Harold M. Voth

The analysis of metaphor.

HIS PAPER IS THE outgrowth of my interest in developing ways to intensify and enrich the psychoanalytic treatment process T so as to increase the likelihood of bringing about essential changes in the patient. The wish to increase the effectiveness of psychoanalysis was a concern of Freud himself, of many others who followed him, and of most who enter the field. Despite reports of marked personality changes in brief periods of time, it is probable that extensive intrapsychic change requires a certain amount of time even when treatment is done in the context of life circumstances which maximally facilitate change. It seems probable that there are ways yet to be discovered which may maximize the efficiency of psychoanalysis. My premise is that a direct relationship exists between the efficiency with which the doctor does his work and the thoroughness and durability of treatment-a rather self-evident premise and one which closely parallels Freud’s view that the best way to shorten treatment is to do the work of analysis efficiently. This premise and the clinical examples which follow therefore rest directly on the most fundamental of all psychoanalytic principles: that a direct relationship exists between essential intrapsychic change and the extensiveness to which unconscious conflicts have been mobilized, analyzed, and worked through in the context of all aspects of the personality and reality adjustment. I t is beyond the scope of this paper to review or to discuss

Autokinesis and Psychological Differentiation

105 paid, normal volunteers, of whom 77 were women, were administered the rod-and-frame test (RFT), the embedded-figures test (EFT), and the autokinetic test. Despite the similarity in personality correlates associated with these tests, there were no significant correlations—linear or curvilinear—between the measures of psychological differentiation and autokinesis. There were still no significant correlations when the men and women were treated as separate groups. Taking the extreme cases on the autokinetic test and comparing group means on the RFT and EFT still failed to yield a significant difference. The authors infer that these measures are independent, although the design of the study does not permit this inference to be stated as a conclusion.

CANCER AND PERSONALITY

Autokinesis (the apparent motion of a pinpoint of light in total darkness) has been predictably related to a variety of personality variables and psychiatric syndromes. The present study reports a statistically significant relationship between cancer and autokinesis in two samples. The first sample (17 women, 14 men) is prospective, while the second (26 women) is retrospective. In both samples, cancer subjects reported less autokinesis than controls, a finding which fits conceptually with prior work with autokinesis and also with the observation reported by many others that cancer is preceded by or associated with a sense of helplessness or hopelessness and some degree of resignation from life. A second finding, but one which has not been replicated, is a statistically significant relationship between scores on the embedded-figures test and cancer. The possible meanings of these data are explored.

Autokinesis and character style: A clinical-experimental study

THIS paper reports the results of a study which repeats and expands an earlier one1 which demonstrated a relationship between character style and autokinesis, the experiencing of motion of a stationary pinpoint of light in a totally dark room. In the present paper we discuss in more detail the logical links between the concept of ego-closeness-ego-distance and character style, and present factor analytic data in support of these postulations. The term ego-closeness-ego-distance is a semantic convenience for capturing what we believe is a central personality dimension. This dimension is conceived of as a continuum reflecting quite opposite kinds of personality organization at the extremes and with intermediate forms of organization in the midrange. Ego-closeness refers to a relatively unwavering investment of attention in the immediate stimulus field and a concomitantly greater receptiveness to, need for, and acceptance of external stimuli. Values and interests generally are formed more in terms of ongoing social realities and environmental circumstances. Ego-distance implies a greater capacity to detach attention from external circumstances, less dependence upon external stimuli, greater accessibility to subjective experience, resulting in a more isolated, autonomous position of self in relation to the external world. With the ego-close-ego-distant concept in mind, it follows by definition that persons organized in such a way as to be ‘close’ to their environment will be more open and vulnerable to environmental stimuli. Openness to external stimuli means in the first place that the apparatuses of perception and consciousness are sufficiently invested with attention so as to permit the registration of external stimuli in the psychic apparatus and in awareness.8 Persons whose attention is more exclusively and continuously deployed on to the external

Choice of illness and defense: A clinical study

Abstract This paper reports on the in-depth investigation (through long-term expressive psychotherapy by the author) of four siblings. The study focuses on the possible relationship of the unconscious conflicts to defense and syndrome choice. The evidence suggests that little or no relationship existed between the content of their conflicts and the form of their syndromes or defense preferences. The conflicts all centered around the oral and phallic-oedipal levels of libidinal organization, yet their defenses and syndromes were highly diverse. Experimental evidence is cited which supports the view that defense and syndrome choice are related to stable ego dispositions, the origins of which are unknown.