Simone Weil’s Passion Mysticism: The Paradox of Chronic Pain and the Transformation of the Cross

Simone Weil’s theology is deeply connected to her experiences with chronic pain. Pain is paradoxical in that it is an essentially private phenomenon yet it simultaneously demands to be shared with another. Weil’s life and thought exemplify both aspects of this paradox, demonstrating how her pain alienated her from her own body and from others, and how her thought found full expression as she attempted to share experiences with pain. Weil’s experience of pain was transformed in her passion mysticism, the deep connection she felt with the crucified Christ. In this connection, the most unbearable aspect of her pain, the threat, which it presented to her very self through annihilation, was absorbed into the cross and transformed by God’s love. While this did not necessarily diminish Weil’s pain, the meaning it had for her as a person was transformed through an encounter with Christ crucified, in which she experienced God’s suffering along with her.     

Death, Cadavers and Post-mortem Biomedical Research: A Point of View from a Christian Community

Facing modern developments of medicine and biomedical researches, religious communities are a strong source of ethics principles and orientations. Human dignity does not disappear after life, in a context of biomedical research on cadavers. Moral, political, social and scientific aspects of research on human cadavers (mainly autopsies) have been widely discussed in biomedical publications, whereas the religious ones (which could be predominant for some) have rarely been analyzed and presented. This article will present the results of a survey carried out a French Benedictine Abbey (relative to death, cadaver’s status and biomedical research) and subsequent Christian background according to canonic texts and practical cases from anthropological, historical, archeological and biomedical origin.     

Writing Autobiography as Desperate Spiritual Art: A Narrative Psychological Approach to Nick Flynn’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Another Bullshit Night in Suck City</Emphasis>

Nick Flynn’s memoir about his troubled relationship with his father is analyzed as an example of desperately practiced spiritual art using the narrative psychology of Michael White and David Epston. Reflections on the history of autobiography are combined with psychotherapeutic explorations into the significance of telling deeply troubling stories. White and Epston’s metaphors of externalizing conversations, noting exceptions, and recruiting an audience are implemented in the case of Flynn’s identification with his father’s alcoholism, his identification with his father’s writing aspirations, and his identification with his father’s body.     

Kinematic motion analysis and muscle activation patterns of continuous reaching in survivors of stroke

Coordinated reaching requires continuous interaction between the efferent motor output and afferent feedback; this interaction may be significantly compromised following a stroke. The authors sought to characterize how survivors of stroke generate continuous, goal-directed reaching. Sixteen survivors of stroke completed functional testing of the stroke-affected side and a continuous reaching task between 2 targets with both sides. Motion analysis and electromyography data were collected to determine segmental contributions to reach (e.g., amount of compensatory trunk), spatiotemporal parameters (e.g., peak velocities), and muscle activation patterns (MAP). Repeated measures analyses of variance compared how survivors of stroke reach with the stroke-affected versus less affected sides. Correlations were determined between kinematic outcomes and functional ability. Participants used significantly more trunk movement and less shoulder flexion and elbow extension when reaching with the stroke-affected side. This corresponded with less muscle activity in the proximal musculature including the anterior, middle, and posterior deltoid on the stroke-affected side. There were significant correlations between the segmental contributions to reach, functional ability, and MAPs. Survivors of stroke generate reduced MAPs in the stroke-affected side corresponding to altered segmental kinematics and function ability. These findings suggest that impairments in the ability to generate sufficient MAPs may contribute to the difficulty in generating continuous reaching motions.     

Ego development and intelligence in a psychiatric population: Wechsler subtest scores

The relationship between Loevinger's measure of ego development and the Wechsler Intelligence Scales subtest scores was investigated in 91 adolescent and young adult psychiatric inpatients. Correlations with Verbal IQ and verbal subtests in general were positive and significant. The correlation with the Comprehension subtest was the highest and remained significant when Full Scale IQ was partialled. Post-conformists obtained the highest mean scores on Picture Arrangement; however, there was no difference among the lower stages on this subtest. The results lend support to a social reasoning component of ego development.