Biomedical subjects

Donald P Spence

Publications and source records attributed to Donald P Spence.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

Listening for rhetorical truth.

Associations are rarely as free as theory assumes; at the same time, they may tell us more than what appears on the surface. Memories, on the other hand, are rarely as reliable as they might appear. We are overtrained to listen to the unfolding story and to the narrative truth of the moment; much harder to capture is what might be called its rhetorical truth. Learning to listen for sequence, repetition, and co-occurrence tends to minimize the importance of the narrative thread and clarify instead the more suppressed meanings. In rare cases, we can even sense something of what the analysand is saying before it comes into awareness.

Free Association↗

PubMed2002

The virtual case report.

Reports of clinical happenings are coming under increasing suspicion because of their piecemeal nature and their problematic reliance on memory. Recent research on eyewitness testimony has raised the further concern that memory of an event can be easily and unwittingly influenced by something heard or seen after the fact. Once the psychoanalyst's memory has come under the influence of whatever theory is dominant, we can expect both an overselection of clinical happenings consistent with that theory, and an unwitting alteration of those that do not agree. Seemingly true case reports may be more virtual than veridical.

Adult↗