A Single Case Multimethod Assessment to Detect Significant Changes in the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Psychosomatic Disorders.

Mental disorders with body-centered symptoms, such as somatic, eating, and body dysmorphic disorders, present difficulties in psychotherapy because psychological suffering is manifested in the body rather than expressed verbally. The present study illustrates a single case multi-method investigation sensitive to detecting characteristic change manifestations in the treatment of these disorders. We investigated a treatment of a patient with body dysmorphic disorder.

Free-Association Session Scale: factor structure and preliminary validity test.

One of the main concepts of the psychoanalytic method postulated by Freud in 1912 is the fundamental rule, which involves asking the patient to say whatever comes to mind as the analyst follows the patient's speech with fluctuating attention. Despite different theoretical models, this concept has remained an invariant element that characterizes the psychoanalytic method. For this reason, the purpose of the current study is to present a new instrument that measures this process based on the clinician's assessment.

Changes in Clinical Process as a Result of Online Therapy: Findings from a Single Case Study.

This study examined changes in the clinical interaction in a single clinical dyad between sessions conducted in person and sessions conducted remotely, applying linguistic indicators based on multiple code and referential process theory. Sessions from an ongoing psychotherapy of a male patient in his late 30s were audio-recorded and transcribed. Linguistic indicators, including the Weighted Referential Activity Dictionary (WRAD), were scored, and graphed using the Discourse Attributes Analysis Program (DAAP).

Maladaptive Daydreaming in Relation to Linguistic Features and Attachment Style.

(1) Background: Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) is a concept that describes a significant imaginary activity that replaces human engagement and/or interferes with academic, interpersonal, or vocational functioning. We explored the interaction between attachment style, reflective functioning (RF), and the narrative dimension of MD. (2) Methods: 414 adults completed an online survey, including socio-demographic variables, the 16-item Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale, the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised, Relationship Questionnaire, and Reflective Functioning Questionnaire.

Dreaming in quarantine: linguistic analysis of referential process of dreams during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became a collective trauma adversely affecting physical and psychological health. The impact of this trauma made itself manifest in a myriad of ways, including through dreams. This study aimed to explore the Referential Process (RP, Bucci, 2021) of dreams reported during quarantine.

Assessing Key Linguistic Dimensions of Ruptures in the Therapeutic Alliance.

Over the past two decades, therapeutic alliance research has increasingly focused on understanding the process by which the alliance is ruptured and repaired. This paper is the first to explore how alliance rupture segments from psychotherapy sessions differ from non-rupture segments on key dimensions of the referential process. A sample of 27 psychotherapy sessions were scored using a measure designed to identify rupture from non-rupture segments.

Linguistic Markers of the Emotion Elaboration Surrounding the Confinement Period in the Italian Epicenter of COVID-19 Outbreak.

The expressive writing method has rarely been proposed in contexts of large-scale upheavals that affect large populations. In this study this method was applied as an intervention and tool of investigation during the confinement period in the Lombardy region, the Italian Epicenter of COVID-19 outbreak. Sixty-four participants took part in an online expressive writing project, and a total of 167 writings were collected together with some self-report evaluations on emotions and physical sensations.

Linguistic features of the therapeutic alliance in the first session: a psychotherapy process study.

Critical aspects of the therapeutic alliance appear to be established as early as the first session. Specifically, the affective bond between the therapeutic dyad appears to develop early in treatment and tends to remain stable over time, while agreements on goals and tasks tend to fluctuate over the course of treatment. Are there distinguishable early signs of a strong therapeutic alliance? In this study, we examined how some linguistic measures indicative of joint emotional elaboration correlated with a measure of the therapeutic alliance assessed within a single session.

Pituitary volume in first-episode schizophrenia.

Pituitary volumes were measured in 55 first-episode schizophrenia patients at a baseline timepoint with 38 receiving a followup scan after antipsychotic treatment. Fifty-nine healthy volunteers had baseline scans with 34 receiving a followup scan. There were no baseline group differences in pituitary volumes or changes in volume following antipsychotic treatment.

Grouping in object recognition: the role of a Gestalt law in letter identification.

The Gestalt psychologists reported a set of laws describing how vision groups elements to recognize objects. The Gestalt laws "prescribe for us what we are to recognize 'as one thing'" (Kohler, 1920). Were they right? Does object recognition involve grouping? Tests of the laws of grouping have been favourable, but mostly assessed only detection, not identification, of the compound object.

Gray matter structural alterations in obsessive-compulsive disorder: relationship to neuropsychological functions.

Numerous magnetic resonance (MR) studies have examined gray matter structural alterations in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Few, however, have used automated, highly reliable techniques such as voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to examine the entire brain in contrast to selected regions of interest. Moreover, few studies have examined the functional correlates of gray matter abnormalities in OCD.

Gray matter structural alterations in psychotropic drug-naive pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder: an optimized voxel-based morphometry study.

Objective: Although several magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have been conducted in adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), few studies have used voxel-based morphometry to examine brain structure, especially in psychotropic drug-naive pediatric patients.

Method: MRI examinations of 37 psychotropic drug-naive pediatric OCD patients and 26 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers were acquired on a 1.5 T MRI system, normalized to a customized template, and segmented with optimized voxel-based morphometry.

Sibling loss, guilt and reparation: a case study.

Psychoanalysis has shown that the death of a sibling is likely to have a long-standing impact on the character development of a surviving child. Among common adult manifestations are the identification with the deceased sibling, repetitive self-punitive behaviors, and the development of masochistic trends. In treatment, these patients can become entrenched in a negative therapeutic reaction that compromises the outcome of their analysis.

Activation of chaperone-mediated autophagy during oxidative stress.

Oxidatively damaged proteins accumulate with age in almost all cell types and tissues. The activity of chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), a selective pathway for the degradation of cytosolic proteins in lysosomes, decreases with age. We have analyzed the possible participation of CMA in the removal of oxidized proteins in rat liver and cultured mouse fibroblasts.