RICOEUR'S PHILOSOPHY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR PSYCHOANALYSIS

In differentiation of early and mature shame, the phenomenological content of shame changes with the development of a stable self-state. In this hypothesis, early shame refers to a person's dependence upon mirroring himself and in being mirrored by an outer object, while mature shame refers to introspection and self-reflection. From a developmental psychological point of view, the connection between self-development and mirroring is expounded. Mirroring is defined as a psychic dialectic process between the inner psychic reality and the outer reality. Early shame is connected to dyadic mirroring, which refers to attachment and empathy. Mature shame is connected to triadic mirroring, which refers to separation and reflection. Early shame emerges from discrepancies between the infant's expectations of a complementary affective response and the mother's response, and is defined as an early marker of differences in the mother/infant unit. It is argued that early shame in smaller ‘doses’ has a regulating function on self-development by maintaining the psychic dialectic process, while in larger ‘doses’, it has a disturbing effect on the self-development, resulting in pathological shame. In the therapeutic process, early shame appears as shame scenarios illustrated in the text by a clinical vignette.     

Duchenne display responses towards sixteen enjoyable emotions: Individual differences between no and fear of being laughed at

The present study aims to identify whether individuals’ with a fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia), respond with less facially displayed joy (Duchenne display) generally towards enjoyable emotions or only those eliciting laughter. Forty participants (no vs. gelotophobia) described their feelings to scenarios prototypical for the 16 enjoyable emotions proposed by Ekman (Emotions revealed: recognizing faces and feelings to improve communication and emotional life. Times Books, New York, 2003), while being unobtrusively filmed. Facial responses were coded using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS, Ekman et al. in Facial Action Coding System: a technique for the measurement of facial movement. Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, 2002). The gelotophobes showed less facial expression of joy compared to the non-gelotophobes (Hypothesis 1) and this effect was stronger for frequency and intensity of Duchenne displays towards laughter-eliciting enjoyable emotions than for no laughter-eliciting enjoyable emotions (Hypothesis 2). Moreover, the no gelotophobia group responded more strongly to laughter-eliciting than to no laughter-eliciting enjoyable emotions. Individuals with marked gelotophobia showed the reverse pattern, displaying less joy in laughter-eliciting emotions which may impact on their social interaction, as communication may break down when positive emotion are not reciprocated.     

Can the eyes reveal a person’s emotions? Biasing role of the mouth expression

In this study we investigated how perception of the eye expression in a face is influenced by the mouth expression, even when only the eyes are directly looked at. The same eyes appeared in a face with either an incongruent smiling, angry, or sad mouth, a congruent mouth, or no mouth. Attention was directed to the eyes by means of cueing and there were no fixations on the mouth. Participants evaluated whether the eyes were happy (or angry, or sad) or not. Results indicated that the smile biased the evaluation of the eyes towards happiness to a greater extent than an angry or a sad mouth did towards anger or sadness. The smiling mouth was also more visually salient than the angry and the sad mouths. We conclude that the role of the eyes as a “window” to a person’s emotional and motivational state is constrained and distorted by the configural projection of an expressive mouth, and that this effect is enhanced by the high visual saliency of the smile.     

Facilitation and interference of behavioral responses by task-irrelevant affect-laden stimuli

Emotional interference on behavior is commonly observed when task-irrelevant negative stimuli appear before behavioral targets. One explanation postulates that affect-laden stimuli readily capture attention, interfering with the processing of the upcoming target. Emotional stimuli might also preactivate motor programs incompatible with the demanded response. Using a cued go/no-go procedure we showed that task-irrelevant unpleasant stimuli cause interference or facilitation depending on their onset asynchrony relative to the target. We observed interference with short (200 ms) stimulus-target asynchronies and facilitation for longer ones (600 ms), both for key press (Experiment 1) and key release (Experiment 2) responses. The interference effect is compatible with an attentional explanation, but the behavioral facilitation is hard to accommodate within either attentional or motor accounts. This interference-facilitation pattern can be explained assuming that once the attentional effect subsides, emotional processing may enhance the perceptual processing of the stimuli, or lower the decision threshold, thereby facilitating the response selection process.     

