A Context Analysis of Psychological States Prior to Petit Mal Eeg Paroxysms

Précis ofThe Foundations of Psychoanalysis: A Philosophical Critique

“…It should be pointed out that one of these major hypotheses has in fact already been the subject of evaluation by the symptom-context method, namely, the hypothesis about the causes of neurotic symptoms in Freud's genera] theory of symptom formation (Freud 1926) -that helplessness or the anticipation of helplessness is the most central cause. The symptom-context method has been applied to a variety of symptoms including momentary forgetting (Luborsky et al 1979), petit mal seizures (Luborsky, Docherty, Todd, Knapp, Mirsky & Gottschalk 1975), precipitously emerging depressive states (Luborsky, Singer, Hartke, Crits-Christoph & Cohen 1984), and migraine headaches and stomach pain (Luborsky & Auerbach 1969). In fact, the symptom-context results on all of the symptoms studied so far show that helplessness is the most prevalent "cause" of the psychological symptoms ("cause" being taken to mean, as stated earlier, a factor associated with the development of a symptom that recurrently appears in the material prior to the appearance of the symptom).…”

The context for momentary forgetting: Studies of groups of patients.

“…It is quite conceivable, for instance, that all three factors may be present at a point in therapy, after which a symptom other than momentary forgetting may occur, or even no symptom at all. Examination of the conditions preceding other symptoms as well suggests that this is often the case (Luborsky & Auerbach, 1969;Luborsky et al, 1975;Luborsky et al, 1979). The list of factors explaining momentary forgetting was essentially derived from the variables that discriminated between momentary forgetting and control segments.…”

From Inferred Personalities Toward Personality in Action

“…Such symptom manifestations are difficult to locate and study The report by Luborsky et al (1979) deals with only 31 mstances in more than 2,0<)O sessions for 15 patients Momentary forgetting is an intemal mental process, observable pnmanly through the patients' verbalizations , although other research has used a physiological marker for symptom appearance, the petit mal EEG paroxysm (Luborsky et al , 1975). The onset ofthe symptom seems quite clear-cut, the antecedents, m contrast, are more difficult to determine Since clinicians agree fairly well on the charactenstics of what the patient said earlier, the perceiver problem IS handled moderately well The focus is on the process within a specific context that enables the phenomena to take place The research in-terest resides in the particular circumstances surrounding the event While the momentary forgetting is unequivocal, the meanings ofthe patients' preceding words do require interpretation Judgments about those words are made in terms of fairly broad concepts, like rejection, helplessness, and resistance In sum, although this work only moderately reduces the perennial problems m personality research, it demonstrates that personahty in ongoing action can be productively investigated Duncan's strategy signals Like Luborsky, Duncan in his research starts with an act and looks for what precedes it Like Patterson, Duncan studies sequences m which one person's act follows an act of another Duncan (Duncan & Fiske, 1977) has worked at a more molecular level than these other researchers-the time between the onset of one person's action and the onset ofthe other person's subsequent acbon often is under a second (Denny [cited in Duncan & Fiske, 1985, p 312] has found pauses as short as 5 ms between the two speakers in smooth exchanges of the speaking tum ) Along with other aspects of the structure of faceto-face interaction, Duncan has demonstrated that the smooth exchange of speakmg tums, as opposed to lntermptions and simultaneous talking, IS preceded by a tum signal, which is mdicated by such cues as termination of a hand gesticulation or completion of a grammatical clause…”