rmreynoldsblog

Each person is a product of his or her heredity and environment. Each of us is born with a certain potential, and our ability to reach that potential is then either supported or not by the experiences that we encounter while growing up. Some of those experiences are positive and encourage us to reach our potential, and some are negative and discourage us from doing so. 

Each of our experiences is remembered at some level, some consciously and some unconsciously. Memories of positive experiences have one or more positive emotional feeling attached to them, while memories of negative emotional experiences have one or more negative emotional feeling attached to them. These negative emotional feelings fall into three main categories: sadness, anxiety or fear, and anger. 

Your positive, life-affirming experiences and your negative, unsupportive ones affect your view of yourself, of others, of the world in general, and even your relationship with God. That is, your experiences are likely to be accompanied by some kind of decision-making process, since it is as a result of your experiences that you decide what you are like, what others are like, and so on. 

Negative experiences – those that generate memories which have a negative emotional charge attached to them – are likely to have been accompanied by decisions that limit you in some way. So then we come to the crux of the matter (where the rubber hits the road, so to speak): 

If you always think the way you’ve always thought, You’ll always feel the way you’ve always felt; And if you always feel the way you’ve always felt, You’ll always do what you’ve always done; And if you always do what you’ve always done, You’ll always get what you’ve always got. If nothing changes, nothing changes. 

And that is okay if you are completely satisfied with the way things are going for you. If not, then it is time to let go of any negative emotions that may have become attached to the experiences you had in your past, and any limiting decisions as well, so that you can realize your fullest potential.  

This is not to say that all negative emotions begin with negative thinking. Not at all. There are actually two routes to follow to become distressed. Both of these routes to distress begin with some event, which is then followed by either physiological arousal or negative thinking. The first is the “conditioned emotional arousal” route, which works as follows: 

Event –> physiological arousal –> “negative” thinking –> distress (i.e., anxiety, anger or sadness ) 

The second route to distress, and the one which is much more common, is the primarily cognitive route, which works as follows: 

Event –> “negative” thinking –> physiological arousal –> distress 

Please note that in each case, for distress to occur, both physiological arousal and negative thinking must be present. This suggests two particular approaches to treatment. The first, Systematic Desensitization, targets the physiological arousal; the second, Rational Emotive Therapy (RET), targets the negative thinking. Let me give you a bit of background on them: 

In 1958, a psychiatrist by the name of Joseph Wolpe published a book entitled Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition in which he described a learning-based deconditioning procedure known as Systematic Desensitization. In essence, it involves teaching the client to relax and then, while relaxed, to approach the trigger stimulus (event) at a rate which is slow enough for the client to be able to maintain the relaxation. Assuming that the event is not currently harmful, this results in the eventual pairing of relaxation and the event, which teaches the body/mind that its proper response to that particular kind of trigger stimulus is relaxation rather than arousal. That is, the client learns at a gut level that there is no need to get “all cranked up” about that particular kind of event. Hence, no more distress! 

Shortly afterwards, Albert Ellis and Robert Harper published a book entitled A Guide to Rational Living in which they described a cognitively-based approach to treatment in which the client is taught to challenge his or her negative thinking on the grounds that it is erroneous or non-rational – based on such erroneous beliefs, for example, as the belief that it is necessary (as opposed to desirable) to be unfailingly perfect or the belief that it is necessary to be universally loved – since erroneous beliefs put the client in conflict with the laws of the universe and invariably contribute to his or her becoming distressed (“shooting oneself in the foot,” as it were). 

Albert Ellis (A New Guide to Rational Living, 1975) identifies a number of different “negative” thoughts that, because they put the individual in conflict with the laws of the universe, contribute to his or her distress. These thoughts – beliefs really – always include value judgements or evaluations of the way things are: 

1. I don’t get the love that I want to get, and I should get the love that I want. 

2. I am not perfect, and I must be perfect (or at least close enough to it that people can’t criticize me).

3. Certain people are bad and should be punished.

4. The world is not the way I want it to be, and it should be.

5. External events cause most human misery and must be controlled in order to create happiness and avoid sorrow.

6. The unknown is potentially dangerous, so it should be feared.

7. Taking responsibility for what happens is scary and should be avoided.

8. You can’t always know what is the right thing to do, so you should turn your life over to someone or something stronger than yourself (Kaufmann calls this “Decidophobia,” the fear of making fateful decisions).

9. The past determines the present, so I should not be held responsible for what I do with my life.

10. Leisure is more precious than any other activity and should be sought out whenever possible.

Such irrational beliefs inevitably lead to frustration, disappointment and distress; whereas challenging these irrational beliefs and substituting more realistic beliefs for them leads to harmony and contentment. 

(To be continued)

Women’s Lib, Witchcraft, and Sex or Let Your Goddess Be Your Guide 

In an article entitled “Who said women are all bad? Almost everybody,” Landsberg (1983) reported the opinions of women expressed by a number of Titans of Western Thought. Socrates is quoted as saying that “Woman is the source of all evil. Her love is to be dreaded more than the hatred of a man.” Plato believed that “Those of the men … who led a life of cowardice and injustice were suitably reborn as women.” Aristotle felt that “We should regard the female as afflicted with natural defectiveness.” Pythagoras believed that “There is a good principle which created order, light and man, and an evil principle which created chaos, darkness and women.” Martin Luther observed that “God created Adam Lord of All Living Creatures, but Eve spoiled it all.” Napoleon Bonaparte avowed that “Nature intended women to be our slaves … they are our property … just as a tree that bears fruit belongs to a gardener. What a mad idea to demand equality for women! Women are nothing but machines for producing children.” Tolstoy said that we should “Regard the society of women as a necessary unpleasantness of social life, and avoid it as much as possible.” And Freud said that “The great question that has never been answered and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is what does a woman want?” But the most telling quotation of all is from Kurt Vonnegut who said “Educating a beautiful woman is like pouring honey into a fine Swiss watch: Everything stops.”  

Certainly, the inferior position of women has existed for a long, long time, and there is some question as to whether women are even holding their own. In a recent article concerning changes in the status of women since the Second World War, Lipovenko (1983) reported as follows: “While the number of Canadian women working outside the home has grown rapidly since the post war years, there is ‘depressingly little change in the kind of work they do,’ says a federal report to be released today [21 February 1983]…. 

More than 70 per cent of women who work for pay are in clerical, service, sales, processing and fabricating jobs – and women are becoming more dominant in those traditionally female occupations, says the report for the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women….

As of 1980, one third of all working women do clerical work and half of them are concentrated in trade and service – the lowest paid industrial sectors, the report noted.

Since 1975, women have lost ground in two well paid occupations – teaching and jobs involving machines. There has been a significant drop in the number of full time teaching jobs going to women: new teaching jobs are going to men working full time and to women employed part-time….

Women’s average annual earnings in 1979 (the most recent year for which data were available) were $7,673 compared to $14,981 for men, the report said.” It is within this context that I offer to women my advice on getting ahead in the world.

In classical clinical psychoanalysis, narcissistic character disorders were believed to be untreatable because of an impenetrable barrier to the establishment of any kind of transference relationship with the analyst. However, as this impenetrable barrier began to be penetrated by investigations into primitive internalized object relations and their role in the treatment of pre Oedipal conditions, it was found that this nihilistic belief was, in fact, far from valid. Actually, very strong transferences are established, but these strong transferences also induce strong countertransference reactions in the therapist, and these countertransference reactions tend to interfere with therapy.

