The ambiguity of the psychoanalytic situation and its relation to the analyst's reverie.

Våpenstad, Eystein Victor

doi:10.1037/a0020454

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…I am a warm supporter of working through, and a favorite paper of mine is the one by Pick (1985) called “Working Through in the Countertransference.” With seriously disturbed patients in particular, the analyst has to involve, and many times disclose, his reverie and mental functioning in ways that can be very demanding. I have described this process with an adult patient in another article (Våpenstad, 2010). With this man, who was extremely traumatized in his early childhood, working through mainly took place in the analyst’s reverie.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attack and defence: From “attacks on linking” to “positive capability” in a child psychoanalysis.

Våpenstad¹

2017

Psychoanalytic Psychology

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The main purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of "positive capability." It is inspired by Wilfred R. Bion's theory of "negative capability," and the present analysis tries to illustrate and describe "positive capability" through another concept, namely "attacks on linking," as conceived by Bion. Severely disturbed patients very often launch extremely powerful and devastating attacks on every form of linking between themselves and their analyst and between themselves and the creation of meaning. The analyst's primary approach when working with patients like this should be marked by his negative capability, that is, his capacity to tolerate, contain, and transform the patient's projections. But sometimes the analyst must introduce a more active, spontaneous and vital mode of being. To counter the patient's attacks, the analyst must let the patient experience that something can matter imperatively for the analyst, and he must create a home for the patient's mind by letting the patient discover more openly the functions of the analyst's mind. The transformation of the analyst's reverie into something useful for the fragmented, apathetic and despairing patient must frequently take the form of a vitalizing activity, where the analyst tries to reclaim the patient back to human relatedness. This kind of work is extensively illustrated through the analytic treatment of a child who was cumulatively traumatized as an infant, and who put her analyst through heavy attacks on linking.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attack and defence: From “attacks on linking” to “positive capability” in a child psychoanalysis.

Våpenstad¹

2017

Psychoanalytic Psychology

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“…Such a position implies the need to remove the emphasis from consideration of this phenomenon as a stable feature to the process of functioning of tolerance, studying the process of «tolerating» uncertainty. E. Vapenstad (2010) writes about the possibility of developing tolerance in the process of psychotherapy [16]. L. Kajs and D. McCollum (2010) in a study of administrative employees of educational institutions found a decrease in tolerance for uncertainty with increasing age of respondents [17].…”

Section: Tolerance To Uncertainty (Ambiguity) As a Dynamic Characteri...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ambiguity Tolerance Factor at the Decision-Making System in the Professional Activity of Law Enforcement Officers

Masian¹

2022

Ûridična psihologìâ

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The relevance of the study is due to the need to form practical skills in decision-making and determine the main determinants of the ability to quickly adapt to rapid changes, generate rational ideas and make logical decisions in the professional activity of law enforcement officers. The purpose of the article is to expand the concept, analyze and empirically investigate the importance of the phenomenon of tolerance to ambiguity in the system of decision-making in the professional activity of law enforcement officers. The methodology of problem analysis was formed by the general theory of tolerance to ambiguity, which is based on both differentiation and integration of existing knowledge in various fields. Research results. An analysis of decision-making and overcoming uncertainty, unstructuredness, which manifests itself in life and professional situations, is carried out. The role of rigidity in the system of intolerance is substantiated and the role of this concept in the process of learning metacognitive skills is defined. The phenomenon of tolerance to ambiguity and the importance of lability and flexibility in the decision-making system are described. The concept of tolerance depends on the perspectives related to the cultural context and is formed on them, indicates how individuals relate to the near or distant future, and has the properties of emergency, which will play a special role in the practical processing of new conditions in which law enforcement officers are forced to act , migration and cross-cultural changes occurring within the country and a high load of social interaction. The extent to which these factors are important for building a new adaptation scenario for representatives of specific types of activity has been analyzed and empirically investigated. Badner's uncertainty tolerance questionnaire was tested and presented. The scientific novelty of the article consists in the systematization and generalization of psychological approaches in the general structure of decision-making through ambiguity tolerance, which actively participates in dynamic processes related to overcoming or generating uncertainty (primarily at the cognitive level) by changing existing ideas and concepts, and also by creating new ones. The practical significance is presented in the elaboration of the model of the phenomenon of tolerance to ambiguity, which allows differentiation of individuals-law enforcement officers with their ability to accept uncertainty; disclosure of coping mechanisms; description of possible means of developing tolerance to ambiguity and research and expansion of previous work in the field of decision-making and the role of the factor of tolerance to ambiguity in the specific conditions of the professional activity of law enforcement officers and the importance of developing this feature in the decision-making system.

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“…Other authors consider tolerance to ambiguity as a dynamic personal characterictic, that can advance during professional education (DeRoma, Martin and Kessler, 2003) and psychotherapy (Våpenstad, 2010). Kajs L. T. and McCollum D. L. point out that tolerance to ambiguity can increase with extension of life experience and age (Kajs and McCollum, 2010).…”

Section: Grishina Anastasia Vasilievna 1* Abakumova Irina Vladimiromentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The behavior of a person in the pandemic situation is still poorly understood as this is the first time when the mankind faces such a global and unknown threat and takes such measures to prevent its spread. Besides, the uniqueness of this situation lies in the fact that the pandemic has affected all spheres of human life -work, leisure, nutrition, sports (Våpenstad, 2010). One of the main issues in our knowledge of COVID-19 is a lack of facts about its real origin and effects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informational Behavior in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Psychological Predictors

Grishina

Vladimirovna

2020

IJCRSEE

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The core problem of the COVID-19 pandemic for psychologists is to find out how people cope with the stress of isolation and the threat of fatal disease. The scale of the pandemical impact on the psychological well-being of an individual has still no knowledge and psychological predictors which the impact depends on need to be identified. This paper presents an empirical study of informational behavior and its psychological predictors in the pandemic. The research was held online in April-May 2020. The total amount of 165 participants, aged from 18 to 66. The subjects were chosen from a randomly selected sample. The participants were asked to estimate their informational consumption in pandemic. Tolerance to ambiguity, hardiness and anxiety was studied in groups distinguished according to changes in informational consumption. The findings of this study indicate a significant correlation between informational behavior and psychological characteristics related to coping with stress. Besides the analysis proved a negative correlation between reactive and personal anxiety and tolerance to ambiguity, hardiness and its components. We have confirmed that increased informational comsumption can be considered as a coping strategy for overcoming the pandemic social isolation among respondents with low hardiness and tolerance to ambiguity. Stable and decreased informational consumption indicates that respondents with high hardiness and tolerance to ambiguity and low state and trait anxiety don’t need to consume information for coping with difficulties of pandemic self-isolation. Future work will concentrate on expanding the list of psychological predictors of informational behavior and studying the features of their interaction in different situations.

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The ambiguity of the psychoanalytic situation and its relation to the analyst's reverie.

Cited by 6 publications

References 48 publications

Attack and defence: From “attacks on linking” to “positive capability” in a child psychoanalysis.

Attack and defence: From “attacks on linking” to “positive capability” in a child psychoanalysis.

Ambiguity Tolerance Factor at the Decision-Making System in the Professional Activity of Law Enforcement Officers

Informational Behavior in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Psychological Predictors

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