The Tragic and Faith in Pastoral Counseling

This essay uses Edward Farley's notion of the interrelation of tragic vulnerability and creation and Niebuhr's idea of faith in offering a conceptualization of the process and goals of pastoral counseling. Openness, novelty, separation, and change, which characterize creative activity, give rise to anxiety, fear, and suffering as created entities seek to achieve their ends and needs amidst the limits of life. Faith as vital concern—defined as human and transcendent relations marked by reciprocal belief, hope, trust, and fidelity—is a response that represents participation and cooperation in creative activity with its concomitant anxiety and suffering. Pastoral counseling may be understood as an activity that facilitates a response of faith as vital concern. The process of pastoral counseling involves three essential and interrelated tasks. First, the counselor invites the person to experience present and past painful disappointments, losses, and betrayals. Second, the counselor invites the client to explore the types of trust and fidelity that are distorted and diminish his or her capacities for risking intimacy, spontaneity, and freedom. The third task is learning to recognize, contain, and work through the inevitable disappointments, broken promises, frustrations, and betrayals encountered in human relationships. Thus the work of pastoral counseling involves reciprocal experiences of belief, hope, trust, and fidelity, which provide the essential and necessary ground through which persons develop a) the capacities for and experiences of spontaneity, awe, and freedom, b) the ability to handle and work through experiences and perceptions of distrust and infidelity, and c) a sense of subjective and intersubjective identity, continuity, and cohesion.     

Religiosity,health, and psychopathology in two cultures: Kuwait and USA

To explore the associations between religiosity, health, and psychopathology, samples of 460 Kuwaiti and 274 American college students were recruited. Religiosity, pessimism, anxiety, obsession-compulsion, death obsession, and ego-grasping were significantly higher among the Kuwaitis than among their American counterparts. On the other hand, self-ratings of mental health and optimism were significantly higher among the Americans than their Kuwaiti counterparts. Religiosity was significantly and positively associated with ratings of physical health, mental health, and optimism (both countries), and negatively with pessimism, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and ego-grasping (Kuwaitis), and pessimism and suicidal ideation (Americans). A factor analysis of the correlational matrix yielded in both countries two independent factors labeled “Normality vs. psychopathology”, and “Religiosity, health, and optimism”. Backward multiple regressions revealed that the main predictors of religiosity were mental health, optimism and physical health positively, and obsession-compulsion and ego-grasping negatively in Kuwaitis; and optimism positively and anxiety, and suicidal ideation negatively in Americans. By and large, those who consider themselves as religious were more healthy and optimistic, and obtained lower scores on psychopathology in both countries.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this article:
Peter Kivy, The Possessor and the Possessed: Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, and the Idea of Musical Genius
Kirk Pillow, Sublime Understanding: Aesthetic Reflection in Kant and Hegel
William Irwin, Intentionalist Interpretation: A Philosophical Explanation and Defense
Allen Carlson, Aesthetics and the Environment: The Appreciation of Nature, Art, and Architecture
Elizabeth Grosz, Architecture from the Outside
David Leatherbarrow, Uncommon Ground: Architecture, Technology, and Topography
Caroline Joan S. Picart, Thomas Mann and Friedrich Nietzsche: Eroticism, Death, Music, and Laughter
Caroline Joan S. Picart, Resentment and the "Feminine" in Nietzsche's Politico–Aesthetics     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Browne, Nick, (ed.) Refiguring American Film Genres: Theory and History
Grunenberg, Christoph, (ed.) Gothic: Transmutations of Horror in Late-Twentieth-Century Art
Hopkins, Robert, Picture, Image and Experience: A Philosophical Inquiry
Kemal, Salim, Ivan Gaskell, and Daniel W. Conway, (eds.) Nietzsche, Philosophy and the Arts
Kostka, Alexandre and Ivan Wohlfarth, (eds.) Nietzsche and "An Architecture of Our Minds"
Krausz, Michael, and Richard Shusterman, (eds.) Interpretation, Relativism, and Metaphysics: Themes from the Philosophy of Joseph Margolis
Lyon, Arabella, Intentions: Negotiated, Contested, and Ignored
Rosen, Charles, Romantic Poets, Critics, and Other Madmen
McClary, Susan, Conventional Wisdom: The Content of Musical Form
Thom, Paul, Making Sense: A Theory of Interpretation     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Greenberg, Clement. Homemade Esthetics: Observations on Art and Taste .
Diderot, Denis. Diderot on Art—I: The Salon of 1765 and Notes on Painting .
Diderot, Denis. Diderot on Art—II: The Salon of 1767 .
Rosen, Charles. Romantic Poets, Critics, and Other Madmen .
Foster, Hal. The Return of the Real .
Wyss, Beat. Hegel's Art History and the Critique of Modernity .
Kemal, Salim, Ivan Gaskell, and Daniel W. Conway, eds. Nietzsche, Philosophy and the Arts .
Kostka, Alexandre, and Ivan Wohlfarth, eds. Nietzsche and "An Architecture of Our Minds."
Benezra, Neal, and Olga Viso, eds. Regarding Beauty: A View of the Late Twentieth Century .
Wartenberg, Thomas E. Unlikely Couples: Movie Romance as Social Criticism .
Bober, Phyllis Pray. Art, Culture and Cuisine: Ancient and Medieval Gastronomy .
Marra, Michele, ed. and trans. Modern Japanese Aesthetics: A Reader .
Mitias, Michael, ed. Architecture and Civilization .
Hill, Richard. Designs and Their Consequences .
Leach, Neil. The Anaesthetics of Architecture .
Byrne, Alex, and David R. Hilbert, eds. Readings on Color, Volume 1: The Philosophy of Color .
Byrne, Alex, and David R. Hilbert, eds. Readings on Color, Volume 2: The Science of Color .     