According to Searles (1979), “The analyst inevitably regresses in the course of the session and will experience the patient as being identified with the so called bad mother of the patient’s past. The analyst will inevitably react to the patient as being a very disappointing and enraging unempathetic mother….” However, if the analyst properly understands rage and hate and other negative emotions, and particularly if he or she sees them as disintegration products caused by wounds to self esteem, then it is sometimes possible to step out of these negative countertransference reactions or, alternatively, to metabolize them into insight when that is required. Proper use of these negative emotions enables the analyst to mirror the narcissistic character’s emerging personality until the pre symbolic stage of mental development is mastered and the client becomes able to appreciate the reality of the symbols involved in interpretation of his productions. When this occurs, the exhibitionistic grandiose Self, which has finally been “heard” by its captive audience, can transform into more realistic self esteem. This transformation heralds the second stage in the treatment of the narcissistic character disorder, in which the client begins an introspective examination of and investment in the Self.

According to von Franz (1964, p. 162), “The Self can be defined as an inner guiding factor that is different from a conscious personality … a regulating center that brings about a constant extension and maturing of the personality. But this larger, more nearly total aspect of the psyche appears first as merely an inborn possibility. It may emerge very slightly, or it may develop relatively completely during one’s lifetime. How far it develops depends on whether or not the ego is willing to listen to the messages of the Self.” And the narcissistic character (and each of us to the extent that we share narcissistic character traits) is absolutely terrified of discovering the Self, for fear that emotional interaction with the unconscious will result in personality disintegration and death. However, if the narcissistic character can summon sufficient courage to begin this self exploration, he is most likely to find not eternal chaos but just the opposite, an inner reality that is both strong and dependable. In the process, however, the narcissistic character is brought face to face with a deeper schizoid level within himself, although one which is very different from that of the schizoid personality. In the latter case, the split off Self is passive, and its energy content is easily drained. But there are schizoid dynamics that are symptomatic of a different kind of split off Self, one which is intensely alive and exudes a sense of power, one which is connected to and sustained by the archetypal dimension of the Goddess, the feminine influence which dominated archaic cultures until it was suppressed by the development of a more patriarchal society.

When this schizoid dynamic appears, it is often indicated in dreams in the form of two children. These children are not exactly equals but, rather, one is more potent than the other, far more archetypal, “the true child of joy,” while the other is more passive, more easily depressed, and more generally masochistic. The deeper child image, the child infused with joy, comes forth much less often than the other, usually slightly older child. Relating to either child is fraught with difficulty, for the masochistic child aspect of the emerging self induces strong sadistic feelings in the analyst while the joyful child stimulates the transference to become eroticized as the patient tests the feasibility of letting himself or herself be identified with the joyful child. Both have to be accepted in a caring, kinship sense, for when both these children can become integral parts of the personality, the patient gains not only the empathy associated with successful resolution of the depressive phase of child development but also the archetypal energies of the child of joy, a new awareness of the Goddess within, and a feminine force within the personality before which egocentric masculine grandiosity pales into insignificance.

Now, you may wonder what this has to do with women’s lib, witchcraft, and sex. The answer is that few of us are likely to undergo the transforming power of psychoanalysis, so we have to find some other way to get in touch with the archetypal energies of the Goddess within; and witchcraft is one possible option. You may recall that in Greek mythology Zeus was king of the gods. He was married to Hera, and they had a son by the name of Ares who was the cruel and bloody god of war. When Ares went into battle, his sons Phobos (or fear) and Deimos (terror) prepared his chariot. There were also times, however, when Ares made love and not war; at least he managed to find time between battles to get together with Aphrodite (whom Botticelli reminds us rose from the sea foam on a scallop shell) for long enough to produce a son by the name of Eros, whom the Romans knew as Cupid. The love between Cupid and Psyche is one of the great love stories of all time, but it is more than just a love story. Psyche is the Greek word for “soul,” and the deeper meaning of the story of Cupid and Psyche is that, while the soul may be condemned for a period of time to undergo misery and hardship, still, if it is faithful and true, it will eventually return to heaven and be reunited with love. However, this is not a love story, and I digress.

Although Zeus was married to Hera, he was as immoral as he was immortal, and he had many children by many different mates. The twins, Apollo and Artemis, he fathered on Latona, daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe. Apollo was considered to be the god of the sun, and he later came to be associated with Lucifer because of a reference in Isaiah to Lucifer, son of the morning. Artemis was goddess of the moon, and she came to be associated with the Roman goddess Diana, and it is as Diana that she is most familiar to us today. Lucifer and Diana had an incestuous affair, and Diana gave birth to Aradia who eventually came down to earth and taught men and women the secrets of witchcraft. This, according to the legend, was because the church and the aristocracy were treating the poor with such cruelty that Diana felt they needed to be provided with some means of self-defense. In fact, the Church of the Middle Ages was truly becoming the Church Militant, flexing its muscles in the battle to suppress all non Christian and non patriarchal expressions of religion. In particular, it wanted to suppress the Old Religion and the sexuality that was associated with it. The witch trials and the documents which supported them were, at one and the same time, like neurosis, both an expression of and a defense against the demonic in man and, in particular, against sexuality. But witchcraft was not easy to suppress. The persecution of witches lasted for almost 600 years and only came to an end when science began to supplant religion as the major guiding force in men’s lives. And even then, witchcraft continued to be suppressed, only becoming legal again in England, for example, in the 1950’s, probably in response to the increasing dissatisfaction with science as saviour in human affairs.

Now, I am not advocating a return to the primitive world of the past; but from time to time, I think about the story of the man who was clinically dead and then brought back to life. The first thing that he said was, “I have seen God, and She is black.” And I wonder if, in man’s creation of God in his own image, whether we may not have lost sight of the value of the Goddess within. And I wonder whether, in our espousal of science and achievement, we may not have abandoned living and being for advancement and doing. And it is not that the solution is necessarily to become involved in a return to witchcraft, but it is important to find some way to get in touch with the feminine within you.

So I come at last to the climax, my advice to women on how to get ahead in the world. Don’t do it the way most men would do it. Don’t get caught up in the North American business ethic. Don’t mistake the stereotypic male for the masculine ideal. Don’t be seduced by the ephemeral grandiosity of egocentric “power thrusting.” Don’t sell your birthright for a mess of pottage. Rather, consider the power of the archetypal Goddess, the Eternal Feminine. Put yourself in touch with the joyous child within you; and do it with panache; for if you do, no power on earth will be able to hold you back. And you’ll go a long way, baby.

In the early 20th century, physics was on the verge of becoming the first closed science. That is, some physicists, at least, believed that they knew all there was to know about the laws of the universe. Then came atomic physics and quantum mechanics, and we discovered that we really didn’t know very much about the universe, after all.  

What we now know is that the universe that we perceive is a fantasy. There may be (in fact, there probably is) a reality out there somewhere, but our only contact with it is through the energy which impinges on our sense organs and the way in which our brains structure that experience. The reality that we live in, on a day to day basis, is the reality that we construct in our own minds; it is composed of the pictures and sounds and tastes and smells and feelings that are formed in our brains from the sensory information which we receive through our visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory and kinesthetic senses, plus the language that we use to structure those sensory experiences. We exist, for all time, in both an objective reality and a subjective reality.  

Time itself exists for us only as memories of the past and fantasies of the future. The present moment, in which all time is experienced, is infinitely short but constantly shifting, the venture through which the future pours into the past. The past exists for us only as we recall, in the present, the subjective reality the sensory experiences and the language through which we structured them that existed for us at the time our memories of those past events were created. 

Because that experience was entirely subjective, and conditioned by who we were at the time, with whatever strengths and weaknesses we had at that time, it would have been different if we had been different. Fortunately, because the past exists for us only as we experience it in the present, it can become different for us if we can learn to experience it differently. And we can learn to experience it differently by reliving it in memory, with those personal resources that we have now but which we did not have then. This can have a profound effect on the way in which we experience not only our past but our present and future as well. It can, for example, change the way we experience those situations to which we have learned to respond with distress. 

Currently there is an explosion of publications in NLP, one of the most important of which is Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality, by Wyatt Woodsmall and Tad James, published in 1988. However, rather than tell you about time line, a notion first proposed by William James almost a hundred years ago, I am going to demonstrate it to you. 

