Superconductivity without phonons.

The idea of superconductivity without the mediating role of lattice vibrations (phonons) has a long history. It was realized soon after the publication of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory of superconductivity 50 years ago that a full treatment of both the charge and spin degrees of freedom of the electron predicts the existence of attractive components of the effective interaction between electrons even in the absence of lattice vibrations--a particular example is the effective interaction that depends on the relative spins of the electrons. Such attraction without phonons can lead to electronic pairing and to unconventional forms of superconductivity that can be much more sensitive than traditional (BCS) superconductivity to the precise details of the crystal structure and to the electronic and magnetic properties of a material.

Accreting neutron stars, black holes, and degenerate dwarf stars.

During the past 8 years, extended temporal and broadband spectroscopic studies carried out by x-ray astronomical satellites have led to the identification of specific compact x-ray sources as accreting neutron stars, black holes, and degenerate dwarf stars in close binary systems. Such sources provide a unique opportunity to study matter under extreme conditions not accessible in the terrestrial laboratory. Quantitative theoretical models have been developed which demonstrate that detailed studies of these sources will lead to a greatly increased understanding of dense and superdense hadron matter, hadron superfluidity, high-temperature plasma in superstrong magnetic fields, and physical processes in strong gravitational fields. Through a combination of theory and observation such studies will make possible the determination of the mass, radius, magnetic field, and structure of neutron stars and degenerate dwarf stars and the identification of further candidate black holes, and will contribute appreciably to our understanding of the physics of accretion by compact astronomical objects.

Heavy-electron metals: new highly correlated States of matter.

Heavy-electron metals exhibit highly correlated electronic behavior at liquid helium temperatures, with conduction-electron masses some hundred times the free-electron mass. Whether "normal," antiferromagnetic, or superconducting, their electronic behavior differs drastically from their ordinary metallic counterparts. The physical origin of the large mass and unusual superconducting and magnetic properties is the strong coupling between the conduction electrons and the local f-electron moment fluctuations characteristic of these materials.

Migration with fiscal externalities.

"This paper analyses the distribution of a country's population among regions when migration involves fiscal externalities. The main question addressed is whether a decentralized decision making [by] regional governments can produce an optimal population distribution...or a centralized intervention is indispensable, as argued before in the literature.... It turns out that, while with costless mobility the fiscal externality is fully internalized by voluntary interregional transfers, with costly mobility, centrally coordinated transfers still remain indispensable for achieving the socially optimal allocation."

Migration between home country and diaspora: an economic analysis.

"This paper investigates the distribution of a population group between a home country and diaspora, given sequential decision-making regarding migration at the individual level. The home country is attractive to the members of the group, yet their presence there requires a fixed amount of public spending (e.g., on defense). The per-capita tax burden depends then on the size of the domestic population, reflecting a case of ¿fiscal externality'. This results in an inefficient distribution of the group between the home country and the diaspora. Encouraging immigration to the home country is an interest not only of those individuals who are currently in the home country but also of those residing in the diaspora. However, only when the burden of public spending in the home country is large enough do the latter volunteer to bear part of it. Even then, in general, this part is smaller than socially optimal."

Working with women survivors of the Holocaust: affective experiences in transference and countertransference.

This paper describes and discusses some late effects of massive traumatization on two women survivors of the Holocaust. Both had appeared to recover from their affective experience of psychic death and hopelessness in Auschwitz and to have moved towards a resumption of further stages of the life cycle. The normal transitional crises of adolescence, when children emotionally separate from their parents, led to severe breakdown in both these patients. Analysis showed that denial, repression and splitting had enabled them to distance themselves from the overwhelming horror of their past, but it had also led to concrete thinking as opposed to metaphorical, and to non-differentiation of psychic and somatic pain. Their inability to dream and the absence of fantasy life in the material could neither facilitate the analytic task of working through these patients' unbearable experience, nor enable them at first to face and recover unbearable affects during the course of the analysis. Hence the analyst's acceptance of an unbearable countertransference and careful monitoring of the affects evoked proved to be an invaluable tool.

