Rediscovering Meaning

The present crisis of the Western countries involves not just the world of politics, finance, and the economy, but also the ecosystem balance, the world of the values on which the model of social organization and economic development is based. The crisis is therefore systemic, epoch-making, and overcoming it will require radical changes, above all in the way we think, in our scale of values, and therefore our culture. On the other hand, for decades the world—in particular the West—has been experiencing a cultural sea-change that is challenging many of the pillars of society that have stood for centuries. The young people of today and their use of technological social networks to develop non-profit initiatives for social change may create a more positive future while maintaining our human values.     

Rediscovering James' Principles of Psychology

This paper is an introduction to a special issue celebrating the 125^th anniversary of William James' Principles of Psychology. The special issue demonstrates the continued relevance and insight offered by James. It reviews the articles in this issue and delineates three main themes: (1) he recognition of the inherent relationality of psychological phenomena, (2) a science of psychology ought to include biology and sociocultural phenomena (e.g. language); and (3) human consciousness is addressed as the flow of experience from the perspective one living it. It discusses each theme and briefly touches on how they continue to be developed in James' later work, which also provides innovative new directions for psychologists. Undergirding each of these contributions is James' admonition that psychological research is especially difficulty due to the complexity of psychological phenomena. As such, this paper also discusses challenges to doing psychological research that James raises and his ideas that can inform future endeavors.     

Rediscovering the Individual in Mediation Analyses

Using the article by von Eye and colleagues as a springboard, this commentary considers a variety of challenges to valid exploration of mediation processes. Along the way, a several alternatives for reinserting the individual back into mediation processes are entertained. The configural frequency approach to mediation analyses proposed by von Eye et al. (Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science 43(3), 2009) represents a major step toward this objective. Idiographic approaches are proposed as the next step in the progression toward individual-centered mediation analyses.

Levinas on suffering and compassion

This paper provides an analysis of suffering and compassion in the work of Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas describes compassion as ‘the nexus of human subjectivity’ and the ‘supreme ethical principle’. In his early texts, suffering discloses the burden of being, the limits of the self, and thus the approach of alterity. Levinas’s later phenomenology of suffering as passive, meaningless, and evil, functions as a refutation of rational explanations of suffering. I argue that Levinasian substitution, the traumatic election to an excessive responsibility, is the compassionate suffering that Levinas terms the nexus of human subjectivity. For Levinas, ethics is the compassionate response to the vulnerable, suffering Other.     

Rediscovering H. H. Farmer

Books reviewed in this article:
H. H. Farmer, C. H. Partridge (ed.), Reconciliation and Religion: Some Aspects of the Uniqueness of Christianity as a Reconciling Faith
C. H. Partridge, H. H. Farmer's Theological Interpretation of Religion: Towards a Personalist Theology of Religions     

Rediscovering the first clear purpose honesty test

Honesty testing for personnel selection is a growing area of research for industrial psychologists. This research note describes the first clear purpose honesty test used for personnel decisions.The authors gratefully acknowledge the review and approval of this article by Dr. Russell Cassel.     

Therapist perspectives on working with fears,blocks and resistances to compassion in compassion focused therapy

Objective

A core aspect of compassion focused therapy (CFT) is addressing fears, blocks, and resistances (FBRs) to compassion. How CFT therapists do this with clients remains unclear. This study aims to explore the perspectives of well-trained, experienced CFT therapists regarding how they work with FBRs in the context of CFT.

Methods

A qualitative study was conducted. Participants were asked five open-ended questions regarding (a) their experiences of working with FBRs to compassion, (b) how they understand and formulate FBRs, (c) specific ways they address FBRs, (d) how other therapists might learn about working with FBRs, and (e) their top recommendations. A total of 64 participants completed the online questionnaire, and the qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Results

The analysis produced four interrelated superordinate themes: (a) Getting “alongside” and “behind”: The central role of formulation, (b) “It's not your fault”: Psychoeducation, (c) “Get experiential”: An emphasis on experiential interventions, and (d) “Respect the wisdom”: The importance of therapeutic process.

Conclusions

Working with FBRs to compassion is critical in CFT. Understanding the wisdom in the client's FBRs, and validating and de-shaming the client's FBRs are crucial. We provide clinical recommendations regarding working with FBRs as part of CFT.     

Rediscovering trust: Towards an alternative psychotherapy

The collapse of significant human relationships is a primary cause of psychosis. When basic trust is extinguished, a person can feel that his or her actual existence is threatened by genuine relationships. Yet, every human being has a powerful innate need for relationships. Such is the tragic paradox of psychosis: the person is, at the same time, in terror over the possibility of a relationship and in despair over the impossibility of a relationship. An alternative psychotherapy must emerge that allows the psychotherapist and the disturbed person to build a bond of mutual care. Each person unconditionally accepts and confirms the other for what he is, and for what he may become. The psychotherapist must enter the bizarre psychotic world as a partner in a journey to recover the lost wholeness of the psychotic person. This relationship can serve as a bridge which allows the psychotic person to creatively discover a way to rejoin the normal world.     

Burnout,compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction among nurses in the context of maternal and perinatal deaths

This study investigated the prevalence and levels of burnout, compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction among nurses with exposure to maternal and perinatal deaths. A convenience sample of 83 nurses was selected for participation from six hospitals in Limpopo province, South Africa, comprising 98% females with an age range of 21 to 62 years, and 15 to 18 mean years of experience in maternal and perinatal care. The nurses completed the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL R-IV), which is a measure of burnout, compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction. The analysis examined the prevalence and level of burnout, compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction among the nurses. Most of the respondents (92%) reported with moderate burnout scores, and about 67% reported with moderate to high compassion fatigue scores, whilst 82% reported with compassion satisfaction scores. Moderate levels of high burnout and compassion fatigue can co-occur with relatively high compassion satisfaction among nurses in critical-care health services.     

Synchrony and the social tuning of compassion

Although evidence has suggested that synchronized movement can foster cooperation, the ability of synchrony to increase costly altruism and to operate as a function of emotional mechanisms remains unexplored. We predicted that synchrony, due to an ability to elicit low-level appraisals of similarity, would enhance a basic compassionate response toward victims of moral transgressions and thereby increase subsequent costly helping behavior on their behalf. Using a manipulation of rhythmic synchrony, we show that synchronous others are not only perceived to be more similar to oneself but also evoke more compassion and altruistic behavior than asynchronous others experiencing the same plight. These findings both support the view that a primary function of synchrony is to mark others as similar to the self and provide the first empirical demonstration that synchrony-induced affiliation modulates emotional responding and altruism.     

Fostering the development of compassion in young children

Conclusion Compassion involves the feeling of emotions which are more appropriate to another's situation than to one's own situation (empathy), along with elements of condolence, pity, and/or agreement (sympathy) resulting in action taken to help or support another (pro-social behavior). The precise relationship among these components of empathy, sympathy, and pro-social behavior remains ambiguous, although their inter-relatedness seems clear. Martin L. Hoffman's theory of the development of empathy in six modes and other empirical research give assurance that the rudiments of empathy, sympathy, and pro-social behavior exist in very young children; this literature informs the practical efforts of parents and educators toward nurturing compassion. Practical strategies thus deemed effective include fostering the emotional bonds between infants and their care-givers, the inducement and rehearsal of pro-social behaviors in day care, preschool, and primary school programs, the use of inductive discipline, the use of appropriate narrative and viewing, and giving attention to the small child's overall environment.