The land enriches the soul: On climatic and environmental change,affect, and emotional health and well-being in Rigolet,Nunatsiavut, Canada

For Canada’s Inuit populations, the landscapes surrounding communities, and practices such as hunting, fishing, trapping, foraging, and travelling to cabins, contribute greatly to human health and well-being. Climatic and environmental change, however, are altering local ecosystems, and it is becoming increasingly challenging for many Inuit to continue to travel or hunt on the land. These changes greatly impact health and well-being. While numerous studies examine the physical health impacts of climate change, few consider the affective implications of these changes, and the subsequent impacts on the emotional well-being of Inuit populations. From data gathered through a multi-year, community-driven project in Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, Labrador, Canada, however, it is evident that the emotional consequences of climate change are extremely important to Northern residents. Participants shared that these changes in land, snow, ice, and weather elicit feelings of anxiety, sadness, depression, fear, and anger, and impact culture, a sense of self-worth, and health. This article analyses the affective dimensions of climatic change, and argues that changes in the land and climate directly impact emotional health and well-being. Narratives of Inuit lived experiences will be shared through data from interviews, the concept of ecological affect will be introduced, and implications for climate-health research and programming will be discussed.     

SYMBOL AND PSYCHOSOMATIC SYMPTOM IN BODILY SPACE-TIME: THE CASE OF THE YAKA OF ZAIRE

The Northern Yaka see the body as an expanse bounded in time and space. Alimentary traffic, olfactory exchange, and procreation constitute oriented transitions of the body boundaries. They provide a spatiotemporal order (inner-surface-outer, high-middle-low, before-simultaneous-after, etc.) which, by symbolic transference, patterns the semantic integration of the social, natural and bodily domains and which is itself patterned by this integration. The body-self has to do with the body as receptive of, and participating in, the activities of the other: in sensorial interaction, that is, in encounter, exchange, smelling, listening, speaking and seeing, individuals serve as reciprocal points of identification. They pattern, and are patterned by, the relationships between the psychosomatic and the sociocultural, between self and other, ascendant and descendant, male and female, etc. I am concerned with the ways these multidimensional relationships in and through the body acts and the body-self may be symbolic, i.e., when they integrate, by differentiation and mediation in a metaphoro—metonymical process, the bodily, social and natural spheres; these relationships are symptomatic when they are disintegrative, dualistic, or intrusive.     

