Dialectical Thinking: A Proposed Foundation for a Post-modern Psychology

For the authors, the way from a modern to a post-modern psychology requires dialectical thinking. Dialectical thinking recognizes the importance of contradiction, change, and synthesis; it also includes recognition of the value as well as limits of modern epistemological approaches. The article describes foundations for both ongoing efforts to understand and research the ontogeny of dialectical thinking and for appreciating the scope of dialectical thinking and its relevance for establishing a bridge from modern to post-modern psychology.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Tracking and understanding phase progression in Lisa`s case

This study adds a phase‐by‐phase perspective to the well‐known, and thoroughly analysed on a moment‐by‐moment basis, case of Lisa. The aim is to see whether this phase‐by‐phase analysis adds anything valuable to the understanding of the processes of change in this case and the therapeutic processes in general. In this good‐outcome case study, a team of raters integrated the temporal sequencing phase component of the Paradigmatic Complementarity Metamodel (PCM) with a moment‐by‐moment tracking method—the Developmental Analysis of Psychotherapy Process Method (DAPP)—to analyse what occurred along the process that could explain the phase transitions and consolida- tions observed and how the therapist facilitated them. We illustrate and explain the therapeutic progression with therapeutic interactions from the dyad. The results suggest that Lisa evolved in accordance with the sequence of phases proposed by the PCM until phase 4 (out of 7). However, only phase 2 gains show evidence of structural consolidation. The sequence of phases proposed by the PCM seems to represent a natural progression for patients throughout the therapeutic process, and the consideration of a phase‐by‐phase map in analysing and thinking of therapeutic cases may be a valuable tool regarding clinical decision making

Book Reviews

TRIALS OF A PHILADELPHIA LAWYER. By Laurence H.Eldredge. MELVILLE WESTON FULLER, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITEDSTATES 1888-1910. By Willard L. King. ROOSEVELT & FRANKFURTER: THEIR CORRESPONDENCE,1928-1945. Annotated by Max Freedman

The qualification of an enrichment biomarker for clinical trials targeting early stages of Parkinson’s disease

As therapeutic trials target early stages of Parkinson’s disease (PD), appropriate patient selection based purely on clinical criteria poses significant challenges. Members of the Critical Path for Parkinson’s Consortium formally submitted documentation to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) supporting the use of Dopamine Transporter (DAT) neuroimaging in early PD. Regulatory documents included a comprehensive literature review, a proposed analysis plan of both observational and clinical trial data, and an assessment of biomarker reproducibility and reliability. The research plan included longitudinal analysis of the Parkinson Research Examination of CEP-1347 Trial (PRECEPT) and the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) study to estimate the degree of enrichment achieved and impact on future trials in subjects with early motor PD. The presence of reduced striatal DAT binding based on visual reads of single photon emission tomography (SPECT) scans in early motor PD subjects was an independent predictor of faster decline in UPDRS Parts II and III as compared to subjects with scans without evidence of dopaminergic deficit (SWEDD) over 24 months. The EMA issued in 2018 a full Qualification Opinion for the use of DAT as an enrichment biomarker in PD trials targeting subjects with early motor symptoms. Exclusion of SWEDD subjects in future clinical trials targeting early motor PD subjects aims to enrich clinical trial populations with idiopathic PD patients, improve statistical power, and exclude subjects who are unlikely to progress clinically from being exposed to novel test therapeutics

The Qualification of an Enrichment Biomarker for Clinical Trials Targeting Early Stages of Parkinson's Disease

As therapeutic trials target early stages of Parkinson's disease (PD), appropriate patient selection based purely on clinical criteria poses significant challenges. Members of the Critical Path for Parkinson's Consortium formally submitted documentation to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) supporting the use of Dopamine Transporter (DAT) neuroimaging in early PD. Regulatory documents included a comprehensive literature review, a proposed analysis plan of both observational and clinical trial data, and an assessment of biomarker reproducibility and reliability. The research plan included longitudinal analysis of the Parkinson Research Examination of CEP-1347 Trial (PRECEPT) and the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) study to estimate the degree of enrichment achieved and impact on future trials in subjects with early motor PD. The presence of reduced striatal DAT binding based on visual reads of single photon emission tomography (SPECT) scans in early motor PD subjects was an independent predictor of faster decline in UPDRS Parts II and III as compared to subjects with scans without evidence of dopaminergic deficit (SWEDD) over 24 months. The EMA issued in 2018 a full Qualification Opinion for the use of DAT as an enrichment biomarker in PD trials targeting subjects with early motor symptoms. Exclusion of SWEDD subjects in future clinical trials targeting early motor PD subjects aims to enrich clinical trial populations with idiopathic PD patients, improve statistical power, and exclude subjects who are unlikely to progress clinically from being exposed to novel test therapeutics

The Development of Dialectical Thinking As An Approach to Integration

This article offers a description of dialectical thinking as a psychological phenomenon that reflects adult intellectual development. While relating this psychological phenomenon to the various dialectical philosophical perspectives from which the description is derived, the article conceptualizes dialectical thinking as a form of organization of thought, various aspects of which can be identified in individual adults’ approaches to conceptualizing a range of problems, rather than as one particular stream of intellectual history. The article provides a range of examples of dialectical analyses, contrasting them with more formalistic analyses, in order to convey the power, adequacy, and significance of dialectical thinking for the sorts of challenges that this journal embraces. It suggests that events in all areas of life demand recognition of the limitations of closed-system approaches to analysis. Approaches based instead on the organizing principle of dialectic integrate dimensions of contradiction, change and system-transformation over time in a way that supports people’s adaptation when structures under girding their sense of self/world coherence are challenged. Higher education and psychotherapy are considered as examples of potential contexts for adult intellectual development, and the conditions that foster such development in these contexts are discussed. The article as a whole makes the case for consciously attempting to foster such development in all our work as an approach to integration