Attachment in adults with high-functioning autism

This study assessed attachment security in adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders, using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan & Main, 1996). Of twenty participants, three were classified as securely attached, the same proportion as would be expected in a general clinical sample. Participants’ AAIs were less coherent and lower in reflective function than those of controls, who were matched for attachment status and mood disorder. A parallel interview suggested that some aspects of participants’ responses were influenced by their general discourse style, while other AAI scale scores appeared to reflect their state of mind with respect to attachment more specifically. There was little evidence that attachment security was related to IQ, autistic symptomatology or theory of mind. This study suggests that adults with autism can engage with the AAI and produce scoreable narratives of their attachment experiences, and a minority demonstrate secure attachment

20/20 Hindsight: A 25-year programme at the Anna Freud Centre of efficacy and effectiveness research on child psychoanalytic psychotherapy

OBJECTIVE: This paper describes the evolution of methods of enquiry-through 25 years of work, with Professor Peter Fonagy and many other colleagues-of research and theorizing about child and adolescent therapy outcomes. METHOD: The work has focused on measuring psychoanalytic outcomes, but with an increasing interest in discovering therapeutic elements across treatment modalities. RESULTS: Headline findings are described, with lessons from the ups and downs of developing (a) retrospective, follow-up, and prospective outcome studies, and (b) measures of child and family functioning. Issues of manualizing and measuring treatment process are discussed, together with the fruitfulness of mixed-method (quantitative and qualitative) process and outcome research with young people and families. CONCLUSIONS: Using the dilemmas, experiences, and findings ‌‌of our group as examples, growing points and well as growing pains for the field are suggested

Alien Registration- Target, Herbert (Bangor, Penobscot County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/10400/thumbnail.jp

Navasota Neighborhood Day

The vision for Navasota Neighborhood Day included a combination tactics and after providing a broad overview, students asked meeting participants to split into smaller breakout groups to discuss the specifics.Texas Target Communitie

Playing with reality: IV. A theory of external reality rooted in intersubjectivity

The authors explore the interpersonal aspects of the early development of an experience of external reality and the roots of this experience in primary intersubjectivity. They suggest some implications that this has for psychoanalytic work with the patient experience of external reality. They argue that the external world is not an independently existing 'given' for the infant to discover as is sometimes implicitly assumed Infants acquire knowledge about the world not just through their own explorations of it but by using other minds as teachers. The experience of external reality is invariably shaped through subjectivities. The authors argue that at first the infant assumes that his knowledge is knowledge held by all, that what he knows is known by others and that what is known by others is accessible to him. Only slowly does the uniqueness of his own perspective differentiate so that a sense of mental self can develop. In clinical work we frequently observe the undoing of this process of differentiation, and understanding the underlying mechanisms can be helpful in managing the transference and countertranference consequences when the process has been derailed

'The power of being seen'::an interpretative phenomenological analysis of how experienced counselling psychologists describe the meaning and significance of personal therapy in clinical practice

There is a widely acknowledged lack of clarity in psychotherapeutic training about the role of personal therapy in developing practitioner competence. This paper presents part of a wider ongoing qualitative study exploring the role that personal therapy plays in the clinical practice and training of experienced counselling psychologists. Results derived from an interpretative phenomenological analysis suggest that personal therapy is valued mainly as a means of enhancing reflectiveness within clinical work. Detailed examination of a subset of the data offers scope for exploring how this process may occur within therapy, and points to the potential significance of early attachment experiences in the development and amplification of participants' reflective capacities. A possible theoretical framework is proposed and implications for future research discussed

Attachment and reflective function: Their role in self-organization

The paper traces the relationship between attachment processes and the development of the capacity to envision mental states in self and others. We suggest that the ability to mentalize, to represent behavior in terms of mental states, or to have "a theory of mind" is a key determinant of self-organization which is acquired in the context of the child's early social relationships. Evidence for an association between the quality of attachment relationship and reflective function in the parent and the child is reviewed and interpreted in the context of current models of theory of mind development. A model of the development of self-organization is proposed which has at its core the caregiver's ability to communicate understanding of the child's intentional stance. The implications of the model for pathological self-development are explored, with specific reference to the consequences of maltreatment