PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

S Scheidlinger

Publications and source records attributed to S Scheidlinger.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

On the concepts of amae and the mother-group.

Notwithstanding Freud's (1921) early linkage of psychoanalytic group psychology with patriarchal themes (i.e., father-leader), more recent findings suggest that the regression in group behavior in general, and in group psychotherapy in particular, tends to evoke frequent maternal ideations. In this connection, this article points to a phenomenological relationship between the individual's universal need to be at one with the internalized mother, as exemplified in the Japanese concept of amae and that of the Mother-Group. With amae serving as an explanatory construct for the group members' interpersonal relations (i.e., identifications and transferences), the idea of the Mother-Group ties in with the group entity's simultaneous supportive functions (i.e., "we are all in the same boat") coupled with its role as a collective arena for the reactivation of unconscious wishes for the nurturing mother of early childhood. In linking a Japanese psychological concept with another, which was developed in the West, I am disproving Rudyard Kipling's often quoted assertion that "never the East and the West shall meet." I was encouraged in this task by Takeo Doi's written comment to me that the idea of the Mother-Group "certainly can be linked with that of Amae. For instance, when the group functions as the Mother-Group, you can say that the participants are experiencing Amae in one way or another" (T. Doi, Sept. 17, 1993, personal communication). In an extended sense, one hopes this essay might even serve to revive our interest in the interrupted well-known early collaboration of psychoanalysts and of anthropologists, which had begun to forge a way to connect personality formation with its cultural context (LeVine, 1974). The insufficient attention paid to the influence of cultural factors on attachment behavior was recently decried by Bretherton (1997).

Child↗
PubMed1997

Group dynamics and group psychotherapy revisited: four decades later.

On the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of a symposium held on this controversial subject, the history of the relationship between group dynamics and group psychotherapy is reviewed. Within the contemporary framework of pluralism and integration, some guideposts are advanced that might help in the conceptual clarification of the affinity between these disparate, yet related, fields. This might lead, in turn, to a more refined elicitation of the specific therapeutic factors inherent in the group treatment modality.

Communication↗
PubMed1997

Freud as leader.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Austria↗
PubMed1997

The minyan as a psychological support system.

Most individuals participate in some of the rituals and/or regular activities of religious institutions such as churches or synagogues. Through such involvements, people are offered vital assistance in dealing with developmental changes, opportunities for personal development and for group support, and more generally, a sense of continuity and of meaning in life. This paper deals with only one small aspect of Jewish observance, an aspect of the centuries-old required weekly prayer groups-the minyan. The prime emphasis resides in the rarely recognized, nonliturgical dimension of this small group experience. Using psychoanalysis in the sense of a general psychology as background, I have considered the minyan as combining elements of a psychological support system and of a small group. In addition to the gratification of affiliative needs (social hunger) and the countering of loneliness and of isolation, this group experience helps its members maintain an intergenerational sense of personal identity and of self-esteem. In the face of marked life stressors such as death in the family, religious institutions such as the minyan, with its prescribed ritual steps for grieving (i.e., kaddish), fulfill especially significant preventive and restitutive mental health functions. I have also hypothesized that on a covert, fantasy level, the caring and nurturing family-like weekday minyan may even represent a mother-symbol (mother group) in line with people's universal need to establish a psychological union with others, thus restoring an earlier, conflict-free state of the child-mother bond. In an extended societal sense, the earlier emphasis in Western cultures on the virtual worship of individuality, autonomy, and independence has given way recently to a renewed appreciation of cooperation, communalism, and altruism. The minyan, as a small religious communal aggregate with its inherent climate of mutuality, reciprocity, and continuity, has, in a sense, anticipated these new developments. For as Herbert Simon (1990), the Nobel laureate, observed, "It is of no little moment for the human future whether people are necessarily and consistently selfish...or whether there is a significant place for altruism in the scheme of human behavior."

Ceremonial Behavior↗
PubMed1994

A commentary on adolescent group violence.

In an effort to understand some of the group dynamic factors inherent in today's unprecedented increase in youth gang violence, the larger, well organized gangs of the 1960's, were compared with the contemporary crowd-like, small packs of street youths. A hypothesis is advanced that the combined processes of de-individuation and of group contagion underlie many of the violent acts, so rampant in inner-city areas.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

The Lewin, Lippitt and White study of leadership and "social climates" revisited.

Sparked by the 100th Anniversary of Kurt Lewin's birth, this paper re-examines a classic 1939 study by Lewin, Lippitt, and White, of three leadership styles and the resulting different social climates, that is, autocratic, democratic, and laissez faire. A gradual extension of Lewinian field theory to include unconscious motivations in individual and in group behavior has served to broaden the already significant influence of this research on the behavioral sciences. Two recent developments moved me to write this communication: (1) The 100th Anniversary in 1990 of Kurt Lewin's birth (Maccoby, 1992); and (b) a broadening of Lewinian field theory to encompass unconscious motivations (White, 1992).

Child↗
PubMed1994

An overview of nine decades of group psychotherapy.

Group psychotherapy has experienced unprecedented growth in the nine decades of its existence. Begun by a Boston physician in 1905 as a "class" for his patients with tuberculosis, it has achieved international recognition as an effective modality for the treatment of emotionally impaired children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. Group psychotherapy's first growth spurt occurred during World War II, when understaffed military hospitals in both the United States and England were forced to use group treatment measures to attend to the large number of psychiatric casualties. In the 1960s the community mental health centers movement, with its mandate to serve many people in large catchment areas, became another impetus for the employment of group approaches in both remedial and preventive contexts. Group intervention measures, ranging from clinical group psychotherapy to derivative approaches, have expanded to virtually all human services. They are bound to play a major role in the current move toward managed health care, with its emphasis on cost containment and accountability.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Conceptual pluralism: A.G.P.A.'s shift from orthodoxy to an "umbrella" organization.

The American Group Psychotherapy Association began in 1942 as an elite, strictly Freudian organization. Its dramatic growth in the 1960s and 1970s was accompanied by much theoretical disagreement and professional "chauvinism." During the past decade, however, the ideological controversy has yielded to pluralism in theory and eclecticism in practice.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

On internalization in group psychology: the group within.

A review of the relevant psychoanalytic literature suggests that internalization processes are generally depicted as occurring only within the framework of the family. By contrast, the developmental psychology literature stresses the additional importance of internalized child and adolescent group experiences. Salient recollections from professionals' and patients' group life were offered to buttress the contention that gratifying as well as stressful group experiences are subject to internalization and to subsequent externalization, especially in the context of free-associative psychotherapy.

Humans↗
PubMed1984

Group psychotherapy in the 1980s: problems and prospects.

The phenomenal rise that group psychotherapy has experienced during the last 30 years, is likely to continue. Short-term and more superficial group modalities will prevail, however, with long-term psychoanalytic group treatment becoming relegated to the private sector. The current trend toward pragmatism and eclecticism in group-psychotherapy theorizing and technical experimentation, is bound to persist. In research, the focus will need to be on the delineation of the therapeutic factors which are unique to the group method. Circumscribed outcome studies will also emerge, geared to specific patient categories, intervention models, patient-therapist fit, and especially session frequency and duration.

Adolescent↗