Reviews: Books, Art

LOCATING THE ROMANTIC SUBJECT: NOVALIS WITH WINNICOTT. By Gail M. Newman. 258 pp. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 1997. $39.95. MENTORING: THE MINISTRY OF SPIRITUAL KINSHIP. By Edward C. Sellner. 198 pp. Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 2002. $12.95. CREATING SCHOOLS THAT HEAL: REAL LIFE SOLUTIONS. By Lesley Koplow. 232 pp. New York: Teachers College Press, 2002. $19.95. MORAL MEMORANDA FROM JOHN HOWARD YODER: CONVERSATIONS ON LAW, ETHICS, AND THE CHURCH BETWEEN A MENNONITE THEOLOGIAN AND A HOOSIER LAWYER. By Thomas L. Shaffer. 121 pp. Eugene, OR: WIPF and Stock Publishers, 2002. $16.00. TALK IS NOT ENOUGH: HOW PSYCHOTHERAPY REALLY WORKS. By Willard Gaylin, M.D. 323 pp. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2000. $24.95. MICHAL ROVNER: THE SPACE BETWEEN     

Reviews: Books, Art

THREE MOTHERS THREE DAUGHTERS: PALESTINIAN WOMEN'S STORIES. By Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman. New York: Other Press, 2000, $20 (softcover printing of 1996 University of California Press book). BREATHING SPACE: A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY IN THE SOUTH BRONX. By Heidi B. Neumark. 286 pp. Boston: Beacon Press, 2003. $25. KNOCKING ON HEAVEN'S DOOR: AMERICAN RELIGION IN THE AGE OF COUNTERCULTURE. By Mark Oppenheimer. 285 pp. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003. $30. PROFILES OF PLAY: ASSESSING AND OBSRVING STRUCTURE AND PROCESS IN PLAY THERAPY. By Saralea Chazan. 224 pp. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2002. $24.95. THE HAPPINESS PARADOX. By Ziyad Marar. 209 pp. London: Reakition Books, 2003. $19.95. GOD AT THE EDGE: SEARCHING FOR THE DIVINE IN UNCOMFORTABLE AND UNEXPECTED PLACES. By Niles Elliot Goldstein. 197 pp. New York: Random House, 2003. $22. THE RURAL LIFE. By Verlyn Klinkenborg. 213 pp. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2003. $20. OAXACA JOURNAL. By Oliver Sacks. 159 pp. Washington, DC: National Geographic Directions, 2002. $20. THE MAYS OF VENTADORA. By W.S. Merwin. 159 pp. Washington, DC: National Geographic Directions, 2002, $20.     

Benefits and limits of explicit counting for discriminating temporal intervals.

Segmenting information into smaller parts helps to process it, and this is also true for temporal information. The aim of the present article is to compare the benefits of using explicit counting in a temporal discrimination task under various marker-type conditions and to show the limits of this strategy. In Experiment 1, conditions with and without counting were compared for two implicit standard durations, .8 and 1.6 s, in connection with three marker-type conditions, which were intervals marked by: 1) two brief auditory signals (Auditory-Auditory); 2) two brief visual signals (Visual-Visual); and 3) one auditory signal followed by a visual signal (Auditory-Visual). At .8 s, marker-type differences are significant (best in audition, worse with a bimodal sequence), and remain present with an explicit counting strategy. At 1.6 s, explicit counting provides clear improvements of performance in all marker-type conditions and annihilates marker-related differences. Experiment 1 also suggests that standard deviation remains constant from .8 to 1.6 s in the counting condition, while Experiment 2 shows that when standard intervals are extended up to 4 s, explicit counting does not totally prevent variance from increasing as base duration becomes progressively longer. The benefits derived from using explicit counting in duration discrimination are argued to depend (1) on a reduction of variance in the memory process involved in the timing mechanism, and (2) on a change in the decisional process.     

Les unités de soins intensifs psychiatriques (USIP) : expériences françaises et internationales

Psychiatric Intensive Care Units (PICU) propose a secure setting for patients with acute behavior disturbances who can not be managed in psychiatric general wards. Physical violence acts against patients or hospital staff, substance abuse, non-compliance for care and treatment, intensity of symptoms or absconding are frequent motives for admission. Patients are compulsorily detained in secure conditions. They are admitted from psychiatric facilities of a health area or by agreement between hospitals. Multidisciplinary working in psychiatric intensive care is essential, delivered by qualified staff. Care and treatment must be centered on the patient, multidisciplinary, intensive, comprehensive with an immediacy of response to critical situations. As length of stay should not exceed 2 months in duration, interface and liaison with original services of patients are important issues. In France, PICU exist notably at Cadillac, Lyon, Paris, Nice, Eygurande, Montpellier, Pau and Prémontré. These facilities appear as a missing level, an interesting alternative in mental health care system, between psychiatric general wards and maximum security hospitals. This paper reports the creation of a National Association of PICU in France, the existence of national minimum standards and international experiences.     

The influence of emotional awareness and expressiveness on care-giving burden and health complaints in women and men

This study was designed to investigate the role of emotional awareness and expressiveness as influences on the experience of burden and impaired health for women and men maintaining a spouse or relative at home who had been diagnosed as having dementia. One hundred and thirty-one Caucasian care givers, 41 males and 90 females, participated in the study. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that women scored higher than men on measures of burden, health complaints, and awareness of others' emotions. Regression analysis indicated that self-awareness of emotions interacted with care-giver gender to decrease health complaints for female care givers but increased health complaints for male care givers. Self-awareness of emotions also increased feelings of burden for male care givers in general and for female care givers experiencing low levels of burden. Awareness of others' emotions tended to reduce feelings of burden. Emotional expressiveness did not influence burden or health complaint scores.This research was funded by grants from the Health Research Funds of Quebec, the Quebec Council for Social Research, and the Montreal Alzheimer Society. The authors would like to express their gratitude to Valerie Takeda, Charlene Stamegna, and Helene Fyfe for their work on the project, and to the families, patients, and staff of the various referral agencies for their cooperation with the study.To whom reprint requests should be addressed at Centre for Research in Human Development, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3G 1M8.