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Biomedical subjects

M Robbins

Publications and source records attributed to M Robbins.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

Use of audiotape recording in impasses with severely disturbed patients.

The psychoanalytically oriented treatment of patients with severe personality disorders is characterized by impasses and by efforts to resolve them. Patient audiotape recording and review of sessions can be a particularly useful technical parameter in such situations. When judiciously employed, it is unusual, if not unique, in that it selectively amplifies the power of traditional elements of technique as well as some of the constructive elements of the analytic process itself, while reducing the power of some of the destructive elements of the transference. Indications for using this parameter are discussed, case illustrations presented, and hypotheses advanced about its mode of action. No single element of technique is responsible for the success or failure of analysis. The most that can be expected of tape recording is that it help break up the treatment log jam and facilitate further work.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

The adaptive significance of destructiveness in primitive personalities.

Destructiveness in primitive personalities is not restricted to a segment of the person as it is in the case of neurotics, but is global and pervasive. This destructiveness is meaningfully configured in a manner which cannot fully be accounted for by constitutional factors or be comprehended from the individual, intrapsychic, conflictual viewpoint of classical psychoanalysis. It follows an interpersonally meaningful pattern and therefore has adaptive significance in the contemporary life of the individual. The adaptive model I propose does not violate essential canons of psychoanalytic theory, for it can simultaneously be conceptualized in terms of intrapsychic structure and dynamics. This model holds out the possibility for a therapeutic approach to primitive personality organization which differs in some but by no means all respects from classical analysis.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1987

The in-vitro activity of doxycycline and minocycline against anaerobic bacteria.

The likelihood of bacterial resistance now prevents the use of oxytetracycline in the empirical therapy of anaerobic infections. This study investigates the in-vitro activity of two semi-synthetic derivatives, doxycycline and minocycline, against a range of anaerobic bacteria. MICs for each antibiotic were determined by an agar incorporation technique. Doxycycline and minocycline were four to eight times more active against the majority of strains than oxytetracycline. With the exception of Bacteroides bivius, almost 90% of strains were inhibited by 4 mg/l of doxycycline or minocycline, but resistance to the same concentration of oxytetracycline was present in 60% of the B. fragilis group, 30% of Peptostreptococcus spp. and 24% of Clostridium perfringens. Doxycycline and minocycline represent an alternative therapy for anaerobic infections where bacterial sensitivities are known.

Bacteria, Anaerobic↗
PubMed1983

Anaerobiospirillum species isolated from humans with diarrhoea.

Flagellated anaerobic motile spiral bacteria were isolated from the faeces of two patients with diarrhoea. They were recovered by the microaerophilic culture method used to detect campylobacters but demanded anaerobic conditions for subculture. Electron microscopy and other investigations showed them to be closely related to Anaerobiospirillum succiniproducens first described in beagle dogs and subsequently in three humans with bacteraemia.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Narcissistic personality as a symbiotic character disorder.

I have attempted to integrate our theoretical understanding of a particular group of borderline and narcissistic personalities and to relate their development to mother-infant failure to form a normal symbiotic bond, and pathological efforts to compensate. I have attempted to preserve and to integrate some of the valuable contributions of Kernberg and Kohut while, hopefully, avoiding the pitfalls of each theoretical system. The result is a theory of dissociated possession configurations and their actualization in relationships. This is neither a theory of nature (innate rage) nor of nurture (maternal failure) but of the pathological form of adaptation in which objects are used as possessions in order to compensate for absent structures. Whereas the primary introject of the borderline personalities is unmitigatedly self-destructive, the narcissistic personalities have formed a more complex introject including a conditional symbiotic representation, the maintenance of which involves active dissociation of object related needs. The conditional symbiotic relationship, in turn, is a stabilizing and constructive force in his relationships.

Depressive Disorder↗
PubMed1980

A radioimmunoassay for immunologic phenomena in pneumococcal disease and for the antibody response to pneumococcal vaccines. I. Method for the radioimmunoassay of anticapsular antibodies and comparison with other techniques.

A radioimmunossay is described which uses a 14C biosynthetically internally labeled antigen. This modified Farr technique has been standardized by quantitative precipitation and compared with hemagglutination and mouse protection. Specificity was established by use of heterologous hyperimmune sera and by use of unlabeled pneumococcal polysaccharides for inhibition. Reproducibility has been evaluated for different preparations of antigens and varying storage conditions of sera. The system has been applied to a wide variety of studies requiring analysis of human and animal sera.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Digitalis and myocardial infarction in man.

The use of digitalis after acute myocardial infarction is controversial. The effect of digoxin on computer-quantitated thallium-201 perfusion scintigrams (Tl-201), left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF), and percentage of abnormally contracting LV regions (% ACR) was determined in 23 patients. A correlation was established between creatine kinase MB isoenzyme release and initial radionuclide-gated blood pool wall motion estimates of EF (r = -0.73) and % ACR (r = 0.71). After radionuclide assessments, 14 patients received digoxin 18 +/- 23 hours (mean +/- SD) after the rise in CK-MB from baseline, while the remaining nine patients served as controls. In the control group, the mean EF was 0.33 +/- 0.12 on the first study and 0.30 +/- 0.08 on the second study (p = NS). In the digoxin group, the EF after digoxin administration (mean 0.33 +/- 0.11) was significantly different from the initial EF (mean 0.29 +/- 0.09, p less than 0.03); however, digoxin had no apparent effect on infarct size as assessed by sequential % ACR and Tl-201 perfusion data. These data indicate that digoxin resulted in a minimal but significant improvement in EF that did not occur at the expense of LV perfusion or regional wall motion.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Current controversy in object relations theory as outgrowth of a schism between Klein and Fairbairn.

The paper examines the controversy in object relations theory between Kernberg and Kohut from two vantage points, one historical and the other contemporary. By striving to be critically equidistant from both theories we hope to avoid either-or thinking and to address larger questions about the state of object relations theory. Historically the controversy reincarnates a seemingly forgotten schism between Klein and Fairbairn from the preceding psychoanalytic generation. First Klein and now Kernberg has contributed to our understanding of developmentally and pathologically primitive states characterized by absence of integration, incompleteness of self-object differentiation, and prominence of aggression. In so doing they fail to make sufficient distinctions between the neonatal psyche, the more mature psyche, and the neurotic and psychotic psychic apparatuses. First Fairbairn and now Kohut has brought to our attention the importance of the pre-object relationship in early development and primitive psychopathology, but neither has conceptualized meaningful psychic events prior to subjective integration. Their theories, like those of Klein and Kernberg, also condense more and less well differentiated phases of development. For example, Kohut postulates completely separate development of the self and of object relations. The polarization of the current controversy need not force us to choose between theories. We might better aspire to a more comprehensive theory which includes elements from each but which makes clearer distinctions between normal development, pathological development, normal adult functioning and adult psychopathology.

Aggression↗