Sigurd Benjaminsen

Cross-national generalizability of patterns of parental rearing behaviour: Invariance of EMBU dimensional representations of healthy subjects from Australia, Denmark, Hungary, Italy and The Netherlands

Abstract A psychometric study was carried out on Australian, Danish, Hungarian, Italian and Dutch non-patient samples examining cross-national invariance characteristics of dimensions of perceived parental rearing behaviour and attitudes as measured by the EMBU. Of the four primary factors identified previously with Dutch Ss, namely Rejection, Emotional Warmth, Overprotection and Favouring Subject, the first three were retrieved in a similar form in the Australian, Danish and Italian healthy Ss. Less satisfactory findings emerged in the Hungarian sample. Further analyses examining metric equivalence of the scales and the strength of the factors for each group indicated that it would be warranted to carry out future pattern and level comparisons between groups from the respective countries (except Hungary) on the three factors evidencing cross-national constancy. Higher order factor analyses of the corresponding scales produced identical two-factor compositions (Care and Protection) in the Australian, Danish and Italian groups when compared to the factorial composition of EMBU scales of their Dutch counterparts, which further supported this conclusion. It was proposed to either rephrase or omit and replace the unsuitable Hungarian EMBU items by alternative items to be tried out in the next round of data gathering and their psychometric evaluation.

Patient violence in a psychiatric hospital in Denmark: Rate of violence and relation to diagnosis

In a 1-year prospective study inpatient violence was investigated in a Danish psychiatric hospital covering a well-defined catchment area with a population of 235,000. Violent acts were recorded on the Staff Observation Aggression Scale. Psychiatric diagnoses were recorded as ICD-8. Six per cent of the inpatients behaved violently. The total rate of violent acts was 1.40 per bed (occupied) per year. For more serious violence it was 0.35. Ninety-three per cent of the violent patients had major (psychotic) mental disorders. Comparisons of violent with nonviolent psychotic patients showed that for both sexes schizophrenia, paranoid type, was strongly associated with violence. Mania was also connected with violence, but significantly only in females. Half of the violent patients had the double diagnoses psychosis pus abuse of alcohol or drugs. The most frequent victims of violence were nursing staff. Most injuries were trivial. The most frequent provoking factors were demands on patients and/or the staffs re...

Psychosocial characteristics of a group of unemployed patients consecutively admitted to a psychiatric emergency department

SummaryThe investigation covers a group of 70 unemployed patients who were consecutively admitted to the psychiatric emergency department during the first 5 months of 1979. It was found that in relation to the general population of the unemployed there was a predominance of men, unskilled workers, patients not insured against unemployment and patients with relatively loose affiliation to the labour market. Only a few of the unemployed patients admitted were ⩾ 50 years of age. Alcohol abuse was registered for two-thirds and about a half were found to be habitual neurotics with a tendency to antisocial behaviour while intoxicated. Only 4% had never suffered from a mental disorder requiring treatment prior to actual unemployment period. Unemployment was one of a number of predominant external factors that were potentially causal for the actual mental disorder. “Endogenous” psychotic conditions were also registered. Subsequent to unemployment, depressive symptoms were most frequent, but there was also a significant rise in the consumption of alcohol and benzodiazepines. A reaction pattern related to the duration of unemployment was not found. The patients attitude to unemployment varied considerably.

Depression viewed as a state of disturbed psychic contact

Abstract The nature of disturbed object relations in depression is analyzed. The concept, area of interest, is introduced to describe the disturbed interplay between the depressive subject and the external world. Loss of psychic contact with the environment is considered the central feature in depression. Various psychological symptoms in depression, such as decline in self-esteem, feelings of guilt, self-reproach, hopelessness, and helplessness, are arranged in an understandable sequence beginning with loss of psychic contact. The paper discusses a model of depression, in which the loss of psychic contact with the external world is considered the stimulus for physiological symptoms such as early morning wakening, diurnal variation, and weight loss. The depressive episode may be viewed primarily as a state of disturbed psychic contact rather than as a state of disturbed affect.

