Jung and Phenomenology: Chiasm and Communion

Western culture suffers from an illusion of separation between the mental and the physical, which is mirrored in the rift between psyche and the Earth. Jungian phenomenology offers a way to heal this rift by returning to direct experiential encounters with the beings and presences of the physical and imaginal worlds.     

The psychosis of metabolic alkalosis

Metabolic alkalosis as an additional etiology for organic psychosis is presented and covered, with theoretical and clinical considerations, including treatment. Illustrative case histories are cited and certain parameters of acid-base equilibrium are described as favorable to the normal awake state, while substantial deviation towards metabolic alkalosis is seen as conducive to psychotic aberration.     

Effects on Sexual Conditioning of Devaluing the US through Satiation

Male Japanese quail were conditioned to approach a visual CS that predicted an opportunity to copulate with a female quail. Subsequently the subjects were tested in both non-reinforced and reinforced test trials while sexually satiated and sexually deprived. In the satiation condition the sexual US was devalued by allowing the male subjects to copulate repeatedly with female birds just prior to testing; in the deprivation condition, the males were not allowed to copulate for a day prior to testing. The subjects displayed significantly less approach to the CS when sexually satiated than when sexually deprived. These results are compatible with a mechanism in which performance of Pavlovian sexual approach conditioning is mediated by activation of a memorial representation of the US.     

The effects of neonatal gonadectomy and prenatal stress on cortical thickness and asymmetry in rats

In Study I measures of cortical thickness were taken in 90-day-old male and female Sprague-Dawley, Wistar, and Long-Evans rats that were born to pregnant females shipped to the laboratory in late pregnancy and that were either gonadectomized at birth or left intact. No evidence for hemispheric differences in cortical thickness was found in any of the groups. Gonadectomy resulted in increased cortical thickness in male Sprague-Dawley and Wistar rats and in small increases in thickness of the left hemisphere in Long-Evans rats, especially males. No effects of gonadectomy were found in females of any strain. The lack of the expected right-over-left difference in cortical thickness in intact males may have been due to prenatal stress caused by housing, handling, and shipping. In Study 2 measures of cortical thickness were taken in 90-day-old male and female Sprague-Dawley rats that were bred in our laboratory, but otherwise similarly treated at birth. In this second study, the expected right-over-left hemispheric difference in cortical thickness was found in intact male rats; none was found in gonadectomized males or in either of the female groups. The lack of asymmetry in gonadectomized males appeared to be due to an increase in thickness in the left hemisphere. Taken together these studies provide support for the idea that hormones of testicular origin suppress cortical enlargement in the perinatal period, particularly in the left hemisphere.     

Differences in high and low anxiety sensitive women's responses to a laboratory-based cold pressor task

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) has been linked to a variety of disabling chronic health conditions, including pain-related conditions. A recent study has found that healthy women with high AS reported significantly higher levels of sensory and affective pain on an experimental cold pressor task compared to women with low AS. However, this study found no differences between AS groups for pain tolerance or pain threshold. In the present study, which was designed to replicate and extend these findings, 90 undergraduate university women were selected for inclusion in 1 of 2 AS groups (high or low) based on their screening scores on a 16-item measure of AS. Participants were tested individually on a lab-based cold pressor task using a variety of self-report and observer-measured variables. Data analyses revealed that, as expected, the high AS participants reported significantly more fear in response to the cold pressor on a relevant item of the McGill Pain Questionnaire-Short Form (SF-MPQ) than did the low AS participants. Also as expected, the high AS participants reported more pain in response to the cold pressor on the Present Pain Index (PPI) of the SF-MPQ than did the low AS participants. High AS participants did not differ from low AS participants on other aspects of the cold pressor response (e.g. pain threshold, pain tolerance, pain recovery). These results support the role of pain-related fear as a mediating variable between AS and increased perceived pain intensity.