Loneliness within a nomological net: An evolutionary perspective

Loneliness is characterized by feelings of social pain and isolation and has both heritable and unshared environmental underpinnings. An evolutionary theory of loneliness is outlined, and four studies replicate and extend prior research on the characteristics of lonely individuals. Studies 1 and 2 indicate that loneliness and depressed affect are related but separable constructs. Study 3 confirms that lonely, relative to nonlonely, young adults are higher in anxiety, anger, negative mood, and fear of negative evaluation, and lower in optimism, social skills, social support, positive mood, surgency, emotional stability, conscientiousness, agreeableness, shyness, and sociability. The set of six personality factors associated with loneliness (surgency, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, shyness, and sociability) do not explain the associations between loneliness and negative mood, anxiety, anger, optimism (pessimism), self-esteem, and social support, as each association remained statistically significant even after statistically controlling for these personality factors. Study 4 used hypnosis to experimentally manipulate loneliness to determine whether there were associated changes in the participants’ personality and socioemotional characteristics. Results confirmed that loneliness can influence the participants’ personality ratings and socioemotional states.     

Modernity and Postmodernity: The Characteristics of Postmodern Cultural Media

From the academic frontier of modernity and postmodernity,the author aims at exploring the fission between modernity and postmodernity and also the characteristics of postmodern cultural media from a philosophical vantage point.This paper illustrates three aspects of Western modernity:individual modernity,social modernity,and instrumental modernity,and it also clarifies the issues in modernity,starting by explaining three forms of the cultural fission:avant-garde,modernism,and postmodernism.The paper then demonstrates that the rise of postmodernity represents a new transformation and new characteristics of contemporary Westem spirit,namely,the collision and compatibility of various concepts,in which popular culture and high culture,mass culture and elite culture,fashion and games as well as noise and silence have constituted an uncanny landscape of cultural media.This eerie landscape displays the indeterminacy of language,culture,art,consciousness,and aesthetics.From the perspective of theoretical innovation,the author proposes that the postmodem cultural media always displays its commodity and instrumentality,plays and entertainment,anti-culture and anti-art,replication and fabrication logically and practically as an outcome of post-industrial society.In conclusion,three critical issues are addressed:personal spiritual belief,the development of mass culture,and aesthetic principles.The postmodem cultural media has deeply influenced traditional culture,aesthetics,and how they are evaluated,resulting in cultural conflicts and a humanistic dilemma in the world of contemporary capitalism.     

Book reviews

Eddy Street and Windy Dryden, Family Therapy in Britain
E. Imber-Black, J. Roberts and R. Whiting, Rituals in Families and Family Therapy
Arnon Bentovim, Anne Elton, Judy Hildebrand, Marianne Tranter, and Eileen Vizard. Child Sexual Abuse Within The Family; Assessment and Treatment
David Campbell, Ros Draper and Clare Huffington, Teaching Systemic Thinking
R. Hinde and J. Stcvenson-Hinde, Relationships within Families: Mutual Influences
Sue Walrond-Skinner, Family Matters: The Pastoral Care of Personal Relationships
Thelma Jean Goodrich, Cheryl Rampage, Barbara Ellman and Kris Halstead, Feminist Family Therapy: A Casebook
Lyman, C. Wynne, The State of the Art in Family Therapy: Controversies and Recommendations
J. Carpenter and A. Treacher, Problems and Solutions in Marital and Family Therapy
David Howe, The Consumer's View of Family Therapy
Marion F. Solomon, Narcissism and Intimacy: Love and Marriage in an Age of Confusion
W. H. O'Hanlon and M. Weiner-Davis, In Search of Solutions     

