Roberta J. Apfel

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND INFERTILITY MYTHS AND REALITIES

Psychoanalysis, long interested in infertility, and a valuable treatment for men and women suffering with this affliction, has also helped to create and support a myth of psychogenic infertility. Multiple causes of infertility exist across the physiological ‐ psychological spectrum. There is no simple psychodynamic causality. Advances in assisted reproductive technologies provide treatments that create emotional stress and outpace psychological preparedness of patients and analysts. This paper is based on the experience of a unique study group in Boston. An analytic case illustrates some of the ways analysis can be a treatment of choice for people using assisted reproduction. In fact, analysis offers a unique opportunity to elaborate fully the complex realities and dilemmas faced by people and their therapists throughout the infertility experience. More generally, this study of the concept of psychogenic infertility explores a valuable role for psychoanalysis in the treatment of medical conditions.

Description of mothers with ADHD with children with ADHD.

Pilot data demonstrating the personality traits and background variables of ADHD mothers with children with ADHD are presented. Three subject groups are compared: mothers with ADHD, with ADHD children; mother without ADHD, with ADHD children; and mothers without ADHD, without ADHD children. Significant differences are observed on the Wender Utah Scale for attention deficit disorder, levels of neuroticism and conscientiousness on the NEO-Five Factor Inventory are significantly higher in mothers with ADHD. In addition, neuropsychiatric disorders, alcoholism in the family of origin, and atypical sexual events are reported at a significantly higher rate in the mothers with ADHD, with ADHD children. The implications of group differences are discussed.

How Are Women Sicker than Men

An overview is presented of psychosomatic problems in women – the epidemiology, physiology and psychology. Surveys of sickness rates in women and psychological studies are used as a basis of speculati

Looking at bodies: Insights and inquiries about DES-related cancer

This paper considers the symbolic and material meanings about gender and sexuality surrounding womens bodies. To do so, it interprets three vignettes from an ongoing study of the experiences of women who have had vaginal and cervical cancer, as a result of their prenatal exposure to DES (diethylstilbestrol), a synthetic estrogen prescribed to pregnant women to prevent miscarriage. Each vignette represents a different social and political context. The paper demonstrates how the different contexts construct meaning, and explores the implications of this for understanding the ambivalent, complicated, shifting, and contested meanings of womens bodies.

Caring for Victims of Rape

Rape is the most rapidly increasing violent crime in the United States (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1978). As incidents of rape and requests for treatment of its aftereffects continue to grow in number (McCombie, Bassuk, Sayitz, & Pell, 1976), more health care providers find themselves confronted with the responsibility of responding to the medical and psychologic needs of rape victims. Providing care to the rape victim is especially challenging because this traumatic experience profoundly affects the individual and evokes strong feelings in the caretaker as well (Silverman, 1977). Myths and misconceptions (Brownmiller, 1975) about rape are common and often influence the attitudes, expectations, and behavior of not only the victims but the important people in their lives including their friends, families, and medical caregivers.