Hi Sara, Joe, and Tom
I'd like to make a couple of comments about this issue. First the public
versus private control of interest in a behavior analytic notion of what
controls "the I" that enters into the experience of self. The general
presumption is that "you" remains consistent across time and situations.
There is considerable social value of this consistent self (for example, the
IRS is very interested in having you on April 15 pay taxes that that same
you earned during the previous year and even further back.. About the only
way I can think that a universal consistency in self occurs is via private
control. The self chapter is aimed at identifying the history and the
object that might accomplishe this.

Real DID (and I believe in it) occurs when there is extreme and well
developed contextual control (public) that is at least part of the object
(discriminative stimulus) that we experience as the self. The key here, is
the consistency in the public contextual piece across a wide variety of "I
want Apple", "I am Bob" "I see" "etc." and eventually "I" such that multiple
selves exist. All we have to do is come up with histories that might
account for the contingencies for consistent contextual control. In the
chapter we tried to elaborate how consistent abuse during early development
by a parent who at other times is loving and nurturing.

So the bottom line is, DID is the result of excessive, consistent, wide
ranging, public contextual control over the evocation of "I" (functionally
defined of course).

It's on a continuum and I'm assuming we are all somewhere on that continuum
of having certain amount of our experience of self under public control.

I am particularly interested in this topic lately and am trying to develop a
conceptual model that might account for how we experience others in
relationship to ourselves. Okay, I'm actually trying to bring Martin
Buber's I-thou idea into a behavior analytic notion of the various kinds of
intimacy/distance we feel in relationship to particular others. At least
one relevant dimension is public control (thou) of "I"

So I guess another topic is the function of public control that sometimes
gets us into trouble in later years (DID) and maybe at other times it
underlies the experience of some types of intimacy I want (I guess that also
might get us into trouble as well).

Bob



-----Original Message-----
From: functionalanalyticpsychotherapy@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:functionalanalyticpsychotherapy@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Monday, May 08, 2006 8:49 AM
To: functionalanalyticpsychotherapy@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [functionalanalyticpsychotherapy] Digest Number 106


There are 3 messages in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

1. question about private and public control in relationship to the sel

From: "Sara J. Landes, M.A." sjlandes@...
2. Re: question about private and public control in relationship to the

From: "jcautill@..." jcautill@...
3. Re: question about private and public control in relationship to the

From: "Tom Waltz" behavioralmystic@...

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message 1
From: "Sara J. Landes, M.A." sjlandes@...
Date: Sun May 7, 2006 2:21pm(PDT)
Subject: question about private and public control in relationship to the
sel

Hi all-

Keri and I have been working on a paper and presentation for our
stimulus control class. The paper is on Dissociative Identity
Disorder and it's our attempt at describing the disorder in
behavioral terms and more specifically, in terms of stimulus
control. We have been using the chapter on the self from the FAP
book, along with several other articles that discuss private and
public control of the self. A lot of our references seem to be at
odds with each other.

We were hoping to get some input on how you all view DID in terms of
public and private control. More specifically, is DID inaccurate or
excessive private control, inaccurate or excessive public control, or
maybe both? We are primarily considering private and public control
in terms of how the disorder develops. For example, if abusive
environments are unpredictable, the child relies more on private
control because public control is not helpful. However, adults with
DID are often talked about as having excessive public control, e.g.,
relying on therapist reactions for as cues for how to behave.

This is a long email and somewhat tangential to FAP, but hopefully
it's interesting enough that you'll want to respond. :) We give our
presentation Tuesday (we didn't realize until today that we were
confused!), but have until next week to flesh it all out for the
paper.