Re: Views

Book reviewed in this article: Theories, Tools, and Techniques Career Counseling: Theory and Practice Theories, Tools, and Techniques Therapeutic Psychology: Fundamentals of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Lawrence M. Brammer and Everett L. Shostrom (3rd ed.) Theories, Tools, and Techniques Theoretical and Experimental Bases of the Behaviour Therapies. M. P. Feldman and A. Broadhurst, Editors Theories, Tools, and Techniques Behavioral Approaches to Therapy. Janet T. Spence, Robert C. Carson and John W. Thibaut, Editors Theories, Tools, and Techniques Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Gerald Corey Theories, Tools, and Techniques Group Counseling: Theory & Process. James C. Hansen, Richard W. Warner and Elsie M. Smith Theories, Tools, and Techniques Theories and Methods of Group Counseling in the Schools (2nd ed.). George M. Gazda Theories, Tools, and Techniques Group Counseling (2nd ed.). Merle M. Ohlsen Theories, Tools, and Techniques Gestalt Approaches to Counseling and Teaching: Experiences and Exercises. William Passons Theories, Tools, and Techniques Principles of Guidance (2nd ed.). Harold W. Bernard and Daniel W. Fullmer Theories, Tools, and Techniques Interpersonal Living: A Skills/Contract Approach to Human-Relations Training in Groups. Gerard Egan Theories, Tools, and Techniques Human Relations Development: A Manual for Educators (2nd ed.). George M. Gazda, Frank R. Asbury, Fred J. Balzer, William C. Childers, Richard F. Walters Theories, Tools, and Techniques Counseling in the Elementary and Middle Schools: A Pragmatic Approach. James J. Muro and Don C. Dinkmeyer Theories, Tools, and Techniques Organizing and Evaluating Elementary School Guidance Services: Why, What, and How. Jeanette A. Brown     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Bohan, Janis S., Feminist Reconstructions in Psychology: Narrative, Gender, and Performance
Tolman, Deborah L. and Brydon-Miller, Mary (Eds.), From Subjects to Subjectivities: A Handbook of Interpretive and Participatory Methods
Lau Chin, Jean (Ed.), Relationships Among Asian American Women
Bevacqua, Maria, Rape on the Public Agenda: Feminism and the Politics of Sexual Assault
Janis S. Bohan, Feminist Reconstructions in Psychology: Narrative, Gender, and Performance
McMahon, Anthony, Taking Care of Men: Sexual Politics in the Public Mind
Wirth-Cauchon, Janet, Women and Borderline Personality Disorder: Symptoms and Stories
Chrisler, Joan C., Golden, Carla, and Rozee, Patricia (Eds.), Lectures on the Psychology of Women
Castle, David J., McGrath, John and Kulkarni, Jayashri (Eds.), Women and Schizophrenia
Crawford, Mary and Unger, Rhoda, In Our Own Words: Writings from Women's Lives (2nd Ed.)     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Dennis Des Chene, Life's Form: Late Aristotelian Conceptions of the Soul
Anthony Savile, Leibniz and the Monadology
Peter A. Schouls, Descartes and the Possibility of Science
Robert Pippin, Henry James and Modern Moral Life
Paul Gorner, Twentieth Century German Philosophy
George Pattison, The Later Heidegger
Colin McGinn, Logical Properties: Identity, Existence, Predication, Necessity, Truth
Jeremy Butterfield, The Arguments of Time
John F. Horty, Agency and Deontic Logic
Brad Hooker and Margaret Little, Moral Particularism
Thomas Hurka, Virtue, Vice and Value
Michael Slote, Morals from Motives
Brad Hooker, Ideal Code, Real World: a Rule-Consequentialist Theory of Morality
Edward Stein, The Mismeasure of Desire: the Science, Theory, and Ethics of Sexual Orientation
Allen Buchanan, Dan W. Brock, Norman Daniels and Daniel Wikler, From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice
Marcia Muelder Eaton, Merit, Aesthetic and Ethical     

