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Biomedical subjects

M J Horowitz

Publications and source records attributed to M J Horowitz.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1990

A model of mourning: change in schemas of self and other.

The mourning process may serve an evolutionary purpose, one that has allowed maximum survival characteristics. By passage through the phases of grief, the bereaved person prepares to make new commitments to others and to accept new personal roles. This passage involves an unconscious change in mental structures of meanings about the self and other people. This paper examines mourning in terms of such person schemas.

Grief↗
PubMed1979

A field study of the stress response syndrome. Young women after hysterectomy.

The symptom pattern previously delineated as the stress response syndrome in a mental health setting was hypothesized to be useful in conceptualizing reactions to a traumatic event in a nonpsychiatric patient population. The experience of loss resulting from nonelective hysterectomy for benign disease in women of childbearing age was selected as a relevant field study model. Twenty-eight women were studied one year after hysterectomy, using extensive psychological interviewing by women clinicians and experiential rating scales. Twelve subjects had a mild stress response syndrome, and five subjects had a serious level of intrusive and avoidant symptoms. Increasing severity of response was associated with persisting child-wish, deterioration in sexual functioning, and change in self-concept. Women who did well postoperatively generally had no future wish for children and were actively committed to achievement outside of the home.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1979

Analysis of patient states and state transitions.

Psychiatric diagnoses and formulations have classically focused on the chief complaint of the patient as part of a larger pattern of episodes and reactions. This is a form of state analysis in which the problem states of a person are carefully described and distinguished from other states. The authors suggest methods for deepening such formulations by grounding description of problem states in models of other states and models of state transitions. The resultant method of state analysis can be applied to examination of change processes during treatment as well as to initial diagnostic formulations. As an example of its use and possible extension to quantification, state analysis is applied to description of status and change in a person treated by brief psychotherapy. Because state analysis is based on observable behavior and reportable conscious experiences, it serves as a useful beginning point upon which to anchor more extended inferences about psychodynamics.

Emotions↗
PubMed1977

Reactions of transcendental meditators and nonmeditators to stress films. A cognitive study.

To experimentally test the claimed stress-reducing effects of Transcendental Meditation (TM), two stress films were shown to a group of 60 meditators and nonmeditators. Stress response was observed through the use of cognitive and affective measures employing content analysis techniques and self-ratings. The meditators did not show less stress response than the nonmeditators. On several self-rating scales, a group of subjects who had signed up to be initiated into TM rated themselves significantly more stressed and emotionally distressed than either a control group or meditators. There was a trend for meditators who meditated during the experiment to show less stress response to the films than meditators who were told not to meditate; however, this difference was significant on only one measure, a subjective stress scale.

Cognition↗
PubMed1977

Cognitive and interactive aspects of splitting.

The author discusses splitting, the segregation of multiple inner schemata of self and others, from the points of view of cognitive structure, cognitive process, anad interpersonal transaction. A case example illustrates how one borderline patient shifted fluidly during therapy among four isolated and sometimes incompatible representations of the doctor-patient relationship. The author concludes that therapists working with borderline patients must be aware of atypical transference patterns and may have to introduce, as a special nuance of therapy, work to stabilize patients' realistic self- and therapist images before offering interpretations.

Cognition↗
PubMed1977

The response to stress.

The normal response to stress can be understood in terms of periods of outcry, denial, and intrusive thoughts leading to working-through to completion. The general physician who understands this pattern can assist the patient through the denial phase by encouraging ventilation and through the intrusive phase by providing structure, advice, and medication to temper the painful feelings. With such assistance, most patients can integrate the stress event into their lives, with the duration of response related to the severity of the stress. A year of stress response after the death of a loved one is common. Psychiatric referral is indicated if the stress response seems unduly prolonged, has lead to maladjustive reactions, is disproportionate to the actual loss, or threatens to overwhelm the person.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1977

Visual imagery and defensive processes.

The ideas and feelings that a patient usually avoids gain expression in therapy as words, images, or acts. The model presented of these representational systems conceptualizes defensive processes as information processing decisions at the boundaries of particular systems and describes in detail the cognitive maneuvers that regulate image formation. Specification of these operations allows for acute observation and selective wording of the interpretation and direction on the part of the therapist that may help a patient override unconscious defenses by conscious choice.

Cognition↗
PubMed1975

Intrusive and repetitive thoughts after experimental stress. A summary.

Clinical research indicates a tendency to compulsive repetitions of traumatic experiences. Such phenomena have not been studied experimentally and so the generality of the tendency has been uncertain. With development of operational definitions and content analysis techniques, it was possible to quantity and examine intrusive and stimulus-repetitive thought in a series of experiments with controlled variations in subject selection, stimuli, demand set, and context. Comparison of data across experiments indicates a tendency toward intrusive and stimulus-repetitive thought that is not restricted to "traumas" or a few predisposed individuals. Intrusive and repetitive thought appears to be a general stress-response tendency seen in a large proportion of persons after even mild to moderately stressful events. It is concluded that the intrusive repetitions observed clinically are extreme forms of this general stress-response tendency.

Affect↗
PubMed1975

A cognitive model of hallucinations.

Hallucinations occur in a wide variety of altered states of consciousnes and are an important symptom in various psychiatric syndromes. Several psychological and biological theories of their origin have offered, ranging from the concept of wish fulfillment, to the hypothesis of an electorchemical release of the perceptual system, to denials that hallucinatory phenomena exist. No explanation has completely satisfied clinicans, probably because the word "hallucination" labels a complex set of phenomena. The author accepts this complexity and offers a conceptual analysis of four key dimensions of the halucinatory experience in an attempt to clarify the gamut of experiences that may be called hallucinations.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1975

Sliding meanings: a defense against threat in narcissistic personalities.

Narcissistic defects are often associated with the use of habitual defensive operations in which meanings are shifted in order to protect the self-concept. Such cognitive maneuvers, used as a character style, not only protect against threatening ideas and emotional responses, but also lead to a constellation of traits and patterns of relationship that constitute a narcissistic personality disorder. Reconstruction, with clear designations of a self-as-actor, are useful in the psychotherapy of such persons provided that these reconstructions are done with the utmost tact and concern for maintenance of the therapeutic relationship.

Attention↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Benign paroxysmal positonal vertigo: A clinical study.

Summary--Ru-Vert, a combination product, containing in each tablet, 25 mg of pentylenetetrazol, 12.5 mg of pheniramine maleate, and 50 mg of nictonic acid, was evaluated in the treatment of seventeen patients with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. The study was double-blind with crossover. Ru-Vert at a dosage of two tablets t.i.d. was found to reduce significantly the nystagmus and the vertigo induced by Hallpike maneuvers in these patients.

Adult↗