Managing Memories: Treating and Controlling Homesickness during the Civil War

Although it has disappeared as a clinical diagnosis, a Disability Studies perspective on Civil War nostalgia offers an opportunity to recover the process by which understanding around a medical event occurs. By incorporating and examining the interplay between and among participants in the conversation surrounding nostalgia as they operate within various site specific temporal and social contexts, this method of analysis offers an opportunity to arrive at an understanding not only of the factors that contribute to different perspectives on an illness, but also into how some voices become ascendant in constructing medical understanding and why others become subordinate, dismissed, or disappear.     

战争、暴力与救劫--太平天国战争(1851-1864)时期的宗教表现

太平天国战争在中国近代史上影响深远,西方学界对此却鲜少研究。太平天国运动始于宗教信仰的宣传,其宗教信仰的深层本质在学界引起诸多讨论。本文关注的重点则在于战争期间,属于清政府的忠君派儒家文人的宗教信仰表现方式。流传于19世纪末的末日浩劫说历史悠久,本文回顾了末日浩劫说的历史渊源,着重分析了清代,尤其是太平天国战争期间文人辑编的宝卷善书,指出在乩文中,暴力来自于天劫,这种救劫思想反映了当时中国社会的现实,也推动了历史发展。     

The meaning profiles of anxiety and depression: similarities and differences in two age groups

ABSTRACT

The distinctiveness of anxiety and depression is discussed concerning their nature, definitions, uses, manifestations and determinants. The objective was to examine the difference and similarity of anxiety and depression by applying the psychosemantic approach, which is a theory and methodology based on analysing the cognitive processes applied in communicating meanings. In Study 1, there were 760 participants of both genders, 23–31 years old. They were administered the Meanings Test, which yields the respondent’s meaning profile, and one of seven anxiety scales or one of three depression scales. Significant correlations between the meaning profiles and the anxiety or depression scales were summarised and compared. In Study 2, there were 78 individuals over 65 years old who were administered the Meanings Test plus an anxiety or depression scale. The findings for anxiety and depression were compared within and across age groups. The results yielded two distinct meaning profiles for anxiety and depression in the two age groups. The anxiety profile indicated more focusing on one’s internal world. whereas the depression profile indicated focusing both on the personal and the interpersonally shared reality. The conclusion was that anxiety and depression are different constructs that need to be considered as separate theoretically and practically.     

Comparison of two outcome groups in a school-based mental health project

Two samples of school-maladjusted children responding most and least favorably to a helping program with nonprofessional child-aides were compared on demographic, referral, and program experience variables. Outcome measures other than teacher ratings used to select the samples validated the inferred improvement differences. Subjects with poor outcomes were significantly more likely to reside in the city, older, from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and initially more maladjusted than those with good outcomes, but there were no group differences in age, repeat in grade, or program experience variables. Implications of these data for future program directions and modifications of aide-training procedures are discussed.     

Effects of (+) SKF 10,047, a sigma-1 receptor agonist, on anxiety,tested in two laboratory models in mice

Recently, sigma-1 receptor modulators have been considered drugs with an interesting therapeutic potential for the treatment of anxiety. However, there is no clear information in preclinical studies about the possible effects of sigma-1 ligands on anxiety in experimental animal models. Therefore, the present study examined the effects of (+)SKF 10,047 (2-8 mg/kg, ip), a sigma-1 agonist, on anxiety, tested in two classical laboratory models (social interaction test and elevated plus maze). (+)SKF 10,047 (8 mg/kg) produced a significant decrease of social investigation in the "social interaction test", whereas in the "elevated plus maze", the drug (4 and 8 mg/kg) provoked a significant reduction in the number of entries into open arms, as well as in the time spent in this area, as compared with the control group, without affecting motor activity. Overall, these findings indicate that (+)SKF 10,047 exhibits an anxiogenic-like profile in mice. It is suggested that anxiogenic effects of this sigma-1 ligand could be related to its potent ability to modulate diverse neurotransmitter systems involved in anxiety regulation.     

The Bible,Finland, and the Civil War of 1918

Reception history and the effective history of the Bible give a good paradigm to see the Bible in temporally and geographically different contexts. Here, I begin by discussing methodological issues of intertextuality, reception and effect. After that, I present two examples that illustrate the contextual possibilities of this paradigm. The first one is the use of the biblical lex talionis in the Finnish civil war of 1918. The second example is the modernist poet Edith Södergran, whose apocalyptic poems interpreted the same war. I argue that reception historical and effective historical approaches make it possible for biblical scholars to participate in the social and cultural discussions in their contexts.     

A Comparison of the Value Systems of Lebanese Christian and Muslim Men and Women

Abstract

Individual differences in susceptibility to distraction are commonly measured by performance or self-report. High performance measures of distractibility have previously been linked to low cognitive ability, whereas self-reports have been linked to the general personality dimension of neuroticism. In the present study, distractibility was measured as decrements in task performance under visual and auditory distraction. The self-report measure consisted of a series of face-valid questions concerning responsiveness to extraneous or irrelevant stimuli in the auditory and visual domains. Results showed that the visual and auditory performance measures of distractibility were highly correlated, the self-reports of distractibility were also correlated with each other and were linked to neuroticism, and the performance and self-report measures of distractibility were completely independent.     

