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Biomedical subjects

C Neuringer

Publications and source records attributed to C Neuringer.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

Freud and the theatre.

Theatre historians credit Freud and his theories for being the prime impetus for the birth of the modern theatre. Freud's theatre-going activities varied throughout his life. In his younger days, he seemed to enjoy attending performances. In later life, he rarely went to the theatre except for an occasional Mozart opera or Shakespeare play. When writing about the drama, he tended to deal with it as a literary product rather than as a performed event. On only one occasion did he communicate to a friend that the healing cathartic effect of art might be greatest when viewing the drama. Although credited with being the "father" of the modern theatre, Freud was somewhat skeptical about its artistic merits and was certainly concerned about its emphasis on the irrational. However reluctant Freud was about modern dramaturgy, his ideas had a profound effect on playwrights, such as Schnitzler and O'Neill, and through them was instrumental in freeing the theatre from its Victorian moral straitjacket. Freud's ideas also served as the background for other psychoanalysts interested in the theatre, especially Otto Fenichel, who wrote the seminal paper on the actor's personality.

Character

On the question of homosexuality in actors.

There is a belief that a high percentage of male actors are homosexual. The specific linking of actors and homosexuality seems to have first appeared in the Elizabethan Puritan condemnations of the theater. Psychoanalytic theory has tended to further promulgate the linkage between effeminacy, homosexuality, and acting. An analysis of the relevant existing empirical literature indicates that few studies have addressed themselves to evaluating this relationship. Those studies supporting the effeminacy-actor relationship were seriously flawed both in design (e.g., use of indirect measures to infer homosexuality) and interpretation of the data. Only one study used direct measures of sexual orientation. Even though that study had methodological problems, its results indicated that the percentage of homosexuality among actors was not verifiably greater than that found in the general population. It is felt that the current belief of greater homosexuality in actors, as compared to the general population, is a product of our Puritan heritage, the actor's unconventionality, and of public flaunting of the homoerotic behavior of that portion of actors that are homosexual.

Drama

The semantic perception of life, death and suicide.

Gathered semantic distance scores between pairs of concepts (life and death, life and suicide, and death and suicide) from suicidal, psychosomatic, and hospitalized patients (N = 45). It was hypothesized that suicidal individuals would show greater semantic identity between these concepts than would the other patients. It was thought that such semantic identity on the part of the other patients. It was thought that such semantic identity on the part of the suicidal individuals would reflect their inability to discriminate between these concepts. However, it was found that the suicidal individuals differentiated between life and death to a significantly greater degree than did the comparison groups. It may be that suicidal decisions are based more on being confronted by definite clear alternative states of existence than by confusion between them.

Adult

MMPI cannot say scores: normative data and degree of profile distortion.

Few previous studies have investigated MMPI Cannot Say scores (the number of items people omit in completing the MMPI). Study 1 examined the frequency of occurrence of omitted items in three different populations. A significantly higher proportion of complete MMPI answer sheets (no omitted items) was found among job applicants than among two psychiatric groups, and the vast majority of test subjects in all three groups responded to all items. Study 2 investigated the degree of profile distortion introduced by randomly omitting various numbers of MMPI items from complete answer sheets. As more MMPI items were omitted, there was a progressive reduction in the elevation of the MMPI profile, but several different analyses failed to reveal a definite point at which the number of omitted items clearly became excessive. Changes in the profile's high-point pair were sometimes produced by numbers of omitted items previously considered to be expected in a "normal" MMPI record. This type of profile distortion could alter significantly the interpretation of a profile. Changes were therefore suggested in the T-score values for the Cannot Say scale given on the standard profile.

Ambulatory Care

An evaluation of an MMPI response consistency measure.

Response inconsistency as an index for invalidating MMPI protocols was investigated by measuring the number of inconsistent responses given to 14 pairs of identical items by brain-damaged and nonbrain-damaged schizophrenic, alcoholic, neurotic and normal patients (n = 22 in each of the 8 groups). In addition the patient's number of inconsistent responses were correlated with the usual MMPI validity measures (?, L, F and K). Although all the response consistency scores of the groups were high it was found that the brain-damaged were more response inconsistent than the nonbrain-damaged patients (regardless of psychiatric diagnoses). The correlations between response inconsistency and the MMPI validity measures were significant but low. Because of the over-all high level of response consistency found for all the groups, it was concluded that MMPI protocol validity should be based on the validity scale measures, rather than upon response inconsistency.

Adult