First, start with establishing a resource anchor; and let’s each of you go ahead and do that right now. Think of a time when you felt just the way you would want to feel, and let yourself re-experience those good feelings right here and now; and when you have gotten into those good feelings as fully as possible, I want you to establish an anchor or cue so that they can be recalled whenever you want. [Suggest various possible anchors.] 

Next, choose some negative emotion that you would like to get rid of, so that it no longer has any influence on your life. 

Then, imagine that you can just float way up in the air, and see far beneath you, stretched out in a line running from your past to your future, all the days of your life – a time-line of past and future memories, as it were.

Ask your unconscious mind to float you back in time until you are floating above and looking down on the root cause memory, the very first time you experienced that negative emotion which, if disconnected, will allow that negative emotion (and any limiting decisions that accompanied it, to disappear as a problem in your life.  

Then, float further back in time, say another 30 minutes or so. And where is that negative emotion now? Has it disappeared? If not, imagine that you could just reach down into that memory and unhook any negative emotion that was attached to it, and let it just drift away. And any limiting decisions which you might have made at the same time as well.. Let them drift away, too. 

Then, float down into that memory and experience it with equanimity, with peacefulness and calm. Preserve any positive learning that you may have had and… let go of any negative feelings and limiting decisions which may have been attached to that memory in the past. 

When you are able to do that, with peacefulness and calm, come back along your time line through that and all similar memories, all the way to the present, only as fast as they can also re-evaluate themselves in light of your new ability to find peace and joy in acceptance of the flow of events in your life, free from the limiting decisions and distresses of the past. [If not, run the Fast Phobia Cure] 

When you get back to the present, allow yourself to float way up above your time line again; and then let that whole scene fade away and come back to the here and now, back to this sanctuary, rested and relaxed and feeling wonderful all ove  

Applied Behaviour Analysis is not without its critics. The most common complaint – not the most valid; just the most common – is that it is mechanical and dehumanizing. Unfortunately, ABA can be delivered in just that way, but that is extremely rare. Like any good teaching, it is a very human enterprise. Of course humans are prone to error! But the point that I want to make here is that ABA does not have to be mechanical and dehumanizing, and rarely is. 

Which brings us to clicker training, which most people associate with dog training and, therefore, feel is not appropriate for use with humans. In fact, clicker training – TAGteach (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) – has been applied very successfully in all kinds of human endeavours, from teaching surgical skills and workplace safety to training athletes and musicians. It is also being applied to teaching children with autism.

TAGteach has been endorsed by many well-known and influential ABA practitioners. Perhaps the biggest names, to get your attention, are Julie Vargas (B.F. Skinner’s daughter), Mary Barbara (co-author of The Verbal Behavior Approach: How to Teach Children with Autism and Related Disorders), Raymond Miltenberger (former President of the Association for Behavior Analysis International and author of Behavior Modification: Principles and Procedures), John Eshleman (known for his work in fluency training), and Rick Kubina (co-author of The Precision Teaching Book), to name just a few.

When complex behaviours that we want a learner to master are not already part of the learner’s repertoire, good ABA practice demands that we start small and work our way up. That is, we choose a goal to be achieved, break it down into easily learned steps and/or components, and shape it into the response that we want to get, one small part at a time. For example, in teaching a golfer how to improve his putting skill, we might train for distance and direction separately, and then train the golfer how to do both of them at the same time.

The following is taken from “TAGteach and Autism” by Mary Lynch Barbera, co-author of The Verbal Behavior Approach:

The acronym TAG means Teaching with Acoustical Guidance and was used first with gymnasts, not children with special needs. It all started when Theresa McKeon purchased a horse in 2005 and had difficulty training it. She went on-line and learned about Karen Pryor’s clicker training technology. Theresa used clicker training until the horse was calmer and then sold it. In the process of using clicker training with her horse, Theresa, a national gymnastics coach, decided that clickers might be very helpful to her young students. When a gymnast had difficulty with a handstand, for instance, the skills of the handstand could be broken down and each skill could be taught separately. When one of the students got her feet to the 12 o’clock position or put her arms over her ears, the coach could click to signal that the position was correct.

Comparing Clicker Training and TAGteach, G David Smith, Ph.D., BCBA-D wrote:

Once clicker training begins the trainer clicks and “treats” [i.e., reinforces] each time the learner performs the target response (continuous reinforcement). Complex behaviors are usually broken down into their parts (task analysis) and taught one part at a time until the learner performs the entire behavior from start to finish (shaping by successive approximations). Clicker trainers minimize the use of words. Verbal directions (and other cues calling for the target response) are typically introduced only after the target response is well established. … At its core, clicker training entails designation of a discrete target response and delivery of a click (an audible marker) every time the learner performs the designated response. [Snip] TAGteach employs and further adapts the use of scientifically established behavioral principles and practices … incorporated in clicker training. [But]TAGteach goes beyond clicker training to include the use of modeling and imitation, vicarious reinforcement and learning, and even some cognitive behavioral techniques such as debriefing and self-instruction.

Rather than something that is imposed on a learner, the TAG game is something that both designated teacher and the designated learner can participate in together. For example, if there is a several step behavior for a mature person to learn, the teacher can demonstrate the entire sequence, clicking at each TAG point in the process, then have the learner click whenever the teacher performs the move correctly, followed by the teacher providing the clicks for the learner and then the learner providing the clicks for himself. Depending on the developmental level of your learners, they may or may not be able to participate other than as learners, but it is desirable if they can participate in teaching themselves or other students (since one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it).

TAGteach has many advantages:

1. Feedback is precise.

2. Feedback is always positive.

3. Having to think of successive TAG points helps to define the teaching targets.

4. TAGteach doesn’t invite a social response

5. The TAG eliminates the emotion from the feedback.

6. The TAG’s are easily perceived and counted.

7. There is no condescension involved

8. The trainer gets to shut up.

Whatever skill you are teaching, I hope that you will consider incorporating TAGteach into your teaching repertoir.

Robert Langs was a training psychoanalyst. This paper is a review of his contributions to psychotherapy, as found in books which he published during the period from 1973 to 1979.  

In classical psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy, the central motivating factor in the treatment situation and in the patient’s communications is thoughts, feelings and behaviours typically originating in childhood. The therapist, although a participant, is essentially a passive, neutral, and flexible figure upon whom these thought and feelings are projected and displaced. This is knwn as transference. In treatment, the therapist’s behaviour creates the conditions for the unfolding of the patient’s transference, and the emphasis is on the transference component of the relationship rather than on the interaction per se. The therapist’s job is to receive and interpret the patient’s relationship-distorting communications and their underlying meaning so as to free the patient from the repetition of his past.

It was within this classical psychoanalytic context that Langs made his first major contribution to the understanding of treatment. Beginning with the observation that the day’s unfinished business is often the crucial organizer through which unconscious meanings take shape and can be recognized in the interpretation of dreams, Langs (1972) found that other types of communications from patients, such as descriptions of recent events and behaviours in and out of the treatment hour, could also be more readily understood in terms of the real-life precipitants or adaptive contexts of the major sequences of material produced by the patient in treatment. Furthermore, Langs observed that it was frequently the therapist’s behaviours, his confrontations and interpretations (and errors such as modification of the ground rules of therapy) which served as the primary adaptive context for the patient’s communications during therapy. Indeed, certain types of material, such as acting out, were usually found to represent the living out of real as well as transference reactions and fantasies related to the therapist and his behaviour in the treatment situation. Nevertheless, in his earlier writings, Langs still located the source of many of the patient’s interactions as being outside the therapeutic relationship and believed that the main job of the therapist was interpretation of the transference.

