The modern confessional: Anglo-American religious groups and the emergence of lay psychotherapy

This article reconceives of secularization as a gradual process of increasing interaction between the (social) scientific and spiritual realms by examining the influence of Christian ideas of group confession on lay psychotherapeutic groups in Britain, Canada, and the U.S. in the early twentieth century. This article focuses on three religious group leaders of the interwar period: Frank Buchman (1878-1961), Gerald Heard (1889-1971), and Henry Burton Sharman (1865-1953). Influenced by Natural Theology and the holiness movement, they placed sin and its redemption within the world, reconceiving it as psychological individualism and its redemption as self-sacrifice to the group. This reconception endorsed the moral power of groups and influenced Alcoholics Anonymous and various groups within the Human Potential Movement.     

The Uncanniness of September 11th

Sigmund Freud's concept of the Uncanny can serve as a means by which we can more fully comprehend the depth of our individual and collective reactions to the tragic eventsof September 11th. Through the interplay of the familiar and the unfamiliar, life and death, as well as through the concepts of the twin, repetition, and the evil but powerful figure, Freud helps us to understand how deeply this day in our history made signficant inroads into our psyche. The person of faith, in turn, can utilize these concepts to help with the hermeneutical process of making sense of what otherwise cannot be fathomed.     

The impact of September 11 on dreaming

This study focuses on a set of dreams related to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and their aftermath, using content analysis and cognitive psychology to explore the interweaving of external public catastrophe and internal psychological processes. The study tests several recent claims in contemporary dream research, including the central image theory of Hartmann [Hartmann, E., & Basile, R. (2003). Dream imagery becomes more intense after 9/11/01. Dreaming, 13(2), 61-66; Hartmann, E., & Brezler, T. (2008). A systematic change in dreams after 9/11/01. Sleep, 31(2), 213-218], the media exposure factor postulated by Propper [Propper, R. E., Stickgold, R., Keeley, R., & Christman, S. D. (2007). Is television traumatic? Dreams, stress, and media exposure in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Psychological Science, 18(4), 334-340], the continuity hypothesis of Domhoff [Domhoff, W. G. (1996). Finding meaning in dreams: A quantitative approach. New York: Plenum], the cognitive and metacognitive approach of Kahan [Kahan, T. L. (2001). Consciousness in dreaming: A metacognitive approach. In K. Bulkeley (Ed.), Dreams: A reader on the religious, cultural, and psychological dimensions of dreaming (pp. 333-360). New York: Palgrave], and the threat simulation theory of Revonsuo [Revonsuo, A. (2000). The reinterpretation of dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23(6), 877-901]. Our findings suggest the terrorist attacks had a tangible impact on the content of many people's dreams, but did not fundamentally alter the cognitive processing features of their dreaming. The 9/11 attacks affected what they dreamed about, but not the way they dreamed.     

Psychological resilience after disaster: New York City in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attack

Research on adult reactions to potentially traumatic events has focused almost exclusively on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although there has been relatively little research on the absence of trauma symptoms, the available evidence suggests that resilience following such events may be more prevalent than previously believed. This study examined the prevalence of resilience, defined as having either no PTSD symptoms or one symptom, among a large (n= 2,752) probability sample of New York area residents during the 6 months following the September 11th terrorist attack. Although many respondents met criteria for PTSD, particularly when exposure was high, resilience was observed in 65.1% of the sample. Resilience was less prevalent among more highly exposed individuals, but the frequency of resilience never fell below one third even among the exposure groups with the most dramatic elevations in PTSD.     

September 11 and the Role of the Theologian

As is the case with all “disasters” the nation is experiencing the various psychological stages to the September 11, 2001 disaster: threat, warning, impact, inventory, heroism, honeymoon, disillusionment, and reconstruction. In order for healing to occur from and within the religious community, theologians, pastors, and religiously–minded people must enter into these different stages of disaster and suffer–with the community. Instead of explaining September 11 from an abstract, removed stance, we ought to reveal our concerns and uncertainties about God in this situation and wonder with the rest of the community of grievers, “How has this happened?” From this place, true healing and reconstruction of the community will be possible.     

Flood of emotions: emotional work and long-term disaster recovery

This paper uses concepts of emotion work and emotional labour to explore people’s experiences of the long-term disaster recovery process. It draws on data taken from two qualitative research projects which looked at adults’ and children’s recovery from the floods of June 2007 in Hull, UK. The paper argues that the emotional work of recovery cannot be separated from the physical and practical work of recovering the built environment. It shows that a focus on emotion work can lead to a more nuanced understanding of what recovery actually means and who is involved, leading to the identification of hidden vulnerabilities and a better understanding of the longer timescales involved in the process.     

