The presence of the absence in Kjell Westö’s novel: “Hägring 38”

ABSTRACT

The word ‘hägring’ (in English. ‘mirage’) can be understood in different ways: as an unrealistic hope or wish that cannot be achieved (wishful thinking); as an image in a mirror of something that is not there, but in another place, and as a sign of something that has not yet become visible, for instance, the first rays of sunlight on the horizon before the sun has risen. These meanings represent different ways in which presence and absence interplay, and are all illustrated in Kjell Westö’s impressive novel from 2013 for which he received the Nordic Literature Prize in 2014.

The action of the novel takes place during eight months in Helsinki from March to November 1938 and unravels how the past and present are woven together on a historical, societal and individual level. The present article will try to illustrate this.     

The Impact of Participating in Suicide Research Online

The impact of participation in online mixed‐methods suicide research was investigated. Participants, who described feeling suicidal, completed an 18‐item questionnaire before and after taking part (n = 103), and answered open‐ended questions about participation (n = 97). Overall, participation reduced negative experiences and had no effect on positive experiences. Feelings of calm increased, but participants felt less supported. Some participants did experience distress, but some also reported this distress to be manageable. Anonymously sharing experiences of suicidality was viewed as important, had therapeutic benefits, and engendered hopes for recovery. The findings suggest a need to ensure vulnerable participants in online studies are well supported while protecting their anonymity.     

Connections Between Family Communication Patterns,Person‐Centered Message Evaluations,and Emotion Regulation Strategies

In this study, we theorize that family communication patterns (FCPs) and 2 emotion regulation strategies (reappraisal and suppression) explain variations in person‐centered (PC) supportive message evaluations. Specifically, we forward an emotion regulation model that predicts reappraisal and suppression will mediate the relation between FCPs and PC message evaluations. Results (N = 361) suggest that conversation orientation positively predicted reappraisal and negatively predicted suppression; conformity orientation positively predicted suppression only. Reappraisal positively and suppression negatively predicted the extent to which people discriminated among PC message evaluations. Reappraisal also mediated the relation between conversation orientation and PC message evaluations. These results have implications for how capable people are to evaluate and ultimately profit from beneficial support when coping with negative emotions.     

The Jack the Ripper murders: a modus operandi and signature analysis of the 1888–1891 Whitechapel murders

A number of females, commonly recognized as 11 victims, were murdered in separate events in Whitechapel, London between 1888 and 1891. An evaluation of the murders revealed that six of those murders were linked by a number of distinct, personal signature characteristics, including picquerism, overkill, incapacitation, domination and control, open and displayed, unusual body position, sexual degradation, mutilation, organ harvesting, specific areas of attack, preplanning and organization, and a combination of signature features. The signature characteristics observed in these infamous Jack the Ripper murders were compared to a 1981–1995 cohort of 3359 homicide cases from Washington State's HITS database. The analysis revealed that the signature displayed in six of the Whitechapel murders was extremely rare. There were only six records of female victims, one a prostitute, with probed, explored, or mutilated body cavities. There were only two cases, both females who were not prostitutes, where the body was left in an unusual position and body cavities were explored, probed, or mutilated. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.