The relevance of early psychic development to pregnancy and abortion.

PIP: Focus in this discussion of the relevance of early psychic development to pregnancy and abortion is on the problems relating to a woman's identification with the internal representation of her own mother, an identification that is bodily reinforced when she becomes pregnant, and the revival in pregnancy of infantile fantasies about herself as the intrauterine fetus in her mother's body which are activated by her narcissistic identification with the fetus inside her own body. The physically symbiotic state of pregnancy is paralleled by an emotional symbiotic state in the future mother where identifications with her own mother and with herself as the fetus may reactivate ambivalent feelings. Thus pregnancy provides the future mother with an opportunity to decide whether to let the fetus live or die. The analysis of a patient who repeatedly allowed herself to become pregnant but aborted the pregnancy each time illustrates this theme. Transference and countertransference problems encountered in her analysis with a woman analyst reflected the difficult relationship to her own mother in which the infantile aspects had not been successfully resolved and integrated in her adult self. For some women, pregnancy may be one of the most enriching stages of the life cycle. For a young woman whose experience with her own mother has been sufficiently good, the temporary regression to a primary identification with the omnipotent, fertile, lifegiving mother, as well as with herself as if she were her own child, is a pleasurable developmental phase in which further maturation and growth of the self may be achieved. For other women, the inevitable regression brought about by pregnancy and motherhood may be a painful and frightening experience. The physical changes of pregnancy facilitate a woman's bodily experience of primary unity with her mother and at the same time provide an experience of differentiation from her mother's body which once contained her own. Thus a further stage of separation-individuation is forced upon her. The unique combination of bodily and emotional feelings brought on by a 1st pregnancy gives a young woman an alternative means of resolving psychic conflict. Attention is next directed to the young woman's relationship to her body, to her self, to her own mother as an object, and to her experience of being physically and emotionally mothered. Analysis of a patient who repeatedly allowed herself to become pregnant but aborted the pregnancy each time is recounted.^ieng

Skin communication: early skin disorders and their effect on transference and countertransference.

Eczema in the first year of life results in a basic disturbance of the earliest mother-infant relationship, a disturbance that is renewed with every transitional phase of the life-cycle. The pervasive fear of disintegration or loss of the self, and the need to be contained and held, affects subsequent character formation. Infants who experience extended periods of bodily soothing learn to translate psychic pain into visible bodily suffering and so arouse concern and care. This is illustrated by direct observation of women patients suffering from skin diseases and their interaction with women doctors in hospital. In the analysis of patients who have had such an infantile experience, whether they know it or not, a disturbance in concepts of the self linked with narcissistic difficulties and acute sensitivity to object relationships may be anticipated. The mother's human disappointment in her baby's appearance gives rise to an unsatisfying and unsatisfactory self image which remains unaltered in the true self. Transference and countertransference problems derived from the analysis of a female patient are described in order to illustrate these themes.

Pregnancy, miscarriage and abortion. A psychoanalytic perspective.

This paper examines some of the unconscious reasons that may lead to unfulfilled pregnancy, either by means of spontaneous abortion, or by conscious planned abortion. During pregnancy the universal dilemma of maternal ambivalence towards the foetus and whom it represents may be strongly influenced by unresolved conflicts and anxieties belonging to earlier stages of a woman's psychic development. Spontaneous or planned abortion, which allows the woman who has become pregnant to deny life to the foetus, may provide a psychosomatic solution to this psychic conflict.

Emotional aspects of infertility and its remedies.

The childhood wish for parenthood when it remains unfulfilled in adult life causes pain to a couple and imposes a strain on their relationship. For a woman's failure to conceive may be rooted in an early unsatisfactory relationship to her mother. The new fertility techniques restore hope to these patients but may not be successful for such women and may also bring new emotional problems in their wake. Spontaneity in sexual relations is constrained, and transference to the doctors who administer techniques, giving or refusing permission for normal sexual intercourse, repeats infantile submission to the powerful parents of the past. Two clinical illustrations are given.