Recent and Selected Articles by Paul C. Holinger, M.D.
Following are a collection of recent and selected article by Paul C. Holinger on a variety of topics centered around infant and child development.
A Developmental Perspective on Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
Some of the most important issues in dynamic psychiatry involve the mechanisms of action of and the distinctions between psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Recent advances in developmental psychology and in clinical practice and theory provide new insights into these long-standing controversies.
The Problem of Physical Punishment and Its Persistence: The Potential Roles of Psychoanalysis
Physical punishment is a complex topic. Might psychoanalysis, child/adolescent analysis, and developmental theory and research provide further understanding of the underlying causes, the resulting psychopathology, and potential solutions? In this section, we explore various intrinsic and extrinsic perspectives in an attempt to better appreciate the controversies surrounding physical punishment and its persistence.
Psychoanalysis and Public Health: Potential for integration?
Psychoanalysis and public health appear to have an important but uneasy and rarely discussed relationship. In this article, we explore these issues by examining connections between the two along with assets and liabilities of both. The second half of the article deals, in large part, with physical punishment and violence as a specific example.
Prediction of Adolescent Suicide A Population Model
Suicide rates among adolescents (15-19 year-olds) in the United States are currently higher than ever recorded. The authors examined the relationship between suicide rates and population changes among adolescents. They found significant positive correlations between adolescent suicide rates, changes in the adolescent population, and changes in the proportion of adolescents in the population of the United States in 1933-1975. In contrast, the suicide rate of an older age group (65-69 ear-olds) was inversely, but not significantly, related to shifts in that population. These results suggest that the suicide rates for the adolescent age group can be predicted, a finding which may have important public health consequences.
Suicide and Homicide in the United States: An Epidemiologic Study of Violent Death Population Changes and the Potential for Prediction
The authors found significant positive correlations between the suicide and homicide rates for 15-24 year-olds and the proportion of 15-24 year-olds in the U.S. population from 1933 to 1982. Significant negative correlations were found for most adult age groups (35-64 years). Since future numbers of adolescents and adults can be estimated on the basis of current population data for children and preadolescents, the epidemiologic patterns for suicide and homicide may be predictable for certain age groups.
Further considerations of theory, technique, and affect in child psychoanalysis: Two prelatency cases
My goals in this brief paper are threefold. I would like to present two child analytic cases – one severely inhibited and one frenetic and aggressive – and explore three aspects of technique and clinical theory. The first involves the early interpretation of affect with such children; the second concerns the possible benefit of verbalizing primary affects in such early interpretive work; and the third relates to the use of affect theory in working with the child’s caregivers. The possible implications for analytic work with adults are also discussed.
Noninterpretive Interventions in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
A Developmental Perspective
One of the more important issues confronting psychoanalysis and psychotherapy seems to involve the clinical and theoretical aspects of so-called noninterpretive interventions. Advances in infant research, developmental psychology, and clinical theory may aid in shedding new light on the role and mechanisms of action of a variety of noninterpretive interventions and clinical concepts, including validation and confirmation, mirroring, clarification, “holding environment,” negative therapeutic reactions, and others. In addition, these advances may enhance the understanding of the nature of change in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.
