Evaluation Study of Lawyers' Satisfaction with Expert Witness Reports

This study attempted to evaluate the satisfaction of personal injury lawyers with expert witness reports from psychologists and psychiatrists. A questionnaire was sent to 514 civil litigation lawyers and 79 (15.4%) were completed. It was found that most lawyers were satisfied with reports and that there was no difference between the standard and quality of expert reports of psychologists and psychiatrists. Criticisms were limited and focussed on the cost, length and lack of clarity of some of the reports. These criticisms are discussed within the context of the reforms within the legal aid system and it is concluded that expert reports are perceived by lawyers as being reasonably good value for money.     

Emotional and behavioral problems in children of depressed mothers: a school-based study in Southern Brazil

The present study aimed to verify the association between maternal depression and emotional and behavioral problems in school children in Pelotas, Southern Brazil, considering that maternal depression increases children’s vulnerability for developing psychiatric disorders. This is a cross-sectional study with a school-based sample conducted between August 2015 and November 2016 and it is part of a major project entitled ‘Healthy Childhood in Context: A Multidisciplinary Investigation’. Schoolchildren aged between 7 and 8 years and one of their respective parents or a primary caregiver were included in the study. Maternal depression was assessed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). The presence of emotional and behavioral problems in children was verified by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) – parents version. Children of depressed mothers exhibited higher mean scores in all SDQ domains and in the total score when compared to children of non-depressed mothers. Lower socio-economic status was also associated with higher SDQ scores. Our results showed the effects of both maternal depression and poverty on children emotional and behavioral problems, which evidence the need for child mental health preventive care, and free quality assistance for both mothers and their children.     

Problems in the psychiatric treatment of foreign patients

The contribution deals with problems encountered during the psychiatric treatment of foreign patients, particularly with those from developing countries. It has been found that scope for socio- and psychotherapeutic treatment is very restricted and that the frequent necessity of returning these patients to their native countries leads to not unconsiderable conflicts. Questions of transcultural psychiatry are regaining importance in connection with increasing migration.     

Spouse killing: The final abuse

As an alternative to the sado-masochistic interpretation of violent spouse abuse, a quasi-romantic perspective sees abuse as a consequence of intensive intimacy—even love. In this study, abuse is explained as a form of punishment of the partner who is experienced as the spoiler of the expectations, hopes and plans for a fulfilling long term, committed and attuned communion. He/she, who is perceived as the breaker of that intimate context has to be penalized, with the death-penalty being the extreme form of expression of outrage at the offense. Both husbands who killed their wives, and wives who killed their husbands, in their interviews with the author displayed a deep commitment to their marriages. This explains why their leave-takings were so violent and their exits so final. By killing the spoiler they could bury and let go of their romantic dreams! Less lethal forms of spouse abuse-battering, enslavement, etc., often have the same element of punishment of the spoiler.Roger Carl F. Bach, Ph.D. participated in the data collection and the write-up of the results.     

Multistable perception: when bottom-up and top-down coincide

During prolonged observation of an ambiguous figure sudden perceptual reversals occur, while the stimulus itself stays unchanged. There is a vivid debate about whether bottom-up or top-down mechanisms underlie this phenomenon. In the present study, we investigated the interrelation of two experimental factors: volitional control and discontinuous stimulus presentation. Both factors strongly modulate the rate of perceptual reversals and each is attributed either as top-down or bottom-up. We found that participants can apply specific strategies to volitionally increase and/or decrease the stability duration of each of the possible percepts according to the experimental instructions. When attempts of volitional control are combined with discontinuous stimulus presentation the effects are fully additive. Our results indicate that perceptual reversals can originate from different neural mechanisms on different time scales.     

Keep 'Gestalt' in the name of the test: the curious name permutations of the Bender-Gestalt Test

The Bender-Gestalt Test is often referred to in the literature by several different names, or just as the Bender Test, without the term Gestalt. As a consequence, the figures of the test are frequently called Bender figures or Bender designs, terms which are unjustified and misleading because the figures have been taken from Wertheimer's classical study of Gestalt laws. In this article, I trace the beginnings of the name of the test and its curious permutations, and I advocate the retention of the term Gestalt in the name of the test for logical and historical reasons.