A psychophysiological investigation of mourning: There are two sides to the story

Motivation and Emotion - Mourning constitutes an important human emotion, which might cause—among other things—major depressive symptoms when lasting for too long. To date, no study...     

Task instructions for persons with severe intellectual disability: reducing the number of instruction occasions after the acquisition phase

During the first part of the study, eight tasks were taught to four participants with severe intellectual disability. A portable computer‐aided system was used that presented one pictorial instruction per task step, individually. During the second part of the study, the same computer‐aided system was used but the number of instruction occasions available for the tasks was reduced. In one condition, the system presented all the step instructions but mostly in small clusters rather than individually. In another condition, the system presented only some of the instructions. Data for the first part of the study showed that the participants managed to perform 83–97% of the task steps correctly. Data for the second part of the study showed that the condition in which instructions were clustered was more effective in maintaining high percentages of correct performance. Implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Regulatory disorders in early childhood: Correlates in child behavior,parent–child relationship,and parental mental health

According to the guidelines published by the German Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy (2007), regulatory disorders of early childhood are characterized by a symptom triad, including (a) behavioral symptoms such as excessive crying, sleeping, or feeding problems; (b) a disturbed parent–child relationship; and (c) parental psychopathology. On the basis of a clinic–referred sample of 162 children, we examined whether children with and without regulatory symptoms differed in the quality of parent–child relationship and parental mental health, and how often the criteria of the symptom triad were fulfilled in the group of children with regulatory symptoms. In addition, emotional and behavior problems were compared in children with and without regulatory symptoms. Children with regulatory symptoms and children with other psychiatric symptoms did not differ with respect to child–parent relationship quality. However, parents of children with regulatory symptoms scored higher on the Symptom Checklist 90 Items‐Revised (G.H. Franke, 2002 ) than did the other parents. On the Child Behavior Checklist (T.M. Achenbach & L.A. Rescorla, 2000), children with regulatory symptoms tended to show more somatic problems, but they showed significantly less withdrawn behavior than did the other children. Of the 67 children with regulatory symptoms, only 11 (16.4%) fulfilled all three criteria of a regulatory disorder.     

?ISPS-Germany“

The authors describe the development from a study group on group psychotherapy for patients with schizophrenia, started in 1975, to the foundation of the German branch of the International Society for the Psychological Treatments of Schizophrenias and Other Psychoses (ISPS) in 2011. The history of this study group confirms the continuity of a sometimes hidden psychotherapeutic culture in German psychiatry and underlines the growing importance of psychological and psychosocial interventions in the current treatments of psychoses.     

Buddhist Councils in a Time of Transition: Globalism,Modernity and the Preservation of Textual Traditions

This article looks at what is genuinely new in the Buddhist transnationalism of the modern period. It examines the history of Buddhist councils and synods from the early gatherings after the demise of the Buddha to the Buddhist World Council in the twentieth century. These often international events followed a role-model, defined by the first three councils, of creating and handing down an authoritative version of the Buddha's teachings (dhamma) while they could also lead to a ‘purification’ of the monks' order (sangha) if monks sticking to divergent textual traditions were expelled from the sangha. Despite their importance, however, councils have received rather little attention in scholarly literature. This article takes a fresh look at Buddhist synods with a focus on those convened since the mid-nineteenth century. It explores how the latter sought to comply with inherited forms and functions, while at the same time becoming innovative in order to adapt Buddhism to its modern environment.     

Fatal violence – from trauma to offence: A case study in forensic psychotherapy and trauma therapy with a migrant patient

Abstract

That persons who are objects of violence and traumatisation become offenders themselves is a typical feature of ill-fated cycles of violence in countries torn by fierce political, ethnic, and religious conflicts. Some refugees and migrants with this background present a challenge to forensic psychotherapy when they continue such patterns of physical force and criminal behaviour in a host country like Germany, and are found to be either not responsible or of diminished responsibility for their criminal acts by reason of mental disorders or addictions. Their offences create a critical legal situation for them, since they are threatened with deportation. At the same time, their clinical condition is critical, for they were possibly subjected to traumatic experiences by authorities in their past; their cooperation in the treatment can seriously affect their legal status. Finding a way out of these complications has to take these special factors into account. Our paper focuses on the case study of a refugee from North Africa, illustrating a model of cooperation in forensic inpatient treatment, special trauma therapy (narrative exposure therapy), and expert testimony.     

Contribution of Callosal Connections to the Interhemispheric Integration of Visuomotor and Cognitive Processes

In recent years, cognitive neuroscience has been concerned with the role of the corpus callosum and interhemispheric communication for lower-level processes and higher-order cognitive functions. There is empirical evidence that not only callosal disconnection but also subtle degradation of the corpus callosum can influence the transfer of information and integration between the hemispheres. The reviewed studies on patients with callosal degradation with and without disconnection indicate a dissociation of callosal functions: while anterior callosal regions were associated with interhemispheric inhibition in situations of semantic (Stroop) and visuospatial (hierarchical letters) competition, posterior callosal areas were associated with interhemispheric facilitation from redundant information at visuomotor and cognitive levels. Together, the reviewed research on selective cognitive functions provides evidence that the corpus callosum contributes to the integration of perception and action within a subcortico-cortical network promoting a unified experience of the way we perceive the visual world and prepare our actions.