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Psychology

The Wisdom of Defense Mechanisms

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Like all living systems, we human beings have evolved multiple mechanisms for defending against threats to our survival and physical integrity. The immune system is one example; blood clotting another; the fight-or-flight mechanism embedded in our nervous system yet another. It, therefore, is intuitive to assume that similar defensive mechanisms have evolved in human beings to protect and promote the integrity of our psychological architecture—our sense of self, identity, and esteem.

Working at the turn of the 20th century, Sigmund Freud was first to describe a psychological defense system as part of the human psychic architecture. To understand Freud’s notion of ‘defense mechanisms,’ a quick primer on Freudian theory is in order. For Freud, the human personality emerged from the interplay of three psychic structures: id, ego, and superego. The id is the source of life energy (libido). The newborn is all id, wishing only to embrace sensory pleasure and reject painful, unpleasant stimuli. The problem is that ids lack a capacity for

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Inferring Motives in Psychology and Psychoanalysis

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Abstract

Grünbaum (1984) argues that psychoanalysis cannot justify its inferences regarding motives using its own methodology, as only the employment of Mill’s canons can justify causal inferences (which inferences to motives are). I consider an argument offered by Hopkins (1988) regarding the nature and status of our everyday inferences from other people’s behavior to their motives that seeks to rebut Grünbaum’s charge by defending a form of inference to the best explanation that makes use of connections in intentional content between behavior and motives. I argue that Hopkins succeeds in defeating Grünbaum’s objection as it is presented, but that work in social psychology presents a further challenge. I discuss the extent to which the challenge can be met, and conclude that certain types of inference in psychoanalysis are justifiable, but others, including those which are the target of Grünbaum’s objection, cannot be justified by the methods defended by Hopkins...

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Running Amok

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Running amok, sometimes referred to as simply amok or gone amok,[1] also spelled amuk, from the Malay language,[2] is "an episode of sudden mass assault against people or 6 usually by a single individual following a period of brooding that has traditionally been regarded as

occurring especially in Malay culture but is now increasingly viewed as psychopathological behavior".[3] The syndrome of "Amok" is found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV TR).[4] The phrase is often used in a less serious manner when describing something that is wildly out of control or causing a frenzy (e.g., a dog tearing up the living room furniture might be termed as "running amok".)...

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Narcissistic Rage and the Sense of Entitlement

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While the manic phase in what is commonly known as ‘bipolar disorder’usually involves manic flight into grandiose fantasy and impulsive behavior, on occasion it leads to rage, violence, suicide and even murder.  The DSM-IV refers to this as “dysphoric mania” or a mixed state, where manic and depressive symptoms occur simultaneously.  Outbursts of rage also occur in other disorders:  they feature in Intermittent Explosive Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder and various types of narcissistic behavior; anyone dominated by feelings of shame may be prone to occasional outbursts of rage, which are often an intense form of blaming, one of the primary defenses against shame.  While the DSM-IV defines these disorders as unique categories of mental illness, with individual diagnosis codes, they actually exist along a spectrum and have much in common.  Most of the clients I’ve seen who demonstrated features of Borderline Personality Disorder or presented with Bipolar Disorder...

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Psychological Debriefing: Theory, Practice and Evidence

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The history of psychological trauma is littered with episodes of knowledge and forgetting, just as post-trauma memory is scattered with episodes of remembering and amnesia. This authoritative text goes some way towards the prevention of the threatened but premature death-knell for psychological debriefing. Few issues in mental health are as controversial as psychological debriefing, with polarised views common. The term ‘psychological debriefing’ has been used for different types of intervention, and this book highlights the range of conceptualisations, methodologies and interventions that constitute the area of debriefing, with single sessions superseded by critical-incident stress management (the Cochrane Collaboration review examined only randomised controlled trials incorporating one-off sessions (Rose et al, 2001)).

The editors, Raphael & Wilson, have an impressive track record in their International Handbook of Traumatic Stress Syndromes (1993), a seminal text on psychological trauma. Here, they precede each chapter with an editorial commentary, which provides a helpful overview.

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The “I Feel Like a Child” Syndrome

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If our various child parts are not fully integrated into our adult self, we're likely at times to feel like a child inside an adult's body. We won't be able to feel truly grown up because our basic sense of self hasn't sufficiently evolved into the actual adult we've become. Our chronological age, our body, our mind may all say "adult" . . . but our psyche nonetheless continues to say "child."

To put it more concretely, when present-day circumstances tap into old, unresolved doubts or fears--that is, distressful feelings that may go all the way back to childhood--we'll experience ourselves in the same way we did in the past. (And to be honest, looking back at our lives, which of us hasn't many times felt unsure, or defective, or unsafe?) If we haven't yet managed to "assimilate" the growth or maturation that typically

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The Psychological Development of the Child

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The child can only live his childhood; to understand childhood is the province of the adult. But whose vantage point is to prevail, the adult's or the child?  The adult recognizes differences between himself and a child. But these differences are usually reduced to the quantitative, to a matter of mere degree. When he compare himself with a child, an adult sees the child as relatively or eve totally incapable of actions or tasks he himself can accomplish. These inabilities can shed light on differences in mental organization between the child and the adult.

