Combat exposure, psychological symptoms, and marital satisfaction in National Guard soldiers who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2005 to 2006

In current military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, US National Guard (NG) troops are serving longer deployments than ever before. Little is known, however, about how such deployments affect this population of individuals, relative to active component (AC) troops. This study investigated the extent of combat exposure, severity of post-deployment psychological symptoms, and general interpersonal functioning, as well as the interrelationships of these variables, in 50 NG soldiers who served a 12-month deployment in Iraq from 2005 to 2006. The results indicate that combat exposure and post-deployment post-traumatic stress symptoms in this sample are greater than those in NG veterans of past military operations, and similar to those of full-time soldiers in current operations. Furthermore, the patterns of interrelationships between combat exposure, psychological symptoms, and interpersonal variables were similar to those detected in prior research on AC troops. These results suggest that NG veterans of current military operations may require similar services as active duty veterans. Given that NG troops are less integrated into the military structure, specific outreach efforts may be needed to help NG veterans to receive such services.     

Glued to the Image: A Critical Phenomenology of Racialization through Works of Art

I develop a phenomenological account of racialized encounters with works of art and film, wherein the racialized viewer feels cast as perpetually past, coming “too late” to intervene in the meaning of her own representation. This points to the distinctive role that the colonial past plays in mediating and constructing our self‐images. I draw on my experience of three exhibitions that take Muslims and/or Arabs as their subject matter and that ostensibly try to interrupt or subvert racialization while reproducing some of its tropes. My examples are the Jean‐Joseph Benjamin‐Constant exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2015), the exposition Welten der Muslime at the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin (2011–2017), and a sculpture by Bob and Roberta Smith at the Leeds City Art Gallery, created in response to the imperial power painting, General Gordon's Last Stand, that is housed there. My interest is in how artworks contribute to the experience of being racialized in ways that not only amplify the circulation of images but also constitute difficult temporal relations to images. Drawing on Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks, I argue that such racialized images are temporally gluey, or stuck, so that we are weighted and bogged down by them.     

Transitioning from recruit to officer: An investigation of how stress appraisal and coping influence work engagement

This study investigated stress, coping, and work engagement among Portuguese police officers while undergoing academy training and then 1 year later, when on duty. It was hypothesized that stress appraisal and coping preferences predicted engagement. Additionally, in order to test a full cross‐lagged prediction model, it was hypothesized that stress, coping, and engagement in recruits predicted these variables later when working as police officers. Structural equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses. Results suggest that coping and stress appraisals do not seem to be strong predictors of work engagement among recruits and police officers on duty. With the exception of self‐blame, that seems to be a strong predictor of work engagement among police officers on duty. These results highlight the need to investigate other potential variables such as working conditions that may better explain work engagement. Considering the positive influence of engagement on health, wellbeing, and performance of police recruits and officers future applied and theoretical implications are discussed.     

一个新的中医研究范式:从非线性动力学的角度解读中医

西方对中医的研究多是利用随机控制试验来检验其疗效。通过讨论,认为这类研究有其局限性。同时探讨一种新的研究范式,即非线性动力学理论。认为这一理论能够提供理论依据来设计适合中医特征的临床试验,并可望得出为西方医学界所接受的研究结果。     

Influence of the instructions on the performance and establishment of memorization strategies in space judgments

Studies of visual space perception have been assuming that people have an internal representation of the physical space that surrounds them. A variety of psychophysical procedures has been used in an attempt to measure the properties of visual space. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the accuracy of the mental representation and the strategies adopted to acquire and retain visuo-spatial information of a configuration as a function of two types of instructions. Thirty-eight undergraduate and graduate students participated in the study and were distributed in perceptive and mnemonic experimental conditions. The effect of the instructions (intentional and incidental) on the representation of the distances among the objects of the scene was estimated using exponents of power function, based on the reproduction of the distances among the stimuli of the scene. The results revealed that judgments made under intentional instructions were more frequently based on strategies related to the location of the stimuli, whereas judgments originating from incidental instructions were based on strategies related to the name of the stimuli. It was observed that the intentional instruction facilitated a more accurate mental representation of the observed experimental configuration, enhancing participants' performance.     

