact on CT management in clinical practice.     

Event centrality and secondary traumatization among Holocaust survivors' offspring and grandchildren: A three-generation study

The present study examined the intergenerational transmission of the Holocaust trauma in relation to levels of secondary traumatization and event centrality across three generations in a cross-sectional survey. Participants included 92 Holocaust survivor-offspring-grandchild triads (Holocaust G1-G2-G3) and 67 comparison triads (Comparison G1-G2-G3). Holocaust G1 reported higher levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms relative to Comparison G1. Holocaust G2 and G3 reported significantly higher secondary traumatization relative to Comparison G2 and G3, respectively. Holocaust G3 also reported significantly higher scores in event centrality relative to Comparison G3. In survivor families, the indirect effect of PTSD symptoms in Holocaust G1 predicted Holocaust G2's secondary traumatization, which subsequently predicted Holocaust G3's secondary traumatization. Moreover, PTSD symptoms in Holocaust G1 predicted Holocaust G3's event centrality through secondary traumatization in both Holocaust G2 and G3 and event centrality in Holocaust G2. In the comparison groups, trauma transmission was not observed in three generations. Findings elucidate unique intergenerational transmission of the Holocaust trauma in survivor families, which comprise both personal and societal constituents. Moreover, the findings show that event centrality is a distinctive mechanism in intergenerational transmission in survivor families.     

Diagnosing Evil in Australian Courts: Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder as Legal Synonyms of Evil

Mental health review tribunals (MHRTs) were established under the Mental Health Act (MHA) 1959 (UK) as one of the “main safeguards against improper admission under compulsory powers” and “unduly protracted detention”. In the United Kingdom a draft Mental Health Bill was published in June 2002. It proposed a new legal framework for the compulsory treatment and detention of people defined as mentally disordered. The mental health review tribunal is to be replaced by a new mental health tribunal. Although the aim of the new tribunal — the mental health tribunal — remains the same, there are some fundamental differences in the way in which the tribunal will operate. In this article the author uses the findings from previous research on decision-making in mental health review tribunals to assess the nature of the proposed tribunal reforms.     

“I feel your disgust and relief”: can the action understanding system (mirror neuron system) be recruited to induce disgust and relief from contamination vicariously,in individuals with obsessive–compulsive disorder symptoms?

Research has shown that brain regions mediating disgust (e.g., the insula) become activated when viewing others’ disgust, a response mediated, perhaps by the mirror neuron system or the Theory of Mind module. In a novel behavioral experiment, we explore vicarious disgust and relief, in individuals with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. Participants (N = 10) provided disgust ratings to self-contamination or watching the contamination of an experimenter; and to the experimenter washing his own hands after the subjects had been contaminated. To our surprise, we found that subjects experienced disgust from merely watching the experimenter contaminating himself. More intriguingly, after subjects had contaminated themselves, they obtained relief from merely watching the experimenter washing his own hands; even while recognizing the logical absurdity of this. The result is counterintuitive since neither the subjects nor anyone else would have predicted this. These preliminary findings – if confirmed in placebo-controlled studies – might pave the way toward novel therapeutic approaches for OCD.     

Secondary traumatization among wives of Israeli POWs: the role of POWs' distress

Background The aim of the study is to examine secondary traumatization of wives of former prisoners of war (POWs) as manifested in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, additional psychiatric symptoms, and marital adjustment. In addition, it assessed the role of several contributors to the wives' secondary traumatization: the husband's PTSD, the level of his verbal and physical aggression, and the wife's level of self-disclosure. Methods The study compared three groups of Israeli wives: wives of POWs with PTSD (N=18), wives of POWs without PTSD, (N=64), and a control group of wives of veterans without PTSD (N=72). Results The highest level of distress in all measures was endorsed by the wives of POWs with PTSD. Moreover, in addition to husband's PTSD and captivity, both the man's aggression and the wife's self-disclosure played a role in the wife's level of distress. Conclusions The findings show that the husbands' PTSD was more strongly associated with the wives' secondary traumatization than their captivity.     

