Psychosocial Effects of Conditions of Military Deployment

Deployment may lead the soldiers to dichotomise their profession and their family life, resulting in unwanted effects on family or career. Effects on reintegration and functioning within family are considered. Reunions may be characterized by perceived negative reception and consequences could spill over to children as parents attempt to equivocate their differences. Risks exist for fragmentation of the family system or divorce. Social support may serve to buffer families with members on deployment.     

An Inquiry into Views,Beliefs and Faith: Lessons from Buddhism,Behavioural Psychology and Constructivist Epistemology*

Abstract

 The causes of disagreements between individuals, social groups, cultural groups, political parties, and nations can be traced down to the basic human tendency to give form to – and to reify views, beliefs, and opinions. With this being the case, I would like to ask the question: what, exactly are ‘views’ (including here such overlapping categories as ‘opinions’, ‘beliefs’ and ‘attitudes’,)? How, exactly, do we give form to them? Why is it so difficult to change, or get rid of them? The Buddhist tradition since the time of its inception, has been greatly concerned with the matter of identifying ‘false views’ and replacing them with ‘correct views’. But serious and insightful research into the formation and maintenance of views and beliefs is by no means limited to Buddhism. It has been a topic of great concern in the past century to a wide range of secular researchers: social and behavioural psychologists; literary theorists and epistemologists; scientists and marketing strategists. What the specialists in these various fields have to say about beliefs is diverse – and yet there is much overlap. The ways in which they overlap are thought-provoking, and their differences are revelatory. In this paper, I investigate a few prominent approaches to the study of views and beliefs, and show how these various approaches can do much to fill in each other’s discourse. Finally, I reframe the Mahayana Buddhist notion of ‘correct faith’ within the context of this exploration of views.     

Buddhism in America

This paper analyzes Buddhism in America from a social, rather than individual, perspective. In particular, an effort is made to move from informative but limited case studies of Buddhism to a national empirical study of the religion. Using the location of Buddhist organizations within the United States as the dependent variable, difference of means testing and logistic regressions are employed to determine what areas are the most receptive to Buddhism. Applying concepts from a variety of ethnographic and indirect approaches to Buddhism, as well as studies of the general success of new religions, I find that both individual and social factors influence the development of Buddhism in the United States. Specifically, significant Asian populations, more college graduates, the presence of schools of higher education and lower levels of conventional religious affiliation are all conducive to the success of Buddhist religious groups.     

Transformational leadership and task cohesion in sport: The mediating role of intrateam communication

ObjectivesLittle is known about the mechanisms that might mediate the relationship between transformational leadership behaviors and follower outcomes in the sporting domain. The purpose of this study was to examine whether intrateam communication mediated the effects of transformational leadership behaviors on task cohesion.Design/MethodsA cross-sectional study of university level ultimate frisbee players (N = 199). Participants completed a measure assessing their perceptions of their captain's transformational leadership behaviors. Post-competition, participants completed measures assessing perceptions of intrateam communication and task cohesion within their own team.ResultsMultilevel analyses revealed intrateam communication to partially mediate the relationships between two of the transformational leadership behaviors and task cohesion.ConclusionsIntrateam communication is seen to be a mechanism that explains the relationship between transformational leadership and task cohesion. Overall, the results support and add to the range of positive effects associated with transformational leadership in sport, and are suggestive of interventions that may raise levels of team cohesion.     

Releasing the Self: The Healing Legacy of Heinz Kohut

Paradoxically, the more powerful the USA has become the more that paranoia seems to mark its relation to itself and to others. In this article we argue that there is a connection between its denial of its own destructiveness, self-idealization expressed in the belief that America represents the end point of the civilizing process towards which all other societies are drawn, and the paranoid conviction that an enemy Other (communism, Islam) aims to corrupt or destroy ‘God's chosen people’. First Vietnam and now September 11th inflicted grievous injuries upon this narcissism and we suggest that the invasion of Iraq can be considered as an indication that the USA has failed to ‘work through’ this trauma, instead it has sought to reassert an imaginary omniscience. Just as the destruction of the Twin Towers was the breaking through of the Real upon the Imaginary, so the ‘Real’ war in Iraq has begun after the ‘Imaginary’ war was declared ‘over’ by Bush.     

Brief encounters and available places to land

In this paper the author addresses the process of ending in brief therapy. While recognizing the importance of attending to the symbolic meaning of the ending itself and the need to interpret this as it manifests in the transference, he points out the limitations of such an approach. He highlights the significance of the environment of interpersonal relationships and family systems and the wider communities in which the client lives. He suggests that the therapist needs to assess the extent to which these can provide an environment that facilitates the client's development and working through as the therapy ends. The therapist needs to establish whether the patient will have an available place to land, and one that provides sufficient security and safety for the client's onward journeying and exploration without the therapist. The author's conceptualization of 'landing at the end of brief therapy' links together Malan's triangles of insight with Sullivan's concept of the ordinary solution and selective inattention and Gustafson's concept of dilemmas to add depth to the therapeutic effectiveness with which the practitioner can approach brief therapy in general, and the ending in particular. The article concludes with a case example that illustrates these themes.     

Individual and institutional defences against primitive anxieties: Counselling in prison

Abstract

This paper describes a counsellor's attempts to understand the unconscious dynamics affecting the process of counselling women in prison. The social system of the prison serves to defend both prisoners and officers against powerful anxieties about the potential for sadistic attack originating from primitive states of mind, that is persecution, helplessness and destructiveness. The implications of the rigid means of defence are considered, and die role of unconscious guilt motivating the need for external punishment is briefly explored. Emphasis is placed on the role of splitting and projection in the management of potentially overwhelming feelings of guilt, and fear of punishment. The author develops the premise that there is in effect an institutional requirement that prisoners remain in the paranoid-schizoid position because of the feared consequences were they to experience depressive anxieties.     

Do Patients With Psychosis Experience Loss and Grief As a Result of Their Illness?

BACKGROUND: Depression and suicidality are frequently reported in patients with psychosis and schizophrenia, but the grief process that may be associated with this illness has not been systematically studied. In this study, we examined whether patients diagnosed with psychosis identify, grieve, and mourn losses engendered by the illness. METHOD: 24 patients diagnosed with psychosis in the past five years were surveyed to indicate whether their illness led to losses, and to describe their responses to the losses. Psychosis-related perceived losses were surveyed using three subscales of a loss and grief questionnaire (loss of self, self-care, and roles). Their relationship with beliefs about the illness, symptomatology, coping style, and self-efficacy and insight was studied. RESULTS: 23 (96%) patients named specific losses, and 16 patients (67%) reported feelings associated with grief and mourning. More than half reported loss of self-esteem at the onset of illness and only half saw themselves as having improved in the past month. Patients reported more loss within the past month than at the onset of illness. In the past month, patients with an intact sense of self experienced greater self-efficacy (r = .568, p < .004) while those with loss of self reported feelings of shame (r = ?.582, p < .003). Only patients with insight associated the onset of illness with loss. In the past month, most patients saw themselves as experiencing loss. DISCUSSION: The study results suggest that at some distance from diagnosis, patients still experience themselves as having much loss due to their illness. These unresolved feelings may indicate complicated mourning. Insight appears to be associated with the ability to look back at the onset of the illness and recognize that it engendered losses. Further study of the process of and barriers to grief and mourning is recommended. In clinical practice, the assessment of grief as a part of post-psychotic recovery could lead to providing more appropriate treatment and lead to a positive outcome.