The issue of human existence as represented in dreaming: A new Daseinsanalytic interpretation of the meaning of dreams

Abstract

Dreams are associated with those issues of our waking life which preoccupy us emotionally. According to our Daseinsanalytic view, however, the issue that concerns us while dreaming is actually not the concrete worrying matter itself, but its existential dimension. This view is based on Martin Heidegger's concept of human being as that being to which its own being is an issue. It means that all feeling and understanding dealing with concrete issues concurrently refer to fundamental issues of our existence. Dreaming though, we are focused entirely on the fundamental aspects. Dreams show the very individual and specific struggle of the dreamer with certain conditions of human life, which he or she is unable or unwilling to accept because they seem too difficult to endure. I want to demonstrate this method of interpretation on a dream of a depressive patient. The example illustrates that the concerns of dreaming are rooted in and refer to an existential dilemma that is hidden in the concrete difficulties of waking life and represented in the concrete dream events. In addition, it gives us the opportunity to inquire into the specificity of the fundamental dilemma of a personality with a “depressive view” of the world.     

Fatigue,emotional functioning,and executive dysfunction in pediatric multiple sclerosis

Objective: Fatigue, depression, anxiety, and executive dysfunction are associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) in adults. Existing research suggests similar problems in pediatric MS, but relationships between these variables have not been investigated. This study investigates the associations between executive functioning and fatigue, emotional functioning, age of onset, and disease duration in pediatric MS.

Methods: Twenty-six MS or Clinically Isolated Syndrome (CIS) patients, ages 7 to 18, were evaluated through a multidisciplinary demyelinating diseases clinic. Participants completed neuropsychological screening including Verbal Fluency, Digit Span, and Trail-Making Test. Parents completed rating forms of behavioral, emotional, and executive functioning. Patients and parents completed questionnaires related to the patient’s quality of life and fatigue. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated to investigate relationships between fatigue, emotional functioning, and executive functioning, as well as to examine correlations between parent and child reports of fatigue.

Results: Rates of parent-reported anxiety, depression, fatigue, and executive dysfunction varied widely. Means were below average on the Trail-Making Test and average on Verbal Fluency and Digit Span, though scores varied widely. Various fatigue and emotional functioning indices—but not age of onset or disease duration—significantly correlated with various performance-based measures of executive functioning.

Conclusion: Results indicate pediatric MS is associated with some degree of fatigue, emotional difficulties, and executive dysfunction, the latter of which is associated with the two former. Notably, age of onset and disease duration did not significantly correlate with executive functioning. Results advance understanding of psychological and clinical variables related to neurocognitive outcomes in pediatric MS.     

The emotional and reconstructive determinants of emotional memories: An experimental approach to flashbulb memory investigation

Flashbulb memories (FBMs) are vivid and detailed memories of the reception context of a public emotional event. Brown and Kulik (1977) introduced the label FBM to suggest the idea that individuals are able to preserve knowledge of an event in an indiscriminate way, in analogy with a photograph that preserves all details of a scene. Research work on FBMs has primarily been conducted using a naturalistic approach in order to explore the role of the emotional and reconstructive factors on FBM formation and maintenance. Nevertheless, these studies lack a sufficient control on the factors that might intervene in the process of FBM formation. The contribution of the present studies is addressed to experimentally investigating the role of emotional and reconstructive factors on emotionally charged memories, specifically on FBMs. Paralleling FBM findings, the two studies revealed that simply being in an emotional state allows people to remember all available information, such as irrelevant and unrelated details. Furthermore, the resulting memories are affected by reconstructive processes so that they are not as accurate as their richness of details would suggest.     

Cognitive bias in dizziness: Emotional stroop and autobiographical memories

Dizziness is commonly associated with anxiety, and is often caused by a dysfunction of the balance system. While a link between dizziness and both anxiety disorders and depression has been established, less is known about information processing in dizziness. In the first experiment we tested whether 15 patients with dizziness would display an emotional Stroop effect for panic-related words. Also included was a control group of 15 persons. The Stroop task was preceded by ratings of personal relevance of the Stroop words and followed by a surprise free recall of the words. Results showed a Stroop effect for panic-related words in the dizziness group, but the interaction did not reach significance (p?=?0.08). Separate analysis of dizziness-related panic words however resulted in a significant group?×?condition interaction. In the free recall of Stroop words a main effect of word category was found, with more panic-related words being recalled. The second experiment investigated autobiographical memories in 14 patients with dizziness and 14 matched controls. Results showed a group?×?condition interaction with less specific memories being recalled following positive cue-words in the dizziness group. The overall pattern of results suggests that dizziness is related to deficits in information processing, which could be targeted in treatment.     

