Toward a Militant Pedagogy in the Name of Love: On Psychiatrization of Indifference,Neurobehaviorism and the Diagnosis of ADHD—A Philosophical Intervention

(Neuro)psychiatric diagnoses such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a rapidly growing and globally increasing phenomenon, not least in different educational contexts such as in family and in school. Children and youths labelled as ADHD are challenging normative claims in terms of nurturing and education, whereas those labelled as ADHD are considered a (future) risk for society to handle. The dominant paradigm regarding ADHD is biomedical, where different levels of attention and activity-impulsivity are perceived as neurobiological dys/functions within the brain best managed by means of an individual diagnosis and instrumental pedagogy. The majority of those labelled as having ADHD encounter a dominant educational model in the form of what is referred to in this article as neurobehaviorism, which is based on onto-epistemological violence. As opposed to this act of violence against being—and against the psychiatrized subject—a less violent educational model is proposed, based on French philosopher Alain Badiou’s ontological examination of being and his concept of love as a truth procedure. In terms of the latter, the focus is on the potential of the encounter as a ‘Two scene of love’. Here, the encounter is a place where it is possible to create new truths and subjects, instead of taking the individual diagnosis as an axiom which only leads to individuals having fixed identities codified in a hierarchical order. This argument is drawn from the ‘mathematical’ formula 1 + 1 = ?, which originates from an online forum for people who have come into contact with ADHD in one way or another.     

The Depressive Experiences Questionnaire: on using a student-based scoring program for a clinical sample

In both clinical and nonclinical samples, the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire is scored with a program that computes factor scores by using means, standard deviations, and item-loadings of a student sample. The underlying assumption of the use of this program in clinical samples is that factor scores computed on the basis of the student factor solution are similar to factor scores computed on the basis of a clinical factor solution. Consequently, both series of scores should lead up to the same conclusions when studying associations with theoretically related variables. This assumption has not been tested although the questionnaire has been used in research for almost 30 years. In the present paper an alternative scoring program was constructed, based on the factor solution of a clinical sample (N = 400) to assess whether scores of this clinical scoring program are associated in the same way with different types of depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems as the scores of the original (student-based) program. Analysis gave results inconsistent with the assumption and did not support the use of the student-based scoring program in the clinical sample. Further, results suggest that standards for assessing factorial similarity used in confirmatory factor analysis might be too lenient.     

Alexithymia and interpersonal problems: A study of natural language use

The concept of alexithymia refers to difficulties in experiencing, verbalizing and regulating emotions. The relationship between alexithymia and interpersonal style is investigated by means of lexical content analysis. It is hypothesized that alexithymia is related to less frequent and less varied use of communication words and references to others. Alexithymia was measured with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia. The Clinical Diagnostic Interview was administered to 50 psychiatric inpatients, transcribed verbatim, and computer-analysed with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count-dictionary. Results showed that alexithymia is related to a less complex vocabulary for communication words. Contradictory results for some subscales of the TAS-20 and the TSIA however compromise their construct validity.     

A metasynthesis of published case studies through Lacan's L‐schema: Transference in perversion

Transference in perversion is characterized by specific problems such as a defiant and polemic attitude, erotic transference, projections, and aggression. Such transference poses particular problems in the treatment of perversion and might render analytical work with these patients impossible. The authors propose that Lacan's L‐schema can contribute to separating productive from counterproductive aspects of transference as it distinguishes between an Imaginary and a Symbolic dimension in transference. In this meta‐synthesis of 11 published case studies on sexual perversion, patterns of transference are analysed. On the Imaginary dimension, the authors found that patients with perversion tend to (un)consciously engage the analyst in a relationship characterized by identification, fusion and rivalry. On the Symbolic dimension, they found that perverse patients are able to question their motives, lapses, symptoms, and subjective identity. The thematic analysis revealed the importance of the position of the analyst in this work, which is described within the L‐schema as being the representative of the otherness in the Other. Implications for clinical practice and recommendations for further research are outlined.     

