Journal of Projective Psychology and Mental Health: Volume 19, Number 1, Jan 2012 Editorial |
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| 1. Editorial: “Wizard of OZ” Empathy Deficient Sociopaths - A Challenge for SIS Unmasking, Wilfred A. Cassell, pages 1-4. Recently, in a senior residence in Victoria, British Columbia, I interviewed a 91 year old man about how he acquired empathy/compassion for animals. He related a stressful, life changing incident that had occurred years previously when hunting deer. Apparently, he saw a mature deer in the hills above him, which he judged to be within range. Unfortunately, when he shot, the animal was at a greater distance than he expected. The bullet missed vital organs passing through its stomach causing it great agony. To his amazement and grief, he said that “the wounded deer slowly walked down the hill right up to me…bellowing loudly … crying in pain… like a baby before dying …It shook the Hell out of me…I was almost sick with sadness and regret…I never hunted deer again…I couldn’t do it again…I just gave up…you can imagine how it affected me…it was 60 some years ago … I can remember it just like yesterday!” Unlike this empathetic former hunter, I doubt if the corrupt Indian officials, who this past year sanctioned the shooting killing of two Indian “Whistle Blower” doctors had any compassion - for either the victims or family D-E-A-R to them. According to 2011 internet reports, each was courageously attempting to make the honest authorities aware of corrupt officials, misdirecting government funded medical programs. Surely they must concern all caring members of our SIS society. Reading on the internet about these murders was particularly upsetting to me. They brought to mind my own exposure in the late 1960s, when I was conducting research studies on government funded medical insurance programs in Saskatchewan, Canada. Later in the United States I found comparable corruption working in a private psychiatric hospital, where a hospital administrator approved of one child psychiatrist’s fraudulent billing. Until apprehended, he had billed over a million dollars a year by claiming on insurance forms that he worked 24 hours daily, 7 days per week. More hypocritical observations involved witnessing a religious oriented (Catholic) hospital, billing the government excessively at high room rates. A hospital's “commitment to help the poor” was ignored and a man with limited finances was pressured with threats of bill collection etc. etc. In the modern internet world, all are linked empathetically in our interrelated, fragile, life supporting planet. We no longer can isolate ourselves intellectually or morally from corruption that undermines the delivery of effective health systems, by “living with blinders in ivory towers”. To attempt spiritual communication with the deceased Indian doctors, for those readers experienced with the transcending power of Yoga or other forms of meaningful meditation, please pause in your reading. I invite you to take a few moments in order to meditate/connect in reverence to their courageous fighting spirits. Before ending your transcendental voyage, perhaps you might ask for guidance on how SIS researchers might contribute in the future to the never ending battle against the forces of darkness. Our body-mind-spiritual theoretical basis guides us to address issues that the physical scientists either are ignorant of, or have tended to ignore. Historically, they actively played roles in developing biological-nuclear-chemical weapons for mass murder, psychologically sanitized from guilt, by creating affect neutral technical labels implying “defense”. To avoid the pitfalls of this highly dangerous path into darkness and potential oblivion, SIS scientists, like all introspective empathetic humans, must constantly counter through introspection the “evil” lurking within ourselves. Consciousness bending, empathy dissolving, forebrain numbing corruption is highly infectious. Professionals are not immune, even in so-called enlightened countries. For example, during the Iraq conflict American psychologists under the command of the Bush regime participated in some of the inhumane interrogation techniques for prisoners. Sadistic questioning behaviors were apparently sanctioned by a president, who was elected with the public support of mesmerized Christians. Apparently some of these may have been taken in by a claim he made as a candidate, that he modeled his life after “Jesus”. Of course, this religious belief, if honest, may have helped him in resolving his alcohol addiction. Yet because of his willingness to readily condone war prisoner torture, subsequent articles in the Journal of Psychohistory have speculated that it likely was more of a “mask” to hide empathy deficient aggressive issues. Of course it is unethical to make any character analysis without personally conducting