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L S Benjamin

Publications and source records attributed to L S Benjamin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Personality disorders: a discussion of current status and future directions for research, practice, and policy.

This article is the result of a panel discussion on future directions in personality disorders held at the 1998 Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research in Snowbird Utah. Three experts in the field of personality disorders were invited to participate in a dialogue on priorities and directions for research, practice, and policy in this area. Topics discussed amongst the panelists included the following: 1) relevance of psychotherapy process research for treatments of personality disorders, and potential fruitful directions for such research; 2) what has been learned from outcome research in treatment of personality disorders, and directions for such research that are likely to be most productive in improving treatments; 3) the extent to which research has influenced clinical practice and how existing gaps might be addressed; 4) policy questions related to payment for treatment of personality disorders.

Evidence-Based Medicine↗
PubMed1998

Perceptions of spouse dominance predict blood pressure reactivity during marital interactions.

Cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) has been identified as a potential mechanism linking a variety of psychosocial processes to the development of cardiovascular disease. Although the effects of hostile and supportive social stimuli on CVR have been studied extensively, less is known about the effects of a second major dimension of social relations--dominance versus submissiveness. In the present study, 45 married couples participated in an interaction task involving the assertion of differing opinions. Subjects also provided ratings of their typical level of dominance versus submissiveness in relation to their spouse. Consistent with predictions derived from related conceptual models of psychological determinants of CVR, blood pressure reactivity was positively associated with perceptions of the spouse as dominant. At the highest level of perceived spouse dominance, CVR was attenuated, again consistent with prediction. Results are discussed in terms of the usefulness of conceptual models of interpersonal relations and motivation as guides in studying the social determinants of CVR, as well as the value of marital interactions as a context for understanding CVR.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Recognizing comorbid personality disorder can help manage and treat the "untreatable".

Personality disorder is surprisingly prevalent. Clinical syndromes accompanied by personality disorder tend to be more severe, more treatment resistant, and more likely to recur than their counterparts. Learning to recognize personality disorder can enhance the efficacy of the clinician's management style and his or her ability to make appropriate plans for long-term psychotherapy. To assist diagnosis of personality disorder according to the DSM-IV, the authors present interpersonal descriptions and necessary and exclusionary conditions.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Sibling interactions, self-regulation, and cynical hostility in adult male twins.

Chronic hostility is associated with increased vulnerability to serious physical illness, making developmental influences on this trait important. We used the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB) model to examine retrospective descriptions of twin interactions during childhood in a sample of 48 adult male twin pairs. Consistent with previous research on parental behavior correlates, self-reported hostility as measured by the Cook and Medley Ho scale was associated with descriptions of the twin's behavior as hostile, controlling, and neglecting. Consistent with the SASB principle of introjection, hostility was also associated with self directed hostility and neglect. Thus, a developmental perspective not only describes possible social contexts involved in the emergence of this trait, but also suggests possible psychological underpinnings. Implications for models of hostility and health are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Special feature: personality disorders: models for treatment and strategies for treatment development.

A critical review of the literature suggests that the only approaches specific to the treatment of personality disorder that have been proven to be effective are behavioral, cognitive behavioral, or psychopharmacological. Those investigations have used a conventional protocol for clinical outcome studies commonly used in medical science. This protocol is described in a listing of Empirically Validated Therapies (EVT). The design calls for relatively brief treatments that are clearly operationalized, and studied in terms of symptom change in a treatment group relative to an appropriate clinical contrast group. It is argued here that such relatively brief studies of symptom or specific behavioral change do not address what is meant by personality disorder. The prevailing EVT model is challenged in two ways: (1) Efficacy of the approaches that have followed this model, namely the behavioral and psychopharmacological treatments, may have been overstated. (2) Because they are so brief, and because they assess symptoms, rather than relevant dynamic concepts like unconscious wishes and fears that organize personality, these protocols seem inappropriate to the study of effective treatment of personality disorder per se. Models that would be appropriate to treatment of personality disorder require testable causal theory rationally linked to treatment interventions, therapy process, and outcome measures. Some relevant modifications to research protocol for psychopharmacological, as well as psychosocial treatments, are suggested. A therapy approach that could meet these standards for testable causal theory is sketched.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Introduction to the special section on structural analysis of social behavior.

The structural analysis of social behavior (SASB) model dissects interpersonal and intrapsychic events into 3 underlying dimensions: (a) focus (on other, on self with other, and on self with self): (b) affiliation (love vs. hate); and (c), interdependence (enmeshment or dominance-submission vs. differentiation or emancipate-separate). Accompanied by predictive principles (similarity, opposition, complementarity, introjection, antithesis), the model can operationalize important aspects of a wide range of psychological events. Questionnaires, coding systems, and software permit the SASB model to be applied in a wide array of clinical and research contexts. It has been used by people of divergent theoretical persuasions including the interpersonal, cognitive-behavioral, client-centered, psychoanalytic, expressive, family, and group approaches. In this article, the model and its predictive principles are reviewed, along with examples of research, clinical, and theoretical applications. The articles in this section provided examples of especially creative and appropriate uses.

Ego↗
PubMed1996

A clinician-friendly version of the interpersonal circumplex: structural analysis of social behavior (SASB).