Measurement invariance of personality traits from a five-factor model perspective: multi-group confirmatory factor analyses of the HP5 inventory

Associations between personality and health may be influenced by contextual factors varying across studied cohorts. Moreover, measurement bias related to contextual factors could also influence these associations. Gender and age have been discussed as important contextual factors when studying personality and health outcomes. An examination of measurement invariance across gender and age may therefore be warranted. In the present study, measurement invariance across age and gender was examined for a five-factor model of personality traits in which scales have been included to operationalise lower-order traits related to health-behaviour or health outcomes. Using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis on a population based cohort (n= 5700), all important parameters of the measurement model were found to be invariant. On the basis of this invariant model, hypotheses of mean differences across age and gender in personality traits were tested. These results were discussed in relation to meta-analyses on personality change and gender differences in personality.     

To fail psychotherapy training: Students’ and supervisors’ perspectives on the supervisory relationship

Previous research showed that supervision during psychotherapy training sometimes includes negative alliance and harmful events. The aim of this study was to investigate how such events were related to failing psychotherapy training. Interviews were made with informants from two separate samples: psychotherapy students who had failed training (n = 6) and supervisors with experience from failing students (n = 6). The interviews were analyzed separately for the two samples with inductive thematic analysis and then compared. The core category for students (‘Paradoxical response’) indicated that they experienced their supervisors as either demanding too much or nothing at all. The core category for supervisors (‘Balancing contradictory demands’) indicated that they wanted to fail students who did not live up to expectations but were pressured by training institutes to let them pass. Both students and supervisors experienced distress but it seemed that they were not fully aware of each other’s vulnerability. The results suggest that a weak supervisory alliance and harmful events may contribute to student failures, independently of students’ actual suitability for psychotherapy.     

Relationship of Illness Severity with Health and Life Satisfaction in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease: The Mediating Role of Self-efficacy Beliefs and Illness Perceptions

Guidelines for cardiovascular rehabilitation from different countries underline the importance of psychological factors in the achievement of improved clinical conditions and quality of life in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Nevertheless, little research has been performed to identify the specific factors that greatly affect or foster patients’ quality of life. The aim of the current study was to investigate the contribution of illness perceptions (IP) and self-efficacy beliefs (SE) on the impact exerted by illness severity on health and life satisfaction in patients with CVD undergoing a rehabilitation program. The study had a cross-sectional design and involved 116 patients (mean age = 65.6 years; SD = 10.0 years; 79.3 % men). Illness severity was measured in terms of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) at the discharge from the cardiology department, whereas psychological factors were assessed one week later. The results showed no relationships among LVEF and the two indicators of health and life satisfaction; moreover, these two variables are differently influenced by IP and cardiac risk factors SE (χ²(1) = 0.96, p = n.s.). Findings provide important suggestions for the implementation of interventions aimed at bettering patients’ quality of life, underlying the importance of working on IP and SE to improve levels of health and life satisfaction in patients with CVD.     

Affective interactions using virtual reality: the link between presence and emotions.

Many studies showed the ability of movies and imagery techniques to elicit emotions. Nevertheless, it is less clear how to manipulate the content of interactive media to induce specific emotional responses. In particular, this is true for the emerging medium virtual reality (VR), whose main feature is the ability to induce a feeling of "presence" in the computer-generated world experienced by the user. The main goal of this study was to analyze the possible use of VR as an affective medium. Within this general goal, the study also analyzed the relationship between presence and emotions. The results confirmed the efficacy of VR as affective medium: the interaction with "anxious" and "relaxing" virtual environments produced anxiety and relaxation. The data also showed a circular interaction between presence and emotions: on one side, the feeling of presence was greater in the "emotional" environments; on the other side, the emotional state was influenced by the level of presence. The significance of these results for the assessment of affective interaction is discussed.