[Attachment-Related Affect Regulation of Mothers in a Psychiatric Parent-Child Ward - A Case Study]. / Bindungsbezogene Affektregulierung von Müttern einer kinderpsychiatrischen Eltern-Kind-Station ­ eine Fallstudie.

Attachment researchers propose that the term affect regulation is associated with attachment-related defensive processes resulting from attachment experiences with primary caregivers. They serve to regulate attachment-related inner states. The Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP) is a reliable and valid tool to classify attachment patterns and it allows to assess these attachment-related defensive processes. It provides information about the defensive processes that help clinicians to understand complex symptoms and interaction patterns in the parent-child relationship that can be integrated into psychiatric treatment. The present case study deals with a mother of a child with a feeding disorder. We will illustrate how information on attachment-related affect regulation can successfully be integrated into psychotherapeutic intervention in a psychiatric parent-child ward.

[Reduction of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) in Adolescents with Borderline Personality Organization Treated with TFP-A]. / Reduktion selbstverletzenden Verhaltens bei Jugendlichen mit Borderline-Persönlichkeitsorganisation mittels der übertragungsfokussierten Psychotherapie.

This study examines whether transference-focused psychotherapy for adolescents (TFP-A) in a dayclinic setting increases the capability to regulate affects and decreases self-destructive behavior in adolescents with borderline personality organization in comparison to treatment as usual (TAU). A total of 120 adolescents consecutively presenting to the dayclinic were allocated to either TFP-A or TAU. They were assessed for aggression, irritability, depression, self-harm, internalizing behavior and pathological personality traits at baseline and after twelve weeks. TFP-A was more effective than TAU in reducing self-harm. Aggression and irritability was improved within the treatment group. These results can be explained by an improvement in affect regulation through a treatment with TFP-A in a dayclinic setting. Further research is necessary in order to assess whether TFP-A reduces self-harm, aggressive behavior and irritability from a long-term perspective and whether these exploratory results can be replicated in independent samples.

Opening the closed heart: affect-focused clinical work with the victims of early trauma.

This paper begins with the understanding that early trauma leads to powerful dissociative defenses which injure the capacity to feel. It further explores ways to restore this capacity through body-centred attention to affect-in-the-moment in the psychoanalytic situation. Using the author's personal experience while in analysis as well as a case of severe early trauma, he demonstrates the consciousness-killing effect of primitive defenses and shows how body-sensitive techniques hold the promise of restoring the patient's sense of aliveness and hence, opening the unconscious to those affect-images that are the building blocks of the human imagination. A final section focuses on the neglect of feeling in Jungian psychology and suggests that the "creation of consciousness" which Jung described as his personal myth, is quintessentially a process of emotional transformation - of bringing unconscious suffering into consciousness - as feelings.

Cet article commence avec l'acceptation que le traumatisme précoce produit de puissantes défenses dissociatives qui portent atteinte à la capacité à ressentir. L'article explore ensuite des manières de restaurer cette capacité par l'utilisation d'une attention centrée sur le corps et sur l'affect-dans-le-moment-présent dans la situation psychanalytique. En s'appuyant sur son expérience personnelle durant l'analyse ainsi que sur un cas de traumatisme précoce sévère, l'auteur montre que les défenses primitives ont pour effet de tuer la conscience. Il montre aussi comment des techniques sensibles au corps contiennent la promesse de la restauration du sens de la vitalité du patient, et ainsi d'ouvrir l'inconscient aux images chargées d'affect qui sont les éléments constitutifs de l'imagination humaine. La dernière partie de l'article montre la négligence en ce qui concerne le sentiment dans la psychologie Jungienne et suggère que la « création de la conscience ¼ que Jung décrit comme étant son mythe personnel, est en quintessence un processus de transformation émotionnelle: d'amener la souffrance inconsciente à la conscience, en tant que sentiments.

El presente trabajo comienza con la comprensión de que el trauma temprano conduce a poderosas defensas disociativas las cuales dañan la capacidad de sentir. Explora formas de restaurar esta capacidad a través de una atención-centrada-en-el-cuerpo al afecto-en-el-momento, en la situación psicoanalítica. A partir, de la experiencia personal del autor durante análisis y también con un caso de trauma temprano severo, demuestra el efecto asesino de la conciencia de las defensas primitivas y muestra cómo técnicas corporales-sensitivas sostienen la promesa de restaurar en el/la paciente su sentido de vitalidad, y por lo tanto, posibilitan la apertura inconsciente a aquellas imágenes-afectivas que son las piedras fundacionales de la imaginación humana. Una sección final se focaliza en la desconsideración del sentimiento en la psicología Junguiana y sugiere que la 'creación de la consciencia', la cual Jung describe como su mito personal es quinta-esencialmente un proceso de transformación emocional, de traer el sufrimiento inconsciente a la consciencia, como sentimientos.