Creative ritual: Bridge between mastery and meaning

Many adults who have survived the death by suicide of one or both parents remain victims of unresolved grief responses far into adulthood. This is all too frequently true, despite years of psychotherapy and or/consultations with representatives of various religious persuasions. Adult survivors of childhood parental suicide require an intervention which bridges the psychotherapeutic issues of parental loss and the spiritual issues raised by a sucidal death. The use of creative rituals is just such a response. By linking psychodynamic and spiritual issues, while simultaneously providing a current experiential process, a creative mourning ritual blends the needs of the inner child for mastery of the parental loss and the adult needs for a spiritual/meaning response. Mastery and meaning can concomitantly evolve through the process of designing, and then enacting, a ritual of grief completion. This is particularly effective, since the ritual is designed by the survivor to meet that person's unique needs. This presentation is an example of just such a ritual and will also include a very brief outline for ritual design. This approach would be useful to anyone working with survivors as well as to survivors themselves.     

Hypersexuality and limbic system seizures

Hypersexual behavior was induced in adult male cats by repeatedly evoked limbic system seizures. Accentuation of Dopaminergic activity with drugs was used to facilitate development of the seizure induced hypersexuality. Hypersexuality consisted of biting knap of neck, mounting, thrusting and coital intromission. The gradual development and eventual disappearance of hypersexuality was correlated with the progressive prolongation of the seizures in their evolution. There are three stages of seizure evolution in relation to sexuality. First stage-normal sexuality, intermediate stage-hypersexuality and late stage-hyposexuality. A theoretical “hypersexual growth and decay curve” was constructed in relation to the evolution of limbic seizure durations in the intermediate stage. It was suggested that the observed hypersexuality was related to the early discharge activation of hypothalamic, preoptic and basal ganglia neurohumeral facilitatory mechanisms for sexuality, and the late effects were related to discharge activation of brain stem serotonergic inhibitory mechanisms. The discussion attempts also to use these experimental findings to explain clinically observed hyposexuality and hypersexuality. It was suggested that either hypersexuality or hyposexuality may be associated with psychomotor seizures and that the predominating sexual state at a given moment is dependent upon the evolutionary stage of the seizure at that moment. Consequently, psychomotor seizures with associated hypersexuality should not be considered a clinical anachronism. In fact, these observations support the impression that rape may be a manifestation of a psychomotor seizure.     

There is a distinctively epistemic kind of blame

Is there a distinctively epistemic kind of blame? It has become commonplace for epistemologists to talk about epistemic blame, and to rely on this notion for theoretical purposes. But not everyone is convinced. Some of the most compelling reasons for skepticism about epistemic blame focus on disanologies, or asymmetries, between the moral and epistemic domains. In this paper, I defend the idea that there is a distinctively epistemic kind of blame. I do so primarily by developing an account of the nature of epistemic blame. My account draws on a prominent line of theorizing in moral philosophy that ties blame to our relationships with one another. I argue that with my account of epistemic blame on hand, the most compelling worries about epistemic blame can be deflated. There is a distinctively epistemic kind of blame.     

Understanding fish cognition: a review and appraisal of current practices

Animal Cognition - With over 30,000 recognized species, fishes exhibit an extraordinary variety of morphological, behavioural, and life-history traits. The field of fish cognition has grown...     

Memory Interventions for Persons with Dementia

It is possible to design effective, pragmatically useful memory interventions for persons with Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type (DAT). A review of successful memory interventions for such populations is presented. A particularly effective intervention technique, spaced-retrieval, is described and the theoretical basis for its effectiveness is discussed. A detailed account is presented of a spaced-retrieval intervention in which persons with DAT are trained to learn and utilize a strategy, i.e., remembering to use a calendar listing daily activities. Directions for future research in this area are offered.     

Feeling time in nature: The influence of directed and undirected attention on time awareness

In the present study, we examined the impact of the interaction of environmental and task-induced attentional focus on time perception, specifically awareness of the time flow. We tested 48 participants in either a natural or urban setting over three 25- to 35-min sessions. We manipulated the within-subjects factor task by means of two tasks—one requiring directed attention on the task itself, the other undirected attention on the environment—alongside a control condition with no specific task. We measured time awareness, passage of time judgments, felt time judgments, and estimated time as dependent variables. For time awareness, we found an interaction between environment and task: in the natural environment, only a task requiring directed attention reduced time awareness; whereas, in the urban environment, both tasks reduced time awareness compared to the control condition. The results suggest that natural environments increase time awareness unless we focus our attention on a task.     

Regularities of source recognition: ROC analysis

Source memory has become the focus of a growing number of investigations in a variety of fields. An appropriate model for source memory is, therefore, of increasing importance. A simple 2-dimensional signal-detection model of source recognition is presented. The receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) obtained from 3 experiments are then used to test the model. The data demonstrate 3 regularities: convex ROCs, z-ROCs with linear slopes of 1.00, and slightly concave z-ROCs. Two of these regularities support the model. The 3rd requires a revision of the model. This revised model is fitted to the data. The implications of these regularities for other theories are also discussed.     

Do homosexual teachers account for about half of news stories of molestations of pupils? A Boston Globe replication

Homosexual interaction was involved in 11 (48%) of 23 and 10 (45%) of 22, that is, about half of two nationwide databases of newspaper stories about teachers sexual involvement with pupils reported by Cameron and Cameron in 1998. Whether this relationship holds at a local level was examined by searching all indexed 'sex crimes' in the Boston Globe from 1991 through 1998 for local stories about sex between pupil and teacher. Of the 21 teachers in 20 stories, 11 (52%) interacted homosexually with pupils. Thus it appears that nationally and locally, as reported in newspapers, about half of the molestations by teachers are homosexual.     

Additional study of the Youth-Depression Adjective Check List

Replicated and extended aspects of determinations of reliability and validity for the State version of the Youth-Depression Adjective Check List. Students from Grades 9 through 12 (64 girls and 41 boys) completed the State version and the Adolescent Activities Checklist on each of 12 consecutive days and completed the Trait version, the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale, the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List--Revised Grade 6, and the Adolescent Activities Checklist at the beginning and the end of the study. Good reliability and validity of the State version were confirmed and extended, and preliminary information on characteristics of the Trait version of the Youth-Depression Adjective Check List also was presented. The State version seems suitable for use in research with adolescents and preadolescents. More study of the Trait version is recommended.