Thanks!
Sara and Keri





________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message 2
From: "jcautill@..." jcautill@...
Date: Sun May 7, 2006 7:46pm(PDT)
Subject: Re: question about private and public control in relationship to
the

DID has always been an interesting idea. I have read the

chapter in the FAP book and thought it a very interesting

account. The view that the self at the time of the trauma not

being under private control, seems easy enough to test. Also,

I believe that the FAP account can be used to explain high

rates of malingering when they discuss "Other contingencies

may also help to maintain being someone else." I like to

think of the old line form the Howard the Duck movies, where

the guy is trannsformed and tell's Howard that he is someone

else. Howard looks at him and just says "Tell that to your

insurence company." As to DID, I guess I am a skeptic. I know

several old analysts who use to say that the real issue was

whn the person was stressed, they wuld naturally regress- as

do all people. Often then therapist encourage the person to

call this regressed state an alternate personality.



Any how, just my $.02. No worth much I know...Here is an

article that you might want to add to your reading list:



Phelps, B. J. (2001) Personality, Personality "Theory" and

Dissociative Identity Disorder: What Behavior Analysis Can

Contribute and Clarify. The Behavior Analyst Today, 2 (4),

325-332.



Joe


________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message 3
From: "Tom Waltz" behavioralmystic@...
Date: Sun May 7, 2006 11:24pm(PDT)
Subject: Re: question about private and public control in relationship to
the

Revisit Skinner 1945. Generally, private control shows up to the degree to
which the social environment facilitates it's development (don't forget you
need to be able to give a functional account of how private control
emerges). A less that consistent social environment will make private
variables much more vague--and increase the importance of tracking the more
immediate social contingencies in order to do what's "right."

Additionally, Phil Hineline always reminds his lab that much of what is
spoken of as "private" is often much more about being sensitive to
environmental events that are dispursed in time (e.g., patterns of social
interaction that would support speaking of private control) than any real
(measurable) physiological stimulation. You're still stuck with the need to

account for the environmental events of which the "private stimuli" are a
function (there's all kinds of internal activity going on--what would make
any of it particularly important?).

Since they (environmental events) are often subtle and spread out over
time--and beyond the convenient perspective of the therapist--it's easier to

speak of such events as being private and somewhat independent of
environmental influence. The trick for the analyst is not to be swept away
by the privacy of what he/she cannot see (i.e., the persons extended social
history) and then assume that people are behaving with respect to completely

private stimuli that are somewhere within the skin.

So my answer: excessive public control by fairly immediate social
contingencies as opposed to control by environmental events (public) that
are part of a larger functional pattern of socially supported behavior
environment relations that are conventionally supported by the majority
verbal community.

I hope you find this is helpful,

Tom

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Sara J. Landes, M.A." <sjlandes@...>
Reply-To: functionalanalyticpsychotherapy@yahoogroups.com
To: functionalanalyticpsychotherapy@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [functionalanalyticpsychotherapy] question about private and public

control in relationship to the self and DID
Date: Sun, 07 May 2006 21:21:03 -0000

Hi all-

Keri and I have been working on a paper and presentation for our
stimulus control class. The paper is on Dissociative Identity
Disorder and it's our attempt at describing the disorder in
behavioral terms and more specifically, in terms of stimulus
control. We have been using the chapter on the self from the FAP
book, along with several other articles that discuss private and
public control of the self. A lot of our references seem to be at
odds with each other.

We were hoping to get some input on how you all view DID in terms of
public and private control. More specifically, is DID inaccurate or
excessive private control, inaccurate or excessive public control, or
maybe both? We are primarily considering private and public control
in terms of how the disorder develops. For example, if abusive
environments are unpredictable, the child relies more on private
control because public control is not helpful. However, adults with
DID are often talked about as having excessive public control, e.g.,
relying on therapist reactions for as cues for how to behave.

This is a long email and somewhat tangential to FAP, but hopefully
it's interesting enough that you'll want to respond. :) We give our
presentation Tuesday (we didn't realize until today that we were
confused!), but have until next week to flesh it all out for the
paper.

Thanks!
Sara and Keri




________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________



------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links




------------------------------------------------------------------------