Encounter with death: The thought of Robert Jay Lifton

Robert Jay Lifton begins his work in the psychosocial framework that he takes over from Erik Erikson. Lifton's thought is based upon a central paradigm—death and the continuity of life. Lifton makes important contributions with his five modes of symbolic immortality and with his investigation of the psychological themes in survivors. The origins and limits of Lifton's thought are critically examined.     

The funeral meal: A significant funerary ritual

Historically, a meal in association with funerary ritual has been a reality in many cultural and religious settings. Our society has experienced a gradual demise of formal funerary ritual, with an accompanying psychological and social impoverishment. Both the immediate bereaved and the larger social community can benefit from a funeral meal which functions as a group experience that focuses on the needs of the living. It can be a shared experience in a familiar structured setting which enables the living to do significant grief work. Practical implications and potential problems will need to be, taken into consideration.     

Is Trait Rumination Associated with the Ability to Generate Effective Problem Solving Strategies? Utilizing Two Versions of the Means-Ends Problem-Solving Test

This study examined the relationship between trait rumination and the effectiveness of problem solving strategies as assessed by the Means-Ends Problem-Solving Test (MEPS) in a nonclinical population. The present study extended previous studies in terms of using two instructions in the MEPS: the second-person, actual strategy instructions, which has been utilized in previous studies on rumination, and the third-person, ideal-strategy instructions, which is considered more suitable for assessing the effectiveness of problem solving strategies. We also replicated the association between rumination and each dimension of the Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised Short Version (SPSI-R:S). Japanese undergraduate students (N = 223) completed the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition, Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS), MEPS, and SPSI-R:S. One half of the sample completed the MEPS with the second-person, actual strategy instructions. The other participants completed the MEPS with the third-person, ideal-strategy instructions. The results showed that neither total RRS score, nor its subscale scores were significantly correlated with MEPS scores under either of the two instructions. These findings taken together with previous findings indicate that in nonclinical populations, trait rumination is not related to the effectiveness of problem solving strategies, but that state rumination while responding to the MEPS deteriorates the quality of strategies. The correlations between RRS and SPSI-R:S scores indicated that trait rumination in general, and its brooding subcomponent in particular are parts of cognitive and behavioral responses that attempt to avoid negative environmental and negative private events. Results also showed that reflection is a part of active problem solving.     

Social and legal consequences of I.Q. tests as classification instruments: Some warnings from our past

Social science instruments are not neutral. The concepts they are imbedded in, the aspects of reality they enable us to see, all have social and political consequences. That school psychologists need to pay close attention to the sociopolitical implications of their assessment instruments is illustrated through the woeful history of the use and misuse of the concept of intelligence in the United States during the first third of this century.     

A report on The National Council of Community Mental Health Centers

The National Council of Community Health Centers represents a professional development of great interest to clergy. Because mental health centers collaborate with community agencies and systems, their interventions on behalf of community mental health provide an occasion to work toward common goals. Their policy of shared responsibility with community leaders and consumers provides a unique opportunity for a practical integration of religious systems and the public arena. A number of pastors and mental health trained clergy are actively participating in this common effort on behalf of the nation's mental health.He has served five years as a member of the Council on Prevention of the National Council of Community Mental Health Centers.     

Models of health and wholeness

A church-clinic model of the neighborhood health center, developed initially in a low-income area, has now been established over the past three years in middle- and upper-income areas. The church-clinics, called Wholistic Health Centers, are primary care medical clinics located in church buildings that utilize an interdisciplinary team in the planning for patient treatment and health education. The project integrates primary medical care with pastoral counseling services. Evaluation of the two clinics in middle-to-upper-income areas indicates that the patients are middle to upper class, well educated, and are not medically disenfranchised; their presenting problems are only slightly more often medical (58%) than psychosocial (42%).This work was conducted in part when Dr. Holinger was at the Institute for Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Research and Training, Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.He is also the author ofWholistic Health.The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Rev. Granger E. Westberg, D.D., Clinical Professor, and Edward A. Lichter, Professor and Chairman, Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, University of Illinois at the Medical Center, Abraham Lincoln School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, in the preparation of this report.