An adult demonstrates his egocentrism through his conviction that all mental development must naturally and inevitably lead to modes of thought and feeling exactly like his own and bearing the particular stamp of the time and place in which he lives. If he does somehow manage to achieve the insight that a

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The Strange Relationship Between Power and Loneliness

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Both power and loneliness are studied extensively in the social sciences, yet few researchers have examined the relationship between the two. So my colleagues and I conducted eight studies to do exactly that, finding evidence that it’s not quite as lonely at the top as most of us assume. In our research, attaining power actually led people to feel less isolated from others, and lacking it led them to feel more isolated.

While debunking conventional wisdom can be satisfying, it’s important to think about the limits of these conclusions. Consider this comment by Thomas J. Saporito, chair and CEO of the leadership consulting firm RHR International: “I’ve spoken with 200 plus CEOs, [and] there are precious few that didn’t, in the privacy of our discussions, talk about loneliness.” Saporito’s observation syncs up with polling data by Harris Interactive Service Bureau...

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Needing to Win — Ten Mean Fighting Strategies

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All intimate partners have conflict from time to time. When people blend their lives together, they are bound to see some situations differently and need to resolve those differences. Disagreements are stressful for everyone and, depending on how partners treat each other during conflicts, they will either bring a couple closer together or increase the emotional distance between them.

Disputes that lead to greater understanding and new perspectives can actually increase excitement and continuing discovery in a committed relationship. Romantic partners who have learned how to argue productively while maintaining respect for each other can create a new emotional universe that neither could have created alone.

In contrast, many partners fight in ways that consistently hurt their relationship. One or both become need-to-win combatants, establishing a superior position at the expense of their partner’s. As disagreements escalate, they use any behaviors and strategies they can muster...

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Why Thought Stopping Doesn’t Work

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Some therapists still recommend a technique called "thought stopping". This is quite unfortunate since thought-stopping leads to thought rebounding. The research by Wegner at Harvard on "white bears and other unwanted thoughts" shows that trying not to think of a thought leads to the thought persisting later. In a recent review of strategies that people use, Yale psychologists Ameli Aldao and Susan Nolen-Hoeksema found that suppression strategies for thoughts and emotions are associated with greater anxiety and depression, whereas other strategies (such as problem-solving, acceptance and cognitive restructuring) are associated with less anxiety.

"Thought-stopping,"is a now discarded behavioral technique that involves getting rid of negative or unwanted thoughts by suppressing them. Thus, whenever you have the worry that you will lose all your money in the stock market, you are encouraged to force yourself to stop having these thoughts by snapping a rubber band on your...

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Voyeurism And Exhibitionism: How Common Are They?

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Do you enjoy R-rated movies with steamy sex scenes? Most people do. There’s a little bit of voyeur in all of us.

Do you ever wear tight, form-fitting, or revealing clothing to show off some aspect of your body? Many people do from time to time at the beach, the gym, or socially. There’s a little bit of exhibitionist in most of us, too.

But how many people are really deeply into watching sex or exposing themselves in public? That’s been a mystery but a Swedish study has investigated the issue, providing what, as far as I know, are the only real data on the subject.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute (the university that awards Nobel Prizes) surveyed a random sample of 2,450 Swedes age 18 to 60. Seventy-six (3.1 percent) reported at least one incident of feeling sexually aroused by exposing their genitals...

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Journal of Experimental Psychology

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Dogs which had 1st learned to panel press in a harness in order to escape shock subsequently showed normal acquisition of escape/avoidance behavior in a shuttle box. In contrast, yoked, inescapable shock in the harness produced profound interference with subsequent escape responding in the shuttle box. Initial experience with escape in the shuttle box led to enhanced panel pressing during inescapable shock in the harness and prevented interference with later responding in the shuttle box. Inescapable shock in the harness and failure to escape in the shuttle box produced interference with escape responding after a 7-day rest. These results were interpreted as supporting a learned "helplessness" explanation of interference with escape responding: Ss failed to escape shock in the shuttle box following inescapable shock in the harness because they had learned that shock termination was independent of responding.

Overmier and Seligman (1967) have shown that the prior exposure of dogs

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Abnormal Psychology What Is Abnormal Behavior

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Difficulty in defining Abnormality

In this era of rapid technological advancement, you might think there would be some objective test like a blood test or a like a brain scan that could determine whether an individual is normal or abnormal? There is no such test available; however psychologists rely on signs, symptoms, and subjective criteria for deciding when the observed symptoms (signs) constitute abnormality. Four criteria for defining abnormality have been proposed. They are often called the four D's, Deviance, Distress, Dysfunction and Danger.

Deviant behavior means different extreme unusual and bizarre Distress refers to unpleasant or upsetting behavior of an individual Dysfunctional or disruptive in a way that possibly can became dangerous as well Danger of hurting one self and others

1. Deviance

a.  Deviance from the Cultural Norms b. Deviance from the Statistical Norms

a. Deviance from Cultural Norms

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