Like the original Interpersonal Circumplex (IPC), the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB) model was developed in the clinic. Different from and more complicated than the IPC, the SASB model nonetheless is parsimonious. It is consistent with Leary's (1957) original goal of bringing objectivity and clarity to the diagnostic process while acknowledging the complexity and variety of human nature. SASB applications extend from diagnosis into the domains of etiology and treatment. Specific advantages that accrue from the SASB model's more complex structure and assessment techniques include the ability to: (a) define both hostile and friendly differentiation, (b) specifically link social learning experiences with self-concept, (c) define several predictive principles on an a priori basis and confirm them in a variety of data sets, (d) assess personality at all 5 of Leary's levels, (e) define normality and pathology in qualitative rather than quantitative terms, (f) compare and contrast self-ratings with observer ratings using the same metric, (g) generate reasonable parallel models for affect and cognitive style that can help account for "comorbidity" between Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) Axes I and II, (h) make contributions to understanding personality as a hypothetical construct (i.e., to make testable predictions about etiology and specific treatment interventions), (i) dissect complex communications into their underlying components, and (j) accurately characterize a given relationship through a relatively brief sample of behavior.

Humans↗
PubMed1994

Social perceptions and borderline personality disorder: the relation to mood disorders.

We used the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB) to compare the social perceptions of borderline, unipolar, and bipolar-depressed inpatients. As predicted, borderline subjects differed from bipolar-depressed and unipolar subjects in their social perceptions. Borderline subjects viewed their relationships to their mother, hospital staff, and other patients as more hostile and autonomous than did mood disordered subjects. The results are discussed in terms of an integrative theory of borderline personality that considers the psychobiology of interpersonal relationships and attachment disruptions.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Long-term retrospective studies on the CT-scan, CAD/CAM, one-stage surgery hydroxyapatite-coated subperiosteal implants, including human functional retrievals.

The subperiosteal implant has long been regarded as the most successful, predictable, and versatile of all implant systems. In some cases, however, anatomic morphology and surgical technique present certain limitations for the subperiosteal procedure. Through CAD/CAM multiplanar diagnostic imaging, not only have we been able to eliminate the first stage of the surgical procedure, but we have expanded the capabilities and versatility of the subperiosteal procedure. In addition, coating the subperiosteal implant frame with hydroxyapatite has allowed the achievement of bony union, thus increasing the long-range prognosis of the individual case.

Aged↗
PubMed1989

Is chronicity a function of the relationship between the person and the auditory hallucination?

Thirty psychiatric inpatients each rated their relationship with their auditory hallucination using the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior questionnaires which assess partnerships in terms of interpersonal focus, love-hate, and enmeshment-differentiation. Results showed that all subjects had integrated, interpersonally coherent relationships with their voice. Qualitative differences in the nature of the relationships related meaningfully to diagnosis. Selected clinical excerpts suggested that the relationship with the hallucination may serve an adaptive function. Chronicity may be dependent on the nature of that adaptation.

Chronic Disease↗
PubMed1986

Operational definition and measurement of dynamics shown in the stream of free associations.

The study of sequences in the stream of consciousness during patient free association and self observation has long been held by psychoanalysts to be a major part of successful psychotherapy. Yet there have been essentially no methods for rigorously quantifying and studying the dynamic relations implied by the sequencing of patient verbalizations. The present paper proposes that Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (Benjamin 1974) offers a means operationally to define and study dynamics as they are shown in the stream of consciousness from a productive patient hour. The method is demonstrated on a woman who became suicidal following maternal phone calls even though the conversations were seemingly "nice." SASB codes were made by nonclinicians, and the dynamics emerged from the computer analyses of the codes. The SASB-based ability objectively to define dynamics in the stream of consciousness offers opportunities reliably to identify different dynamics in different cases and relate them to different possible therapeutic interventions and outcomes.

Female↗
PubMed1985

Intimacy and depression in older women.

This study examines the effects of the qualities of intimate relationships on depression in older women. The data are from a study of women over 50, randomly selected from five census tracts in Madison, Wisconsin, who were given questionnaires about depression and the quality of their intimate relationships on two occasions (summer of 1978 and summer of 1979). The results showed that some dimensions of the relationships that the women described with their most significant others predicted depression. The more depressed the women were, the more they felt that (1) the relationship was less friendly, (2) their friendly feelings were not reciprocated by the significant other, (3) their relationship was less consistent and predictable, and (4) there was less time spent with the significant other in the best state. These findings are discussed as partially consistent with Seligman's arguments on the comparability of his "learned helplessness" model and depression and with the focus of cognitive theories of Beck and others on the role of perceptions and expectations in depression.

Aged↗
PubMed1980

Marital conflict and sexual dysfunction in alcoholic and non-alcoholic couples.

Marital interaction appears to be relevant to alcoholism. This study compares two groups of couples, each presenting with sexual dysfunction. One group has an alcoholic member in each couple, one group does not. Data are presented suggesting that alcoholic marriages can be distinguished in a clinically useful way, from other troubled marriages. Alcoholic husbands feel submissive, but are not being forced by their wives to be so. This suggests a therapeutic approach different from the one that would be taken if the wives were actually dominating.

Adult↗