Knowledge of drug-related health problems among injecting drug users: Implications for the transmission of HIV infection

Abstract

In a project that investigated the HIV-related risk behaviour of injecting drug users, respondents were categorized along dimensions of expertness in HIV/AIDS knowledge and knowledge about drug-related health problems. Knowledge about drug-related health problems was found to be significantly associated with sharing. Better informed respondents were less likely to share injecting equipment and to predict they would share in future. They were more likely to adopt consistent injecting hygiene, seek information about AIDS, and perceive themselves as in control of their lives. No significant relationships were observed between sharing and HIV/AIDS knowledge. The data have relevance for AIDS educational strategies, since knowledge about AIDS and HIV transmission appears to be insufficient to induce behavioural change. Greater emphasis on the health problems that afflict most injectors may be a way of encouraging general harm minimization.     

An overview of transpersonal psychology

Abstract

An overview of transpersonal psychology is provided with specific focus on a number of its central themes (nonduality, intrinsic health, self‐transcendence, and inclusivity) and practices (meditation, ritual, and inquiry). The relationship of transpersonal psychology to both mainstream psychology and spiritual wisdom traditions is discussed. The field's implications for diversity issues, research, and service applications are also considered.     

Human/nature: Toward a critical ecology

Abstract

Gadamer's notion of statements, distinguished from the otherwise speculative nature of language, is explored with regard to its implications for reflexivity in qualitative research. After reviewing the importance of ‘speculative’ language for phenomenological research, this paper discusses the problem that statements pose for phenomenological methods. The methodological challenges faced in trying to facilitate experiential accounts rather than statements are examined, with particular attention to the central role of the researcher‐participant conversation. The methodological implications of a conversational approach to phenomenological research are then presented, and this approach is discussed in terms of reflexivity.     

The Relevance of Gerald Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group Selection and Nonlinear Dynamic Systems for Psychoanalysis

Gerald Edelman's theory of neuronal group selection (1987, 1989, 1992) describes how we appraise, organize, and reorganize our subjective experience of the world. Edelman's theory and the intrinsic principles of selection and self-organization are explicated. A clinical case illustrates the psychoanalytic implications of both Edelman's theory and a dynamic systems approach to development and change (Thelen and Smith, 1994) in which deeply ingrained traumatic experience is transformed through positive, new experiences that impact and become integrated within primary consciousness. The relevance of recognition, adaptive matching, mapping, and remapping of trajectories of experience, primary emotions, and brain asymmetry to developmental change is discussed.