Interpersonal problems and cognitive characteristics of interpersonal representations in Alexithymia: a study using a self-report and interview-based measure of Alexithymia

In this study, associations between alexithymia, interpersonal problems, and cognitive-structural aspects of internal interpersonal representations were examined. Alexithymia was measured using the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA) and the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). To measure interpersonal problems, the dominance and affiliation dimension scores of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems were used, and cognitive-structural characteristics of interpersonal representations were measured using the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (SCORS). As hypothesized, alexithymia was related to cold and withdrawn, but not to dominant or submissive, interpersonal functioning. In terms of the SCORS, alexithymia was negatively related to complexity of interpersonal representations, both in TAT and in interview narratives, indicating a link between alexithymia and mentalization. However, alexithymia was related only to the dimension of social causality when this dimension was scored on TAT narratives. Overall, the TSIA provides the most consistent and stable results after controlling for negative affectivity

Psychoanalyse morgen: aan gene zijde van 'het goede' en 'het geluk'

Via Zeh’s ‘Corpus Delicti’ this articles characterizes our modern society as monopolized by a strive for a certain ideal that goes back to Aristotelian ethics, i.e. the ultimate ‘good’ or happiness. Based on a reading of De Kesel’s ‘Eros and Ethics’ and a short detour via Freud’s ‘Beyond the pleasure principle’ we argue that today the tendency to strive towards ‘something beyond pleasure’ is denied. Psychoanalysis, on the contrary, acknowledges the road beyond ‘good’ and ‘happiness’, against a society that increasingly lacks any regard for the enigma of human desire. The result is that the anxiety for this enigma shifts towards an anxiety for psychoanalysis. This ensures that psychoanalysis increasingly gets a place beyond the current discourse

The dread of living without anticipation: A case of melancholia.

It seems that time functions essentially different in melancholia as compared to classical neuroses. We might even say the experience of time dissapears for the melancholicus. No future is anticipated, no past determines the actually lived distress, despair and guilt. This paper illustrates by means of a case study of a melancholic woman how anticipation is necessary for the subject to be able to live. Without desire for things to come, without a past that is experienced as something that anticipated the subject as it is now, there seems to be no more than an eternal now that stupifies the subject and blurs the distinction between death and living. The absence of the structuring function of time results in the experience of utter loneliness and anxiety and consequently also shows the dramatic impact of an absence of anticipation

The anticipation of enjoyment by the body in the case of trauma

In his article « Le temps logique et l’assertion de certitude anticipée » Lacan makes a distinction between three different instances of time : « l’instant de voir, le temps de comprendre et le moment de conclure ». The purpose of this paper is to explain how the body and its jouissance in the case of trauma may function as a kind of “moment the conclure” in such a way that the body acts without the subject’s understanding of what is happening. Based on a case of trauma we will show how the body anticipates on a kind of enjoyment, without the subject knowing it, let alone being able to speak about it. “Le temps pour comprendre” comes with the subject wanting to know because this wanting initiates “l’instant de voir”. If the subject comes to a real understanding via symbolization of what happens, this bodily inscribed knowledge may be transformed into symbolic knowledge. Ideally, this will provide the subject with the possibility of making a choice, instead of being subjected to the traumatic repetition compulsion

The assessment of the social cognition and object relations scale on TAT and interview data

This study examines the reliability and convergent validity of 2 versions of the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (SCORS), one for use with Thematic Apperception Test narratives (SCORS-TAT; Westen, 1990) and one for use with clinical interview data (SCORS-CDI; Westen, Barends, Leigh, Mendel, & Silbert, 1990 ). Four SCORS dimensions were evaluated. Data were collected in a psychiatric sample (N = 74). Results show that although interrater reliability was good for all dimensions, internal consistency was low, especially for the affective dimensions. Structural equation modeling, in which a model with 2 factors (i.e., SCORS-TAT and SCORS-CDI) and 4 dimensions each was tested, indicated low convergence between corresponding dimensions of SCORS-TAT and SCORS-CDI. Correlational analyses suggested that this was due to a strong method factor. Regression analyses, however, revealed that the presence of a personality disorder operated as a moderator for convergence between corresponding cognitive-structural dimensions