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Biomedical subjects

B Priel

Publications and source records attributed to B Priel.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Negation in Borges's 'The secret miracle': writing the Shoah.

The author presents a psychoanalytic reading of Borges's 'The secret miracle' (1943), a short story about the Shoah, for which Freud's concept of negation (Verneinen) and recent psychoanalytic approaches to symbolisation and the functions of fiction form the theoretical background. She argues that the effects of negation, present in literary fiction, become forcefully magnified in the fiction of the Shoah, because of its specific inversion of the relations between life and art. This magnification increases the perplexing effect that is characteristic of Borges's heterotopies. The story is read as a metaphor of transformative processes that closely follow Freud's dual conceptualisation of negation as a defence and as allowing the repressed a way into consciousness. This study illuminates the conservation of the relations between external and internal realities as a basic difference between negation and related concepts such as disavowal (Verleugnung), and repression, in relation to creative imagination. The author relates the story's perplexing effect to its subversion of fundamental axioms such as temporality, questioning the existence of sense itself and suggests that the malaise the story produces may stem from the way in which its narrative structure negates time, the fabric from which narratives--and life--are woven.

Argentina↗
PubMed2001

Bridging the gap between attachment and object relations theories: a study of the transition to motherhood.

An empirical study of the relations between assessments of adult attachment styles and object representations was performed in the context of first-time mothers' emotional ties to their unborn babies. We assumed that, while conceptualizations of attachment behaviour and internal working models grasp the early basic patterns of interpersonal relationships and affect regulation, object representations indicate current transformations of these patterns in an individual's internal world. Participants were a sample of 120 women in the third trimester of their first pregnancy. Participants' representations of their own mothers were found to fully mediate the association between internal working models and antenatal ties to their babies. Similarities and differences between theoretical conceptualizations and empirical operationalizations of attachment and object relations theories are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Effects of cognitive load on semantic priming in patients with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenic and control participants received 2 blocks of trials in each experiment. In 1 block they were exposed to regular priming trials (doctor-nurse), and in another block a nonlexical probe was presented at prime onset for 40 ms. Regardless of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), the schizophrenic patients showed hyperpriming when no distrator was present. Paying attention to the distracting stimulus reduced priming in the patient group irrespective of SOA. Under certain situations, the reduction in priming appeared even when participants were asked to ignore the distracting stimulus. Thus, even a nonsemantic distractor may be detrimental to schizophrenic patients' language processing. That SOA did not modulate the reduction in priming effect is consistent with the suggestion that attentional resources are required even with short prime-target intervals.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1995

Parental representations among preschoolers and fourth-grade children: integrating object relational and cognitive developmental frameworks.

The aim of this research was the empirical study of the development of object representations among preschool and fourth-grade children. Psychometric properties and age differences on structural and qualitative dimensions of parental descriptions are reported. The relationships between the dimensions of object representations and children's self-perceptions and interpretations of situations depicting typical interferences of ongoing parent-child relations were explored. Our findings point to multidimensional representations, underlying the importance of the structural dimensions of the representation. More mature representations were related to more advanced conflict resolution strategies. More positive perceptions of self in middle childhood and less idealized self-concept among preschoolers were associated to higher conceptual levels of parental representations. The constraints, as well as the possibilities, inherent to research based on narrative models of object representations are discussed.

Child↗
PubMed1994

On psychoanalysis and non-linear dynamics: the paradigm of bifurcation.

Some of Freud's main theoretical conceptualizations drew on metaphors from 19th century physics. However, though the physics of Freud's era was based on deterministic Newtonian mechanics and equilibrium thermodynamics, his descriptions of the dynamics of instincts, therapeutic change, and even transference, were far beyond this model. Freud's dynamic description of psychic development evokes contemporary theories of irreversible, far-from-equilibrium thermodynamics and non-linear dynamics. The present paper focuses on bifurcation theory, which offers a paradigm for the investigation of unpredictable but deterministic phenomena; this paradigm sheds a retroactive light on the classical psychoanalytical conceptualizations of complemental series, repetition compulsion, transference and cure.

Compulsive Behavior↗
PubMed1994

Perceptions of asthma severity: the role of negative affectivity.

The role of negative affectivity on patients' perceptions of and behavior during asthma attacks was explored among 47 asthmatic subjects. Patients completed 17 to 30 daily questionnaires assessing negative affect, asthma perception, additional drug intake, search for medical assistance, and peak-flow measures of respiratory distress. Asthma perceptions were correlated with negative affect and educational level; the perception of the asthma severity, but not negative affect, did predict behavior during an attack. The importance of symptom perceptions for the clinical management of chronic asthma is underscored.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Symmetry: Matte-Blanco's theory and Borges's fiction.

