I overthink-Therefore I am not: An active inference account of altered sense of self and agency in depersonalisation disorder.

This paper considers the phenomenology of depersonalisation disorder, in relation to predictive processing and its associated pathophysiology. To do this, we first establish a few mechanistic tenets of predictive processing that are necessary to talk about phenomenal transparency, mental action, and self as subject. We briefly review the important role of 'predicting precision' and how this affords mental action and the loss of phenomenal transparency. We then turn to sensory attenuation and the phenomenal consequences of (pathophysiological) failures to attenuate or modulate sensory precision. We then consider this failure in the context of depersonalisation disorder. The key idea here is that depersonalisation disorder reflects the remarkable capacity to explain perceptual engagement with the world via the hypothesis that "I am an embodied perceiver, but I am not in control of my perception". We suggest that individuals with depersonalisation may believe that 'another agent' is controlling their thoughts, perceptions or actions, while maintaining full insight that the 'other agent' is 'me' (the self). Finally, we rehearse the predictions of this formal analysis, with a special focus on the psychophysical and physiological abnormalities that may underwrite the phenomenology of depersonalisation.

Ambition for Self and for Specialty: Emery A. Rovenstine and the Politics of Organized Anesthesia, 1937-1947.

The letters between Emery Andrew Rovenstine, MD (1895-1960), and Arthur Ernest Guedel, MD (1883-1956), are a window into the personalities and politics of the creation of American anesthesiology. The ambition of these men, both personal and professional, lay at the heart of their sacrifices and successes. Their correspondence unmasked common struggles and foibles, humanizing these giants of our field. Notably throughout the letters, Rovenstine, as the junior partner, wrestled with Guedel's advice to temper personal ambition for the collective good. Over time, their relationship matured, and the junior eclipsed the senior. Still, at various points in his career, Rovenstine was censured for self-promotion by leaders in anesthesiology and the general medical community. These moments brought to light issues of continued relevance today: inner tension between individual and group ambition, and professional friction between academic and political priorities in anesthesiology. In the end, it was an unapologetic blend of ambition for self and ambition for the specialty that allowed Emery Rovenstine to make his unique imprint on American anesthesiology.

Shame closely tracks the threat of devaluation by others, even across cultures.

We test the theory that shame evolved as a defense against being devalued by others. By hypothesis, shame is a neurocomputational program tailored by selection to orchestrate cognition, motivation, physiology, and behavior in the service of: (i) deterring the individual from making choices where the prospective costs of devaluation exceed the benefits, (ii) preventing negative information about the self from reaching others, and (iii) minimizing the adverse effects of devaluation when it occurs. Because the unnecessary activation of a defense is costly, the shame system should estimate the magnitude of the devaluative threat and use those estimates to cost-effectively calibrate its activation: Traits or actions that elicit more negative evaluations from others should elicit more shame. As predicted, shame closely tracks the threat of devaluation in the United States (r = .69), India (r = .79), and Israel (r = .67). Moreover, shame in each country strongly tracks devaluation in the others, suggesting that shame and devaluation are informed by a common species-wide logic of social valuation. The shame-devaluation link is also specific: Sadness and anxiety-emotions that coactivate with shame-fail to track devaluation. To our knowledge, this constitutes the first empirical demonstration of a close, specific match between shame and devaluation within and across cultures.

An Analysis of Self: The Development and Assessment of a Measure of Selfobject Needs.

Based on the psychoanalysis of adults with borderline and narcissistic personality disorder symptoms, Kohut ( 1971 , 1977, 1980, 1984) formulated a theory of self psychology that emphasized the importance of early developmental experiences; most centrally, the empathic attunement of caregivers as key ingredients for fostering the capacity for healthy self-regulation and interpersonal relations. Kohut elaborated 3 critical selfobject needs (i.e., idealizing, mirroring, and twinship) that were ideally satiated by these early experiences, deeming the fulfillment of these needs as essential for developing a healthy sense of self. The research presented here sought to develop a self-report measure, titled the Arble Estimate of Selfobject Pursuits (AESOP), capable of assessing the selfobject needs identified by Kohut. Across 2 studies involving 686 and 672 respondents, participants completed the AESOP. In the first study, an exploratory factor analysis supported the theorized 3-factor structure. In the second study, a confirmatory factor analysis indicated adequate-to-strong model fit and cluster analysis with theoretically related measures supported the AESOP's discriminant and convergent validity. Further research is encouraged to elaborate the implications of these preliminary findings.

