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Biomedical subjects

G S Moran

Publications and source records attributed to G S Moran.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1993

The roles of mental representations and mental processes in therapeutic action.

In this paper we describe two models of the psychoanalytic treatment of mental disturbance. The first describes the mechanism by which the patient is helped to recover threatening ideas and feelings which have been repudiated or distorted as a result of conflict and defense. The second points to the therapeutic effects of engaging previously inhibited mental processes within the psychoanalytic encounter. The two forms of therapeutic action imply two distinct means available to the individual to deal with psychological conflict. They highlight different aspects of the psychoanalytic process and technique in child and adult psychoanalysis.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Aggression and the psychological self.

In this paper we explore the idea of aggression as a defence against threats to the psychological self. This aspect of the self allows reflection about people in psychological terms and develops, in the first three years of life, through appreciation of mental states in the other. When the object is unpredictable or hostile, recognition of this is painful to the child, and his reflective function will not be adequately established. The defences of aggression or avoidance will be invoked very frequently. In time, aggression may become an organising influence in the construction of the self; pathological destructiveness then takes the place of emotional relatedness and concern for the other. Psychoanalytic treatment no longer works primarily by addressing conflict. Instead, particularly through interpretations of transference and countertransference, the analyst recreates an intersubjective process which enhances the patient's reflective self, this time in the safety of a benign relationship.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Studies on the efficacy of child psychoanalysis.

This article summarizes 3 studies that evaluated the psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic treatment of diabetic children and adolescents with grossly abnormal blood glucose profiles necessitating repeated admissions to hospital. Study 1 used time series analysis to demonstrate that improvements in control were predicted by unconscious themes emerging in the analytic material. Study 2 compared the effect of psychotherapeutic treatment with that of minimal psychological intervention in two well-matched groups (n = 11). Patients in the treatment group were offered psychoanalytic psychotherapy 3-4 times per week on the hospital ward. The intervention was highly effective in improving the diabetic control of the children, and this improvement was maintained at 1-year follow-up. Study 3 used single-case experimental design to demonstrate the marked effect of psychotherapeutic help on growth in diabetic children with short stature.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1987

Psychoanalysis and diabetic control: a single-case study.

The records of the 3 1/2 year, five times weekly psychoanalysis of a diabetic teenager with recurrent diabetic imbalance were examined using non-experimental single-case design methodology. A selected set of analytic themes was operationalized and independently rated for each week of the psychoanalysis. A weekly index of the quality of diabetic balance was also obtained for the same period. Time series analysis was used to examine the relationship between psychoanalytic themes and glycosuria. Two themes of psychic conflict were found to predict short-term changes in diabetic control. In the long term the verbalization of conflict was strongly associated with improved diabetic control. The results are discussed in terms of a psychoanalytic model of adaptation to diabetes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Psychological adjustment and diabetic control.

Glycosylated haemoglobin concentrations, C peptide secretion, insulin dose, psychiatric state, intellectual functioning, and the extent to which the implementation of the diabetic regimen was shared between parent and child were studied in a cross sectional study of 50 children with diabetes aged 6-16. Indications of psychological disturbance in the children and their parents predicted low glycosylated haemoglobin concentrations in the children, and accounted for 44% of variance in blood glucose control. The child's early and independent participation in the implementation of the diabetic regimen was associated with poor control.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1987

[Interaction between psychological disorders and juvenile diabetes].

This article describes the profound impact that diabetes and its treatment can have on the different aspects of the personality of the child. The succession of stages of development, their force, the nature of internalized conflicts, the kind of defenses and their equilibrium, the structuration of the super ego and object relations are at risk of being distorted as a result of psychological problems related to the treatment of the illness. The restrictions and the suffering resulting from the treatment can become charged with psychic meaning and become the object of fantasy elaboration. Poor management of the treatment can become a metaphor for the actualization of instinctual derivatives or of unacceptable feelings and at the same time serve as a defense against the consciousness of psychic conflict. Inversely, the defenses against drives can be utilized to avoid the awareness of the real dangers inherent in the disease. These defenses interfere with a clear understanding of the illness and can be inferred from the distortions in the distorted body images and the fantasies of these children.

Adolescent↗