Langs (1973) added to this model of treatment the concept of the therapeutic context. Whereas the patient’s primary adaptive task – dealing with interactions that have their source in childhood – was seen as a first-level organizer of the patient’s material, the therapeutic context, i.e., those indicators of difficulties and resistances within the patient which tend to call for interventions from the therapist, was seen as a second-level organizer of the patient’s material. Thus, communications from the patient were first to be understood in terms of their adaptive context, and frequently in terms of the reality of the interaction between the patient and therapist, and only then in terms of the patient’s internal psychopathology. This two-level approach to transference was intended to emphasize that many intrapsychically significant reactions within the patient occur in response to the therapist’s behaviours and interventions. And it was noted that these therapist behaviours could be either positive or negative, constructive or destructive, necessarily or unnecessarily hurtful, and within the framework of valid interventions or based on technical errors on the part of the therapist.

It was within the context of this two-level approach to transference that Langs (1974) then began to emphasize and investigate the therapist’s unconscious communications in his interactions with his patient. Reconceptualizing the patient’s relationship with the therapist in adaptational-interactional terms, Langs noted that many of the regressions and symptoms within the patient are therapist evoked ,i.e., primarily introjective in nature and based on the therapist’s errors in intervening, either interpretatively or in terms of his management of the framework within which the treatment occurs.

Consideration of the latter led to an increasing emphasis on maintaining a secure therapeutic “hold” on the patient through rigorous adherence to the basic ground rules of therapy, i.e., an explicit verbal agreement between the therapist and patient regarding fees, appointment times, and length of sessions; an understanding that the patient will “free associate, i.e., say everything that comes to mind in his therapy sessions without exception, and that the therapist will give the patient his undivided attention; attempt to understand the patient through what he says, and offer that understanding to the patient primarily through his interpretations of material supplied by the patient; and an understanding that the therapist will offer no other gratification to the patient. That is, there will be no physical or social contact, verbal interaction will be confined to the therapist’s office during regularly scheduled appointments, the therapist will remain relatively anonymous, and confidentiality will be de rigueur. By making use of this increased understanding of the adaptive context as an organizer of the client’s communications, it became increasingly clear that much of what the patient said about relationships and experiences outside of therapy had a significant although unconscious and disguised bearing on the therapeutic interaction (Langs, 1976 a).

In previous psychoanalytic writings, it had been suggested that once it is determined that the material from the patient unconsciously alludes to the therapist, it is essential for the therapist to make the added assessment of the extent to which the material also contains veridical perceptions as opposed to fantasy-based distortions, using the therapist’s self-knowledge as well as clues provided in the associations from the patient. This latter resource, however, had been relatively neglected up to that point, and it is to Langs’ credit that he not only recognized its significance but elaborated on its significance in treatment. The recognition that the patient unconsciously perceives the therapist’s errors and, further, unconsciously attempts to call them to the therapist’s attention, and even to correct him wherever possible, proved to be the beginning of an extensive investigation of the patient’s positive and negative responses to erroneous interventions, and of what ultimately proved to be the patient’s unconscious curative efforts on behalf of both the therapist and himself under these circumstances (Langs, 1979 a).

This understanding of the function of the client’s communications as a commentary on the therapist’s communications, albeit in symbolic and derivative terms, led to an image of the patient as an individual with enormous unconscious, valid, and creative sensitivities rather than as someone who is virtually always sick, distorting, misunderstanding, and responding inappropriately, even though his perceptions of and reactions to the therapist’s behaviours may take place entirely at the unconscious level, e.g., through references to having himself behaved badly or having done something wrong or having known someone else who did. And this conceptualization of the therapeutic interaction as involving the therapist’s responses to the patient and the patient’s responses to the therapist’s responses was then elaborated in terms of a spiralling interaction within the therapeutic field (Langs, 1978 a).

Working from the idea that the patient’s communications are frequently a commentary on the therapist’s interventions, Langs (1978 b) went on to describe various communicative styles among patients, in which the reporting of analyzable derivatives (by which was meant that, in a given session or over several sessions, the patient would unconsciously communicate with the therapist about the adaptive context, through meaningful indirect communications related to that context) was but one of several options available to the patient in how he would choose to communicate with the therapist, albeit the most useful from the standpoint of psychoanalysis or psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy since this style of communication allowed the therapist to readily interpret to the patient the unconscious meaning of his communications.

There were, in addition, at least two communicative styles among patients which were felt to be less useful for therapy. Some patients would report material seemingly rich in symbolic derivatives of their unconscious fantasies but without any apparent adaptive context to provide it with definitive meaning; and some would report a series of seemingly crucial adaptive contexts but without the accompanying meaning-laden derivative associations. Initial observations suggested that these latter styles were based on factors within both the patient and the therapist, and therefore within the therapeutic interaction.

As Langs’ ideas about therapy continued to develop, so did his concern about iatrogenic illness, the symptomatology within the patient that results from psychopathology shared by both the patient and therapist. Symptom resolution was seen as resulting from (1) cognitive insights derived from the therapist’s interpretations, (2) the therapist’s serving as a model of integrity and “straight” communication through his adherence to sound principles of technique and maintenance of the ground rules and boundaries of the therapeutic interaction, and (3) the inevitable positive identifications with the therapist which are derived from the two former types of experience. And where previous writers had viewed the ground rules as a kind of unobtrusive backdrop for the therapeutic experience and as a means of safeguarding the transference, Langs (1976 a) emphasized more and more the importance of maintaining a firm therapeutic hold in order to allow the patient to communicate with the therapist regarding his own psychopathology rather than the therapist’s.

As Langs moved further and further away from viewing psychotherapy as dealing solely with the patient’s intrapsychic contents, and towards a greater emphasis on the mutual interactional aspect of the therapeutic encounter, he found himself somewhat at a loss for a vocabulary with which to communicate his growing understanding of the therapeutic process. The necessary terminology was found in the Kleinian literature. Explication of the unconscious communicative interaction between patient and therapist was particularly helped by adoption of the term projective identification (Baranger and Baranger, 1966).

Now, transference has been defined as the patient’s conscious and unconscious relations with the therapist based on all prior and current relationships with others, both internal and external, beginning with the primary relationship with the breast-mother that had subsequently been internalized. In this context, projective identification is defined as an early primitive mental mechanism through which the infant splits off from consciousness painful negative internal self-representations, and omnipotently places them into the “object,” usually the mother. It is a mental mechanism which matures with later development; although its earliest expressions occur before self-object differentiation is complete, its later forms occur within the context of clear relatedness and constitute interactional efforts to place parts of one’s inner self into others, so as to manage intrapsychic disturbances in interactions with others. Thus, while projection is essentially an intrapsychic defense mechanism in which parts of the inner self are attributed to others without direct interactional pressures towards them, projective identification constitutes an actual interactional effort to evoke in others some aspects of one’s own inner self. Introjective identification is the complementary process through which an individual incorporates into his own self-representation and inner world the projective identifications of another. In this context, Bion(1977) speaks of the relationship between the container and the contained. This metaphor alludes to the contents which are projectively identified as being the contained, while describing the object who incorporates these contents as the container. In therapeutic interaction, one important function of the therapist is to contain the patient’s pathological projective identifications, accepting them consciously into himself and “metabolizing” them into understandings which can be interpreted to the patient.

Langs (1978 c) then distinguished between three major communicative styles in patients and therapists. In the first communicative style, which he termed Type A style, the patient uses language to communicate with the therapist symbolically about his unconscious conflicts, fantasies, memories, introjects, and perceptions. The therapist in turn interprets the patient’s verbal offerings, associations, and behaviours. In general, there is a sequential alteration between periods of resistance and revelation, with interpretive resolution of the inevitable resistances and insight into their unconscious sources and meanings, as well as insight into the patient’s core fantasies and memories and the like.