Trauma and dissociation: treatment perspectives

TOPIC: How advanced practice nurses can work with trauma survivors to decrease dissociation as a needed coping mechanism. PURPOSE: To review the literature on trauma and dissociation as well as current treatment perspectives. SOURCES: Review of the literature and authors' clinical experience. CONCLUSIONS: Advanced practice nurses can use knowledge of selected psychopharmacological medications and Erikson's stages of psychosocial development to plan treatment for posttrauma clients.     

Good or Essential? The Effects of Victim Characteristics and Family Significance on Sentencing Judgments and Perceptions of Harm

Victim impact statements containing information about the character of the victim, as well as their significance to the family were varied across conditions to examine their effects on perceptions of harm and sentencing decisions for 166 death qualified participants. The results indicate that information concerning the victim's significance to their family significantly influenced sentencing judgments, whereas victim character information failed to do so. Perceptions of harm significantly mediated the relation between family significance and sentencing decisions. Implications for the Supreme Court ruling in Payne v. Tennessee (1991) and the relevance of including information about the victim as a means of communicating harm in capital trial sentencing are discussed.     

The Law Is Not as Blind as It Seems: Relative Rates of Vicarious Trauma among Lawyers and Mental Health Professionals

Professionals who are exposed to trauma through work may indirectly experience distress and traumatisation of their own, often referred to as vicarious traumatisation (VT). Little research has been directed toward the experience of VT among lawyers, especially in terms of how it compares with the VT experienced by mental health professionals (MHPs). This study compares the extent to which exposure to traumatic information affects professionals of different disciplinary backgrounds. Additionally, personality traits that might theoretically influence an individual's vulnerability or resilience to VT are evaluated. Self-report measures were used to investigate symptoms of VT and personality traits in 36 lawyers and 30 MHPs. The results indicate that lawyers and individuals low on the Emotional Stability domain are significantly more susceptible to experiencing symptoms of VT. Exposure to trauma may be better managed by professionals in the mental health field, who have the advantage of having received trauma-specific training and access to informed peer support.     

Refracted Attunement,Affective Resonance: Scenic-Narrative Microanalysis of Entangled Presence in a Holocaust Survivor's Testimony

Abstract

The detailed analysis of a five-minute section from the testimony of a hospitalized survivor demonstrates how the fragmented autobiographical narrative is reenacted in the relational matrix among the interviewer, the survivor, and the research group. Detailed analysis establishes that the core of the fragmentation of the survivor's autobiographical narrative lies in the unconscious social matrix. This is discussed as a condition and consequence of perpetuation of genocidal trauma.     

Eugen Bleuler's Dementia praecox or the group of schizophrenias (1911): a centenary appreciation and reconsideration

On the 100th anniversary of the publication of Eugen Bleuler's Dementia Praecox or the Group of Schizophrenias, his teachings on schizophrenia from that seminal book are reviewed and reassessed, and implications for the current revision of the category of schizophrenia, with its emphasis on psychotic symptoms, drawn. Bleuler's methods are contrasted with Kraepelin's, and 4 myths about his concept of schizophrenia addressed. We demonstrate that (1) Bleuler's concept of schizophrenia has close ties to historical and contemporary concepts of dissociation and as such the public interpretation of schizophrenia as split personality has some historical basis; (2) Bleuler's concept of loosening of associations does not refer narrowly to a disorder of thought but broadly to a core organically based psychological deficit which underlies the other symptoms of schizophrenia; (3) the "4 A's," for association, affect, ambivalence, and autism, do not adequately summarize Bleuler's teachings on schizophrenia and marginalize the central role of splitting in his conception; and (4) Bleuler's ideas were more powerfully influenced by Pierre Janet, particularly with regard to his diagnostic category Psychasthenia, than by Sigmund Freud. We conclude that Bleuler's ideas on schizophrenia warrant reexamination in the light of current criticism of the emphasis on psychotic symptoms in the schizophrenia diagnosis and argue for the recognition of the dissociative roots of this most important psychiatric category.