Regaining a sense of agency and shared self-reliance: the experience of advanced disease cancer patients participating in a multidimensional exercise intervention while undergoing chemotherapy--analysis of patient diaries

Evidence is emerging that exercise can reduce psychological distress in cancer patients undergoing treatment. The present study aimed to (qualitatively) explore the experiences of advanced disease cancer patients participating in a 6-week, 9-hours weekly, structured, group-based multidimensional exercise intervention while undergoing chemotherapy. Unstructured diaries from a purposive sample of three females and two males (28-52 years old) who participated in the program served as the database. Data were analyzed using a phenomenological, narrative method. The analysis yielded three themes: shifting position, self-surveillance, and negotiated strength. The intervention highlighted situations making it possible for the participants to negate psychological and physical constraints. The concept of structured exercise contains viable psychotherapeutic potentials by allowing the development of alternative bodily and mental realities complying with cancer patients' demands and abilities to regain autonomy and commitment to discover and adopt a sense of agency and shared self-reliance.     

Theological Pragmatism: A Critical Evaluation

Theological pragmatists like Daly, Kaufman, McFague and Reuther claim that the God we should believe in and the kind of images we should use to express our religious faith should be evaluated primarily on the basis of the consequences they have for the maintenance of certain political or moral values. These views are presented and critically evaluated. One difficulty is that their pragmatism seems to clash with our intuition and experience that there is no automatic fit between our moral aspirations and political visions, on the one hand, and how the world is actually structured, on the other. Their strong emphasis on political and moral considerations is, therefore, questionable and only plausible under certain specific circumstances.     

Forearm vs whole-body sensations of self-motion: some results on the role of the sensorimotor context

Making a subject's visual surroundings move can give rise to sensations of self-motion, which can either be restricted to the arm or involve the whole body. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role played by the sensorimotor context in eliciting one or the other of these two types of illusory movement. Whether the type of sensation experienced by the subjects depended on their adoption of an actively maintained or relaxed posture was examined. Analysis showed subjects' posture was certainly one of the factors involved: a rigidly held position favoured the occurrence of whole body sensations of movement, whereas a relaxed attitude favoured occurrence of arm-restricted sensations. This postural factor alone does not, however, account for the variations recorded in our experiment which seem to be related to the stimulus parameters as well as to individual factors.     

Voucher-based reinforcement for alcohol abstinence using the ethyl-glucuronide alcohol biomarker

This study assessed the effects of a contingency management (CM) intervention for alcohol consumption in 10 alcohol-dependent participants. An ABCA design was used. Vouchers were provided contingent on results of ethyl glucuronide (EtG) urine tests (an alcohol biomarker with a 2-day detection period) and alcohol breath tests during the C phase. The percentage of negative urines was 35% during the first baseline phase, 69% during the C phase, and 20% during the return-to-baseline phase. Results suggest that EtG urine tests may be a feasible method to deliver CM to promote alcohol abstinence.     

Physical activity and psychological benefits: A position statement from the international society of sport psychology

This study explores nonverbal behaviors in the form of gestures and touch during elite handball matches. Based on a coding scheme, 616 postshot periods following a goal, stemming from 18 matches, were analyzed. Results revealed that, on average, 2.77 nonverbal behaviors were displayed after scoring. Play-off matches resulted in a higher average of nonverbal behaviors than league matches. The more a team was leading by, the higher the overall number of nonverbal behaviors; meanwhile, the overall amount of nonverbal behaviors declined over the course of a match. The results pinpoint to the situation specificity of nonverbal behaviors during ongoing matches.     

A Confirmatory Approach to Examining the Factor Structure of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): A Large Scale Cohort Study

The aim of this study was to examine the factor structure of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) using a Structural Confirmatory Factor Analytic approach. The Danish translation of the SDQ was distributed to 71,840 parents and teachers of 5–7 and 10–12-year-old boys and girls from four large scale cohorts. Three theoretical models were examined: 1. a model with five first order factors (i.e., hyperactivity/inattention, conduct, emotional, peer problems and prosocial), 2. a model adding two internalising and externalising second order factors to model 1, and 3. a model adding a total difficulties second order factor to model 1. Model fits were evaluated, multi-group analyses were carried out and average variance extracted (AVE) and composite reliability (CR) estimates were examined. In this general population sample, low risk sample models 1 and 2 showed similar good overall fits. Best model fits were found when two positively worded items were allowed to cross load with the prosocial scale, and cross loadings were allowed for among three sets of indicators. The analyses also revealed that model fits were slightly better for teachers than for parents and better for older children than for younger children. No convincing differences were found between boys and girls. Factor loadings were acceptable for all groups, especially for older children rated by teachers. Some emotional, peer, conduct and prosocial subscale problems were revealed for younger children rated by parents. The analyses revealed more internal consistency for older children rated by teachers than for younger children rated by parents. It is recommended that model 1 comprising five first order factors, or alternatively model 2 with additionally two internalising/externalising second order factors, should be used when employing the SDQ in low risk epidemiological samples.     

Variations of the past. Reflections on memory in contemporary psychoanalysis

In Jewish thought, contradictory positions may be legitimate. This is seen in Freud´s position in relation to tradition and memory: remembrance is valuable, but so is a movement forward. The main claim of this paper is that psychoanalysis in this respect has changed. While in especially the early Freudian position, one could see a stress on the importance of going back to earlier times, object relation theory mainly stresses the importance of facilitating new functions. This change has been especially clear during the last two decades. As cases of example, the use of neurocognitive models in psychoanalysis as well as Fonagy’s theory are discussed. The consequences of the shift from a bidirectional to a unidirectional, forward-looking, psychoanalysis, are discussed.     

ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE SCANDINAVIAN PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIETIES

This article discusses some basic problems of the theory of science connected with understanding the psychoanalytic process. The epistemology of psychoanalysis is seen in relation to the specific status of time, space and causality. It is argued that in psychic life, time and space cannot be a priori categories in the Kantian sense because they are constituted in psychic development and in the dynamics of the psyche and can be abolished in psychopathological conditions as well as in the unconscious. Psychic causality is discussed in relation to Freud's concepts of Nachträglichkeit and overdetermination and remarks are made on the necessity to consider the complex nature of psychic causality when doing research.