Establishing Connections between Aristotle's Natural Deduction and First-Order Logic

This article studies the mathematical properties of two systems that model Aristotle's original syllogistic and the relationship obtaining between them. These systems are Corcoran's natural deduction syllogistic and ?ukasiewicz's axiomatization of the syllogistic. We show that by translating the former into a first-order theory, which we call T _RD, we can establish a precise relationship between the two systems. We prove within the framework of first-order logic a number of logical properties about T _RD that bear upon the same properties of the natural deduction counterpart – that is, Corcoran's system. Moreover, the first-order logic framework that we work with allows us to understand how complicated the semantics of the syllogistic is in providing us with examples of bizarre, unexpected interpretations of the syllogistic rules. Finally, we provide a first attempt at finding the structure of that semantics, reducing the search to the characterization of the class of models of T _RD.     

Psychology,health and health care

This article traces the development of the World Health Organization's emphasis on psychological and behavioural factors in health and notes its encouragement of recognition of these factors by member states. The article further outlines the reasons for this increasing recognition and stresses the important role of psychological and behavioural factors in the maintenance of health and prevention of illness.     

Predictors of willingness to register as an organ donor among dutch adolescents

Abstract

In order to identify relevant determinants of organ donor registration among Dutch adolescents, a school-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among 145 high school students. Fifty-one percent of respondents indicated they were willing to register as organ donors and 80% reported a positive general attitude towards registration. Various misconceptions about the registration and donation procedure were identified. On average only moderate knowledge levels related to organ donation were found. In order of strongest association, negative outcome expectancies, past behaviour and experience, positive outcome expectancies, and social outcome expectancies proved to be significant predictors of willingness to register as organ donors. Self-efficacy was indirectly associated with willingness via outcome expectancies. Knowledge about organ donation was not significantly associated with willingness. The results suggest that in order to persuade adolescents to register as organ donors, refutational messages will have to be developed to counterargue the prevailing negative outcome expectancies related to organ donation and registration as an organ donor.     

Two sides of the same coin? On the history and phenomenology of chronic fatigue and burnout

Background: Burnout and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) are two fatigue syndromes which have developed largely independently from each other, yet whose similarities in symptoms can be a source of confusion. We aim to explore the phenomenology of burnout and CFS in a historical context as this may provide some insight into the links and relationship between these conditions. Method: A narrative review based on literature in the fields of history, social science and medicine. Results: The origins of CFS lie within medicine, whereas burnout developed in a psychological setting. As well as symptoms, burnout and CFS also share similar themes such as an overload process triggering illness onset, the need for restoration of depleted energy, external causal attributions and the characteristics of people suffering from these illnesses. However, these themes are expressed in either psychological or medical terms according to the historical background. Conclusion: Despite their similarities, there have been few direct comparisons of the two concepts. Culture, illness perceptions and accountability are important issues in both conditions and could contribute to their differences. Comparing burnout and CFS within one sample frame, thus looking beyond the psychology/medicine divide, could be a useful first step towards understanding their relationship.     

A longitudinal study of psychosocial distress in breast cancer: Prevalence and risk factors

This longitudinal study was conducted among 102 women with non-metastasic breast cancer to identify the time evolution and prevalence of distress at specific times through diagnosis and treatment of disease: preliminary diagnosis, surgery, definitive diagnosis and chemotherapy. Additionally, the study aimed to examine the role of demographic, medical and psychosocial factors on distress. The results indicated that prevalence of distress was higher at initial diagnosis (25%) than the following time points (approximately 17%). The differences inter-individuals in the levels of distress were observed over the four assessments. No relation between distress and demographic and medical factors was found. However, psychosocial aspects were significant risk factors. Patterns of emotional suppression and specific coping responses like helplessness/hopelessness, anxious preoccupation, cognitive avoidance and fatalism were positively related to distress, whereas fighting spirit and perceived social support showed a protective role. Moreover, helplessness/hopelessness and anxious preoccupation jointly predicted 75% of cases and 98% non-cases of distress. Finally, a mediational model between emotional suppression and distress through helplessness/hopelessness was tested. Results support the necessity of routine distress screening all through the illness. Implications of data for psychosocial interventions with breast cancer patients are highlighted.