a clinical interview. Moreover, in fairness, it must be acknowledged that all humans are potentially vulnerable to manipulation, seduction in one form or other and so-called “brain washing” - even heads of state. To investigate this inherent genetic based and developmentally influenced vulnerability, as SIS theoreticians, we are inspired in the East, by the fundamental insights derived from the same healing spiritual springs that nourished the ancient practitioners of Yoga. In contemplating the struggle between the world forces for enlightenment versus darkness, in the western academic world, we can build on the 20th century contributions of psychoanalysts, such as Carl Jung. It may be recalled that Jung originally labeled this deep seated complex of sexual/aggressive impulses in the human psyche “Shadow”. He observed how readily even so-called “normal” people, but especially those with diminished consciences, can almost involuntarily project this onto others, in order to rationalize antisocial acts. Students who learn about the basic mechanisms of projection onto SIS inkblot structure with human content, or empathetically related anatomical structures such as the heart, can become trained in detecting this dehumanizing and empathy dissolving socially destructive practice. Historically, this reality masking mental mechanism has been highly prevalent throughout world cultures. Consistent with this, there always has existed much fanciful wishful thinking. This may be illustrated by the descriptive phrase used at the end of World War II - “The war to end all wars”. For example in America, reflecting this, a composer wrote the music and lyrics for a much loved, American, children’s musical entitled “The Wizard of Oz”. The story involved a Kansas girl and her little dog, magically transmitted by a tornado to an imaginary “Land of Oz”. In this Cosmic fantasy, she becomes mesmerized by a falsified humanoid mechanical creation, which transforms the voice of a weak little old man, hidden by a curtain, into that resembling vocal threats of a threatening giant. When their little dog pulled the curtain/ “mask” aside, she then realized that she had been deceived by a contrived image. Then she was empowered to return home to Kansas. Perhaps the above lesson can be acquired as well through classroom training on SIS inkblots. Training in fundamental principles of projection could enhance an adolescent’s ability to detect such fanciful erroneous belief systems. It could make otherwise naive young people in open societies, less vulnerable. As adults, they then would be more able to “unmask” media manipulated public image disguised as sociopath, economic-military-political-religious leaders. An additional benefit of classroom educational applications could be to provide a method of early detection comparable to random based community medical epidemiological surveys. If funded and implemented these might facilitate early referral for professional care of those children, who manifested severe SIS signs of empathy- deficiency and sociopathic deviance. Those manifesting less severe deviations could participate in some of the modern educational exercises designed to train children in empathy. There is very little relevant background literature. For example, an earlier article in this journal entitled “Unmasking the Devil '', illustrated how SIS psychotherapy may be a reality testing aide for cognitively correcting Satanic “nightmares' ' in a hospitalized adolescent. Another outlined how discussing the perceptions and affect linked visual imagery evoked by “socially acceptable” SIS stimuli in classroom settings, might educate students about recognizing false social personas, masking otherwise concealed negative personality traits. As indicated, the goal would be to enhance their ability in adult life to detect manipulation - both in their personal life and the media. Related is the applied use of the SIS in screening both in industry and the military. Although criticized by some American psychologists, on ethical grounds, the extensive work by Bankey L. Dubey and others support the value of this now empirically proven application. It might be noted that I have failed to include my envisioned SIS “diagnostic” criteria for sociopath responses. This is not just because of the difficulty in clinically defining valid signs. Unfortunately, throughout the world, such empathetic blind humans often reach positions of power through high intelligence, combined with ruthless disregard for others. Existing psychological tests having scales purported to assess “sociopathy”, such as the MMPI. However, answers can be falsified by individuals, who may have been coached on how to respond to standardized questions. Unlike communication openness in other SIS endeavors, perhaps a few so motivated members of our society privately communicate in secret on creating statistically