Suicidal behaviors and personality structure

In this paper we suggest the potential clinical usefulness of two projective tests (Rorschach and Object Relation Technique) and of a clinical interview focused on the pathway to suicide, life events, and major life difficulties to better define subtypes of patients attempting suicide. Thirty-three hospitalized subjects who had attempted suicide in the previous 6 months were examined using an in-depth assessment of the pathway to suicide. The aims of this study were: (1) to compare, within a clinical sample of suicidal attempters, the psychopathological, personality, and psychosocial characteristics of subjects with mood disorders alone, personality disorders and dysfunctional personality alone, and mood disorders with personality disorders and/or dysfunctional personality; and (2) to analyze the relationship between the method chosen and the clinical characteristics of the subgroups.     

Frontal lobe dementia and subcortical vascular dementia: a neuropsychological comparison

We compared the performance of 40 patients with frontal lobe dementia to that of 40 patients with subcortical vascular dementia (80 patients including, 46 men and 34 women) in a set of tasks assessing attentional, executive, and behavioural tasks. The frontal lobe dementia represents an important cause for degenerative disruption and is increasingly recognised as an important form (up to 25%) of degenerative dementia among individuals of late-middle-age. The main involvement is the frontal-subcortical pathway, which is the final target of impairment even in subcortical vascular dementia. A wider involvement of the cortical (decisional) layers in frontal dementia, in contrast with the prominent and widespread involvement of the subcortical pathways (refinement and corrections programs) creates the different profiles of the two groups. Frontal patients have more difficulties in abstract reasoning, focusing attention, and implementing strategies to solve problems. They exhibit more profound behavioural alterations in personality and social conduct and show only moderate depression, and a total lack of insight concerning their dinical condition. In contrast, the patients with subcortical vascular dementia have poor general cognitive functions, high insight, and important depression and apathy as the principal and most salient characteristic of their behavioral conduct.     

Phonological transformations in Spanish-speaking aphasics

Thirty-seven aphasic patients whose native language is Spanish were divided into four groups: (1) Broca's, (2) Wernicke's, (3) Conduction, and (4) Anomia. Phonological errors produced on repetition and object-naming tasks were analyzed in terms of type of transformation and degree of similarity between target and errors in terms of shared distinctive features. Segmental transformations were of the following types: (1) pure substitution, (2) pure addition, (3) deletion, (4) reduplicative addition (doublet creation)—anticipatory (right to left) or perseverative (left to right), (5) reduplicative substitution (doublet creation)—anticipatory or perseverative, and (6) mutual exchanges. Pure substitutions were the most prevalent, exchanges, the least. Some error types were found to differentiate significantly between aphasic populations. We suggest that different mechanisms may underlie the same error type for different aphasic populations.     

Elucidating the role of recovery experiences in the job demands-resources model

Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, the current study examined the moderating role of recovery experiences (i.e., psychological detachment from work, relaxation, mastery experiences, and control over leisure time) on the relationship between one job demand (i.e., role conflict) and work- and health-related outcomes. Results from our sample of 990 employees from Spain showed that psychological detachment from work and relaxation buffered the negative impact of role conflict on some of the proposed outcomes. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find significant results for mastery and control regarding moderating effects. Overall, findings suggest a differential pattern of the recovery experiences in the health impairment process proposed by the JD-R model.     

Validity and Effectiveness of Ambiguity: A Famous Argument by Socrates

An argument can be superficially valid and rhetorically effective even if what is plausibly meant, what is derived from what, and how it is derived is not at all clear. An example of such an argument is provided by Socrates??s famous refutation of Euthyphro??s second definition of holy, which is generally regarded as clearly valid and successful. This paper provides a stricter logical analysis than the ones in the literature. In particular, it is shown that the argument contains a syntactically ambiguous expression, a passage that needs to be read charitably, and a previously unnoticed but crucial shift between two notions of unholy. Different analyses may be provided, depending on how these interpretation problems are solved. The conditions under which the refutation is valid and successful are far from obvious, and are here explicitly specified.