Matte-Blanco's theory reformulates the Freudian unconscious from the perspective of mathematical set theory, pointing to symmetric logic as the distinctive mark of the unconscious. Borges's fictional creations are presented as thematising and dramatising, in the act of reading, Matte-Blanco's main concepts of symmetry, bi-logic and the fundamental antinomy of human beings. This study's main thesis is that aesthetic experiences, such as the reading of Borges's literary creation, may allow for a broader experience of symmetrical being than the one conveyed through everyday language. In this context, the analysis of some of Borge's themes and main stylistic devices seems to shed light on bi-logic, from the perspective of the reader's experience and creation of meaning. Borge's characteristic use of literary allusions, as well as the suggested interchangeability of reader, writer and character, are understood as devices which increase the reader's awareness of relations of resemblance, destroying chronology and differences, uniting the text and the reference. From this perspective, a main effect of Borges's creation stems from an enhanced awareness of the interplay of symmetry and asymmetry, and the problem of the translation of symmetric into asymmetric being. Borges's stories effect in the reader an experience of infiniteness, timelessness, multidimensionality and assimilation of the proper part to the whole, as the background of the theme of (asymmetric) story-telling.

Argentina↗
PubMed1991

A semiotic perspective on chronic pain: implications for the interaction between patient and physician.

A semiotic conceptualization of pain in the chronic pain syndrome is proposed. It is suggested that among chronic pain patients pain ceases to be an icon or an index and acquires a symbolic structure: this transformation interferes with the usual patient-physician relationship. The semiotic perspective on the structure of meaning in the chronic pain syndrome underlines the need to include a psychotherapeutic approach in the patient-physician relationship; specific aspects of the approach to chronic pain as a symbolic communication are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Infant social behavior in front of a mirror and in front of a familiar and an unfamiliar peer.

In this study, we explored the differences in infant social behaviors in front of the mirror and in front of a familiar and an unfamiliar peer. We assumed that infant social behaviors in front of the mirror constitute mainly an exploration of the mirror image characteristics. Our observations were videotaped and coded according to definitions of social behavior in infant-infant situations. The results obtained indicate that 6- to 13-month-old infants display significantly more frequent social behaviors in front of a mirror than in front of a familiar or an unfamiliar peer. These behaviors are characterized by tactile contact with the mirror surface, adapting the hand to this surface, and very frequent coordinated social behaviors. This pattern of social behaviors in front of the mirror is discussed and linked to the exploration of distinctive characteristics of the self-reflected image such as perfect synchronicity of movement and two-dimensionality.

Body Image↗
PubMed1990

Perceived temperamental characteristics and regulation of physiological stress: a study of wheezy babies.

Explored prospectively were the temperamental dimensions involved in the modulation of wheeziness in infancy. Subjects were 69 infants, 4 to 8 months old, referred to the emergency room because of wheeziness, and a control group of 30 infants, 4 to 8 months old, referred to the emergency room because of an acute illness other than wheeziness. Infant respiratory clinical score for wheeziness was registered and the Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire and a demographic questionnaire were completed. Fourteen months later the recurrence of wheeziness attacks--that is, asthma--was investigated. Maternal reports of infant's rhythmicity significantly improved the prediction of asthma among wheezy babies; wheezy babies were perceived as significantly less active than nonwheezy babies.

Arousal↗
PubMed1990

Self-perceptions of first- and second-grade children with learning disabilities.

The present study addressed the question of the effects of developmental positive bias and repeated experiences of failure on the self-perception of mainstreamed first-and second-grade Israeli children with learning disabilities. The self-perceptions of 44 children with learning disabilities and their 36 nondisabled classmates were assessed. In addition, teachers' evaluations and objective measures of cognitive performance and social acceptance were gathered. The children with learning disabilities were found to have a greater positive bias and lower self-perception in the cognitive competence domain than their normally achieving peers. Self-perceptions of peer acceptance among children with learning disabilities are similar to their normally achieving peers' self-perceptions, in spite of their significantly lower sociometric ratings and teacher evaluations in the social domain. These findings are analyzed in the context of the globality-specificity dimension of self-perceptions at the age level studied. The obtained pattern of self-perceptions is discussed in the light of the interrelationships between cognitive deficit and experimental factors among mainstreamed first- and second-grade children.

Achievement↗
PubMed1988

Teaching social sciences in the clinical years through psychosocial conferences.

A program for teaching the social sciences in the clinical years in medical school is described. This program focuses on psychosocial conferences (PSC) held during the clerkships in internal medicine, pediatrics, and surgery. The aim of the PSC is the integration of the knowledge and skills imparted in the preclinical social sciences curriculum with the students' clinical experiences. PSC teaching includes tutorial guidance throughout the student's preparation of a case presentation in which psychological, sociological, and anthropological aspects of the patients' coping with illness and the patient-physician interrelationship are emphasized.

Clinical Clerkship↗
PubMed1986

Self-recognition: a study of a population without mirrors.

The study of the influence of familiarity with mirrors on children's capacity to identify their reflected images permitted differentiation between two problems that confront the child in the mirror situation: (a) the identity of the image and (b) the capacity to relate mirror space to real space. Sixty children, 6 to 26 months old, without previous experience with mirrors, were observed systematically while discovering their mirror image and a reflected object. Their behavior was compared to a control group with habitual mirror familiarity. The results suggest that (a) self-recognition in the mirror is independent of the child's familiarity with reflecting surfaces and (b) the capacity to relate mirror to real space seems to be strongly influenced by previous experience with mirrors.

Affect↗