The second communicative style, Type B, is characterized by projective identification and the discharge of tensions through acting out of internal conflicts, so that the patient’s verbal associations usually do not yield meaningful interpretative insights into the dynamics of his behaviour. The therapist’s main task is to experience and contain the patient’s interactional pressures and to translate them into cognitive understanding. The main interpretation offered to the patient will be the therapist’s understanding of the implications of the patient’s attempts to invoke in him various roles and images. Often the therapist is under considerable pressure to intervene with these patients, and he may even have to do so in times of crisis, but he must work to develop the capacity to silently tolerate any interactional pressures until they can be cognitively understood and interpreted to the patient.

In the Type C communicative style, the adaptive context is either repressed or obliterated in the presence of seemingly rich associations, or the patient communicates entirely about either realities or trivia, or if there are significant adaptive contexts then they are not accompanied by meaningfully related indirect associations. The resistances of these patients are neither readily analyzable nor expressed in derivative form. Instead, their associations are flat and empty, or rich but without organizing meaning.

In the Type C field, the patient uses communication primarily as a barrier, for the destruction of meaning, and the destruction of relatedness. The therapist must recognize that the patient’s ofttimes elaborate communications actually serve to keep the therapist from getting to know and understand him (as will be recognized when the therapist tries to organize the patient’s communications around some specific adaptive context); and he must refrain from responding to the manifest contents of the material, which would only serve to maintain distance and to perpetuate and support the patient’s resistance to meaningful communication. Instead, he should strive to identify those metaphorical representations of the patient’s communicative style which do appear, for example, in allusions to safes, walls, dead-ends, voids, deception, and so on. Whenever possible, these metaphors should be linked to an adaptive context and their defensive-barrier function either stated or implied. Only then is derivative material, usually quite chaotic and regressive, likely to become momentarily available for interpretation.

Type A communication can only exist with any consistency within the context of a secure framework, i.e., proper management of the ground rules of therapy by the therapist. Alterations in the framework are, as a rule, a function of and tend to further evoke the Type B and Type C communicative modes. Thus maintenance of the framework of therapy is essential to the development and maintenance of a Type A communicative style which, in turn, is essential to the development of a complete understanding by the therapist of the unconscious meanings of the communications of the patient (as they relate to the patient’s psychopathology, to the patient’s significant genetic past, and to the actual inputs from the therapist) so that these unconscious meanings can be communicated to the patient and the resultant insights used by him in the management of his life.

Implicit in this formulation is the belief that the client cannot discuss his unconscious ideas and fantasies with the therapist directly, but can only do so indirectly, and that it is through the interpretation of this derivative communication (i.e., understanding of this derivative or symbolic communication, offered by the therapist) that these unconscious ideas and fantasies can be understood. Thus, any response to the manifest content of the client’s communications, including interpretation of it in terms of past or present interactions with others, while quite possibly justified in some contexts, does not constitute treatment of the neurotic problem for which the client has sought psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy, i.e., the bringing into consciousness of the unconscious beliefs and motivations which have led him into ineffectual living and symptomatic distress.

In this model of psychotherapy, which I believe far surpasses anything else written on the subject, it is the patient who determines the direction and extent of his communications within any given session, establishing his priorities as he shares with the therapist the various thoughts which come into his mind. The therapist, in turn, is to approach each session without desire, memory, or understanding (Langs, 1978 a) so that the interpretations which he offers to the patient may be prompted entirely by the material which the patient presents and thus be as free from bias and distortion as possible.

Since the most significant unconscious communications are most likely to derive from the therapeutic interaction itself, interventions are usually most effective when it is clear to the therapist how the patient’s communications relate to the ongoing therapeutic relationship, in terms of the patient’s allusions to the therapist’s previous interventions and management of the ground rules of psychotherapy, a specific adaptive context, and the patient’s intrapsychic anxieties, conflicts, fantasies, and memories as these relate to his interactions with significant figures in his past. Each of the therapist’s interventions, in turn, will become a portion of the adaptive context for any succeeding communications from the patient, and the therapist must listen to these succeeding communications in order to determine the validity of his intervention for that patient at that time.

To reiterate, Langs is quite emphatic in stating that the therapist should always listen to the patient for symbolic or derivative references to an adaptive context, which is not infrequently the therapeutic interaction itself. He should attend to references to the framework before all other material, to medium of expression and communicative style before content, to reality before fantasy, and to analyst before patient. He should interpret resistance before content, and interactional resistance before intrapsychic resistance. He should try to avoid asking questions and providing clarifications of his ideas since these types of interventions have usually been found to occur at points in the treatment session where the patient is working over, through displaced and disguised derivatives, some aspects of his relationship with the therapist, and usually some countertransference-based input (and typically, the therapist intervenes with a question or clarification directed towards some outside relationship or an aspect of the manifest content, and the intervention serves the purpose of offering the patient a Type B or Type C barrier to more meaningful communication). He should accept the supervision or direction offered by the patient’s (oblique) references to his errors and correct them wherever possible, so that the therapy can progress (Langs, 1979 b).

There is a fourth type of communication that was not discussed by Langs, and that has been called “straight talk.” This fourth kind of communication doesn’t require any interpretation, and people who indulge in it are unlikely to require the assistance of a psychotherapist.

The second paper in Miscellaneous Musings is On Being Perfect, a slightly edited version of which was presented at a Theology Colloquy held at Graceland College, Iowa in February, 1996.

The Bible contains a number of injunctions to be perfect, but for purpose of illustration, one should suffice.  From the fifth chapter of Matthew:

[Mat 5:45] Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 

[Mat 5:46] But I say unto you, love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you; 

[Mat 5:47] That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 

[Mat 5:48] For if ye love only them which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same? 

[Mat 5:49] And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans the same? 

Mat 5:50] Ye are therefore commanded to be perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect. 

And thereby lies a tale because, while the idea of being perfect “even as God is perfect” is an interesting one, this injunction to be perfect has probably done more harm than good, as J.B. Phillips (Your God Is Too Small, 1952) has observed:

“Of all the false gods there is probably no greater nuisance in the spiritual world than the ‘god of one hundred per cent’.  For he is plausible.  It can so easily be argued that since God is Perfection, and since He asks the complete loyalty of His creatures, then the best way of serving, pleasing, and worshipping Him is to set up absolute one-hundred-per-cent standards and see to it that we obey them.  After all, did not Christ say, ‘Be ye perfect’?” (p. 25)

In religious circles, however, tbis is known as scrupulosity, and it is considered to be a false virtue, and one to be avoided as an obstacle to spirituality.  

In fact, at any given moment, no one can ever be anything other than what he or she is.  That is, each one of us is perfect, a perfect product of his or her heredity and environment/experiences, the background that brings everyone to the present moment in time.

The first paper in Miscellaneous Musings is an Introduction to Hypnosis.  It was written in response to a request from a psychology professor and delivered to her class at the local university.  It contains the following simple relaxation exercise designed to illustrate some of the principles of hypnotic induction.  You may…enjoy the relaxation for its own sake or for what…it can teach you about hypnosis. But be careful that you don’t…allow yourself to beome hypnotized…too…quickly as did the professor who “went under” so fast that she missed the entire presntation.  So if you…do decide to let your body relax in response to these hypnotic instructions, keep your mind alert in response to your desire to learn more about the process.

Of course, it will always be entirely up to you, whether…you will let yourself become deeply relaxed, and if, at any time, you may find if inconvenient to relax, you will stay just as tense as you may wish to be.  In addition, if at any time while deeply relaxed you may wish to become fully awake, you may do so simply by sitting up, taking a few deep breaths, and directing your attention back to the objects around you.  However, when you…do let yourself become deeply relaxed, you will…find that it is a very pleasant and rewarding experience, and that, when you awake, you will…feel refreshed and rested.  