The study of religion(s) in Western Europe (II): Institutional developments after World War II

This essay discusses main features and developments of the study of religion(s) in Western Europe. It attempts a historical, geographical, and thematic synthesis. Part II sketches institutional developments after World War II in several countries and the emergence of professional associations (international as well as national). In the post World War II growth of the field, social-scientific approaches to the study of religion(s) became increasingly prominent. The article sketches the institutional developments and main scholarly concerns of the psychology, sociology, and anthropology of religions respectively. It then moves on to consider the Eranos conferences as a specific forum for scholarship. The final sections discuss religious changes in Western Europe and their reflections in the study of religion(s).     

Anxiogenic-like effects of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in mice tested in the light-dark box

Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) is a drug with abuse potential, popularly known as "liquid ecstasy". It is an endogenous compound of the mammalian brain which satisfies many of the criteria for consideration as a neurotransmitter or neuromodulator. In this study, the effects of acute administration of GHB (40, 80 and 120 mg/kg, ip) on anxiety, tested in the light/dark box, were examined in male mice of the OF.1 strain. Likewise, we compared the behavioural profile of GHB with that induced by mCPP (1 mg/kg, ip), a compound with known anxiogenic actions. GHB-treated mice spent notably less time in the lit area (40 and 80 mg/kg) and more time in the dark area (all doses), whereas the total number of 'rearings', transitions and latency were significantly reduced. A very similar behavioural profile was observed in mCPP-treated animals. Overall, these findings indicate that GHB exhibits anxiogenic-like properties in male mice. It is suggested that the anxiogenic effects of GHB could be related to its ability to modulate GABA and/or dopaminergic receptors.     

An appreciation of Bruce and Young's (1986) serial stage model of face naming after 25 years

The current status of Bruce and Young's (1986) serial model of face naming is discussed 25 years after its original publication. In the first part of the paper, evidence for and against the serial model is reviewed. It is argued that there is no compelling reason why we should abandon Bruce and Young's claim that recall of a name is contingent upon prior retrieval of semantic information about the person. The current status of the claim that people's names are more difficult to recall than the names of objects is then evaluated. Finally, an account of the anatomical location in the brain of Bruce and Young's three processing stages (face familiarity, retrieval of semantic information, retrieval of names) is suggested. In particular, there is evidence that biographical knowledge about familiar people is stored in the right anterior temporal lobes (ATL) and that the left temporal pole (TP) is heavily involved in retrieval of the names of familiar people. The issue of whether these brain areas play a similar role in object processing is also discussed.     

A comprehensive and coordinated early preventive policy: Conclusions after 10 years (1976-1986)

In Paris' 14th district (an urban community of 140.000), a pilot experiment has been carried out over a period of 10 years-from 1976 to 1986-directed toward the establishment of a coordinated, all-embracing, very early prevention policy whose beneficiaries are the children who reside there, including even those from the very poorest families. This paper presents the various research-action techniques that have been developed, especially those activities used by the United Childhood Section. This Section (S.U.E.) has permitted the institution of early preventive measures, as well as many new initiatives in the domain of practical preventive applications, and has allowed continual theoretical thought to spring from concrete activities. Through the participation of all kinds of social personnel who, for whatever reason, see any given child, it has been possible to reduce considerably the number of individuals who have contact with any one family; to reduce the total number of foster placements; to evaluate each kind of aide proffered; and, in every case, to respect the rules of infant mental hygiene. It has been possible to take preventive action truly early by refining well-known clinical elements (neonate functional difficulties, maternal depression, etc.) and by intervening during pregnancy in lying-in facilities, in neonate departments, in day-care centers, and with mother's helpers. Two clinical and theoretically relevant cases are presented. One involves a classified list of risk indicators for different stages of infancy, and the other involves a validation in an 8-year longitudinal epidemiological study of the mental health of 400 children identified during their first year by use of these very early indicators as guides.     

Behavioral inhibition and amplification during emotional arousal: a comparison of two age groups

This study investigated age differences in the ability to suppress and amplify expressive behavior during emotional arousal. Young and old participants viewed 3 film clips about medical procedures while their behavioral, autonomic, and subjective responses were recorded. Half of the participants viewed all 3 films without additional instructions; the other half was asked to suppress and amplify their behavioral expression during the 2nd and 3rd films. Except for heart rate, suppression and amplification produced similar patterns of autonomic activation. Neither suppression nor amplification had effects on self-reported emotion. There were no age differences in the ability to suppress or amplify emotional expression or in their physiological or subjective consequences. Considering that older people's unregulated reactivity was lower than that of young adults, suppression may have been easier and amplification more difficult for older adults. Voluntary emotion regulation might be one domain of human performance that is spared from age-related losses.