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Of 98 alcoholics who were free to decide whether or not to drink during a 6-week inpatient treatment program, 55 chose to drink. The nondrinkers tended to show more improvement at a 6-month follow-up than did the drinkers.

In order to determine patterns of alcoholism on the basis of observation rather than drinking histories, the authors conducted three six-week studies in which hospitalized alcoholics were given the choice of drinking or not at frequent fixed intervals. Some took all the drinks available, one-third began drinking but stopped, and one-third took no drinks at all. The opportunity has thus been provided to study antecedent factors and personality variables in the three groups.

(1957). The Intrafamilial Environment of the Schizophrenic Patient. Psychiatry: Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 329-350.

Sixty-six alcoholics were exposed to sound, color, motion pictures of themselves taken while under the influence of a small amount of alcohol. The pictures were obtained while patients discussed personal issues with a psychiatrist. Patients displayed three patterns of coping behavior during these sessions. These were: a consultative-receptive attitude, polite-impersonal attitude and a casual-impersonal attitude. These patterns indicated various degrees of cooperation and self-understanding. Confrontation of patients with their filmed behavior elicited responses indicating considerable dissatisfaction with the characteristics of their body image, and a low level of self-esteem. It is suggested that the negative self-evaluation of these patients is bound to have negative social consequences. The technique of self-confrontation offers possibilities in the study of the personality of alcoholics and in the therapy of these patients.

If self-image confrontation is a useful therapeutic tool in combating denial, it should be maximally effective in a condition such as anorexia where, in addition to disturbances in body concept, the visible changes in body structure are so clearly evident. The patient in the case study presented here was followed in psychotherapy by one psychiatrist concurrently with self-image experience (SIE) sessions conducted by a different psychiatrist. During the course of 16 months of hospitalization, 54 SIE sessions were held. During each she was first shown sound motion picture films of herself responding and reacting to a brief, standard interview, and then she was asked a standard set of questions about her feelings in regard to the film sequences. Despite two serious setbacks in the 4th and 7th months of her hospitalization, the patient's weight increased, she recognized some of her problems, and her plans for the future became more realistic. In the SIE sessions changes occurred in her attitudes toward her image on the screen and toward the procedure. Initially she continued to deny the evidence in the films about her condition. Later, however, her satisfaction gave way to disinterest and boredom, and then she became hostile to the procedure and rejecting of her image. Nevertheless she did not discontinue the sessions. Eventually she became able to take a more objective view of herself; to see both positive and negative features in the film; and to respond to aspects of her performance other than her physical appearance alone. Toward the end of her hospitalization, she was doubly shocked to see how terribly thin she had been earlier and how indifferent she had been to her condition. Her body image had changed, so that thinness became ugly rather than comforting to her. The changes in self-image which took place slowly against a great deal of resistance appeared to be associated with the continued and repeated self-image confrontations. These changes are discussed in the paper within the framework of a theory of self-consistency.

Objectives, methods, and findings in this study of the response of psychotic patients to self-image experience, employing photographic self-images, are described. Self-recognition, reactions to the pictures, sex differences in response, and changes in the psychotic state accompanying self-confrontation are reported. The significance of the findings, hypothetical considerations, and potential utilization of the technique in investigation and therapy are discussed.

Volunteer alcoholics on a closed hospital ward were given the option of drinking up to 2 oz of ethanol every hour 5 days a week for 4 weeks. One-third abstained completely and one-third began drink...

(1957). The Prediction of Family Interaction from a Battery of Projective Techniques. Journal of Projective Techniques: Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 199-208.

The careful scrutiny of the 14 families containing schizophrenic offspring reveals that the marital relationships of all parents were seriously disturbed. Eight of the families were split into 2 factions by the overt schism between the parents. In these schismatic families the parents repeatedly threatened to separate; one spouse sought to coerce the other to conform to rigid expectations and aroused defiance; difficulties of almost any type engendered recriminations between parents rather than mutual support. The parents derogated and undercut one another, and thus the child could not use one parent as a model for identification or as a love object without antagonizing the other parent. The other 6 couples lived together in reasonable harmony, but the family environments provided by their marriages were badly distorted or "skewed" because in each marriage the serious psychopathology of the dominant parent was accepted or shared by the other. Studies now in progress will seek to clarify further the diffic...

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Among the diseases incident to the human body, those which have raged as epidemics, have particularly attracted the attention of physicians. At no period of life is a contagious disease more distressing than during infancy and childhood: in that helpless stage of life symptoms must be more manifest before they can be known; and when they are known, much difficulty attends the administration of remedies for their relief. I have for these reasons chosen the subject of this dissertation, the [Whooping] Cough, Pertussis, a disease, which, though it commonly affects infants and children, yet sometimes attacks any age and sex, and has at times put on such serious symptoms as to be fatal.

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