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Biomedical subjects

M H Spero

Publications and source records attributed to M H Spero.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1990

Portal aspects of memory overlay in psychoanalysis. An object relations contribution to screen memory phenomena.

Distortion in screen memories illustrates the unique manner in which part-object representations unite perceptions from different temporal periods. "Portal" aspects of a given source memory designate anachronistic distortions borrowed from perceptions at a subsequent time when the source memory and its full emotional significance attempted access to consciousness. The unconscious perception of recall at the subsequent occasion is represented by the appearance of portal details in the source dream. The portal concept is related to object relations theory and the psychology of memory.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Psychoanalytic reflections on a particular form of language distortion.

A female obsessive patient communicated with her sister via a distortion of the Hebrew language, in which she masculinized the feminine gender second person pronoun and certain nouns. This treatment of words is analyzed in terms ranging from the concrete to the metaphoric uses of language. Lacan's emphasis on the meaning of the word is explored and is seen as an amplification rather than a replacement of the object relations approach to language and metaphor.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Countertransference envy toward the religious patient.

Four illustrations have been presented which demonstrate the uses and interpretations of envy in countertransference reactions to religious patients. To be sure, envy reactions to any patient are significant, whether they simply distort the therapist's perception or contribute to a deeper understanding of the patient. In the case of the religious patient, envy reactions in the therapist may serve as an additional instrumentality for under-standing the ways in which the dynamic determinants of religious behavior and metaphor become enmeshed in and also transform the pathology of the patient as well as the therapeutic process itself. Both the constructive and destructive object relational implications of envy must be borne in mind by the therapist in order to adequately explore the range of reciprocating forces between therapist and patient. Primitive mechanisms such as projective identification and psychotic transference are particularly prone to evoke envy reactions of surprising intensities, yet an empathic attitude will usually enable the therapist to differentiate the true source of his envy as he more carefully comprehends the quality of object relational and dynamic needs such envy serves.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Qualities of object relations and field dependence in alcoholic and recovered alcoholic males.

Contemporary research suggests an interaction among disordered cognitive, perceptual, and object relational ego functions in the etiology of alcohol abuse. The present study hypothesizes a correlation between extreme field dependence, representing an impairment in cognitive-synthetic functioning, and poor self-other differentiation and clarity of object representation, characterizing impaired object relations functioning. Groups of normals, alcoholics, remitted alcoholics, and psychiatric inpatients (30 Ss each) were administered the Embedded Figures Test and measures of quality of self-other differentiation. The groups tended to differ in severity of impairments as predicted, and a positive correlation was found across the entire sample between inadequate self-other differentiation and cognitive field dependence, although this correlation did not produce a significant group effect. The evidence of impairment among remitted alcoholics suggests that the impairments demonstrated cannot be attributed to current alcohol abuse.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Identity and individuality in the nouveau-religious patient: theoretical and clinical aspects.

Revitalized interest in the clinical complexities of psychotherapy with religious patients (for example, Bradford 1984; Lovinger 1984; Spero 1985a; Stern 1985) has drawn attention to the need for perspectives on religious personality development that account for healthy and adaptational aspects as well as psychopathological aspects of particular forms and levels of religious beliefs, enabling more creative, enriching psychotherapy. This search represents movement beyond the significance of infantile wish-fulfillment aspects of religiosity toward the broader domain of ego functioning and quality of object relations. Rizzuto (1976, 1979) and McDargh (1983) emphasize qualitative similarities between interpersonal object representations and God representations. Elkind (1971), using a Piagetian model, views religious beliefs and rituals as forms of constructive adaptation to normal cognitive needs for conservation, representation, symbols of relation, and comprehension. Meissner (1984) highlights the role of God concepts as transitional phenomena. In earlier papers, I have demonstrated the relationship between patients' use of religious themes and legends, quality of psychosexual and object relational achievements, and the consolidation of religious identity (Spero 1982a,b, 1986a,b). Throughout the preceding there is unequivocal recognition that religious development recapitulates many important aspects of healthy psychological development, and that in the case of pathological or dysfunctional religiosity something has gone wrong in an otherwise normal process. There is need to understand and if necessary distinguish between the development of religious belief in individuals whose ideological commitment is relatively constant from earliest childhood and its development in those who adopt or modify religious belief in later life, in conjunction with the many technical implications for psychotherapy. Clinical experience has taught that the process of religious change in later life represents a significant psychosocial crisis, requiring certain important psychological tasks in order to achieve successful resolution. In some instances, generally when there are preexisting difficulties or psychiatric disorders, the process of ideological change, either at the onset or during subsequent stages, takes on psychopathological momentum and quality. Clinicians who intervene at this juncture are confronted with patients whose primary complaints include malfunction in their religious lives or misuse of religious metaphor or behavior enmeshed with mild to serious personality disorder.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

The reality and the image of God in psychotherapy.

I have suggested that the plea for increased respect for the religious patient's perspectives demands a willingness on the psychotherapist's part to acknowledge the unique reality of the patient's relationships with religious objects, a reality which extends beyond the assumptions and predicates of standard interpersonal models of human behavior. At the same time, the psychotherapist can legitimately expect of the religious patient a willingness (notwithstanding the customary resistances) to expose his or her religious feelings and relationships to the type of analysis which attempts to clarify the nature and quality of the interpersonal or psychodynamic bases and implications of religious material. The psychotherapist can not arbitrate moral claims and decisions for the patient, nor rightfully present himself as possessing the single, "true" understanding of religious experience. Yet the therapist can invite the patient to examine the moral implications of his psychological experiences and the psychological impact and consequences of his religious experiences. What knowledge we as psychotherapists possess about human nature can be used to influence changes in the lives of our patients which they find useful and relevant for living in the world they have created for themselves. But we must, I think, humbly anticipate qualities of human nature and relationship whose ultimate meanings may defy every convention and paradigm.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Thoughts on computerized psychotherapy.

This essay looks at the eventuality of computerized psychotherapy and attempts a philosophical analysis of the value, limitations, and efficacy of such hypothetical computerized psychotherapy devices (CPDs). The essential thesis is that while computers may be 'intellectually' capable of performing certain skills that have up until now been associated wholly with the human mind, still other, affective responses, such as empathy, sympathy and compathy, are not within the CPD's ken. Thus, in cases where such affective potential is believed to be a therapeutic necessity, the possibility of the CPD as an effective therapeutic agent may be undesirable.

Affect↗