2006. vol. 3. No. 1

The author makes use of Dostoevsky’s novella, «The Double», in order to analyse the relationship between two popular concepts, «discourse» and «chaos». Many postmodern interpretations burden the former term, discourse, which impedes its efficient use in philosophy and the human sciences. The latter term — chaos — is heavily overused and made into yet another absolute category by contemporary proponents of synergetic. A bizarre conceptual mixture of these terms is a product of contemporary theoretical mentality, which itself is a combination of more stable elements of human thought and actual fashion. Every time when the world appears incomprehensible and the language is awkward to handle, it can be useful to remind about an acute and permanent confrontation between the language and the world.

The article describes several studies in which respondents were asked to write autobiographical stories and were given personality questionnaires. The authors developed scales of content analysis maximally close to Cloninger’s TCI-questionnaire. They show that correlation between test results and content-analysis data does exist, yet it is mediated by a large number of parameters such as the subject’s bias, his or her self-image and readiness to share information with the psychologist. These factors go far beyond the usual social expectations. They authors argue for reforming the practice of questionnaire making and including new «provocation-scales» and «trap-scales» in the tests.

The author discusses psychotherapy’s state of the art in the year of Freud’s 150th anniversary. He raises the issues of legitimacy, efficacy and institutionalization of therapeutic practice and analyses a number of problems in psychotherapy studies. The author reviews critically some attempts at constructing a «general theory» of therapy. He discusses a new approach, interactive-analysis, and describes particular features of therapeutic community using the notion of «ideoballic community». He exposes many contradictions in both therapeutic knowledge and professional community.

After a brief historical introduction to psychotherapy, the author examines its relationship with types of sociality and characterises the role of the therapist and the place of therapy in mass consumption society. The author also questions some points and ambitions of contemporary psychotherapy, discusses its state of the arts, and emphasises that the trouble with Russian therapy lies in unawareness of its own sources and prospects.

The aim of the article is to discuss psychotherapy with the specialists. The author considers the contradiction that determines the status of contemporary psychotherapy as a specific socio-cultural practice. She refers to the factors linked to the dynamics of cultural contexts. In particular, the author suggests her own view of the contradiction between the lack of legitimisation and the tendency towards the formalization of psychotherapeutic practices.

The author treats contradictions of contemporary psychotherapy as natural for the nascent discipline. Analysing the main contradictions within the area, the author comes to a conclusion that the stage when different therapy schools coexisted with each other, is being replaced by the stage when psychotherapeutic community formulates «trans­school» universal principles that will give a basis to a new unified practice.

The article treats psychotherapy as a language game. The therapist and the client are both collaborators and rivals. The author shares the hypothesis proposed by the contemporary British psychiatrist Timothy Crow that schizophrenia is an inherent illness of Homo Sapiens, so that everybody is schizophrenic to a certain degree. The language is the cause of the problem. From this point of view, psychotherapy appears an absurd business – a game between two schizophrenic persons speaking a language of schizophrenic origin.

The author joins the discussion of A.I. Sosland’s article, «Psychotherapy entangled in contradictions». He argues that any therapeutic process must have a semiotic component, which contributes to its efficiency. The author analyses the issues of psychotherapy’s legitimisation and the danger of becoming an ideology.

This is a discussion of various replies to A. Sosland’s article, «Psychotherapy in the nets of contradictions». The author considers each colleague’s point of view and examines methodological basis of their criticism as well as some of their concrete remarks. Thus, he points out discrepancies in the text of one of his opponents. He finally comments on the ways psychotherapy may develop in the future.

The author analyses the theory and methodology of psychodiagnostics and differentiates between psychodiagnostics as a kind of practice and as an academic discipline which underlines it. He distinguishes four components in the structure of the discipline and mentions main categories on which a practitioner draws while making a diagnosis. The author describes perspectives that the discipline of psychodiagnostics opens for psychological research and practice.

The authors have experimentally demonstrated that the occlusion of the orthogonal parts of the face (right/left, up/down) changes the way it is perceived. These ways depend on the gender and facial structure of the model, on the position of the occlusion and the gender differences among observers. In comparison with the fully exposed face, the expression of the partly exposed face can be perceived either more or less adequately.

The author tests her hypothesis that the behaviour of expectant women differs depending on their husbands’ individuality. She analyses such variables as behavioural control, internality and attitudes towards the early family experience and observes their correlation in future parents. She demonstrates that during the pregnancy period the spouses mutually adapt their behaviour and that each of them tends to reproduce his or her parental style.