Self-Compassion as a prospective predictor of PTSD symptom severity among trauma-exposed U.S. Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

U.S. combat veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have elevated rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to the general population. Self-compassion, characterized by self-kindness, a sense of common humanity when faced with suffering, and mindful awareness of suffering, is a potentially modifiable factor implicated in the development and maintenance of PTSD. We examined the concurrent and prospective relationship between self-compassion and PTSD symptom severity after accounting for level of combat exposure and baseline PTSD severity in 115 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans exposed to 1 or more traumatic events during deployment. PTSD symptoms were assessed using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-IV (CAPS-IV) at baseline and 12 months (n =101). Self-compassion and combat exposure were assessed at baseline via self-report. Self-compassion was associated with baseline PTSD symptoms after accounting for combat exposure (ß = -.59; p < .001; ΔR(2) = .34; f(2) = .67; large effect) and predicted 12-month PTSD symptom severity after accounting for combat exposure and baseline PTSD severity (ß = -.24; p = .008; ΔR(2) = .03; f(2) = .08; small effect). Findings suggest that interventions that increase self-compassion may be beneficial for treating chronic PTSD symptoms among some Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

Eating 'attentively' reduces later energy consumption in overweight and obese females.

Attentional and memory processes underpin appetite control, but whether encouraging overweight individuals to eat more 'attentively' can promote reductions in energy consumption is unclear. In the present study with a between-subjects design, a total of forty-eight overweight and obese females consumed a fixed lunchtime meal. Their ad libitum energy intake of high-energy snack food was observed during a second laboratory session that occurred later that day. In the focused-attention condition, participants ate their lunch while listening to audio instructions that encouraged them to pay attention to the food being eaten. In a control condition, participants ate while listening to an audio book with a neutral (non-food-related) content. To test whether focused attention influenced food intake via enhancing the memory of the earlier consumed meal, we measured the participants' memory of their lunchtime meal. Ad libitum snack intake was approximately 30 % lower for participants in the focused-attention condition than for those in the control condition, and this difference was statistically significant. There was limited evidence that attention decreased later food intake by enhancing memory representation of the earlier consumed meal. Eating attentively can lead to a substantial decrease in later energy intake in overweight and obese individuals. Behavioural strategies that encourage a more 'attentive' way of eating could promote sustained reductions in energy intake and weight loss.

Relationship of Inglehart's and Schwartz's value dimensions revisited.

This study examines the relationship between Inglehart's and Schwartz's value dimensions-both at the individual and the country levels. By rotating one set of items towards the other, we show that these value dimensions have more in common than previously reported. The ranking of countries (N = 47) based on Schwartz's Embeddedness--Autonomy and the Survival--Self-Expression dimensions reached a maximum of similarity, r = .82, after rotating Inglehart's factor scores 27 degrees clockwise. The correlation between the other pair of dimensions (Schwartz's Hierarchy-Mastery--Egalitarianism-Harmony and Inglehart's Traditional--Secular-Rational values) was near zero before and after rotation. At the individual level (N = 46,444), positive correlations were found for Schwartz's Conservation--Openness dimension with both of Inglehart's dimensions (Survival--Self-Expression and Traditional--Secular-Rational values). The highest correlation with this Schwartz dimension was obtained at the Secular-Rational/Self-Expression diagonal, r = .24, after rotating the factor scores 45 degrees clockwise. We conclude that Schwartz's and Inglehart's originally proposed two-dimensional value structures share one dimension at the country level and some commonality at the individual level, whereas the respective other pair of dimensions seem to be more or less unrelated.

Reflective practice in an acute setting.

This initiative was undertaken to find a realistic and sustainable approach to reflective practice in an acute hospital ward. A questionnaire was distributed to staff on an oncology ward to discover their thoughts on finding an approach that could be used on a daily basis. The results were collated and a reflective tool was developed; a pilot study was carried out, which found the tool to be usable. Communication improved between staff and a more reflective culture began to develop.

Brain talk: power and negotiation in children's discourse about self, brain and behaviour.

This article examines children's discourse about self, brain and behaviour, focusing on the dynamics of power, knowledge and responsibility articulated by children. The empirical data discussed in this article are drawn from the study of Voices on Identity, Childhood, Ethics and Stimulants, which included interviews with 151 US and UK children, a subset of whom had a diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Despite their contact with psychiatric explanations and psychotropic drugs for their behaviour, children's discursive engagements with the brain show significant evidence of agency and negotiated responsibility. These engagements suggest the limitations of current concepts that describe a collapse of the self into the brain in an age of neurocentrism. Empirical investigation is needed in order to develop agent-centred conceptual and theoretical frameworks that describe and evaluate the harms and benefits of treating children with psychotropic drugs and other brain-based technologies.

