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Biomedical subjects

W Offenkrantz

Publications and source records attributed to W Offenkrantz.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1976

Is there a reciprocal relationship between symptoms and affect in asthma?

This is a hypothesis-seeking case study. It is the product of naturalistic research on one asthmatic patient seen 212 times in individual psychotherapy over a period of 32 months. Both retrospective and prospective data were gathered, the prospective phase beginning about halfway into the therapy. Clinical vignettes are cited from which the following hypothesis was developed: there was a reciprocal relationship between the manifestation of physical symptoms and of affective reactions in this patient. In support of the possibility of testing this hypothesis, the therapist's observations and patient's report of physical and affective reactions each independently indicated a much greater incidence of one reaction or the other occurring separately than of both together. The occasional occurrence of both together indicates that the physical and the affective reactions are not mutually exclusive; therefore, the null hypothesis is also possible. A critique and synthesis of diverse literature ranging from psychoanalytic, group, and behavioral oriented clinical reports to human and animal physiological studies precede the presentation of the case study. The conclusion reached in reviewing the literature is that confirmation of the reciprocal hypothesis awaits further studies, but there is indication in the literature of support for such further study.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Sartre's contribution to the understanding of narcissism.

As a means for presenting Sartre's insights into the narcissistic problems of the self, we have used his phenomenological system as articulated in Being and Nothingness (1943) to illuminate these issues in the personality of Roquentin, the hero of his novel Nausea (1938). Roquentin attempts to stabilize his fragmenting self and to avoid "nausea" by using three mechanisms which Sartre argues maintain the self from drowning in the objects of the self. These are "reflection," "temporality" (continuity through time), and "being-for-others" (how we experience another's view of ourselves). In Sartre's conception of being-for-others lies many clinically useful insights which can be used to explain both the structure and the instability of the transferences seen in the treatment of narcissistic personality disorders. Sartre demonstrates by implication that the patient must maintain (by using bad faith, i.e., disavowal) that the therapist is acting freely, or these transferences collapse. Thus, the patient must feel he is the unique and special "occasion," of any warmth, empathy, or compliments. A case example is included to illustrate these issues of freedom and bad faith.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

An hypothesis about heroin addiction, murder, prostitution, and suicide: acting out parenting conflicts.

From interviews with forty subjects, we have developed a preliminary hypothesis which can be refined and deepened and then tested by psychotherapeutic investigation. These murderers, prostitutes, heroin addicts and successful suicides all demonstrated various aspects of difficulty with their capacity for reciprocal tenderness. This arose from their experiences of exploitation and derprivation with their own parents. Their unique characteristics included primitive rage, insatiable demands and capacity for unconflicted manipulation. These characteristics colored the expression of their intrapsychic conflict between the wish to parent successfully and the fear of perpetrating their own childhood experiences upon their children.

Acting Out↗