valid response scales. These might initially begin with pilot studies on inmates imprisoned for gross sociopathic crimes. Normative data might be established covertly not only for physical violence but “White Collar” crimes as well. It will be important to include the latter in international surveys. Recall that the current downturn in the world economy of western countries is partially traceable to corrupt American bankers. These got rich from both self-assigned huge bonuses from government loans, as well as marketing internationally relatively worthless financial investments. They named these “Derivatives” with the fraudulent mask/image, advertised to be “secure” financial investments. Their vast and obscene wealth now enables them to influence politicians dependent on media image financing. One has to feel an empathetic concern for honest American legislators, who also face pressure from various lobbyists, richly financed by advancing other questionable causes. Some of these are only marginal moral, such as what the former World War II military general and President Eisenhower labeled “The military-industrial complex”. Other potentially corrupting challenges in this century come from economic temptations hidden from the public by international drug cartels, such as the Mexican drug Lords, encroaching on southern American Border States. It is suggested that the latter dark forces would be less influential if the public had available cost effective mental health services. If the human race is to inhabit beyond our planet, medical and behavioral scientists will have to assist in the selection and training of empathetic reality based educated leaders. The world needs those humane laws that are guided by evidence based science, not bridled by the cognitive confines of religious based mythology, racial/cultural bias, birth and established economic privilege. I hope that the murderers of the two Indian doctors are brought to justice. If government controlled medical insurance programs in any enlightened country are undermined by corruption, then the envisioned SIS school programs for preventative mental health and empathy training envisioned will never be funded. The future can be hopeful because of the important and growing literature on empathy “Empathy” - well summarized on the internet at Wikipedia. Apart from studies on individuals imprisoned for gross deviations, there are less valid scientific data available on formal diagnostic criteria. This may be partly due to difficulties in rigorously defining the boundaries of the medical- social definition. To illustrate this issue, on the internet today (October 10, 2011), there are vivid descriptions of armored vehicles crushing demonstrators in Egyptian streets. Is this a necessary police/military action or some form of corrupt empathy deficient sociopathic behavior? Corruption by self-interested leaders has always been a dark force throughout world cultures, and likely can only be gradually controlled. As a youth in Canada, I used to listen to a mystery radio program beginning with the voice of a hidden character named the “Shadow”. This fictitious individual warned listeners that “Evil that lurks in the hearts of all men”. It ended with the warning to radio listeners with dark impulses in their hearts, that the: “The Shadow KNOWS!” To honor the ever living spirits of the “Whistle Blower” deceased Indian doctors, let motivated members of our SIS Society spiritually bond with all international enlightened groups to enhance such “KNOWING”! Wilfred A Cassell, M.D., FAPA, APC. Editor Emeritus, SIS Journal,Anchorage (USA) 2. SIS Screening for Dangerous Impulses- A Blog Based Training Exercise for Students, Wilfred A. Cassell and Bankey L. Dubey, pages 5-17. The paper is designed for training students in SIS technology for detecting, otherwise unreported, suicidal/homicidal ideation with the help of responses projected on Somatic Inkblots Images. Four clinical cases are presented to illustrate how SIS technique brings to the surface psychopathology of violent behavior. A trained SIS psychotherapist can reactivate such imagery under reduced anxiety conditions, thereby enabling psychotherapeutic management and neutralization of dangerous impulses. . Personality and Nursing Work: A Comparison between Professional and Student Nurses, S. Daini, L. Petrongolo, A. Manzo and L. Bernardini, pages 18-24. Our study aimed at pointing out similarities and differences between Students and Professional Nurses with a Projective Test, hypothesizing that professional practice could improve empathic competences. Moreover, it could enhance stress pointers in Professional Nurses with respect to Students. The Wartegg Test was administered to two groups (210 Students and 111 Professional Nurses) from two University Centres following Crisi’s scoring system. The data thus obtained were analysed by using MANCOVA, with age