Longitudinal study of interpersonal dependency in female twins.

BACKGROUND: Interpersonal dependence is thought to be important in a number of physical and psychological disorders. There are several developmental theories that suggest environmental influences in childhood are important. METHOD: A twin study methodology was used to look at the genetic and environmental influences on interpersonal dependence as measured by a sub-scale of the Interpersonal Dependency Inventory with a population-based sample of 2230 twins. RESULTS: Psychometric analysis revealed that this was a stable measure and that there was a substantial degree of construct validity. Both univariate and longitudinal twin analysis suggested that there was a modest genetic influence and a large, specific environment influence on interpersonal dependency as measured by this scale. The longitudinal analysis revealed that the genetic influence was stable over the time-scale sampled and the environmental influence was moderately stable. CONCLUSIONS: This finding is at odds with theories that suggest shared environment is important in the aetiology of interpersonal dependency.

[Various patterns of behavior in patients with ulcerative colitis and duodenal ulcer]. / Niektóre elementy wzorców zachowania pacjentów z wrzodziejacym zapaleniem jelita grubego i choroba wrzodowa dwunastnicy.

The subject of the study was in a trial of evaluation of selected behavioral patterns in patients with ulcerative colitis and acidpeptic disease of duodenum. As an evaluation method was employed the psychometric method consisting of the use of Nonconventional Adjectives Test the usefulness of which was confirmed in previous publications. The group of patients studied consisted of 65 persons with duodenal acid-peptic disease, 41 persons with ulcerative colitis and 72 healthy subject as a control group. The results obtained presented in a graphical manner reflected the psychological differences between above groups. Patients with ulcerative colitis were characterized by an increased fineness, sensibility or emotionality whereas those with duodenal acid-peptis disease selected adjectives indicating the lowered ability of self-control and of control on other people when compared with health subjects.

[The subject with spina bifida and his family: psychological and social aspects. I]. / Il soggetto affetto da spina bifida e la sua famiglia: aspetti psicologici e sociali. Parte prima.

This paper is to examine the psychological and social effects in spina bifida. In 130 subjects, aged from 4 to 24 years old, the levels of the I.Q. have been studied and they have been distributed into revelant percentual groupings, and the psychologic perception problems of the malformation of the subject have been studied. Finally, dominant psychologic and social problems have also been considered.

Mobilizing ego strengths.

In certain special situations in psychoanalytic treatment there is a need to mobilize ego strength: (1) those patients who are "so infantile" that they need ego strengthening to mature sufficiently to cope with their lives; (2) patients who regress partially during psychoanalysis and cannot progress without analytic intervention to help strengthen their ego; (3) those patients with a strong tendency toward regression whose egos need immediate strengthening in analysis to prevent an immobilizing regression; (4) those patients for whom a stressful reality situation so undermines their confidence that they fall into a severe regression and need to be helped out of this as an emergency to avoid permanent trouble, such as flunking out of school or getting fired from their jobs. All attempts to mobilize ego strengths require an especially thorough understanding of the psychodynamics and especially of the transference and countertransference. In addition, the patient's ego must be assessed as having the potential for more effective functioning. Usually the patient has been unable to realize this potential because of the various degrees of regression, and the analyst has already made exhaustive analytic interpretation of the unconscious material, including the transference and resistance. He may then shift to a more direct approach, pointing out the patient's ego strengths and giving him an accurate picture of the way he can use these strengths toward his own goals. The aim is to help the patient use his own willpower and ego functions gradually to work on and finally resolve some of his neurotic problems. Accurately and honestly mirroring the patient's ego potentials, encouraging him to use his ego, and providing examples of how others have used their own willpower in comparable situations are usually helpful. The analyst must not impose his own values or goals on the patient but must work with the goals, problems, and strengths the patient has. Seven analytic cases are presented to illustrate different ways of helping the patient to mobilize and utilize his own ego strength. We are not suggesting any new "technique," but only that there is something, which can be recognized as willpower, that can be mobilized for therapeutic effect; the appeal is make primarily by the usual procedure of pointing out reality but with encouragement to the patient in coping with both external and internal stresses, these latter being most often regressive tendencies.