Coping with Stress Among Israeli-Palestinian High School Students: The Role of Self-Control, Religiosity, and Attachment Pattern

Israeli-Palestinian adolescents living in Israel may have a unique set of stressors, given the societal tension between Israeli and Palestinian practices that may influence youths' identities (e.g., modernization, gender roles). However, little research has examined risk factors that may undermine one's ability to cope with stress effectively within this population. Thus, the current study examined the role of religiosity, self-control skills and emotional attachment style as risk factors for less effective (more passive, fewer active strategies) coping with stressful situations. Participants (n  = 487) were recruited from seven junior high schools located in the Northern Triangle region of Israel. Consistent with hypotheses, poorer self-control skills, and anxious and avoidant emotional attachment style were each associated with a greater likelihood to engage in passive coping skills. In addition to positive correlation between religiosity and active coping skills in response to stressful situations, these findings parallel prior studies that have examined broader demographic samples, suggesting the cross-cultural relevance of these risk factors for effective coping with stress.

The myths of free association and the potentials of the analytic relationship

The author challenges the traditional and still prevalent view of 'free association', arguing that it entails three forms of denial (also formulated in terms of corresponding myths): 1) denial of the patient's free agency; 2) denial of the patient's and the analyst's interpersonal influence; and 3) denial of the patient's share of responsibility for co-constructing the analytic relationship. That responsibility includes some degree of consideration of the analyst's needs. Sometimes, the patient's good judgment to that end may be reflected in what is automatically and mistakenly reduced to a form of 'resistance'. Attention to the patient's responsibility must be balanced against the effort to provide a uniquely safe environment for the patient's revealing of shame and anxiety-ridden feelings and attitudes. But the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis, ideally, includes the cultivation, through lived experience, of the dialectical interplay of self-expression, on the one hand, and caring relational engagement, on the other. Recognition of the patient's free agency does not preclude exploration of constraining structures laid down in the past. On the contrary, it deepens such exploration. At the same time, it opens the door to the possibility of explicit recognition, via challenge, criticism, or affirmation, of the patient's contributions to the analytic work.

'I noticed': the emergence of self-observation in relationship to pathological attractor sites

The author highlights self-observation as an important goal of psychoanalysis, separate from other concepts with which it is often confounded. To support this position, he presents clinical and developmental data, as well as observations by psychoanalysts on recent findings by cognitive neuroscientists. He introduces the term 'pathological attractor sites' to capture the challenge in moving from the belief in the reality of one's own thoughts to self-observation. Clinical techniques to deal with this specific challenge are presented.