From delusion to play

Winnicott suggested that delusions are a failed form of play. Using Winnicott's theories of the play space, this paper illustrates through clinical material how the therapist can join a delusion and convert it into an area of play. Discussion includes an analysis of the use of play in working with the transference and countertransference as well as the therapist's resistances to engaging in play.     

When Adaptations Go Awry: Functional and Dysfunctional Aspects of Social Anxiety

Adaptations are psychological and behavioral mechanisms designed through evolution to serve specific purposes ultimately related to reproductive success. Although adaptations are inherently functional, in some cases their operation can nevertheless cause personal and social dysfunction. We describe a theoretical framework for understanding, predicting, and reducing the dysfunctional consequences of psychological adaptations. We discuss three general sources of dysfunction: a) the existence of adaptive tradeoffs, b) mismatches between current environments and ancestral environments, and c) individual differences. The paper applies this framework primarily to the topic of social anxiety, a psychological phenomenon marked by concerns pertaining to social rejection and embarrassment. Although social anxiety can serve useful functions, it can also involve excessive worry, negative affect, and avoidance of social situations, leading to significant distress and social impairment. We consider sources of dysfunction in social anxiety and discuss implications for policy, including recommendations for psychological, situational, and biological interventions. We also discuss broader applications of this theoretical framework to other areas of social life.     

Alienation: a Discrepancy Approach*

A discrepancy measure of job-related alienation, labeled power discrepancy, is introduced. Power discrepancy was measured by the difference between the amount of job-related power workers feel they are able to exercise on their present jobs and the amount of power they feel they should be able to exercise. Three types were derived: workers whose perceived power was less than the amount they felt that they should have (deficit power); workers with as much perceived power as they felt they should have (balanced power); and workers whose perceived power exceeded what they believed they should have (surplus power). It is found that power deficit increases with the degree of functional specialization at work and that power deficit is the most common experience regardless of the extent of functional specialization. Instrumental work orientation and isolation from organizational goals is the most pronounced among workers with deficit power. Workers with surplus job-related power are on a par with those with a balance between perceived and desired power in terms of consummatory work orientation and commitment to organizational goals. Among workers with less job-related power than they feel they should have, instrumental work orientation and isolation from organizational goals are higher among less affluent, younger, and loss educated workers. Introduction of a measure of the importance of work-related power did not help in explaining this last finding.     

The Impact of Interdisciplinary Teams on Organizational Relationships

Based upon research in an alcoholism treatment organization, the study explores the impact of interdisciplinary team treatment on organizational participants and structure. The findings suggest that alternate organizational arrangements are necessary for organizations which use the team method. The implications of team treatment for professionals were confounded because of power relationships within the organization. Role bargaining between professionals was observed to be virtually non-existent because of the dominance of a single discipline. A surprising finding was the extent to which supervisory personnel were disadvantaged in the study. Caution is suggested for those organizations most likely to adopt the team method, large public health organizations.     

Bachelorhood and Late Marriage: An Interactionist Interpretation*

This paper summarizes an exploratory investigation of the interactional careers of forty bachelors (men who had reached the age of 35 without marrying), twenty of whom later married. Depth interviewing was used to collect life history data establishing major career lines of specific heterosexual dyads as well as developments in preceding and paralleling universes of interaction. The findings support the contention that continuing social pressures rather than personal abnormalities of individual bachelors ultimately determine marital careers in that bachelorhood and late marriage are interactional products stemming from differential socialization and situational contingencies.     

The Perceived Threat of Nuclear War, Salience, and Open Questions

The most serious problem facing the United States, accordingto many scientific and political leaders, is the threat of nuclearwar. Yet the standard survey question on the most importantproblem facing the country has often shown little public concurrencewith this assumption. Our article uses experimentation in nationalsamples to test whether this difference can be traced to limitationsin either the form or the wording of the standard question.The results indicate that there are some important systematicdifferences between open and closed versions of the question,and also differences that result from reference to the nationas distinct from the world, but neither type of difference accountsfor the infrequent mention of nuclear war on the standard question.Instead, other evidence indicates that most Americans believethat nuclear war is not going to happen at all, or that if itdoes happen it will be too far in the distant future to be ofpressing concern to them personally.