SUICIDE: A PATIENT'S WISH TO KILL OFF "BAD" INTROJECTS AND THUS ACHIEVE REBIRTH.

Benedict came for treatment because he experienced severe self-deprecating feelings that tortured him. He felt commanded-by what he characterized as internal demons-to kill himself. When he did not do so, he felt humiliated for having been a coward. Simultaneously, he reckoned that if he died his demons would be killed off, but that he would arise brand new. Because Benedict had already "killed off" several earlier therapists, he needed someone who could feel his pain, but would neither die from his emotional storms, nor give up on him. With considerable mutual work, he began to identify with my dogged determination to both survive his fierce attacks and to locate the source of the introjected demons that viciously attacked him (and others). When his emotionally-driven storms finally ebbed, he combined forces with me and began the ordeal of overcoming his fears and relinquishing his delusional system.

When Words were Wanted, But Woefully Wanting, We Waged War With Chess.

What do you say to a child who rarely speaks? How do you work with such a youngster? What are the sine qua nons or guiding principles upon which analysts can draw? And, how do we know if we are being helpful? Sam was 9-years when I began treating him. He was extremely withdrawn and rarely spoke more than a few words. Instead, he mainly played chess. I did not know at first whether Sam's taciturn demeanor was due to shyness, limited verbal abilities, or the stultifying effects of trauma. Fortuitously, during one of many seemingly "innocent" games of chess, Sam happened to make a bold move, to which I admiringly remarked, "What a move, you're killing me." His surprising reaction permanently altered the trajectory of treatment. Curiously, upon returning from summer vacation, not only did Sam no longer need to play chess, but he also found his voice. It was then that he began to discuss things for the first time. Initially, what he said was cloaked in symbolic and indirect referents, suggesting that there were things about which he still could not speak. I proceeded with patience and eventually Sam was able to disclose what he had been harboring inside. In this article, I will discuss the role and psychoanalytic meaning of chess in Sam's play therapy and how it served as a means of symbolically expressing an unspoken, yet ongoing trauma; how it non-verbally, and thus safely communicated Sam's desperate need for understanding and his urgent (but silent) disguised plea for help.

Sticks and Stones Can Break My Bones but Labels Scar My Soul.

Influenced by the followers of Descartes several centuries ago, philosophy, science and society took a turn in the road, one that has lead us astray. Mind was separated and cast away from its body, and so-called rationalism, reductionism and mechanism soon held sway over holism and humanism. Individuals were swept up, homogenized and subsumed under the provenance of arbitrarily created group norms for conduct. Those who did not follow were marginalized, or worse, demonized. Individuality, now being lost, inexorably would be replaced by all-encompassing clinical labels, that furthered the dehumanizing process begun and enforced so long ago. A new dialectic about the human circumstance based on humanism, empathy, understanding and respect, is proposed.

Separation-individuation issues and castration anxiety: their curious influence on the epigenesis of myopia.

This author suggests that myopia is related to psychogenic factors involving an unconscious representation of, and defense against tension. Further, the argument is made that such tension directly causes the extra-ocular muscles of the eyeball to tighten, ultimately creating the errors of refraction, which define the condition known as myopia. The author makes the case that the specific nature of the tension has to do with an interruption in the separation-individuation process that has occurred, in which the myopic individual experiences separation anxiety, and is now "required" to stay close to the mother for fear of abandonment. Apparently, the only way myopes are then able to achieve some sort of psychological distance is through the development of high-level abstract conceptualization abilities. In addition to separation fears, this author notes that myopes exhibit significantly higher levels of castration anxiety as compared with normal-sighted individuals, matched in IQ. Tables showing empirical findings supporting the above psychoanalytic interpretations are provided for the readers review.

Successful child psychotherapy of attention deficit/hyperactive disorder: an agitated depression explanation.

Science tries to explain phenomena in ways that are demonstrable and replicable to develop logical, coherent, parsimonious, and predictive theoretical systems. Yet hyperactive children are given stimulants to "calm" them down, despite the fact that science would predict stimulants would increase hyperactivity. Bradley (1937, 1950) observed that half of the behavior-problem children to whom he administered a stimulant for one week became subdued. He called this finding paradoxical, speculating that inhibitory centers of the central nervous system were stimulated. While Bradley's assertion of a paradoxical reverse effect in children may be an empirical observation, it is not an explanation. The Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) is inferred to exist from hyperactive behavior, which in turn, is inferred to be neurological in origin, a circular argument. An inevitable consequence of the belief in the hypothetical neurological etiology of ADHD is that children are typically given stimulants. Using the case of a seven-year old child, described as experiencing ADHD, who was treated successfully without medication as an illustration, the author provides an alternative, more parsimonious explanation of the etiology, suggesting that ADHD is related to agitated depression.