Mysticism, motherhood, and pathological narcissism? A Kohutian analysis of Marie de l'Incarnation.

The following paper makes use of Kohutian self-psychology as a hermeneutic for interpreting Marie de l'Incarnation and her perplexing decision to abandon her young son Claude in favor of religious life. The author argues that filtered through the lens of Kohutian self-psychology, Marie de l'Incarnation emerges as a pathological narcissist and the decision to abandon Claude symptomatic of a narcissistic grandiosity.

Virtual Selfobject Presence: Future Orientation in the Treatment of Eating Disorders.

From a self-psychology perspective, the profound disruption of the will to exist physically and psychically in patients suffering from anorexia can be seen as a primary impairment of the selfobject's capacity to make space for them within itself. Kohut viewed the primary phase of the baby's existence in the mother's mind as its "virtual conception." On this foundation, the author uses the notion of "virtual selfobject" to understand the impaired will to exist in patients with anorexia and describes how the therapist may embrace a standpoint that creates a space-for-being for the patient, facilitating the reactivation of self needs in the transference. The notion of virtuality thus entails a future perspective, which ostensibly foretells or creates the potential future emergence of the patient's self. This conceptualization and its application are illustrated through a life-restoring therapy with a patient hospitalized with a life-threatening eating disorder.

Self- and other-oriented potential lifetime traumatic events as predictors of loneliness in the second half of life.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the relationship between self- and other-oriented potential lifetime traumatic events (PLTE) and loneliness at the second half of life. METHOD: The sample was comprised of 7446 respondents who completed the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 2006 psychosocial questionnaire. PLTE were classified into self-oriented PLTE, defined as traumatic events that primarily inflict the self (e.g., being abused by parents) and other-oriented PLTE, defined as events that affect the self by primarily targeting others (e.g., death of one's child). We evaluated the role of self- and other-oriented PLTE as predictors of loneliness, as evaluated by the short R-UCLA. Analyses were stratified by age at which trauma happened categorized into four life periods (0-17, 18-30, 31-49, 50+). RESULTS: The results showed that PLTE is positively related to loneliness. Moreover, the number of other-oriented PLTE, and even more pronouncedly self-oriented PLTE, that happened up until adulthood were the strongest predictors of loneliness at the second half of life. CONCLUSION: The study suggests that self- and other-oriented PLTE reported to have occurred early in life are associated with perceived loneliness in the second half of life.

Experiential self-focus writing as a facilitator of processing an interpersonal hurt.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the effects of experiential self-focus writing on changes in psychological outcomes (i.e., unforgiveness and negative affect) after an interpersonal hurt and the buffering effects of experiential self-focus writing on the association between anger rumination and these psychological outcomes. DESIGN: A sample of 182 college students who had experienced interpersonal hurt were randomly assigned to either the experiential self-focus writing condition, in which participants wrote about their feelings and experiences related to the hurt, or to a control writing condition in which they wrote about a recent neutral event. RESULTS: Latent growth curve analyses indicated that changes in unforgiveness over time did not differ between the experiential self-focus writing and the control writing conditions. However, relative to the control writing condition, negative affect decreased faster during writing and increased more slowly at follow-ups in the experiential self-focus writing condition. CONCLUSIONS: The results supported the hypothesis that negative affect resulting from an interpersonal hurt would significantly decrease over time among participants in the experiential self-focus writing group compared with the control group. Implications of experiential self-focus writing for interpersonal hurt and directions for future studies are discussed.

Development and criterion validity of a computerized text analysis measure of reflective functioning.

The Reflective Functioning scale (RF) is a narrative-based assessment of the capacity to coherently conceptualize one's own and others' subjective motivations, emotions, beliefs, and desires. We report the preliminary results of an effort to develop a computerized text analysis version (CRF) of the RF assessment system. A sample of 113 clinical and non-clinical Adult Attachment Interviews (AAI) were utilized to develop the CRF measure. Using the Marker Approach (Mergenthaler & Bucci, 1999), 54 linguistic markers of high RF language were identified. The associations between CRF and RF were significant in both a clinical sample of patients diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) (Spearman rho=.57, p<.0001) and a non-clinical sample of adults (Spearman rho=.57, p=.002). These results suggest that a CRF rating scale is feasible, has preliminary criterion validity, and, therefore, has potential to facilitate the efficient assessment of RF.

