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Biomedical subjects

H A Guttman

Publications and source records attributed to H A Guttman.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1984

Families of borderline patients: literal-minded parents, borderline parents, and parental protectiveness.

While borderline personality disorder is a well-established psychiatric diagnosis, less is known about family functioning and interactional patterns in subjects with the disorder. The authors describe interactional patterns in families of borderline children where one parent has a severe personality disorder and the other fails to protect the child adequately against the effects of that psychopathology. Two types of parents are described: the literal-minded parent and the borderline parent. The literal-minded parent resembles an alexithymic patient, lacking the ability to empathically understand and respond to the child's feelings and needs. The borderline parent uses the child as the target of projections and reality distortions. Therapy should mobilize the active protective functions of the healthier parent.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Autonomy and motherhood.

Recently, increasing numbers of middle-class women have been choosing to continue to pursue their careers even during the early phases of their children's development. In some mental health circles, this has led to concern about the compatibility between motherhood and the autonomy which such women are demonstrating. Because of the canons of their training, most mental health professionals have definite expectations about the role of the mother in child development and a definite set of criteria for evaluating whether or not a given woman is a "good enough" mother. This underlying attitude is voiced in their concern with such questions as: "What are the boundaries between the woman's right to self-development and her legitimate pride in self-sustenance and the child's right to a psychologically available mother, who can act as a model and can guide her child's development?" Within this belief system, the notion of autonomy evokes not only the idea of self-fulfillment and independence but also the specter of selfishness and self-indulgence. Therefore, a mother's autonomy is viewed as being a rather suspect condition for the child's healthy growth and development. The object of this paper is to review the concept of the "good enough" mother, to examine and to define the concept of autonomy, and to consider whether or not the two can be compatible.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

The new androgyny: therapy of "liberated" couples.

Under the impact of women's liberation, many couples are seeking to develop relationships in which roles are less sex-linked and more androgynous. To help such couples and their families, therapists must re-examine and modify their own sexist preconceptions. However to be effective even the most "liberated" therapist and couple must distinguish between problems arising from sexism and from each member's personal history and psychodynamics.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Teaching family psychodynamics in a family practice center: one experience.

This paper describes a method of teaching family psychodynamics in a new family practice center. Initially, there were difficulties in engaging staff because of inappropriate teaching methods and personal and professional identity conflicts. Ultimately, a sequential program of video playbacks, live interviews and case conferences was developed. The residents' four-month rotation in psychiatry proved essential for developing comfort with psychological and familial aspects of psyical illness.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