Ego-state therapy is a psychodynamic approach in which techniques of group and family therapy are employed to resolve conflicts between the various "ego states" that constitute a "family of self" within a single individual. Although covert ego states do not normally become overt except in true multiple personality, they are hypnotically activated and made accessible for contact and communication with the therapist. Any of the behavioral, cognitive, analytic, or humanistic techniques may then be employed in a kind of internal diplomacy. Some 20 years experience with this approach has demonstrated that complex psychodynamic problems can often be resolved in a relatively short time compared to more traditional analytic therapies.
Objective: ft has been proposed that bulimic psychopathology is associated with responsiveness to ego threats, rather than to physical threat. However, the concept of ego threat is a heterogeneous one, and needs to be more clearly defined. This study examined the relationship between bulimic attitudes and attentional biases to different forms of threat. Method: The participants were 80 non-eating-disordered women, drawn from school and University populations. Each woman completed a Stroop task, measuring attentional biases toward five different forms of threat. Their times to complete these tasks were associated with scores on the Eating Disorders Inventory. Results: Bulimic (but not restrictive) attitudes were specifically associated with an attentional bias toward ego threats that are self-directed, rather than with ego threats that are perceived to come from others. Discussion: It is suggested that there is a complex relationship between attention to self-directed ego threats, poor self-esteem (ineffectiveness), and bulimic psychopathology, although the causal structure of the relationship remains to be established. The results require replication with an eating-disordered sample. 0 7 996 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Objective It has been proposed that bulimic psychopathology is associated with responsiveness to ego threats, rather than to physical threat. However, the concept of ego threat is a heterogeneous one, and needs to be more clearly defined. This study examined the relationship between bulimic attitudes and attentional biases to different forms of threat. Method: The participants were 80 non‐eating‐disordered women, drawn from school and University populations. Each woman completed a Stroop task, measuring attentional biases toward five different forms of threat. Their times to complete these tasks were associated with scores on the Eating Disorders Inventory. Results: Bulimic (but not restrictive) attitudes were specifically associated with an attentional bias toward ego threats that are self‐directed, rather than with ego threats that are perceived to come from others. Discussion: It is suggested that there is a complex relationship between attention to self‐directed ego threats, poor self‐esteem (ineffectiveness), and bulimic psychopathology, although the causal structure of the relationship remains to be established. The results require replication with an eating‐disordered sample. © 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Hypnosis is widely used to relieve pain. Current theory emphasizes its dissociative features. Multiple personality patients can eliminate pain in the primary personality by displacing it into underlying alters. The Hilgards demonstrated that normal hypnotized subjects can similarly dissociate pain into a covert cognitive structural system which they called the "hidden observer." The Watkins discovered that "hidden observers" appeared to be the same phenomenon as "ego states." "Ego-state theory" assumes that human personality develops through integration and differentiation. At one end of the continuum, "differentiation" is adaptive. Ego states possess relatively permeable boundaries as in normal moods. At the other end ego-state boundaries become less permeable. Normal "differentiation" becomes maladaptive "dissociation" and multiple personalities may be created. In the intermediate range of the differentiation/dissociation continuum, "covert" ego states can be found in many normal subjects who volunteer for hypnotic laboratory experiments. Normal individuals, like multiple personalities and "hidden observer" subjects, can displace (dissociate) pain into "covert" ego states. The pain is not eliminated. This suggests that when we remove pain by hypnosis we may not be getting away "scot-free."
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