In the meantime…you are becoming more and more skilled at the art of relaxation, gaining more and more control over your entire mind and body, a skill that will enable you to…think about and deal constructively with life’s problems without interference from unnecessary nervous tension. 

Relaxation Instructions (RR #17)

The instructions which follow have been designed to help…you learn, too…relax.  Although these instructions do have a hypnotic quality, it is not intended that…you should be hypnotized by them; but keep your mind alert, while your body learns, too…relax. 

Before we begin, would you please ensure that your clothing is loosened, so that your breathing and circulation are not obstructed; and in your mind’s eye, open yourself…to the experience of relaxation. 

Resting as you are, you can…continue to relax in the safety and security of the knowledge that, whenever you may wish to become fully awake, you may do so simply by sitting up, taking a few deep breaths, and directing your attention back to the objects around you.  In the meantime, however, you are gaining more and more control over your entire mind and body.  You are becoming more and more skilled at relaxation.  This skill will enable you to…think about and deal constructively with life’s problems without interference from unnecessary nervous tension.  Take a few moments to make yourself comfortable.  And after you have made yourself comfortable, just close your eyes gently, and think of peace…of quiet…of tranquility.  Of slowing down.  And as you…do so, you will…notice that…your breathing is becoming slow and regular, and you are becoming more and more…relaxed.  Enjoy the relaxation, the comfortable breathing, the feeling of calmness and peace, as… nervous tension gradually gives way to relaxation. 

Now, take a deep breath, and let it all out.  Stretch the muscles of your chest and throat, and let them…relax.  And let your breathing become even more slow and regular, as you…sink even more deeply relaxed.  Let the muscles of your arms…relax.  Let them go.   Let…both your arms sink soft and loose.  And now your legs: let…all the muscles of your legs relax. The muscles of your lower legs…relax…the muscles of your upper legs and thighs.  

And now, relax the muscles of your stomach…relax…the muscles of your abdomen and lower back…relax…the muscles of your chest and shoulders.  Let your shoulders hang loosely; very, very peaceful and calm.  Smooth out your forehead; relax…the muscles of your eyes.  Remember that it requires effort even to maintain a facial expression, and let your face become vacant, and completely without expression.  Nothing is important at this moment except the sound of my voice, and attaining a state of deep, pleasant… relaxation.  An alert mind in a relaxed body.  A state of peacefulness and calm. 

You may yawn, if you wish; stretch the muscles of your throat, and then…let them relax.  So tired and peaceful; so sleepy.  Imagine, if you wish, that…someone is coming to the door, and you want them to think that…you are sound asleep.  Take a peek and…see them at the door, but then…close your eyes and imagine that…you are sound asleep; and drift and dream with me, while you experience the peacefulness of deep, pleasant relaxation. 

As you…continue breathing deeply and comfortably and rhythmically, I would like you to…imagine that you are standing at the top of a gentle carpeted stairway.  It doesn’t matter whether…you can…see it clearly, or vaguely, or even not at all.  You’ve been at the top of a stairway before, and you will be again.  All that matters is for you to…know that in a moment, I am going to ask you to…begin to count backwards with me from twenty, while you go slowly down the stairs.  And…notice how much more comfortable and relaxed you can feel, as you…go slowly down the stairs.

Twenty…nineteen…eighteen…seventeen…sixteen.  Pause, and notice that…with each number that you count, and even with each even breath that you take, you are becoming even more deeply relaxed.

Fifteen…fourteen…thirteen…twelve…eleven.  Already half-way down the stairs, and perhaps beginning to…notice that you can…easily understand these instructions, even though you may not consciously attend to what I am saying, and these instructions can stay safely tucked away in the back of your mind, available for you to…use whenever you need to become deeply relaxed again.  

Ten…nine…eight.  And perhaps beginning to…notice that any sounds that you hear can become part of your experience of comfort and well-being, so that nothing bothers and nothing disturbs.  

Seven…six…five.  And perhaps…you can experience feelings of heaviness and warmth spreading throughout your body; or perhaps…your body feels as if it is floating on soft, billowy clouds, as light as a feather, as if it could just float comfortably away; or perhaps…you may notice that you don’t even have to be aware of your body at all – just the feeling of comfort and well-being, as…you become more and more deeply relaxed.  I really don’t know, and it really doesn’t matter at all.  

Four.  Almost to the bottom of the stairs, to a place of safety and security, where nothing bothers and nothing disturbs.  

Three.  Feeling more and more the real enjoyment of deep, comfortable relaxation.  Perhaps beginning to wonder what to experience when you reach the bottom of the stairs, and yet knowing already how much more ready you can feel to…become even deeper and deeper relaxed, more and more comfortable, where nothing bothers and nothing disturbs.  

Two.  And you can…enjoy the experience, as much as you like.  Enjoy the relaxation, the comfortable breathing, the feeling of peacefulness, as you…let your body become even more deeply relaxed.  

One.  And you are almost there. And now, ahead of you there stands a blackboard.  Beside it is a big can of paint with a big paintbrush in it.  Move out from the stairway, take the brush, and paint the board red.  Slap the paint on; dip the brush as often as you need; cover it completely.  When it is all red, picture in the middle of it a big number 7.  Take the brush again, and paint the board orange.  Cover it completely, slap the paint on, get around the edges, dip the brush as often as you need.  When it’s all orange, picture in the middle of it a big number 6.  Take the brush again and paint the board yellow.  Get into the corners, around the edges, dip the brush as often as you need.  When it is all yellow, picture in the middle of it a big number 5.  Take the brush again and paint the board green.  Slap the paint on, get in around the edges, cover it completely.  When it is all green, picture in the middle of it a big number 4.  Take the brush again and paint the board blue.  When it’s all blue, picture in the middle of it a big number 3.  Take the brush again, and paint the board purple.  When it is all purple, picture in the middle of it a big number 2.  Take the brush again and paint the board violet.  Cover if all over, slap the paint on, and when it is all violet, picture in the middle of it a big number 1. 

Now, turn so that…you can see in front of you a screen of trees, bushes and shrubs.  When you are ready, step through that screen of trees, bushes and shrubs and find yourself in a quiet place.  This place might be any place; somewhere, perhaps, that you remember from your past, or even from your future.  A place where…you feel happy and absolutely safe.  If you like, you could put some loved ones there, perhaps from your childhood.  If you put loved ones there, take a few moments to greet them and renew fond memories.  In any case, enjoy the safety and security and happiness you feel in this place.  Then, when…you are ready, look ahead of you, and picture a gentle slope going upward toward a small hillock or knoll.  Slowly make your way up that gentle slope toward the top of that little hill.  Along the way, you might notice the blue sky above you, soft white fluffy clouds in the sky, and the smell of the earth and grass.  Feel the gentle warmth of the sun.  

When you reach the top of the rise, look over and down a gentle slope towards the sea.  And notice that, between you and the sea, there is a big rock, and sitting beside the rock there is a cup, and beyond that, a stream.  As you begin to walk down the slope, take off your troubles and worries and, when you reach the rock, put them under the rock, and slide the rock over them, burying them for all time.  Then, take off anything that you will need when you return, your shoes, coat and the like, and put them on top of the rock.  Take the cup from beside the rock and, when you are ready, go past the rock and step into the stream.  Feel the warmth of the sun on you, and the coolness of the stream on your feet.  Look down into the water and see the clear, clean, crystal water of the stream.  Listen to it bubbling over your feet.  Bend down and dip some water from the stream into the cup.  Take a sip of the water.  The water is serenity and peace.  Feel the water course down into your stomach, and transfer to your bloodstream to circulate all through your body, down your legs and arms, throughout your trunk, and into your head.  Take another sip of the water.  The water is serenity and peace. 

