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Biomedical subjects

R C Simons

Publications and source records attributed to R C Simons.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1990

Our analytic heritage: ideals and idealizations.

The relation between ideals and idealizations is examined with regard to the aims of the American Psychoanalytic Association in advancing psychoanalytic education, practice, and research. Ideals are essential for preserving the past and as guides for the future. However, the idealizations that often develop in response to new discoveries and innovations may lead to a defensive clinging to the past as well as to an overly enthusiastic embrace of new ideas. Both these forms of idealization may serve as powerful resistances to creative and constructive change.

Curriculum↗
PubMed1987

Psychoanalytic contributions to psychiatric nosology: forms of masochistic behavior.

This paper summarizes the major strengths and weaknesses of current psychiatric nosology, and then discusses various forms of masochistic behavior as one illustration of how psychoanalysis can contribute to the continuing evolution of psychiatric nosology. Masochistic behavior is separated into behavior in which there is a predominantly conscious link between pleasure and pain, and behavior in which that link is predominantly unconscious. Both categories are further separated into normal and pathological forms. The current diagnostic category of dysthymic disorder is then discussed, with consideration given to the contribution that psychoanalysis can make toward the clarification and delineation of this heterogeneous diagnostic category.

Depressive Disorder↗
PubMed1985

Is the startle reaction an emotion?

In this study, we examined startle reactions in which the subjects did and did not know when a blank pistol would be fired. In addition, we asked subjects to suppress their startle response and to simulate a startle when there was no gunshot. Detailed measurement of facial muscular actions supported most of the findings reported by Landis and Hunt (1939), but our findings suggested that startle be considered a reflex not an emotion. The findings are considered in terms of current disagreements about exactly what constitutes an emotion, including the argument between Zajonc (1980) and Lazarus (1984) about the role of appraisal.

Arousal↗
PubMed1983

Undergraduate education and recruitment into psychiatry.

From 1969 to 1979 senior medical students from the University of Colorado School of Medicine entered psychiatric residencies at an average rate of 3.8%. The university gradually instituted a series of changes in its undergraduate psychiatric education program for medical students, and the senior class of 1980 was the first to be exposed to all of the changes. In 1980-1982 7.7% of the seniors went into psychiatric residencies. The authors describe the curriculum changes and speculate that more attention to the quality of medical students' psychiatric education at the undergraduate level enhances recruitment into psychiatric residencies.

Colorado↗
PubMed1980

The resolution of the Latah paradox.

Latah is a culture-bound syndrome from Malaysia and Indonesia. Persons exhibiting the Latah syndrome respond to minimal stimuli with exaggerated startles, often exclaimning normally inhibited sexually denotative words. Sometimes Latahs after being startled obey the commands or imitate the actions of persons about them. Most episodes of Latah are intentionally provoked for the amusement of onlookers. Similar sets of interactive behaviors have been reported from genetically and culturally unrelated populations (e.g., Bantu, Ainu, and French Canadians). Since competent anthropological investigators have shown Latah to be intimately tied to specific factors in the cultural systems of the Southeast Asian societies in which it is found, its occurrence elswhere has been considered paradoxical. New data, including films and videotapes of hyperstartling persons from Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, and the United States, suggest a model capable of resolving the apparent paradox by showing how the various forms of latah are culture-specific exploitations of a neurophysiological potential shared by humans and other mammals. Latah provides an especially revealing example of the complex ways in which neurophysiological, experiential, and cultural variables interact to produce a strongly marked and phenomenon.

Arousal↗
PubMed1977

A comparison of D.O. and M.D. student performance.

The performances of students from two medical colleges, one allopathic (M.D.) and one osteopathic (D.O.), at Michigan State University in a first course in psychiatry are compared. Although the M.D. students had scored significantly higher on the Medical College Admission Test, there was no difference in examination performance in the psychiatry course, which included measures of both basic information and of skill in diagnostic clinical application.

College Admission Test↗
PubMed1976

A partially self-instructional system that any teacher can develop and implement.

Some authors have suggested that the teacher has two basic choices of style which can be used to influence learning: he/she can manage learning resources or he/she can function as such a resource. Part of the appeal for the authors of the course format described here is the blurring of that distinction. Functioning both as a manager and a resource appears to us a near optimal role for the teacher.

Curriculum↗
PubMed1975

The role of testicular conflicts in a countertransference reaction.

A case is presented in which a patient's presenting symptoms of impotence and a pervasive inhibition of productivity are dynamically related to a cryptorchild condition which was discovered and treated during childhood. The importance of the cryptorchid condition and its relationship to the patient's later psychopathology are examined. However, it is the therapist's reaction to the clinical material that is the paricular focus of his paper. The therapist obtained the history of cryptorchism in the fifth month of treatment, and then subsequently repressed this data. In addition, a persistent countertransference reaction developed that threatened to disrupt the treatment relationship. In reviewing the course of the therapy, it was possible to determine that the therapist's repression of the patient's cryptorchism and his subsequent countertransference response were directly related to his own repressed testicular conflicts. The implications regarding the existence of similar conflicts in other therapists are discussed.

Anxiety↗