Bridging theory: where cultures meet in self and science.

In this chapter, I argue that Dialogical Self Theory (DST) represents a compelling answer to how to conceptualize the psychology of the self in today's world, when people increasingly are aware of more than one way to think, feel, and relate to others. DST envisions a self of plural voices. The chapters in this volume show intriguing applications of the theory, ranging from microlevel infant-caregiver interactions to macrolevel repercussions of globalization among Pacific island communities. I end by suggesting that the pliable nature of DST, illustrated in the chapter on an Indian social movement, is a strength. In my view, it fits with today's need for a new philosophy of social science. One-size-fits-all approaches are often too broad and too biased to adequately capture the complexities of human selves and relations. The challenge and opportunity that we face today is one of bridging universal theories with cultural ones--and the present volume can be read as one example of how to meet that challenge with respect to a psychology of the self.

In search of psychoanalytic pluralism: an inquiry into time, money, and love.

This essay examines religious studies scholarship that has relied heavily upon the work of Sigmund Freud and attempts to show its weakness by offering a self psychological reading to complement each text. In doing this, I inquire into the scholarly tendency to avoid pluralistic use of meta-psychologies, arguing that the well-being of the field is weakened by such scholarly fixations. The essay draws its concluding observations largely on trends in scholarly literature, inquiring into the nature and quality of the use of multiple meta-psychologies in scholarly monographs.

Are youths' feelings of entitlement always "bad"?: Evidence for a distinction between exploitive and non-exploitive dimensions of entitlement.

Previous personality research (e.g., Campbell et al., 2004) has described the sense of entitlement as an unifactorial construct. In this study, we examined characteristics of two potential facets of entitlement: exploitive entitlement, characterized by exploitive interactions and expectations of special treatment, and non-exploitive entitlement, or entitled beliefs that rest on notions of self-worth and fairness. 466 college students (mean age = 20.5) completed a questionnaire consisting of unifactorial and two-factor measures of entitlement and other personality dispositions and attitudes. As expected, both exploitive and non-exploitive entitlement were positively related to the Psychological Entitlement Scale (PES; r = .51 and r = .43, respectively), an unifactorial measure of entitlement. In other respects, exploitive and non-exploitive entitlement had quite distinct correlates. Exploitive entitlement was uniquely related to higher levels of psychopathy and neuroticism, and lower levels of work orientation, social commitment, and self-esteem; whereas non-exploitive entitlement was uniquely associated with higher self-esteem.

The effects of escape from self and interpersonal relationship on the pathological use of Internet games.

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether Baumeister's escape from self theory may account for the pathological use of Internet games among Korean adolescents. A sample of 1,136 junior high school students completed measures assessing Internet game addiction (IGA), real-ideal self discrepancy, escape from self, current mood, peer relationships, perceived parent-child relationship, and parental supervision. IGA was significantly correlated with all of these variables. Multiple regression analysis showed that escape from self best explained the adolescents' IGA. A path model yielded significant paths from self-discrepancy to negative mood, from negative mood to escape from self, and from escape from self to IGA. These results support the validity of using the escape from self theory to explain the adolescents' IGA, thereby suggesting that adolescents become addicted to Internet games in an attempt to escape from self and reality.

[From "schizophrenia" to "disturbance of the integrity of the self": causes and consequences of renaming schizophrenia in Japan in 2002]. / Von der "Schizophrenie" zur "Störung der Einheit des Selbst" : Ursachen und Folgen der Umbenennung der Schizophrenie in Japan im Jahre 2002.

In August 2002 the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology decided to rename the Japanese expression for schizophrenia from Sêshin Bunretsu Byô to Tôgô Shicchô Shô. Currently the psychiatric classification systems ICD-10 and DSM-IV are under revision. Against this background the Japanese process of renaming a psychiatric disorder is of high interest as far as the clinical, social and cultural implications of the new name are concerned.The authors give an overview of the Japanese process of renaming schizophrenia. Its background and realization are explained and the expectations of Japanese physicians, patients and their families related to the new name are analysed. Furthermore, its effects are evaluated. The aim of the paper is to clarify in how far the Japanese example may serve as a model for evaluating the possible implications that a renaming or nosological redefinition of schizophrenia might have in the course of the revision process of ICD 10 and DSM IV.