Figuring the Porous Self: St. Augustine and the Phenomenology of Temporality

This article examines the phenomenological structures of the homo temporalis filtered through Augustine's illuminating, if unsystematic, insights on temporality and the imago Dei. It situates such a phenomenological interpretation of the Augustinian self in view of current interpretations that polarize or split the Augustinian self into an either/or scheme—either an “interior” self or an “exterior” self. Given this imbalance, the article suggests that a phenomenological evaluation of Augustine brings to light how interior and exterior spheres are deeply integrated. The article elaborates this position by contending that the self's temporal streaming within the exterior world‐horizon is inescapable because it reflects basic constituents of a self created by God which is nevertheless capable of contemplating a God who transcends time. This seeming paradox is resolved by recourse to what is described as the “double entry” of the self. The temporal streaming of the self in the world‐horizon (entry one) is porous to the eternal inwardly (entry two); the eternal entry is thus interior and analyzable in terms of a non‐reflective self‐awareness on display in Augustine's De Trinitate; and finally Augustine's understanding of the temporality of faith indicates how the self of faith can be lived in light of Heidegger's emphasis on the future and Husserl's emphasis on the past.     

Predictors of Racial Prejudice in White American Counseling Students

This study extends the research on racial prejudice by combining previously identified predictors into 1 study to determine their relative importance in contributing to racial prejudice. Results revealed that White racial identity significantly predicted racial prejudice when demographic variables were controlled. Implications of reducing racial prejudice of White American counseling students are discussed. Este estudio extiende la investigación sobre el prejuicio racial combinando pronosticadores previamente identificados en 1 estudio para determinar su importancia relativa a contribuir al prejuicio racial. Los resultados revelaron que la identidad racial Blanca apreciablemente predijo el prejuicio racial cuando los variables demográficas son controladas. Las implicaciones para reducir el prejuicio racial de estudiantes Americano Blanco que aconsejan es discutido.     

Revisiting Dr. Rosen: Villain or unjustly-treated innovator?

This paper analyzes the life and the work of Dr. J.N. Rosen, who pioneered attempts to treat psychosis from a psychoanalytic standpoint at a time when conventional approaches advocated pharmacological and physical treatments. His psychotherapeutic technique, which became known as “direct analysis,” divided opinion among practitioners and later attracted a degree of notoriety as the result of several law suits following the deaths of patients under his care. This paper reviews the major publications on direct analysis, examines the events that brought it into contact with a hostile mass media, and reassesses the contribution of the approach to psychotherapy. With certain reservations, Rosen is adjudged to have been an outstanding clinician who pre-empted modern attitudes to the treatment of psychotic individuals, but the theoretical basis of his work, about which his closest collaborators were tellingly unable to fully agree, fails to provide an adequate account of how it helped those who were mentally ill.     

Life satisfaction in divorced or separated people: a comparison between Spain and Chile / La satisfacción vital en personas divorciadas o separadas: una comparación entre España y Chile

This paper analyses life satisfaction after divorce, comparing Chilean and Spanish divorced or separated people. There were 468 divorced people included in the study, 240 Spanish and 228 Chilean. 71.5% of the Chilean and 100% of the Spanish people had children. An analysis of the variance identified that life satisfaction is higher in Chilean people than in Spanish people, although the size of the effect is moderate. Regression analysis of the data sets shows that the time since divorce and provenance explain life satisfaction for those divorced people who participated in this study. Separate analyses by country show that while for divorced Spanish people time since their divorce was the only predictor of life satisfaction, age and time since separation were the predictors of life satisfaction for Chilean divorced people.     

Crying for a Vision: The Native American Sweat Lodge Ceremony as Therapeutic Intervention

The Native American sweat lodge ceremony or sweat therapy is being used increasingly in various medical, mental health, correctional, and substance abuse treatment centers serving both Native and non‐Native clients. This article explores the sweat lodge ceremony's background, elements of Native American spirituality, origin story, cultural symbolism, prayer, and contemporary use. Current evidence of effectiveness and therapeutic benefits is presented, then implications for integrating the sweat lodge ceremony as a complementary counseling approach are discussed.     

Time crawls: the temporal resolution of infants' visual attention

Conscious visual perception of the constantly changing environment is one of the brain's most critical functions. In virtually every moment of every daily activity, the visual system is confronted with the task of accurately representing and interpreting scenes that change rapidly over time. Adults can judge the identity and order of changing images presented at a rate of up to 10 Hz (~50 ms per image); this limit reflects a finite temporal resolution of attention. In the research reported here, although 6- to 15-month-old infants could detect the presence of rapid flicker without difficulty, their ability to segment individual alternating states within the flicker was severely limited: Fifteen-month-old infants had a temporal resolution of attention approximately one order of magnitude lower than that of adults (~1 Hz). Coarse temporal resolution constrains how infants perceive and utilize dynamic visual information and may play a role in the visual processing deficits found in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders.     

Practicing Safe Text: the Impact of Texting on Walking Behavior

Sending and receiving text messages on cell phones is increasingly common. Texting while walking or driving, however, increases the likelihood of accidents. One possible cause is that distracted individuals are unable to detect safe opportunities for action. To investigate this, we asked participants to walk through doorways of differing widths while holding or texting on their phone. We measured walking speed, doorway‐to‐shoulder‐width ratio, and the number of bumps into the doorframes. Our results revealed that texters were more cautious than non‐texters; they walked slower and rotated their body through doorways they could have safely walked straight through. There were no significant differences, however, in the number of bumps into the doorframes. If texters in the real world behave like those in our laboratory, then the number of texting‐related accidents reported in other studies might suggest that being overcautious while texting does not actually decrease the likelihood of accidents. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrating empirically supported therapies for treating personality disorders: a synthesis of psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral group treatments

Abstract This paper describes the theoretical foundations and components of an intensive group treatment program for individuals diagnosed with personality disorders. The Chrysalis Community Day Treatment Program integrates aspects of three empirically supported therapies: Transference-Focused Psychotherapy and Mentalization-Based Therapy, both psychodynamic psychotherapies, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy, a cognitive-behavioral therapy. Each of these modalities is structured for the treatment of individuals suffering from the symptoms of borderline personality disorder, and each of the treatments addresses problems that occur across a wide spectra of beliefs, capacities, and behaviors. The program is comprised of expressive, psycho-educational and skills-training groups, and participants attend three days per week, for 15 weeks. Preliminary evaluation is promising, reflecting decreases in self-injurious behavior, suicide attempts, psychiatric hospitalizations, and psychiatric symptoms at a one-year follow-up.