The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual – 2nd edition (PDM-2)

For decades many clinicians, especially psychodynamic and humanistic therapists, have resisted thinking about their patients in terms of categorical diagnoses. In the current era, they find themselves having to choose between reluctantly “accepting” the DSM diagnostic labels, “denying” them, or developing alternatives more consistent with the dimensional, inferential, contextual, biopsychosocial diagnostic formulations characteristic of psychoanalytic and humanistic approaches. The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM) reflects an effort to articulate a psychodynamically oriented diagnosis that bridges the gap between clinical complexity and the need for empirical and methodological validity. In this paper the authors (the steering committee of the PDM-2) describe the process of construction of the PDM-1 and discuss changes proposed for implementation in PDM-2

Self-compassion paradox : a theoretical exploration of many compassionate people\u27s lack of self-compassion

It seems a common belief that a person cannot have genuine compassion for other people until he can have compassion for himself. However, it seems a pervasive phenomenon that when encountering difficult situations (e.g. failure and fatal disease), many people do not give themselves the compassion they would give to other people in the same situations. This theoretical study aims at supporting my hypothesis that people without self-compassion can still have compassion for others. Relevant evolutionary and neurobiological theories and object relations theories are used to explore this phenomenon. I also apply these two theories to a case study of a client at my interning organization, which seems to provide further validation of my hypothesis. A critique of this study and suggestions for future research are included in the discussion chapter

The Minimum Description Length Principle for Pattern Mining: A Survey

This is about the Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle applied to pattern mining. The length of this description is kept to the minimum. Mining patterns is a core task in data analysis and, beyond issues of efficient enumeration, the selection of patterns constitutes a major challenge. The MDL principle, a model selection method grounded in information theory, has been applied to pattern mining with the aim to obtain compact high-quality sets of patterns. After giving an outline of relevant concepts from information theory and coding, as well as of work on the theory behind the MDL and similar principles, we review MDL-based methods for mining various types of data and patterns. Finally, we open a discussion on some issues regarding these methods, and highlight currently active related data analysis problems

GraphMDL : sélection de motifs de graphes avec le principe MDL

International audienceMany graph pattern mining algorithms have been designed to identify recurring structures in graphs. The main drawback of these approaches is that they often extract too many patterns for human analysis. Recently, pattern mining methods using the Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle have been proposed to select a characteristic subset of patterns from transactional, sequential and relational data. In this paper, we propose a MDL-based approach for selecting a characteristic subset of patterns on labeled graphs. A key notion in this paper is the introduction of ports to encode connections between pattern occurrences without any loss of information. Experiments show that the number of patterns is drastically reduced, and the selected patterns can have complex shapes.Plusieurs algorithmes de fouille de motifs ont été proposés pour iden-tifier des structures récurrentes dans les graphes. Le principal défaut de ces ap-proches est qu'elles produisent généralement trop de motifs pour qu'une analyse humaine soit possible. Récemment, des méthodes de fouille de motifs ont traité ce problème sur des données transactionnelles, séquentielles et relationnelles en utilisant le principe MDL (Minimum Description Length). Dans ce papier, nous proposons une approche MDL pour sélectionner un sous-ensemble représentatif de motifs sur des graphes étiquetés. Une notion clé de notre approche est l'in-troduction de ports pour encoder les connections entre occurrences de motifs, sans perte d'information. Nos expériences montrent que le nombre de motifs est drastiquement réduit et que les motifs sélectionnés peuvent avoir des formes complexes

Primary caregiving fathers : I was an interloper in a woman\u27s world

This study sought to ascertain how fathers who are primary caregivers understand their roles as fathers and caregivers. This qualitative, exploratory study aimed to expand the body of knowledge on primary caregiving fathers, which has, to date, largely focused on outcomes-based research. Heterosexual, married men with children under five years of age, who had been primary caregivers for at least six months, were recruited from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York. Twelve primary caregiving fathers participated in this study. Questions focused on such topics as: 1) the decision-making process; 2) what the participants understood their roles as fathers and primary caregivers to be; 3) if being a primary caregiver was consistent with their sense of masculinity; and 4) societal and familial responses to the participants as primary caregiving fathers. Fathers understood their role to be multifaceted, including such roles as role model, teacher, disciplinarian and nurturer. Participants mostly reported that being a primary caregiver fit with their sense of masculinity. Participants noted responses of surprise and support from society and family. Suggestions for further research were made to broaden and expand the literature on families who choose the father to be the primary caregiver

Dimensions of healing : a synthesis of relational and psychodrama theory and practice in the treatment of unresolved loss and grief

This theoretical thesis explores relational and psychodrama theory and practice, their similarities and differences, and their applicability to the phenomenon of unresolved loss and grief. While these two theories are stylistically and methodologically different, their overlapping conceptual and experiential similarities contribute to enhancing both client and therapist understanding of the complex issues and impact of unresolved loss and grief. Beginning with a detailed exploration of each theory, this thesis goes on to examine the intersections of relational and psychodrama theory and practice and how a synthesis of these theories generates a broader set of treatment options for clinicians working with the fragmenting impact of unresolved loss and grief. Clinical vignettes are used to demonstrate how each theory is applied in clinical practice