Among the popular stereotypes of adolescence, images of romantic and sexual awakening loom large. In both fiction and autobiography, writers invoke the raging hormones, "first loves," and distinctly more romantic interests of the teenage years. These common impressions accord with empirical findings that behaviors associated with romantic interests (such as dating and sexual activity) increase during the teenage years (for reviews, see Katchadourian, 1990; Savin-Williams, in press;Zani, 1993). From a developmental perspective, however, the romantic experiences of adolescents represent one phase of a meaningful progression of relationships across age periods (Collins and Sroufe, in press). Early caregiver-child relationships, peer relationships in preschool and middle childhood, and friendships in adolescence contribute to adolescents' functioning in teenage romantic relationships.Several assumptions about relationships underlie the developmental view adopted in this chapter. The first assumption is that all types of relationships in all periods of life have certain core features in common. Even though with development changes occur in the types of relationships that are central and in relationship capacities, interpersonal relating in successive life periods builds on prior relationship experiences. Second, relationships are not simply the sum of personal characteristics of each member of the dyad; rather, relationships are the unique patterning and qualities of dyadic interactions that endure over time (Hinde and Stevenson-Hinde, 1987;Sroufe and Fleeson, 1986). Third, individuals and relationships are both the products and the architects of the relationships in which they participate Sroufe and Fleeson, 1986). Fourth, relationships are integral to competence, defined as "the ability NEW DIRECIIONS FOR Cwro DEVELOPMENT. M. 78, Winter 1997 0 J 0 s s c y -B~ Inr. Publish 69

Mesmerism, the French method of treating illness and inducing trance, was introduced to the United States in 1836. A cohort of Americans took to the practice enthusiastically, publishing materials, presenting lectures attended by thousands, conducting empirical investigations, and treating untold numbers of ill people. These practitioners understood their profession addressed the mind, and they often referred to their work as “psychology.” The mesmerists speculated about mind-brain links and investigated “interior states,” “mental healing,” and the controversial “higher mind powers” such as clairvoyance. Antebellum culture is the backdrop for this study of the rise, fall, and dispersion of mesmerism in the United States. Evidence provided warrants a reappraisal of mesmerism’s significance for 19th-century psychology.

Contemporary interest in Asian meditation raises questions about when Westerners began investigating these practices. A synopsis of Western-originating scientific meditation research is followed by a brief introduction to mesmerism. Next, the unappreciated ways the mesmerists explored Oriental mind powers is recounted. How the mesmerists' cultural positioning, philosophy, and interest in mind-body practices facilitated their inquiries of Oriental medicine and Hindu contemplative practices is explored, followed by a consideration of why these investigations were unique for the era. The way this work subverted Western cultural imperialism is examined. A consideration of the historical continuities and discontinuities between the mesmerists' inquiries and twentieth-century meditation research concludes the article.

The Methodist-Episcopalian minister-turned-physician and philosopher of healing Warren Felt Evans (1817-1889) was one of the earliest practitioners of mental healing, also known as "mind cure." Originating in New England in the second half of the 19th century, mind cure spread through the country in the 1880s. Drawing from Evans's unpublished journals, I recount his struggles with chronic ill health and his turn to the Quietist mystics and Swedenborg, and then to the mesmerist-turned-mental-healer P. P. Quimby to procure both healing for his ills and philosophical sanctification for his soul. The transformational route Evans traveled reflects the mythico-religious journey of the wounded healer who suffers through a creative illness on the way to becoming a healer himself. The article places Evans and the mind cure movement within late-19th-century Boston's medical and cultural milieu. Evans's approach to psychological healing is explored by focusing on his mind-body healing philosophy and mental therapeutics as described in his first 2 mind cure books The Mental Cure (1869) and Mental Medicine (1872). (PsycINFO Database Record

No abstract