This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2017 / This thesis formulates symptomatically violent patients psychoanalytically using the notion of thirdness as a particular theoretical and clinical lens It examines three psychopathological cohorts, those being psychosis, pervesion and narcissism. [Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version] / MT2018

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A review of the construct of psychopathy suggested that procedures for assessing the disorder should take into account its two-facet structure, its chronicity, its association with criminality, and its association with deceitfulness. A review of the five most popular assessment procedures currently in use indicated that none of them was completely satisfactory; the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) appeared to be superior to the other measures in most respects, but it was not well-suited for use outside of forensic settings. It was therefore decided to develop anew scale, based on the PCL-R, that would be suitable for both forensic and nonforensic settings. Pilot testing resulted in a 12-item symptom construct rating scale, named the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV). The PCL:SV was validated in 11 samples (N = 586) from forensic/nonpsychiatric, forensic/psychiatric, civil/psychiatric, and civil/nonpsychiatric settings. Results indicated that the PCL:SV had good internal consistency, interrater reliability, and temporal stability. The scale also appeared to have a two-factor structure, at least in samples with an appreciable base rate of psychopathy. The PCL:SV was highly correlated with other psychopathy-related measures, including the PCL-R, antisocial personality disorder symptom counts, and several self-report scales. It also had a pattern of convergent and discriminant validities that was consistent with both theory and previous research that used the PCL-R. It was concluded that the PCL:SV holds considerable promise as a measure of psychopathy; areas requiring further research were identified.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-145).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of English Language and Literature, June 2000. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Inaug.-Diss.--München. / Lebenslauf. "Literaturangaben, ergänzende und kritische Anmerkungen": p. 31-124.

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Natalie Sachs-Ericsson, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 19, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 46 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic disorder that results in a wide variety of impairments, involving most of the areas of development. Although significant variability has been found among children with Williams syndrome in terms of the phenotype, the idea of a typical WS profile is still predominant in the literature. However, the clinically observed widespread differences have caused clinicians to often speak about partial deletions, atypical deletions or inconclusive cases. In addition, some researchers have put forward the notion that the size of the deleted area might have an influence in both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the phenotypical characteristics. This thesis explores the differences in cognitive ability and attainment of developmental milestones in children with WS. Four experimental studies have been conducted involving a total number of 74 children between the ages of few months to the age of 18 years. Study 1 investigated the effect of deletion size in the cognitive ability of WS children, as this was measured by 4 different IQ tests. Study 2 examined the effect of deletion size in the attainment of developmental milestones, Study 3 examined the longitudinal course of IQ in children with WS and Study 4 examined a clinically observed de novo phenomenon of a strong leftward bias affecting attention and short term visuospatial memory. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated an effect of deletion size on the cognitive abilities of children with WS. The greater the deletion size in the 7qll.23 area, the lower the performance on measures of cognitive ability and the longer and more problematic the attainment of developmental milestones. Study 3 indicated that there is a significant increase in the IQ scores of children with the typical deletion. The IQ scores remain however to the mild/moderate retardation - low average area of the IQ scale. Study 4 examined and tried to offer explanatory ideas in a de novo clinically observed phenomenon of a leftward bias affecting attention and visuospatial short term memory. Children with WS encountered great difficulty in detecting and remembering the position of items presented to the right side of a presentation matrix. These findings suggest that deletion size has an influence on both performance on measures of cognitive ability and attainment of developmental milestones, the cognitive ability of children with WS significantly improves with advance of chronological age and that there is a leftwards bias affecting attention and short term visuospatial memory.

Self-injuring is a practice that involves self-administered damage to one’s body, most commonly cutting of the skin on the forearms. (The practice is distinguished from other intentional and in/direct self-harmful or self-damaging behaviours that cause bodily harm). Dominant psychiatric, psychological or medical approaches construct self-injuring as deviant, socially unacceptable or abnormal behaviour that is indicative of more or less severe psychopathology, and importantly as a stereotypically female practice. This research is conducted within a post-essentialist framework and views self-injuring, and the injured body, as discursively constituted as well as a cultural and political act. It therefore moves away from pathologising discourses in which those who self-injure typically find themselves and their own accounts of their behaviour invalidated and silenced. Instead, the mental health perspective is viewed as one party among many that may contribute to the conceptualisation of ‘self-injuring’ practices as socially meaningful and thus self-injuring is critically interpreted without reliance on a medical model of ‘normalcy’. As part of attempts to challenge medical models and cultural ideals of normalcy, this research presents a critical discursive analysis of a series of narratives provided by 5 female participants in which they record their own experiences, feelings and thoughts related to their practices of selfinjuring. It makes use of critical discourse analytic methodology to identify certain characteristics of these narratives as representations of larger collective meaning systems. It analyses the ways in which self-injuring is constructed in women’s stories of their self-injuring experiences, focusing particularly on the subject positions available in these discourses, as well as their ideological effects. The analysis focuses particularly on constructions of the body and subject positions as they enable or undermines the self-injuring subject’s agency. Finally, it attempts to determine the limitations of certain accounts of self-injuring, pursuing multiple meanings of self-injuring and illuminating new dimensions of talk on self-injuring and novel ways of conceptualising and understanding the practice.