The Racist Within.

This article demonstrates the author's psychoanalytic method of pursuing racism's various forms, functions, and locations, including within himself, a person of color. It argues that to disrupt racism on any level, we must realize the unconscious motivations every individual has to actively engage in racist ideology. This is due to racism's malevolent efficiency to articulate and structure experiences, such as threat and enjoyment, for both the individual and the group. The paper uses clinical vignettes to show the value of theorizing interdisciplinarily to accurately portray the complexity, contradictions, and intractability of racism's manifestations. It claims that addressing the questions racism poses requires first articulating the particularity of one's active psychic attachment to what racist process provides.

Self-regulation and internal resources in school-aged children with ADHD symptomatology: an investigation using the Rorschach inkblot method.

This study assesses the capacity for emotional self-regulation and internal resources in a sample of urban children with ADHD symptomatology using the Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM). Because these children have profound difficulty with modulating their affect, it is hypothesized that this difficulty would be reflected on RIM variables that have traditionally been thought to reflect the internal resources necessary for these children to regulate emotions. Children with greater ADHD symptoms were found to display lower scores on variables indicating internal resources for emotional self-regulation and stress tolerance (M, EA) relative to a comparison group with fewer ADHD symptoms. The research and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Change in attachment patterns and reflective function in a randomized control trial of transference-focused psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder.

Changes in attachment organization and reflective function (RF) were assessed as putative mechanisms of change in 1 of 3 year-long psychotherapy treatments for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Ninety patients reliably diagnosed with BPD were randomized to transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP), dialectical behavior therapy, or a modified psychodynamic supportive psychotherapy. Attachment organization was assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview and the RF coding scale. After 12 months of treatment, participants showed a significant increase in the number classified secure with respect to attachment state of mind for TFP but not for the other 2 treatments. Significant changes in narrative coherence and RF were found as a function of treatment, with TFP showing increases in both constructs during treatment. No changes in resolution of loss or trauma were observed across treatments. Findings suggest that 1 year of intensive TFP can increase patients' narrative coherence and RF. Future research should establish the relationship between these 2 constructs and relevant psychopathology, identify treatment components responsible for effecting these changes, and examine the long-term outcome of these changes.