as covariate and Chi-square test. The results suggest that the professional nurses showed a significantly higher emotional response to external stimuli, while affective personal configuration was not different in the two groups. Rational competence too resulted similar in the two groups. Professional Nurses showed significantly higher percentage of vulgar answers, an Index of adhesion to common thought. On the contrary, student nurses showed significantly more object contents, indicating more concrete thought and a greater detachment from emotional experience. In our study, nursing work shows an impact on personality variables, without producing pathological changes, and it can be studied with projective methods to point out latent aspects of personal configuration. 4. Culturally Construed Dual Sources of Well-being: Preliminary Psychometric Evidences, Rakesh Pandey and Nimita Srivastav, pages 25-31. Researches indicate that culturally induced differences in self-perception have significant influence on an individual’s general attitude and behaviour including his/her evaluation of subjective happiness and self-worth. The individualistic cultures focus more on independence, self-sufficiency, uniqueness, and personal success leading to an independent view of self, whereas the collectivist cultures give emphasis on cooperation, group cohesion, interpersonal harmony etc. that leads to interdependent self-view. Based on such cultural differences in self-construal, it was hypothesized that culturally construed dual sources (independent and interdependent) of well-being may also exist. To test this hypothesis a 20 item inventory (10 related to independent and 10 interdependent sources) was developed that asked participants about the importance given to various sources of well-being on a 5-point scale. The inventory was administered on 179 participants along with a measure of self-construal. The factor analysis yielded two factors. On the first factor, most of the items reflecting interdependent sources of well-being loaded significantly whereas on the second those items loaded significantly that reflected independent sources of well-being. However, a close examination of the pattern of loading revealed that some items initially considered as indicators of independent sources of well-being were loaded with items reflecting interdependent sources of well-being and vice versa. Thus, the thematic coherence of the items of each factor was re-examined and these factors were re-labelled as ‘interdependent and intrinsic sources’ of well-being and ‘independent and extrinsic sources’ of well-being, respectively. Further, it was noted that the independent/extrinsic source of well-being correlated positively with both independent and interdependent self but the interdependent/intrinsic source correlated (positively) only with interdependent self. This pattern of correlation provides some support to the validity of the dual sources of well-being. 5. Disruptions from a Traumatic Event: A Clinical Vignette, Rui C. Campos, pages 32-34. The paper presents a clinical vignette regarding the psychological assessment of a seven years old boy, following a traumatic event, an accident with a bus that resulted in his grandfather’s death. We wish to illustrate how the administration of projective techniques, like the Rorschach, can reveal several manifestations of the impact that the traumatic event had on the child. 6. Efficacy of Comprehensive Scoring System for SIS-I in Discriminating Mania, Sunita Kandhari, Jyotsna Sharma, Deepak Kumar, Neetu Kandhari and Rakesh Kumar, pages 35-42. The Somatic Inkblot Series (SIS) is based on the principles of projection and uses inkblots to interpret the responses given by an individual. The interpretation is further used to map personality and psychodynamics. The SIS has become an effective diagnostic projective tool for the assessment of patients suffering from various psychiatric problems. The present study aims at delineating the diagnostic power of the SIS in Schizophrenic and Depressive patients. The test was administered to 200 normal subjects and 90 patients (30 maniacs, 30 schizophrenics and 30 depressives). The Scoring was done using the Comprehensive Scoring System (CSS) of SIS. The results indicated that a number of CSS indices of SIS-I were able to discriminate between the groups significantly. 7. Application of SIS in Business Organization, Anand Dubey and Bankey L. Dubey, pages 43-47. The Somatic Inkblot test has been used in industry during selection and employee counseling. It has been found as an effective tool to ascertain if the new incumbents possess certain personality traits such as team building, interpersonal relationship and intra-psychic balance. The present paper will provide SIS Norms and indices for successful executives in the business world and the services provided by Dubay Doctrine (2D). The 2D enables organizations to transform into learning organizations to effectively compete in the marketplace. It is a very simplistic and pragmatic approach that attempts to understand and capitalize on "the people", "processes", assets and technologies" in a service delivery environment focused on specific business outcomes. It can be applied in any service industries including Government Services, Hospitality Services, Transportation and Logistics Services. 