Psychosocial correlates of emotional distress and risk behavior in african-american women at risk for hiv infection

We examined a model of stress and coping in 749 African-American women at risk for HIV infection. Women in the sample were either homeless, intravenous drug users (IVDUs) sexual partners of IVDUs, or prostitutes. A model was hypothesized based on stress and coping theory and research. Antecedents studied were personal resources, specifically self-esteem and available support. Mediators were threat appraisal and coping efforts. Outcomes studied were emotional distress and HIV risk behaviors. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to test hypothesized pathways between these variables. Forty-five percent of the variance in emotional distress in these women was explained by the model with self-esteem and avoidant coping the strongest predictors. Ten percent of the variance in risk behavior was explained by the model with emotional distress the strongest predictor. Direct and indirect pathways predicting risk behavior and distress are discussed. Implications of results for intervention and theory building are considered.     

Alcohol‐Related Consequences Among Intercollegiate Student Athletes: The Role of Drinking Motives

This study examined drinking motives as predictors of alcohol‐related consequences among student athletes and nonathletes. Results indicated that the highest level of alcohol‐related consequences was reported by student athletes with high levels of both coping and conformity motives.     

Victims of Intimate Partner Violence: Arrest Rates Across Recent Studies

Efforts by women's rights activists, concomitant with results of research studies and court cases, have prompted legal reforms in public policy that include recently implemented mandatory arrest and prosecution laws. A review of the recent research since the advent of these laws suggests that arrests of women have increased by 25–35%, while the most liberal estimate is that only 1–7% of all IPV arrests are of actual female primary batterers, suggesting that victim arrests are on the rise. Various factors contribute to officers arresting not only primary batterers but victims as well, creating confusion and resentment over mandatory arrest policies. The negative implications of this arrest pattern are far-reaching because errant arrests hold negative consequences for victims, including legal, financial, employment, and familial repercussions.     

Sexual Contact Between Psychologists and Patients

Summary

This article discusses sexualized dual relationships between psychologists and patients, including both sexual contacts while treatment is in progress and after its termination. The reported prevalences of sexual contact between psychologists and patients and between psychologists and former patients are discussed as well as practitioners attitudes towards these two types of relationships. The profiles of both psychologists and patients likely to be involved are outlined as are the clinical and professional consequences of these behaviours. Finally, the APA Ethics Code (2002) is examined to determine whether its inclusions in these areas are adequate and to shed more light on clinicians' continued roles and responsibilities even after treatments have concluded.     

Detection of emotional facial expressions and anti-expressions

Detection of emotional facial expressions has been shown to be more efficient than detection of neutral expressions. However, it remains unclear whether this effect is attributable to visual or emotional factors. To investigate this issue, we conducted two experiments using the visual search paradigm with photographic stimuli. We included a single target facial expression of anger or happiness in presentations of crowds of neutral facial expressions. The anti-expressions of anger and happiness were also presented. Although anti-expressions produced changes in visual features comparable to those of the emotional facial expressions, they expressed relatively neutral emotions. The results consistently showed that reaction times (RTs) for detecting emotional facial expressions (both anger and happiness) were shorter than those for detecting anti-expressions. The RTs for detecting the expressions were negatively related to experienced emotional arousal. These results suggest that efficient detection of emotional facial expressions is not attributable to their visual characteristics but rather to their emotional significance.     

Visual attention and the temporal dynamics of feature integration

Two experiments studied the emergence of bindings between stimulus features (object files) and between stimulus and response features (event files) over time. Choice responses (R2) were signalled by the shape of a stimulus (S2) that followed another stimulus (S1) of the same or different shape, location, and colour. S1 did not require a response (Experiment 1) or trigger a precued simple response (R1) that was or was not repeated by R2 (Experiment 2). Results demonstrate that the mere cooccurrence of stimulus features, and of stimuli and responses, is sufficient to bind their codes. Bindings emerge quickly and remain intact for at least four seconds. Which features are considered depends on their task‐relevance; hence, integration reflects the current attentional set. There was no consistent trend toward higher order interactions as a function of time or of the amount of attention devoted to S1, suggesting that features are not integrated into a single, global superstructure, but enter independent local bindings presumably subserving different functions.