Struggle with ultimate meaning: Nuanced associations with search for meaning,presence of meaning,and mental health

Struggle with ultimate meaning reflects concerns about whether one’s life has a deeper meaning or purpose. We examined whether this construct could be distinguished from presence of meaning in life and search for meaning. In two US samples – a web-based sample (N = 1047) and an undergraduate sample (N = 3978) – confirmatory factor analyses showed that struggle with ultimate meaning loaded on a factor that was distinct from but related to presence (negatively) and search (positively). Moderated regression analyses showed that people with low levels of presence combined with high levels of search for meaning were particularly likely to struggle with ultimate meaning. Additionally, when compared to presence and search, struggle with ultimate meaning related more strongly to depressive symptoms than presence or search. These results suggest that struggle with ultimate meaning represents a distinct component of how people grapple with meaning that has implications for mental health.     

The role of meaning and familiarity in mental transformations

Eighty-four participants mentally rotated meaningful and meaningless objects. Within each type of object, half were simple and half were complex; the complexity was the same across the meaningful and meaningless objects. The patterns of errors were examined as a function of the type of stimuli (meaningful vs. meaningless), complexity, and angle of rotation. The data for the meaningful objects showed steeper slopes of rotation for complex objects than that for simple objects. In contrast, the simple and complex meaningless objects showed comparable increases in error rates as a function of angle of rotation. Furthermore, the slopes remained comparable after pretraining that increased familiarity with the objects. The results are discussed in terms of underlying representations of meaningful and meaningless objects and their implications to mental transformations. The data are consistent with a piecemeal rotation of the meaningful stimuli and a holistic rotation of the meaningless stimuli.     

Exploring consumers' health meaning categories: towards a health consumption meaning model

• Health marketplace offers a lucrative business for many companies. However, there is a gap in consumer research in understanding what health as a target of consumption really means to consumers. The subtleties and multiplicity of meanings rural and urban (both younger and older) consumers attach to health in their everyday lives are empirically explored in this article. Findings of a focus group interview‐based interpretive analysis are reported. It was found that meanings consumers associate with health are profound and multi‐faceted (identification of several health‐meaning categories) with some evidence for age‐ and area‐of‐ residency‐related health‐meaning differences. The article is concluded by advancing theory‐building in consumer research in the form of developing a tentative framework model that can be used to analyze health consumption meanings.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of the infant mental health therapist in the framework of preventive mental health

The role of the infant mental health therapist is differentiated from that of other infant interventionists as being a secondary prevention treatment approach employing the techniques of long-term, insight-oriented psychotherapy. Such an approach encourages the caregiver to recall his or her own childhood experiences and conflicts to gain an understanding of feelings directed at his or her own baby. The prevention models of Caplan are considered as is the development of the work of Fraiberg and her colleagues.     

The clergyman's use of mental health resources

Pastoral Psychology -     

The French mental health law of 1938

Prehistory, attendant circumstances, and consequences are scrutinised on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the first wide-ranging law on the treatment of the feeble-minded in France, forerunner of all subsequent laws on the matter.     

The psychodynamics of forensic mental health nursing

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to clarify some important interpersonal dynamics that underpin forensic patients’ presentations within the clinical environment, in a way that is accessible to nurses. The world of forensic mental health nursing is often difficult to describe to those who have not experienced first hand prolonged clinical contact with patients at the therapeutic interface of secure services. Even then, the characteristic, intense emotional phenomena that tend to arise out of interpersonal relationships with patients and colleagues is not easy to articulate. Yet, for those of us who consider our professional identity to be one of “forensic mental health nurse,” it seems important to find a way to put words to what appears to occupy a large component of our working lives. More importantly, if we can develop a way to make sense of the way our work makes us feel and the way we can find ourselves relating to others within our professional roles, we will be in a better position to harness our energy and enthusiasm in the service of supporting forensic patients towards effective care and treatment pathways. Of course, forensic patients are supported through services with or without a framework for articulating emotional and interpersonal experiences. However, this frequently occurs in the context of significant struggle. For patients, this struggle is often characterized by difficulty communicating what their needs are, and for nurses this struggle is often characterized by feeling emotionally overwhelmed by their task of providing containing, therapeutic relationships for patients whose interpersonal needs are not clear to them. This article will use case examples to describe some of the complex interpersonal and emotional challenges faced by forensic nurses, and explain how a psychodynamic framework could support nursing practice in each of the case examples.