Editorial: Social Realities and Psychoanalysis

Abstract

This discussion explores Wrye's deconstructive methods of feminist theory-building. Wrye contends that sociocultural factors establish Freud's construct “Anatomy is destiny” as a deforming norm and lead to an unconscious saboteur in women. Shechter applies Wrye's unconscious saboteur to clinical work with men, showing the universal pan-gender nature of Wrye's concept. Shechter proposes that Wrye's clinical ideas tap the essence of developmental theory and thus bridge schools of psychoanalytic thought; whether a psychoanalyst interprets drive, self object, or relational images, gender integration occurs when libido is satisfied in a milieu of accepting subjectivity. Gender meanings become malleable and better describe both feminine and masculine self as personal narratives transform.

Roberta Ann Shechter. Die universelle Natur der Subjektivität der Geschlechter und der unbewussten Saboteure: Diskussion der Arbeit von ….

Diese Diskussion erforscht Wryes Auflösung von feministischer Theoriebildung. Wrye vertritt, dass soziokulturelle Faktoren Freuds Aussage “Anatomie ist Schicksal” zur Geltung bringen und zwar als eine deformierende Norm, die zu einem unbewussten Saboteur in der Psyche der Frau wird. Shechter wendet Wyres Konzept des unbewussten Saboteurs auf die klinische Arbeit mit Männern an und weist nach, dass es sich bei Wyres Konzept um ein universelles über die Geschlechtszugehörigkeit hinausgehendes Phänomen handelt.

Roberta Ann Shechter. La naturaleza universal de la subjetividad de género y los saboteadores inconscientes: Un discusión del trabajo de Harriet Kimble Wyre, “Deconstruyendo el saboteador inconsciente: Componiendo una vida con ambición y deseo”.

La discusión explora el método deconstructivo de la construcción teórica feminista de Wrye. Wrye argumenta que los factores socio-culturales establecen el constructo de Freud “anatomía es destino” como una norma deformativa que conduce a un saboteador inconsciente en las mujeres. Shechter aplica el saboteador inconsciente a su trabajo clínico con hombres, mostrando la naturaleza universal del concepto de Wrye. Shechter propone que las ideas clínicas de Wrye golpean la esencia de la teoría del desarrollo y tienden un puente en las escuelas de pensamiento psicoanalítico; Sea que el analista interprete la pulsión, el objeto del self o las imágenes relationales, la integración del género ocurre cuando la libido es satisfecha en u ambiente de aceptación de la subjetividad. Los significados de género, ambos self masculino y femenino, se vuelven maleables y mejor descritos mientra la narrativas personales se transforman. (143)     

Direct touches to clear barriers: Developmental sensitivity of a new measure of the production of ineffective responses in infancy

Current interpretation of the object retrieval task (Diamond, 1990 Diamond, A. 1990. The Development and the Neural Bases of Higher Cortical Functions, New York, NY: New York Academy of Sciences.  [Google Scholar]) as an infant assessment of response inhibition requires evidence that younger infants make more ineffective attempts to retrieve toys through clear barriers. On two 30-second trials, infants (9 or 11 months of age) saw an inaccessible toy in the front or back of a clear box. The location of the infants touches corresponded with the toy's location and, on the second trial, the younger infants touched the box more. In previous research nonhuman primates with orbital-frontal, but not dorsa-lateral, lesions also made ineffective barrier touches. The current developmental decreases in barrier touches may selectively tap developmental increases in inhibitory control supported by the developing orbital-frontal cortex.     

IFPS - Is There a Difference?

This paper tries to answer a question about the difference between IFPS and other psychoanalytical institutions. The author states that there is a linkage between the ethics of psychoanalysis and the ethics of the institution. The ethics can not be represented by rules or standards of prerequisites, but by creating a space where the unconscious as desire, singularity and difference takes place. The bureaucratic organization and the hierarchy in the categories of members of IPA institutions goes straight against the transgressor experience of the unconscious. The training analysis under such conditions leads to an identification process with the training analyst, giving as final result standardized, homogeneous, obedient analysts. The author describes a new experience in the training of analysts in his institution without any kind of interference from IFPS. Finally, he concludes that differences exists between the two institutions and that they are mainly due to the identification process typical for IPA and the process of ''choice'' in IFPS.