Evolutionary psychology and rational-emotive theory: Time to open the floodgates

Main tenets, issues, and controversies for evolutionary psychology (EP), particularly its cognitive aspects, are introduced, clarified, and applied to the theory and philosophy of rational-emotive therapy (RET). Specifically, key concepts in EP are applied to Ellis' genetic postulate for cognitive demandingness and grandiosity, and are incorporated into Ruth's (1992) RET evolutionary proposal. The following issues are examined for demanding and grandiose thinking: nature (genetic) vs. nurture (learned), plasticity vs. unmodifiability, acquisition ease and modification-elimination difficulty, natural inseparability of cognition and emotion, natural inseparability of cognitive content and process, social selection pressures and the human psyche, competitive individualism vs. natural self-interest, evolutionary counter-balancing and false mutually exclusive dichotomies, epigenetic rules and Darwinian algorithms, current adaptions vs. ancestral remnants, child and adult adaption, Darwinism vs. Lamarckism, and ethical considerations.William J. Ruth, Ph.D., Staff Psychologist and Practicum Supervisor. School PsychologistPrivate Practice and Independent Research, Hartsdale, NY.     

Lifestyle and mental health

Mental health professionals have significantly underestimated the importance of lifestyle factors (a) as contributors to and treatments for multiple psychopathologies, (b) for fostering individual and social well-being, and (c) for preserving and optimizing cognitive function. Consequently, therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLCs) are underutilized despite considerable evidence of their effectiveness in both clinical and normal populations. TLCs are sometimes as effective as either psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy and can offer significant therapeutic advantages. Important TLCs include exercise, nutrition and diet, time in nature, relationships, recreation, relaxation and stress management, religious or spiritual involvement, and service to others. This article reviews research on their effects and effectiveness; the principles, advantages, and challenges involved in implementing them; and the forces (economic, institutional, and professional) hindering their use. Where possible, therapeutic recommendations are distilled into easily communicable principles, because such ease of communication strongly influences whether therapists recommend and patients adopt interventions. Finally, the article explores the many implications of contemporary lifestyles and TLCs for individuals, society, and health professionals. In the 21st century, therapeutic lifestyles may need to be a central focus of mental, medical, and public health.     

Parents' personality and infants' temperament as contributors to their emerging relationship

The authors examined the contributions of infant's temperament and parent's personality to their relationship. In Study 1, 102 infants, mothers, and fathers were studied when infants were 7 months; in Study 2, 112 infants and mothers were followed from 9 to 45 months. Infants' temperament (joy, fear, anger, and attention) was observed in standard temperament paradigms. Parents' personality measures encompassed the Big Five traits and Empathy in Study 1 and Mistrust, Manipulativeness, Aggression, Dependency, Entitlement, and Workaholism in Study 2. Parent-child relationship (shared positive affect and parental responsiveness in Studies 1 and 2 and parental tracking of the infant in Study 1) was observed in naturalistic contexts. In Study 1, mothers' Neuroticism, Empathy, and Conscientiousness and fathers' Agreeableness, Openness, and Extraversion related to the relationship with the infants. All measures of infant temperament also related to the emerging relationship. In Study 2, maternal Mistrust, Manipulativeness, Dependency, and Workaholism predicted the relationship with the child.     

Stories Matter: Narrative Themes of Counselor Educators' Religious and Spiritual Competency

Using narrative inquiry, the author explored the multicultural aspects of religious and spiritual experiences, assumptions, and patterns of 9 counselor educators to understand the impact that experiences and beliefs have when supervising and teaching counseling students. A gap exists between counselor standards, ethics, competencies, and practice, because counseling students receive mixed messages about addressing spiritual and religious concerns. Through hermeneutic analysis, 6 themes emerged: (a) religious and spiritual journeys, (b) religious and spiritual practices, (c) relationships, (d) marginalization, (e) modeling, and (f) risk and taboo. Trustworthiness strategies, implications for counselor education, limitations, and directions for future research are described.