When you are ready to move on, you can pour the rest of the water back into the stream from which it came.  Leave the cup by the stream and walk on down toward the sea, and slowly along the beach.  Imagine that it is mid-July, and it is evening.  The sun has not yet begun to set, but it is getting lower on the horizon.  The sun is a golden blazing yellow, the sky a brilliant blue, the sand a dazzling, glistening white in the sunlight.  Feel the cold, wet, firm, hard-packed sand beneath your feet.  Taste and smell the salt in the air.  There is a residue of salt deposited on your lips from the air around.  You can taste it if you lick your lips.  Hear the beating of the waves, the rhythmic lapping to and fro, back and forth of the water against the shore.  Hear the far-off cry of a distant gull as you continue to walk along the beach. 

And suddenly you come upon a sand dune, a mound of pure white sand.  Covering the mound are bright yellow buttercups, and deep pink moss roses.  You sit down on its crest and look out to sea.  The sea is like a mirror of silver reflecting the sun’s rays, a mass of pure white light, and you are gazing intently into this light.  As you continue to stare into the sun’s reflection off the water, you begin to see darting flecks of violet intermingled with the silver.  Everywhere there is silver and violet.  There is a violet line along the horizon, a violet halo around the flowers.  And now the sun is beginning to set.  With each motion of the sun into the sea you become deeper and deeper relaxed. 

The sky is turning crimson, scarlet, pink, amber, gold, orange.  And as the sun sets, you are engulfed in a deep purple twilight, and as you look up into the night sky, a velvety blue haze.  It is a brilliant starry night.  The beating of the waves, the smell and taste of the salt, the sea, the sky; and you feel yourself carried upward and outward into space, to …become one with the universe.  Find your comfort in that space, while I talk to you about something that you already know a lot about – remembering and forgetting.  

And I say that it is something that you already know a lot about because you do it every waking moment of your life.  You remember, and then you forget, so that you can remember something else.  No one can remember everything all at once, so you…let some memories move quietly to the back of your mind.  I wonder, for example, whether you will be surprised, or curious, or pleased to…discover that the things that you have learned today are just the same, things that you may remember tomorrow, or the next day, or next week, or even next month.  I wonder if…you will decide to…let the memory of these things rest quietly in the back of your mind, or if…you will remember gradually, or all at once.  I wonder if you may remember completely, or only partially.  Perhaps…you will be surprised to…notice that this is the place for memory to surface, or it may be more comfortable for you to…remember at a different place, or at another time.  I don’t know when…you will remember the things that I have been telling you, or where…you will remember the things that I tell you, but you will remember: whenever you…make yourself comfortable in preparation for relaxation, it can serve as a reminder…of the instructions which I have been giving you.  So whenever you…remember, however…you will remember, wherever…you will remember, if ever…you will remember, it will be just fine, and perfectly natural.  Whatever I have said, has been said, and is safely tucked away in the back of your mind, available for you to…use, whenever you…again make yourself comfortable in preparation for relaxation. 

And I wonder…if you will…feel surprised to…notice that you can…become so deeply relaxed in such a brief period of time.  And perhaps…you will…feel curious about that surprise.  Surprise, curiosity, and I wonder…if you will…feel pleased to…notice that, any day you wish, you can…remember the pleasant feelings of relaxation can come flooding back to you quickly and automatically whenever you…make yourself comfortable again…in preparation for…relaxation. 

Again, let me remind you that relaxation is a skill that comes with practice, and as you…continue to…follow these instructions, you will…find it more and more easy to relax, when you again make yourself comfortable in preparation for relaxation, and throughout your daily life as well.  

But rest now, rest, whether with your eyes closed or with your eyes open.  That’s right, you have…not left…your pleasant state of…relaxation. 

In a few moments, I am going to ask you to arouse yourself, but till then, just remain resting peacefully, and really enjoy the feelings that your body can give you, so that, in a moment, when I count from one to five, you will be able to…feel yourself walking or floating gently up the stairs, and feeling refreshed and rested and oh, so good all over.  More alert with every number that I count.  No need to hurry; you can have all the time that you want.  After all, time is relative, and you will be able to…feel yourself returning slowly, comfortably up the stairs; more alert with every number that I count; perhaps surprised that…you can…feel so well.  Comfortable, and feeling well. 

Now, bring that feeling of comfort and well-being with you as you…begin to slowly climb or let yourself float back up the stairs to full waking consciousness.  One: Beginning to arouse yourself as you journey back up those stairs to full waking consciousness.  Two: Open your eyes wide and look around you.  Three: When you reach the top, take a few deep breaths and direct your attention back to the objects around you.  Four: Wake up.  Wake up.  And five: Wide awake, rested, refreshed, and feeling well all over.  I trust…you…enjoyed these few brief moments of relaxation. 

Large Group Treatment of Psychological Problems (by Douglas Quirk)

In designing treatment workshops for maximum therapeutic benefit, we have made certain assumptions.  First, it is assumed that it is necessary to build evaluation into each stage of treatment program development and implementation, so that program delivery is controlled by its results.  Second, it is appropriate to include motivational elements as part of the treatment, rather than to expect that only motivated clients will be referred.  Third, treatment needs to be guided by the therapist (the expert) rather than by the client (where it becomes a case of the blind leading the blind).  Fourth, to ensure a powerful therapeutic effect, it is necessary that treatment be designed in such a way that it incorporates scientifically verified laws of learning and behaviour.  Fifth, it is necessary for the client both to be provided with information about the basic processes involved in his or her presenting problems and their treatment, and to be shown strategies for addressing and resolving them.  And finally, it is desirable, if not always necessary, for clients to have an opportunity to practice using the information and strategies with which they have been provided, so as to ensure that the treatment has really “taken,” before turning the clients loose to function on their own.

In the treatment workshops that we have offered at the OCI, measures have been taken before and after each day-long workshop, so that the effect of each workshop module could be evaluated, as well as any overall effect of the workshop series.  In this book, only the post-workshop scores are reported, for the sake of simplicity.  However, the scores shown are fully representative of pre- and post-workshop values, the pre- to post-workshop change scores, and subjective reports of improvements experienced by participants as a result of their workshop experiences.

Over the intervening years, (1) pre-post measures have shown that these treatment workshops produce significant effects and (2) participants in these large group treatment programs have demonstrated that they are able to use the instruction received and the skills that they have learned in the treatment workshops in day-to-day interactions in their living-unit communities, and informal comparisons between the results of large-group treatment and more intensive eight-to-ten-person groups have been very favourable to the large-group approach.  In those cases where the same measures have been employed, for example, the treatment workshops have generally produced better results.

The present volume attempts to serve three functions.  First, it provides for description and evaluation of four series of workshops offered at the Ontario Correctional Institute, each comprised of several modules:

Stress Management

Conflict Management

Anger Management (the Aggressiveness Program)

Relationships and Human Sexuality

Stress Management Example:

The program for stress management is designed to address all of the major requirements for the management of stress and the effects of its associated states.  Components of the task are presented as separate modules as described below.  Experience to date suggests that treatment of this kind can be effective when delivered in groups as large as the space can accommodate.

1. Orientation to stress
2. Relaxation/Calmness Training
3. Resources Installation
4. Stressor Events Review
5. Coping Strategies Training
6. Assertive Training
7. Stress Prevention Training
8. Systematic Desensitization

Short-term evaluation studies have been run with some of the modules from the Stress Program.  For this purpose, stress and anxiety monitoring procedures were administered at the beginning and at the end of the Orientation to Stress, Relaxation/Calmness Training, Assertive Training and Systematic Desensitization components of the Stress Program, with results as shown below.

