Many nonpharmacologic (behavioral) techniques are being proposed for the therapy of essential hypertension. The research in this area is reviewed and divided roughly into two categories: the biofeedback and relaxation methodologies. While feedback can be used to lower pressures during laboratory training sessions, studies designed to alter basal blood pressure levels with biofeedback have not yet been reported. The absence of evidence for such changes through biofeedback limits the usefulness of this technique in hypertension control. The various relaxation methods, such as yoga, transcendental meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, and others have shown more promise. With varying degrees of experimental vigor, many of these techniques have been associated with long-lasting changes in blood pressure. The strengths and weaknesses of the various authors' research designs, data and conclusions are discussed, and suggestions for further experimentation are offered.

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The authors examine the conflicted relationship between Orthodox Judaism and psychoanalysis. Orthodox Jewish thinkers about psychology have responded to psychoanalysis as incompatible with the practice of Orthodox Judaism. On the other hand, those psychoanalytic writers who have examined the beliefs and practices of Orthodox Jews have tended to treat these issues in a reductionistic fashion. However, the authors find possibilities for reconciliation and dialogue in the work of Aaron Rabinowitz and Moshe Halevi Spero.

An introduction is presented to a symposium discussing the way in which the representation of the image of God can affect the analytic dialogue and process, focusing on the beliefs and images of the analyst as well as the analysand. If, as theorized, an image or a concept identified as "God" is an ineluctable element of the development of the human mind (whatever else this image may or may not mean theologically), then it would seem that the dynamic roots and potential of this kind of representation would find some expression in the countertransference dimension of analytic work. Contributors to the symposium were asked to offer detailed clinical material, paying special attention to their countertransference experiences in order to focus on the impact of religious imagery on their own "religiously oriented" internal experiences. Three questions were posed in order to conceptualize the clinical transaction in ways that could elucidate our research interests. It was not assumed that the symposium authors, or analysts in general, are formally religious, nor was this necessary to the task. The majority of the 14 authors identified themselves as currently religious; 4 were circumspect to one degree or another. Interestingly, the intensity of countertransference involvement on the level of personal religious experience varied throughout the group.

The process of religious conversion has not been the focus of psychoanalytic understanding. This article examines one conversion narrative, a spiritual autobiography, in which, the author asserts, evidence can be found that the conversion described involved a process of maturation of the subject's internal god-representation, with an integration of maternal and paternal aspects of that internal object representation. Such a process as one aspect of a religious conversion, has implications for psychoanalytic work with religious patients, including the necessity of acknowledging the psychological and deeply believed reality of God for religious patients.