Termination of psychoanalysis and September 11

In the United States, the last illusion of safety from problems in distant parts of the world was shattered on September 11, 2001. Psychoanalysts are in a unique position to both experience and examine how such a man-made social disaster becomes internalized and affects one's psychic reality by studying the effects of that day on patients already engaged in a psychoanalytic process. The author hypothesizes that in one such case, that of Mr. N, the termination phase was significantly affected. Furthermore, Mr. N's reaction to reading the analyst's clinical write-up further influenced the termination phase.     

Contemporary religious thought in South Africa and the emergence of Qur'anic hermeneutical notions

The struggle by non‐clerics for the right to understand the Qur'an within a context of oppression and a liberation struggle and theological developments connected to it are discussed in this article. The theological developments from traditionalism to modernism to resurgent Islam and the role of the Qur'an in this trajectory have their roots in the South African crucible as much as in normative Islam. From this engagement between Islam and oppression/liberation some key hermeneutical notions have emerged. The Qur'an thus becomes a tool and a source of inspiration for liberative praxis in South Africa.     

When talking makes you feel like a group: The emergence of group-based emotions

Group-based emotions are emotional reactions to group concerns and have been shown to emerge when people appraise events while endorsing a specific social identity. Here we investigate whether discussing a group-relevant event with other group members affects emotional reactions in a similar way. In two experiments, we confronted participants with an unfair group-relevant event, while manipulating their social identity and whether they discussed the event or an unrelated topic. Our major finding is that having group members discuss the unfair group-relevant event led to emotions that were more negative than in the irrelevant discussion and comparable to those observed when social identity had been made salient explicitly beforehand. Moreover, it also generated group-based appraisals of injustice (Experiment 1) and group-based identity (Experiment 2). This research sheds new light not only on the consequences of within-group sharing of emotions for the unfolding of intergroup relations but also on the nature of group-based emotions.     

Lebanese Muslim Views of September 11

This research note aimed at empirically assessing Lebanese Muslim views of the September 11 attacks. We proposed that young age and political Islam served as significant determinants of support for the attacks. Although we proposed that Sunni Muslim respondents would manifest more support for the attacks than Shi'is, we advanced that socioeconomic conditions should not affect the views of the respondents. The data came from a stratified random sample, consisting of 337 male and female Sunni and Shi'i respondents, conducted in the Greater Beirut area during the months of October and November 2001. The findings sustained the hypotheses that age and political Islam determined approval of the attacks, as well as the hypothesis that socioeconomic conditions did not predict the respondents' views. The results did not sustain the hypothesis that Sunni respondents exceeded Shi'is in their display of support for the attacks.     

September 11, 2001: The Clash of Competing Worldviews

The Life Era: Cosmic Selection and Conscious Evolution Eric Chaisson New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987. 259 pages.     

Character strengths before and after September 11

Did Americans change following the September 11 terrorist attacks? We provide a tentative answer with respect to the positive traits included in the Values in Action Classification of Strengths and measured with a self-report questionnaire available on-line and completed by 4,817 respondents. When scores for individuals completing the survey in the 2 months immediately after September 11 were compared with scores for those individuals who completed the survey before September 11, seven character strengths showed increases: gratitude, hope, kindness, leadership, love, spirituality, and teamwork. Ten months after September 11, these character strengths were still elevated, although to a somewhat lesser degree than immediately following the attacks.     

The Effect of September 11th on Job Attribute Preferences and Recruitment

This paper considers the effects of the September 11^th attacks on job attribute preferences and recruiting strategies. A survey was conducted with firms (n = 46) and college students (n = 138) in the New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania area. Results indicate 91% of firms believe the attack changed the job attribute preferences of students. The corresponding survey given to college students indicates that 60% of the students say the attacks would not have an impact on their preferred job attributes.     

Existential crises in two religious patients: Vicissitudes of faith and the emergence of the true self

The authors present two clinical cases involving an existential crisis which led the patients to lose what had been the foundation in their lives, their faith. Although the therapeutic settings differ – the first patient had a few psychotherapy sessions following a psychotic episode with a mystical background, while the second was in the final stage of analytic treatment – the authors highlight how in both clinical cases a loss of faith becomes a total and urgent crisis of the Self. The fracture which ensues seems to generate an intense engagement of the body which, paradoxically during a loss of faith, induces an experience of ecstasy of the kind that has traditionally been reported. In the first case the experience of ecstasy was lived first‐hand by the patient who thereafter redefined the psychotic breakdown as a “moment of truth”; whereas the second patient, through a deep projective identification, induces an eerie countertransferential feeling of ‘metaphysical’ shortfall in the agnostic psychoanalyst, triggering bewilderment, physical discomfort and awe in him. In both cases the authors believe that the notable somatic involvement may be correlated to a potentially profound and unprecedented contact with the True Self.