Coping with precipitating life stress of primarily depressed inpatients

Abstract Four ways of making psychic contact to environmental stress are defined. Of 66 primarily depressed inpatients who had been confronted with major stress in the six months preceding the onset of the illness, 55 subjects (83%) coped with the traumatic situation by making insufficient psychic contact with it. These patients did not attempt to relate internal subjective feelings to the perception of the external life stress, and in this way they avoided the painful emotions connected with the experiences of the stressful situation. About 25% expressed distorted ideas about imaginative stress, while the real psychic trauma seemed to escape their attention. A characteristic feature was inability to feel emotions. Sadness was not the predominant feeling in the depressions. This may be due to absence of emotional bonds. Many depressive patients used projective identification, which could be considered a restitutive process to reestablish emotional bonds with other people.

Neurotic Personality Traits in Patients with Subtypes of Affective Disorders

To determine the neurotic personality traits associated with subtypes of affective disorders a sample of 91 primary depressed subjects and 59 neurotic subjects with secondary depression when recovered were tested on a constructed self-report questionnaire for the presence of neurotic traits. The primary depressions were divided into manic-depressive. endogenous. and non-endogenous depressions. The neurotic personality profiles of subjects with manic-depressive and of patients with endogenous depression were very similar. and the presence of neurotic traits to a great extent was rare among these patients. Non-endogenous depression was related more often to a personality with lack of self-confidence and anti-aggressive traits than manic-depressive and endogenous depressions were. But most of the neurotic traits reported were mild, and the non-endogenous primary depression was less related to a neurotic personality than the depression secondary to a neurosis. The relationship between non-endogenous primary d...

Narcissisme og personlighedsforstyrrelse

The literature on the relationship between the concept of narcissism and personality disorder is reviewed. In 1910 Freud introduced the concept of narcissism to psychoanalysis, and in 1925 Waelder reported in detail on an individual with «narcissistic» features. Since the appearance of these early papers, «narcissistic» personality traits have been described on several occasions. In 1967 Kernberg described the «narcissistic personality structure», and in 1968 Kohut introduced the term «narcissistic personality disorder» to the literature. The diagnosis «narcissistic personality disorder» is included in DSM-III, but not in ICD-8 or ICD-9. The review indicates that there is consensus on the phenomenological characteristics of the narcissistic personality disorder. To qualify for nosological status, it is not sufficient to be definable on the basis of specified criteria. The disorder should also have a predictable course or outcome. Such data do not exist. Etiology, family history and sociodemographic correl...

En analyse af psykopatologien ved psykoprovokeret endogen depression

Artiklen analyserer den psykoprovokerede endogene depressions psykopatologi i et psyko-logisk univers, hvor individet ikke er enheden, men hvor enheden er individet og dets relationer til omgivelserne. Analysen resulterede i folgende hypotese: Den psykoprovokerede endogene depression er det kliniske resultat af et episodisk kontakttab med omgivelserne.

Follow-up of a group of unemployed patients consecutively admitted to an emergency psychiatric department

SummaryThis investigation is a follow-up of 70 unemployed patients consecutively admitted to an emergency psychiatric department. The follow-up took place 1/2 and 1 year after the admission. There was a significant fall in the consumption of alcohol and benzodiazepines and approximately a half maintained that their general mental condition had improved. About a half had had work in the followup period, and most of the patients had personally been active in trying to find work. Direct inquiry at places of work was by far the most effective way of obtaining work. The group of persons for whom the subsequent employment process was relatively positive (group I, 18 persons) was in relation to the remaining persons (group II) characterized by a significantly lower frequency of previous admissions to psychiatric departments and of sick leave prior to unemployment. The duration of the current unemployment period was shorter and the admission longer. In the follow-up period the persons in group I were characterized by a higher degree of control of alcohol consumption, improvement in general mental condition and improvement in interpersonal relations. Differential psychosocial evaluation prior to attempts at re-establishment in the labour market together with utilization of diverse “in-between stations” following admission to psychiatric department were significant elements in a favourable development.

Paranoia-paranoid skizofreni:det samme eller forskelligt fra hinanden?

Forfatteren er 1. reservelaege ved psykiatrisk afd., Odense sygehus, og har publiceret flere artikler om sammenhaenge imellem psykologisk stress, personlighedsfaktorer og psykisk sygdom.Artiklen belyser pa grundlag af relevant litteratur, om paranoia er forskellig fra paranoid skizofreni. Det diskuteres, hvorvidt paranoia kan opfattes som en psykogen psykose i modsaetning til paranoid skizofreni. Det konkluderedes, at de undersogelser, som har vist, at der er prognostiske forskelle, bedst underbygger, at paranoia og paranoid skizofreni er forskellige nosologiske enheder.