A near-death experience among the Mapuche people

This paper describes a possible near-death experience (NDE) among the Mapuche people of Chile. The individual reporting the experience was in a cataleptic-like state for two days, the experience itself occurring at the end of this period. Some common features of NDEs, such as encounters with deceased people and being sent back, are present, together with clear evidence that past and present cultural environment shape in part the content of mental experiences.This work was funded in part by the University of Chile (DTI Project Q-3064).The author thanks Editorial Andrés Bello for permissionto translate the near death account into English.     

The effects of violence on infants and young children: international perspectives on prevention

People become subject to political and social violence when governments fail to give priority to basic health care or education. Attempts to meet foreign obligations also produce severe economic recessions which further impede efforts to improve the general quality of life of disadvantaged populations. Since multiple factors contribute to violence, a multidisciplinary approach is best suited to address the problem. For example, poverty and its associated risks are linked to violence, but living in poverty does not necessarily engender violence. Living in poverty may, however, fuel high rates of child mortality, illiteracy, malnutrition, excessive population growth, street children, and familial disintegration. An integrated action program was developed in Brazil for at-risk individuals and their families based upon the idea of building and reinforcing family ties and intergenerational togetherness. Undernourished infants, street children, the handicapped, women subjected to violence, and neglected senior citizens received special interventions in the program described in the text.     

Group analytic therapy with schizophrenic outpatients

This paper describes a model for group analytic psychotherapy with patients who have been psychotic, namely, schizophrenics and manic depressives. The groups are run on the group centered principles of S. H. Foulkes. They are continuous, slow-open groups, in line with these patients' needs for long-term therapy. A theory is proposed which justifies treating these patients in group-centered groups despite their great dependency needs. The paper also describes the task of the therapist in building and running such a group.Acknowledgments to Geoffrey Elkan, Marcia Levene, Noa Rotem, Aya Levi-Posnanski, Yossi Ezrati, S. Littman, Tamar Sternberg, E. Danilowitz, and C. Kauffman.     

Self-Monitoring negative statements

We examined the effects of a self-monitoring program on reducing the frequency of negative statements of a student with mild mental retardation who was enrolled in a self-contained classroom at a middle school. A changing criterion design was used within a multiple baseline design across two classroom periods. Additionally, the frequency of positive statements was reported. The results showed a decrease in the number of negative statements, and an increase in the number of positive statements. Maintenance data collected up to 8 weeks after the program ended indicated that the student continued to emit positive rather than negative statements. The use of this procedure to decelerate undesirable behavior is discussed.     

The dead donor rule: should we stretch it, bend it, or abandon it?

The dead donor rule--that persons must be dead before their organs are taken--is a central part of the moral framework underlying organ procurement. Efforts to increase the pool of transplantable organs have been forced either to redefine death (e.g., anencephaly) or take advantage of ambiguities in the current definition of death (e.g., the Pittsburgh protocol). Society's growing acceptance of circumstances in which health care professionals can hasten a patient's death also may weaken the symbolic importance of the dead donor rule. We consider the implications of these efforts to continually revise the line between life and death and ask whether it would be preferable to abandon the dead donor rule and rely entirely on informed consent as a safeguard against abuse.     

Toward a new conceptualization and operationalization of risk perception within the genetic counseling domain

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it provides an historical overview of studies of risk, risk perception, and decision making under risk within the genetic counseling domain. Second, it proposes an alternative conceptualization and operationalization for the study of risk perception. The conceptualization involves probability, adversity, incompleteness, and ambiguity. Prior studies of risk perception focus on the recurrence risk and operationalize risk perception by asking for interpretations of the magnitude of the probability of the outcome. Their focus is on the probability of a particular outcome. We formulate the problem in terms of a gamble and suggest that risk perception be operationalized in terms of the riskiness of the gamble. Our focus is on the riskiness of a decision option which entails two or more outcomes.     

Child and adolescent services research at the national institute of mental health: Research opportunities in an emerging field

This article describes an important new area of research on services for children and adolescents with mental disorders at the National Institute of Mental Health, the parameters of mental health services research for youth, and the opportunities that are available for grant-funded investigations in this area.