Leigh McCullough
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Leigh McCullough (June 5, 1945 – June 7, 2012) was an American
psychotherapist Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of Psychology, psychological methods, particularly when based on regular Conversation, personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase hap ...
, researcher, educator, and the pioneer of short-term dynamic psychotherapy (STDP). Her treatment model focused on the learned fears of experiencing certain emotions, or what she called '' affect phobias''.


Early and personal life

McCullough was born Mary Lee Colson on June 5, 1945, in
Kingsville, Texas Kingsville is a city in the South Texas, southern region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Kleberg County, Texas, Kleberg County. Located on the U.S. Route 77 in Texas, U.S. Route 77 corridor between Corpus Christi, Texas, Corpus C ...
. She was the daughter of James Melbourne Colson Jr. (1919–2005) and his wife, Lena White Miller Colson (1921–2012). She had two siblings, James Melbourne Colson III and Douglas Steven Colson. On August 29, 1964, in
Pass Christian, Mississippi Pass Christian (), nicknamed The Pass, is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. It is part of the Gulfport, Mississippi, Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi, Biloxi Gulfport-Biloxi metropolitan area, Metropolitan Statistical Area. Th ...
, she married Robert Milton Hudspeth. She married George Vaillant on December 4, 1993, in
Washington, Connecticut Washington is a rural town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, in the North Eastern region of the United States. The population was 3,646 at the 2020 census. Washington is known for its picturesque countryside, historic architecture, and active ...
. It was her third marriage. Her fourth marriage in 2005 was to John Roosevelt Boettiger, grandson of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
. She had a daughter, Kelly McCullough, with her first husband, and a son, Scott Hudspeth, with her second. She also had four step-children through her fourth marriage: Adam, Sara, Joshua and Paul Boettiger.


About

Affect phobias is an exceptionally clear and useful reformulation of psychodynamic conflicts in behavioral terms. For example, in case of a psychodynamic conflict between anger (or sexual desire, or grief, or closeness) and anxiety (or guilt, or shame); McCullough framed anger as an (internal) object that has learned (phobically) to activate anxiety. Thus in McCullough's reformulation, anger and anxiety do not stand against each other, as in an interpersonal conflict, but rather: anger activates anxiety, which then activates some ''
defence mechanisms In psychoanalytic theory, defence mechanisms are unconscious psychological processes that protect the self from anxiety-producing thoughts and feelings related to internal conflicts and external stressors. According to this theory, healthy ...
'' to avoid or inhibit the activation of anger. In terms of Freud's ''
Id, ego and super-ego In psychoanalytic theory, the id, ego, and superego are three distinct, interacting agents in the psychic apparatus, outlined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche. The three agents are theoretical constructs that Freud employed t ...
'', the Id (anger) activates the super-ego (anxiety), which then activates the ego defences against the id.McCullough, Leigh et al. (2003). ''Treating Affect Phobia: A Manual for Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy'' McCullough's reformulation of psychodynamic conflicts in terms of phobia both clarifies the therapeutic focus and suggests the intrapsychical change mechanism. Treatment of affect phobias progresses similarly to the exposure technique of behavioral therapies, with the difference that affects could be viewed as an internal phobia instead of external phobias such as fear of spiders or heights. Thus therapy should expose the patient to the activation of their anger (or sexual desire, or grief, or closeness), and the change mechanism is '' desensitization'' (or ''
habituation Habituation is a form of non-associative learning in which an organism’s non-reinforced response to an inconsequential stimulus decreases after repeated or prolonged presentations of that stimulus. For example, organisms may habituate to re ...
'') of anger activation.


Teaching

McCullough was an associate clinical professor at
Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...
, director of the Psychotherapy Research Program at Harvard's
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, Massachusetts is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and one of the founding members of Beth Israel Lahey Health. It was formed out of the 1996 merger of Beth Israel Hospital (f ...
, and a visiting professor at the
Norwegian University of Science and Technology The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Norway and the largest in terms of enrollment. The university's headquarters is located in Trondheim (city), Trondheim, with region ...
(
Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
). She was the 1996 Voorhees Distinguished Professor at the Menninger Clinic and received the 1996 Michael Franz Basch Award from the Silvan Tomkins Institute for her contributions to the exploration of affect in psychotherapy. Dr. McCullough was on the editorial board of the journal '' Psychotherapy Research'' and of the '' Journal of Brief Therapy'', and conducted training seminars in the Affect Phobia model worldwide.


Death and legacy

Leigh McCullough was diagnosed with
ALS Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or—in the United States—Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD), is a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disorder that results in the progressive loss of both upper and low ...
in 2010 and died on June 7, 2012, in Boston, Massachusetts. At the time of her death she had been married to John Roosevelt Boettiger; she had formerly been married to George Vaillant.


See also

* David Malan * Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy. *
Silvan Tomkins Silvan Solomon Tomkins (June 4, 1911 – June 10, 1991) was a psychologist and personality theorist who developed both affect theory and script theory. Following the publication of the third volume of his book ''Affect Imagery Consciousness'' i ...


Bibliography

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Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCullough, Leigh Harvard University faculty American psychotherapists 2012 deaths 1945 births People from Kingsville, Texas