Psychic battering can be defined as a continual condition of conflict-inducing happenings. In some professions that are high in psychic battering, mechanisms for accommodating battering are reinforced over time and become ingrained into the personality's modus operandi. A police officer can develop a conditioned emotional response which has as a…

Adolescent suicide is an important problem. Given ethical considerations, it is difficult to obtain data regarding the suicidal thinking of "normal" adolescents. To collect data concerning suicidal thinking without directly introducing the topic of suicide, 217 tenth through twelfth graders, divided equally according to sex, grade, and…

Loneliness is experienced by nearly everyone, although its frequency and intensity vary widely. Existential loneliness may derive from the universal experience of separation from the mother in leaving the womb; it is an intrinsic and organic reality of each life. The other kind of loneliness comes from self-rejection and self-alienation from…

The document contains two articles based on papers presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association on Mental Deficiency (Detroit, 1981). The first paper by D. Mott, et al. is titled "Emotional Needs of People with Mental Retardation--A Preliminary Review." Based on discussions held by staff at the Western Carolina Center (Morganton),…

The paper traces the evolution of psychiatric care for children from an intrapsychic orientation to a new conceptual perspective provided by systems theory and the accompanying relational formulation of conflict. The interdisciplinary process prevents a challenge to professionals' collaboration and respect for other fields and mandates critical…

Argues that kids do not go wrong or fall into despair for no good reason. Maintains that people are inculturated to certain areas of social blindness and denial, and that the function of all good literature is to break through that to unmask and show inner realities. (SR)

In family counseling, the therapist must take into account the developmental level and contextual framework of the family. Within the family, anger can occur over both intrapersonal and interpersonal issues. The therapist must determine the cause for the anger, how it is manifest, and what it represents. Some possible causes for anger within the…

Learning disability is seen to be a dissociative disorder (school shock) similar to shell shock in wartime. The shell shock model is explained to focus diagnosis and treatment of learning disabilities around the dynamics of the predisposing unconscious conflict, the dynamics in the environment, the mechanism which allows these two conditions to…

In discussing the problem of emotional and behavioral disturbance in children with learning disabilities (LD), the author suggests that teachers trained in LD are given little background in emotional problems, that LD texts contain minimal information about dealing with behavioral disturbance, and that the connection between LD and delinquency has…

This paper examines the thesis that family support is capable of influencing rehabilitation outcomes, and focuses on the functions of support in relationship to adaptation to chronic illness or disability and quality of independent living including work. The document reviews published empirical studies on family support in rehabilitation including…

Cokeville Elementary School in Afton, Wyoming, was taken hostage on May 16, 1986. Two self-styled "revolutionaries" held 135 children, 14 teachers, the principal, and 3 other adults confined in a classroom for just over 2 hours. The siege ended violently when one of the perpetrators accidentally killed herself by unintentionally…

Mentally retarded individuals may have chronic emotional problems or emotional responses to such stress and conflict situations as attending separate classes, moving to a new living situation, or being separated from family. Frequently service networks for mentally retarded persons do not consider the need for emotional assistance, as demonstrated…

Parents should admit and articulate their negative feelings about parenting, share feelings of suffering with other parents, and nurture each other. On the basis of a new shared understanding, parents can then organize and work to redefine the nurturing role and humanize society and its institutions so that they better meet human needs. Soell's…

This exploration of the dynamics and developmental consequences of child abuse begins with a definition of child abuse and a discussion of child sexual abuse. After a description of the incidence of child abuse, the consequences of abuse--including health and emotional problems, and neuro-developmental disabilities--are discussed. Further…

Experiences of an individual working with illiterate delinquents are related. It is suggested that controlled rage as a concomitant to learning failure is a potential source of school difficulty as well as social violence. A case of a ninth-grader with reading problems whose IQ had steadily decreased with age is cited. The schools' unsuccessful…