Laws,Desires, and Contaminations—Mutuality with a Price: Commentary on Paper by Taras Babiak

In this commentary on Tara Babiak's analytic work with a very disturbed, almost autistic young man, I take up the function of gender categories as defense and as potential; the power of enactments in analytic treatment; and the difficulties of homophobia in patient, analyst and culture. I focus on the uses and functions of gender and ideals of masculinity in the patient's identity. A central enactment early in the treatment gave rise to intense transference and countertransference scrutiny. I suggest the long shadow cast by this enactment, which was both hopeful and provocatively destructive. I discuss the quandaries (analytic, personal, and cultural) for the analyst working with a patient for whom phobic dread may be a defense against fragmentation and madness.     

When the Learning Disabled Go to College

Abstract

During the last decade, federal laws have provided for remedial education in elementary and secondary schools for students with learning disabilities, preparing large numbers of them for college. Federal law also mandates helping learning-disabled students with their needs once they matriculate. Declining numbers of high school graduates in the aftermath of the baby boom have made more colleges open their doors to these students. The disabilities, and the accommodations they require, arrive in college with the rest of a student's baggage, demanding attention. Colleges and universities have chosen a variety of approaches, from specific remedial programs and individual accomodations according to need to more general programs. Some colleges pretend these disabilities do not exist and seem oblivious to their presence on campus. Learning disabilities can have an impact in every class and lecture hall and can contribute to unhappiness and the college's attrition rate. On the other hand, responsive and responsible programs provide students with the resources for the same education, honors, and opportunities as their nondisabled peers.     

Who Reaps the Benefits,Who Bears the Risks? Comparative Optimism,Comparative Utility,and Regulatory Preferences for Mobile Phone Technology

Although the issue of risk target (e.g., self, others, children) is widely acknowledged in risk perception research, its importance appears underappreciated. To date, most research has been satisfied with demonstrating comparative optimism, i.e., lower perceived risk for the self than others, and exploring its moderators, such as perceived controllability and personal exposure. Much less research has investigated how the issue of target may affect benefit perceptions or key outcomes such as stated preferences for hazard regulation. The current research investigated these issues using data from a public survey of attitudes toward mobile phone technology (N= 1,320). First, results demonstrated comparative optimism for this hazard, and also found moderating effects of both controllability and personal exposure. Second, there was evidence of comparative utility, i.e., users believed that the benefits from mobile phone technology are greater for the self than others. Third, and most important for policy, preferences for handset regulation were best predicted by perceptions of the risks to others but perceived benefits for the self. Results suggest a closer awareness of target can improve prediction of stated preferences for hazard regulation and that it would be profitable for future research to pay more attention to the issue of target for both risk and benefit perceptions.     

Toward a History of Psychological Expertise

In honor of the 60th anniversary of SPSSI's founding, this issue examines the ascendence of psychological expertise in American society. After World War II, psychology grew as the public accepted the illuminating power and social benefits of psychologists' expert knowledge. In that period, four problems confronted psychological experts as their numbers and influence grew. First, they needed ideas and methods that were new and superior to common sense. Second, experts needed to appear both relevant and objective. Third, psychologists needed to forge alliances with those who held social power in the settings in which they wished to operate. Finally, experts needed to balance the roles of social critic and social engineer.     

Object Relations Family Therapy: Articulating the Inchoate

In recent years there has been a renewed interest in psychodynamic ideas within the family therapy literature. While some authors have explored the usefulness of psychodynamic concepts in the systemic context (Byng-Hall, 1995; Flaskas, 1993, 1996; Luepnitz, 1988, 1997), others have argued that psychodynamic models of family therapy should be given more credence in systemic work with families (Guttman, 1991). This paper describes Object Relations Family Therapy (ORFT), a psychoanalytic model of family therapy, in plain English in order to minimise the obscurity of some of the existing terminology and to emphasise the utility of more contemporary formulations. ORFT addresses the interface between psychoanalytic and systemic theories. It offers a way of conceptualising complex family dynamics at both the interpersonal and intrapsychic levels. It also integrates an understanding of nonverbal, unstated and often implicit processes in its formulation of problem development. The unique contribution of ORFT is elaborated using a clinical example.