8. SIS- II Profile of Depressive Patients, Ajay Tiwari, Preeti Pandey, Nalini Mishra and Anand Dubey, pages 48-55. The present study intended to investigate the SIS profile of patients suffering from depression. 100 depressive patients attending OPD and community outreach programs of Nai Subah psychotherapy counseling Centre Varanasi, and 100 normal participants were administered the SIS –II Booklet Form of the test. The results revealed significant differences between Depressive patients and Normal participants on most of the SIS indices. Human, Animal, Anatomical, Sex, Most Typical, Typical, Atypical and Depression scales were able to discriminate both the groups significantly. The SIS responses were also able to bring out aggressive contents and disturbed interpersonal relationships of a particular case with his wife whose profile has been cited for validation of projective imagery as offered by SIS-II. The patient was found to improve after 15 sessions of psychotherapy. 9. Effect of Psychotherapy on Pathological Gamblers, M.G. Sharma and V. Sharma, pages 56-60. The present study examines the effect of psychotherapy on pathological gamblers. Ninety five (95) treated and 95 non-treated pathological gamblers were evaluated at SIMPHS Varanasi (India). The two groups were matched with respect to age (ranging from 23 to 61 years with a mean age of 41.2 years and mean length of uncontrollable gambling of 10.3 years). Indian adaptation of T.A.T. (Seven cards: 1, 3B, 4, 6BM, 7BM, 13MF, and 16) and Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire were administered to ascertain personality and mental health characteristics on ten selected dimensions viz: need, press, interpersonal relations, outcome, anxiety, obsession, phobia, somatization, depression, and hysteria. Mean scores obtained on different variables were analyzed using a t-test of significance. Results indicated that the characteristics associated with treated pathological gamblers were cognizance, dominance, autonomy, achievement, counteraction, affiliation, sex capacity, interpersonal relations and outcome whereas the characteristics associated with non-treated pathological gamblers were aggression, rejection, passivity, acquisition, anxiety, obsession, somatization, depression, and press. 10. Somatic Inkblots imagery in Transsexual: A Case study, Tirthanker Dasgupta, Rituparna Dasgupta and Padma Dwivedi, pages 61-65. The Somatic Inkblot Series-II (SIS-II) Booklet version was administered to a 30 years male, Transsexual to understand his personality and inner cry if any. The inkblots images were helpful to bring out poor interpersonal relationship with others, homosexual behavior, severe depression and suicidal tendency, with lots of unprocessed unconscious material that needed to be looked into during therapeutic intervention. The responses were analyzed using content analysis and psychoanalytical interpretation. 11. Performance of Schizophrenic and Manic Patients on Human Figure Drawing : A Comparative Study, Priyanka Shukla, D.Ram and K.S. Sengar, pages 66-70. The purpose of this study was to compare the performance on the Human figure drawing test (HFDT) between schizophrenic and manic patients. The sample consists of 60 patients (30 each of schizophrenia and mania). Two intelligence tests were administered to rule out the possibility of mental retardation. The subjects having IQ above 70 were included in the study and the Human Figure Drawing Test was administered individually. The results indicate significant differences in quantitative and qualitative scoring between the performance of schizophrenic and manic groups. 12. Enhancing Productivity and Culture through SIS Intervention: A Case Study, Naveen Gupta and Abhilasha Singh, pages 71-75. The Somatic Inkblot Series (SIS-II) was administered to two female faculty in a professional institution. They were professionally competent and had good relationships with their students. Both had some problems in the area of interpersonal relationships with their colleagues. However, with the administration of Somatic Inkblot Series-II, it was possible to identify their problems, difficulties and stress in life. Cognitive psychotherapy was administered for both understanding and resolving their psychological issues. Clinically significant SIS responses are psychoanalyzed for understanding the psychopathology of their behavior. |
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