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Biomedical subjects

J Slochower

Publications and source records attributed to J Slochower.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Erotic complications.

The author argues that erotic transference-countertransference dynamics present particular complexities when they develop between gender constellations other than male analyst and female patient. She addresses the dynamics of a complicated erotic transference in concert with an aversive countertransference response as it evolved between a female analyst and female patient. The intense erotic transference that developed defied classification as either maternallerotic or oedipallerotic, and instead included both features in a rapidly shifting process that was difficult to address analytically. The analyst's confused, often aversive, response to her patient's erotic wishes ultimately revealed a subtle re-enactment involving split-off and erotised experiences of emotional penetration and scrutiny. When these issues were addressed, the erotic transference dissolved, and the analyst's experience of her patient shifted rather dramatically. It is suggested that complex erotic transference sometimes contains within it evidence of previously repressed object experiences that were not primarily sexual in nature.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Illusion and uncertainty in psychoanalytic writing.

Psychoanalytic writing may be viewed as a particular version of creative process. As such, it evokes many of the self and object-related anxieties and conflicts associated with creative expression. This paper considers the role of illusion in facilitating an entry into the psychoanalytic writing process in the light of contemporary relational and feminist perspectives. It is suggested that the writer who struggles to write may engage certain real or internalized object experiences to retreat to a transitional idealized self-state and to enter the writing process. Two variants of this subjective state are described, based on Winnicott's notion of 'being' and 'doing' as underlying dimensions of human experience. Each self-state excludes a particular set of self- and object-related anxieties and creates a temporary illusion of creative certainty. That illusion helps the writer temporarily to avoid self-doubt and anxiety in order to enter the creative arena Ultimately, however, the protected writing space must expand if the writer is to address and integrate the world of psychoanalytic ideas within the writer's own creative process. This process is illustrated by a description of the evolution of my own experience as a psychoanalytic writer.

Female↗
PubMed1991

Variations in the analytic holding environment.

The concept of the holding environment has been used previously to characterize the treatment needs of severely regressed patients (Winnicott, 1963b). This holding of dependence is contrasted with the holding needs of narcissistic, apparently disengaged patients (Modell, 1976). The present paper considers the type of holding required by difficult, borderline patients. It is suggested that these borderline patients need a holding of their ruthlessness and rage, and also of analytic self blame. Clinical vignettes describe the holding of an anxiously demanding and of an overtly hateful borderline patient. The patient in a holding environment evokes widely divergent countertransference reactions. These range from maternal nurturing feelings with extremely dependent patients (usually those emerging from profoundly schizoid states), to feelings of annihilation with narcissistic patients and of deep self doubt, anger and destructive wishes with demanding or hateful borderline patients. In the treatment of narcissistic and borderline patients, the holding environment metaphor may help the analyst tolerate these difficult countertransference feelings. Clinical examples of each type of countertransference reaction are presented.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Effects of degree of obesity, age of onset, and weight loss on responsiveness to sensory and external stimuli.

Four experiments tested responsiveness to external and sensory stimuli in female human subjects who differed in degree of overweight and in age of onset of their obesity. The effects of weight loss upon external responsiveness were assessed by testing subjects before and after weight reduction in order to determine the role of energy deficit and deprivation in mediating heightened responsiveness to external cues. There was no significant positive correlation between degree of overweight and degree of external responsiveness. In general, the age of onset of the obesity was also not a relevant factor in the degree of externality. Weight loss did not change responses to visual and cognitive cue salience manipulations in measures of feeding, emotionality, time perception, and short-term recall, whereas responsiveness to variations in palatability increased following weight reduction. While external cue responsiveness does not appear to result from adiposity per se or from deprivation, responsiveness to taste stimuli may reflect these parameters. The role of external and sensory cues in the development and maintenance of obesity is discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Externality in the nonobese: effects of environmental responsiveness on weight.

The study considered whether external responsiveness in normal weight people would predict changes in eating behavior and weight following major alteration of environmetnal food cues. Normal weight children were tested for externality on measures of eating, slide recall, and extremity of affective responsiveness during the first week of a summer camp, and were weighed biweekly thereafter. There was a significant correlation between externality and weight change, indicating that the more externally responsive the children were, the more weight they gained. The implications of this finding for theories about the development of obesity were considered.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Emotional labeling and overeating in obese and normal weight individuals.

It was hypothesized that obese individuals respond to unlabeled high arousal by overeating, while no such response was predicted for labeled high arousal states. Obese and normal weight subjects were led to believe that they were hearing their own heart beat, and that it was either fast or slow. A label for this heart rate either was or was not provided, and subjects' eating behavior was measured unobtrusively. The results supported these hypotheses: aroused obese subjects ate more when they could not identify the cause of their arousal than when a label was known. When obese subjects were calm, the presence or absence of a label did not affect their eating. Furthermore, obese subjects showed significant affect reduction following eating. Normal weight subjects were not affected by the presence or absence of an arousal label. Instead, they ate more when they called themselves calm than when anxious, and more when hungry than when full.

Affect↗