Philip G. Hanson

Impact of a Body-Mind Treatment Component on Alcoholic Inpatients

1. A group of alcoholic patients who were treated with a physical fitness program as an adjunct to the usual program showed significantly less craving for alcohol than members in the standard treatment group. 2. The group treated with physical fitness as well as therapy saw themselves as having more internal locus of control and being less controlled by powerful others. 3. Nurses are the hospital professionals most likely to be involved with important roles in exercise programs with alcoholic patients.

Autonomous Groups in Human Relations Training for Psychiatric Patients

A Human Relations Training Program for psychiatric patients has been in operation at the VA Hospital, Houston, Texas, since May 1961. The instrumented program uses groups which meet without trainers or therapists for four weeks. The importance of the leaderless Development Groups is stressed as the major vehicle through which members examine and share their laboratory learnings about themselves and others. Contrasts are made between the more typical trainer-led groups and the autonomous groups relative to group dynamics, interpersonal behavior, process analysis, dilemma and invention, feedback, generalization, and application. The philosophy and goals of the program and the underlying learning strategy and daily work schedule are described in fairly specific terms. Critical issues such as dependency and need for personal contact are also examined, with discussion focusing on how such issues are handled in the autonomous group program. One study evaluating the training laboratory and comparing it with a more traditional type of group therapy program is cited. Four other pre-and post-laboratory evaluative studies are also described.

Recurring themes in group psychotherapy with alcoholics

SummaryThis paper presents several prominent themes which emerge in group therapy sessions with alcoholics and the wives of alcoholics. It is suggested that the understanding of these conflicts in the lives of problem drinkers and their family members may have practical importance for clinical workers who deal with such patients and theoretical importance for the wider application of diagnostic and therapeutic techniques in dealing with other types of clinic patients.

Interpersonal changes among psychiatric patients in human relations training.

Summary This study was part of a continuing evaluation of the Patients Training Laboratory at the VA Hospital in Houston, Texas. The Interpersonal System developed by Leary was used to evaluate different levels of personality in 85 patients who had completed the four-week program. The results showed a significant change from submission to dominance had occurred in their public behavior, self-description, and cognitive style. These confirmed findings of earlier studies which indicated the programs success in creating an atmosphere where participation increased via more open critical behavior. Lack of change in an affiliative direction was discussed, with possible reasons for this result, along with suggestions for an emphasis on an “affiliation motive.”

A HUMAN RELATIONS TRAINING PROGRAM FOR HOSPITAL PERSONNEL.

A human relations training laboratory of one weeks duration was conducted for dietetic interns. A distinguishing feature of this laboratory was that the small group discussions were self-directed. The effectiveness of the session was evaluated. An analysis of variance revealed significant changes for the trained group, but not for the controls, on certain scales. On other rating scales participants reacted favorably toward the trainina nroaram.

The path of inquiry in mental illness and problem-centered self-description

College students listed the questions they would ask a job applicant after he had described the reasons for his psychiatric hospitalization in either problem-centered (PC) or mental illness (MI) terms. The initial questions asked in response to MI self-description were more past-oriented. MI self-description also induced a greater focus on the conditions of admission and discharge, with questions phrased to imply that the ex-patient was notautonomous in entering and leaving the hospital.Under MI self-description, expert opinion was sought about the applicants current capacity; under PC self-description, the applicants own evaluation of himself was sought more. Finally, MI self-description prompted illness-centered questioning. Implications for ex-patients seeking employment are discussed.

Types of "Negative Nonsense"

HE concept of Humanistic Identification (O’Connell, 1965) posits three types of Tnegative nonsense (Ellis, 1962) or rejecting overgeneralisations which lead to misery, mental illness, or problems in living. The &dquo;depth&dquo; factors, which have a distinct Adlerian tenor, are self-esteem (feelings of significance or personal worth) and social interest (empathy or understanding of others). Habitual self-lowering of feelings of worth and a narrowing of identification with others, the hallmark of the discouraged life style result in hyperdependent and/or competitive demands upon others. When such arbitrary and often unconscious impositions are frustrated, blame follows. Once blame reaches chronicity it becomes part of one’s way of finding significance. &dquo;Proof&dquo; of the &dquo;reality&dquo; of such blame is easy to discover since people are creative in finding what they unwittingly look for. In this schema then, three common objects of the negatively-overgeneralised, internalised sentence (e.g., combinations of &dquo;all