A pilot cross-sectional online study attempts to clarify the role of implicit sociocultural attitudes in future thinking and tests a hypothesis that the implicit activation of Individualism / Collectivism concepts changes the content and other characteristics of self-relevant images of the future — self-defining future projections (SDFPs). The study performed in 2019-2020 involved 191 people, mean age — M = 36.9 (SD = 10.4) years. Group 1 underwent Individualism priming: 108 people (11.2% of males), mean age — M = 37.6 (SD = 1.04) years. Group 2 underwent Collectivism priming: 83 people (22.9% of males), age — M = 36 years (SD = 1.13). No significant sociodemographic between-group differences were found (p<0.05). Two versions of the online survey (one with an Individualism priming task and another with a Collectivism priming task) were randomly sent to students and teachers of Russian higher education institutions. After completing the priming task, the respondents constructed SDFPs in line with the definition provided and evaluated their quality. Experts rated SDFP thematic content, integration of meaning and specificity in accordance with valid coding pro¬cedures. Collectivism / Individualism levels were assessed using the INDCOL test. The priming procedure had a small significant effect on SDFP thematic content, interpersonal orientation, and specificity. It was more prominent in the Collectivism priming, although expected correlations between the Individualism and feelings of the Autonomy and Competence need satisfaction in SDFPs were also found. Collectivism seemed to strengthen future thinking overgenerality and to hinder the capacity to reflect on one’s own future. On the contrary, Individualism involves taking personal responsibility, but it seemed to enhance the need for Relatedness and social support (a protective factor in depressive conditions) in a compensatory manner. The data contributes to a further understanding of implicit influences on future thinking and suggest that it is the balance of the Collectivism and Individualism values that is crucial for mental health.

Using a clinical case of three brothers, we discuss a spontaneous, self-organizing family system framework that prevents withdrawal from therapy and acting-out of the borderline clients diagnosed with alcohol dependence. This multi-family framework includes several family members and rests on the symbiotic and co-dependent relational patterns between the clients and their mothers. We discuss the positive and negative aspects of this framework and options for changing it.

The article presents findings of the egogram-based suicide note analysis, which was undertaken by three experts (MDs, PhDs, certified in TA) in a sample of 26 people (36 suicide notes) in Ryazan, Russia, in 2000 and 2017. The results of the study imply that the presuicidal intrapersonal activity is quite diverse and evolving, and may vary between those who complete suicide lethally and those who survive their suicide attempt. Lethal suicides were characterised by elevated levels of Adult and Adapted Child whereas non-lethal suicide attempts showed an apparent increase in Adapted Child and negative Controlling Parent levels. The authors inferred that suicidal individuals with serious lethal intent might maintain moderate levels of Adapted Child (suffering) so as to enable Adult to accumulate energy needed to perform a fatal suicide attempt. In attempted suicides, high levels of negative Controlling Parent targeting relevant others may diffuse the energy necessary for completion of suicide. Attempted suicide egograms were illustrative of the manipulative nature of the non-lethal suicide attempts, whereas completed suicides did not. Egograms of non-lethal suicide attempts and intoxicated completed suicides had similar distribution of ego state levels, which may reflect the effect of alcohol interfering with the activity of protective Parental substructures and strengthening the role of the negative Controlling Parent targeting either one’s inner self or relevant others.Citation - APA format:Shustov, D., Tuchina, O., Agibalova, T., & Zuykova, N. (2018). States of Self as Agents of Self-Killing: An Egogram-based Suicide Note Analysis Study in Russia. International Journal of Transactional Analysis Research & Practice, 9(1), 5-22. https://doi.org/10.29044/v9i1p5

The article presents the findings of а study investigating a relationship between personality types developing under the influence of negative parental messages (injunctions) and different types of self-destructive behaviors in alcohol-dependent patients. The study was carried out in 2009—2012 in Ryazan in a sample of 190 outpatient male clients who received psychotherapy for alcohol-dependence. The authors assumed that the choice of self-destructive behaviors was linked to the alcohol-dependent patients’ personality organization and depended on а combination of different injunctions with the main self-destructive injunction — “Don’t be”. The authors describe parental injunctions, which contributed to the devel- opment of “the alcoholic personality”. The main contributing injunctions were “Don’t be” which formed the basis for self-destructiveness, and “Don’t think”, which reinforced alcohol abuse as a maladaptive coping strategy. The other injunctions, when combined with “Don’t be”, were mediating personality type de- velopment and the related groups of self-destructiveness. The authors identified statistically significant correlations between the most frequent personality types and specific groups of self-destructive behavior in alcohol-dependent patients: thus, borderline personality organization was linked to suicidal behavior, dissocial personality organization — to antisocial behaviors, and narcissistic — to self- destructiveness in the professional sphere.

The transfer of episcripts in the families of alcohol-dependent men and the relationship of this process to the family’s self-destructive behavior is described. The evolution of spousal relationships in these marriages is considered from the perspective of the transmission of self-destructiveness and changes in the course of alcohol dependence. The authors identify clinical types of the episcript model of family relationships, including single-level (husband ↔ wife) and multilevel (husband ↔ wife ↔ son) episcript transmission. The theoretical and therapeutic implications of the episcript transmission of self-destructiveness for the psychotherapeutic treatment of dependent and codependent conditions are discussed.