Second, this book outlines a variety of other workshops which have been neither offered nor evaluated in precisely this format to date, but which would be useful to the population in general:

Brain involvement program (generic)

Cognitive skills training program (generic)

Criminality program (generic)

Depression program (generic)

Exhibitionism program (generic)

Family relations program (generic)

Human relations program (generic)

Life-enhancement program (generic)

Life-style program (generic)

Obsessive-compulsive program (generic)

Pain management program (generic)

Substance abuse program (generic)

Traumatization program (generic)

Victim assistance program (generic)

Finally, it shows how these workshops might be combined to address a variety of psychological problems encountered in everyday life (using Anxities and Phobias as an example):

Anxieties and Phobias (example)

Anxieties and phobias are learned in a wide variety of circumstances and are expressed in a wide variety of ways.  Nevertheless, there are a number of features common to these types of problems which can be addressed in large- or small-group format, as well as others which may have to be addressed individually.

The TREATMENT Program for ANXIETIES and PHOBIAS

Stress Program (generic)

• Orientation to Stress
• Relaxation/Calmness Training
• Resources Installation
• Stressor Events Review
• Coping Strategies Training
• Assertiveness Training
• Stress Prevention Training

Systematic Desensitization

• Anxiety/Phobia Situations
• Social Situations

Cognitive Restructuring

Obsessive-Compulsive Program, as required.

Anger and Hostility

Arson

Compulsive Disorders

Criminality/Antisocial Personality

Depressive Reactions

Exhibitionism/Gross Indecency

Families of Substance Abusers/Addicts

Family Violence Perpetrators

Flat Depression

Immune System Disorders

Irritative Brain

Learning Disabilites and Developing Intellect

Leisure Time Enhancement

Life Stressor Events

Life-Style Disorders

Life-Style Enhancement

Marital Reconciliation, Separation and Divorce

Obsessive Disorders

Post-Traumatic Stress and Related Disorders

Relationship Difficulties/Conflicts

Sexual Offenders

Social Anxieties/Shyness/Self Image Problems

Stress Reaction Disorders

Substance Abusers/Addicts

Traffic Accident (MVA) Sequelae

Victims of Family Violence

Victims of Sexual Assault

Violence/Assaultiveness

Violence/Assault Victims

Work-Related Problems

Informal Psychological Assessment (by Douglas Quirk and Reg Reynolds) 

Psychological treatment is relatively easy (1) if your subject is available for treatment and (2) if you know what to treat. The latter is where psychological assessment comes in. Psychological assessment presents the subject with some standard stimulus package – a questionnaire or a set of abstract stimuli such as the Rorschach cards – and the examiner interprets the subject’s response. Some of the issues to be considered in interpreting the subject’s response ae discussed in the first paper in this manuscript, The Use of the MMPI in Teaching Personality Assessment.

In psychological test construction, it is highly desirable that the test be valid (i.e., that it measures what it purports to measure). There are several kinds of validity. Face validity is “on the face of it” validity. For example, if you are asked whether you are anxious in social situations and you reply that you are, the examiner might interpret your response as indicating that you are anxious in social situations. Concurrent validity is about whether your subject’s response to the standard stimulus situation provides essentially the same information as some other assessment device that you believe to be measuring what you are trying to measure. An example might be whether the subject’s claim to be anxious in social situations is supported by physiological indicators of arousal in those situations, which would provide at least presumptive evidence that the subject is indeed anxious in those social situations. Content validity is about covering the subject under consideration. The Addicause questionnaire, for example, was designed to determine the possible motivations for addictive behaviour, and it contains items covering all of the motivations that we could think of as possible motivations for addictive behaviour. Predictive validity concerns whether test results predict to some future bahaviour. For example, IQ test results are used to help determine how well someone might be expected to do in situations that require thinking ability.

For a psychological test to be published (and available for sale), it will have mutliple kinds of validity. While several of the assessment devices included in this manuscript approach that ideal, all of them were intended for our own use and none of them have undergone the rigorous development that would be required if they were to be published for use by other psychologists. The only reason for their inclusion here is so that thay are not quite so easily lost to posterity.

Most of these assessment devices are concerned with affect – anxiety, ager, or depression. The Addicause questionnaire was designed to determine the motivations underlying addictions, but really is about motivations in general. Opinions About Social Problems is used for determining moral development level, and the Survey of Thoughts, Feelings, and Behaviours is a measure of criminality.

A Measure of Moral Development

This book reports on some research I carried out at the Ontario Correctional Institute, where there is no construct with greater relevance for criminality than morality.  Like Loevingcr’s (1970) concept of ego development, moral development postulates a series of stages through which individuals may progress from egocentricity to a complex understanding of life in which there is respect for the dignity of human beings as individual persons, reconciliation of one’s own inner conflicts, and a strong sense of identity and integrity.

Jean Piaget’s was a developmental psychologist.  In his study of children, he observed that their thinking develops through a series of stages, that they exhibit certain distinctive common patterns of thinking in each of these developmental stages, and that no matter how bright children may be, they are not capable of understanding things beyond their cognitive developmental level.  

Turning his attention to the study of moral reasoning, he proposed several ideas which, at the time (1932) seemed rather radical: 

• that the development of moral reasoning, like reasoning in general, proceeds on a stage by stage basis,
• that children can not reason morally beyond the level at which they can reason in general.  That is, judgements about right and wrong – judgements concerning what ought to be done, and why – are limited by cognitive development in general, and 
• that growth needs to progress through these developmental stages in the order given, since the acquisition of each stage depends on mastery of the preceding stages, 
• that morality is not so much a function of what one does but of the reasoning that underlies the choice.  That is, the morality of any behaviour is not determined by what the child does but by why it does what it does, by the reasoning behind the behaviour.

Building on Piaget’s work, Lawrence Kohlberg, a psychology professor at Yale University and later at Harvard, postulated a series of six stages in the development of moral reasoning, grouped into three moral levels as follows:

Level 1: Pre-Moral Level

Stage 1: Punishment and obedience (in which action is motivated by fear of punishment)

Stage 2: Naive instrumental hedonism (in which action is motivated by hoped-for reward: the morality of the marketplace)

Level 2: Conventional Morality

Stage 3: Good-Boy/Good-Girl morality (in which action is motivated by desire for approval, avoidance of disapproval)

Stage 4: Law and Order morality (in which action is motivated by anticipation of honour/dishonour and loyalty to authority)

Level 3: Principled Morality 

Stage 5: Morality of contract and democratically accepted law (in which action is motivated by concern for community acceptance; values are relative)

Stage 6: Morality of individual moral principles (in which action is motivated by personal integrity, self-respect, universal values)

In 1974, Rest and his colleagues reported on development of the Defining Issues Test (DIT), which attempts to assess what people see as crucial moral issues in a situation by presenting subjects with a series of moral dilemmas and a list of definitions of the major issues involved.  Since that test was felt to be too difficult for use with our inmate population, I set out to develop a test of moral development suitable for use with our inmate population,  This book reports on the success of that project.

Examining the scores on this test (Opinions About Social Problems) obtained by a sample of inmates and staff, it can be seen that there is very little overlap.  A test of the significance of the difference between the mean Moral Maturity Scores of staff and those of residents shows them to be significantly different at the p<0.01 level using a two-tailed test (t = 2.88, df = 66.98).  Essentially, that means that if moral reasoning were the reason for incarceration, inmates would be seen to have come by their incarceration honestly.  Furthermore, there is very little overlap between staff and residents whether it be on the Moral Maturity Scores derived from the Kohlberg’s moral development interview procedure or from this paper-and-pencil questionnaire (as  shown in the following figure).  In fact, in twenty years spent in the correctional system, I can only remember one inmate that I judged to have just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  And I see that there was one female inmate in the above chart that didn’t fit the pattern, but let me tell you, that is relatively rare among both male and female inmates.  

There are at least two other arenas that would benefit from the measurement of moral development:

•  Judging by the “news,” too many law enforcement officers are relatively low in moral development, and new hires should be screened for criminality and/or moral development.
•  Judging by the “news,” one would think that immorality is a necessary condition for involvement in politics.  It sure would be nice to be able to screen potential political candidates for criminality and/or moral development.