Unique Eyes and Different Windows of Opportunity

Abstract

The writer discusses her personal experiences of being a consumer of mental health services and, at the same time, working as a mental health professional. She includes the challenges and benefits of this experience, as well as the “sparks, pushes, and bumps” of this dual role. Also included are current and future trends of mental health recovery, suggested to be the key to wellness for consumers.     

Life Experience Is Not a Disease or Why Medicalizing Madness Is Counterproductive to Recovery

Abstract

The author draws on her personal experience as the family member of an individual with mental illness, on her anthropological research and on that of others to argue that medicalizing madness can be counterproductive to recovery. The medical model is sometimes used in a way that strips away the meaning of the illness experience. Analogies drawn to diseases do not help the understanding of mental illness. Psychiatry is a social practice embedded in a social milieu and that renders it less than objective. It is useful to recognize that the experiences called symptoms have meaning and may have positive and pleasurable aspects.     

Treating PTSD in active duty service members using cognitive processing therapy or prolonged exposure therapy: Examining everyday practice at a military outpatient clinic

The Institute of Medicine has stressed the need for evaluations of evidence-based treatments (EBTs) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among active duty service members (AD) using a variety of evaluation approaches (Institute of Medicine, 2012). The current study examined the clinical files of 134 service members who completed treatment for PTSD using either prolonged exposure (PE) or cognitive processing therapy at an outpatient clinic. At the completion of each session, therapists made a clinical rating as to whether or not the session was protocol adherent. The total number of treatment sessions and the proportion of sessions rated as being protocol adherent were calculated. Multi-level models estimated the change in patient PTSD and other psychological symptoms over time as a function of clinician-rated protocol adherence and total number of sessions. Approximately 65% of clinic encounters were rated by therapists as being protocol adherent. Significant reductions in PTSD and psychological symptoms were associated with protocol adherence, and this was particularly true for patients who began treatment above clinical thresholds for both PTSD and other psychological symptoms. However, as the number of sessions increased, the impact of protocol adherence was attenuated. Patient characteristics, including gender, ethnicity, and co-morbidity for other psychiatric disorders were not related to symptom change trajectories over time. These findings suggest that protocol adherence and efficiency in delivery of EBTs for the treatment of PTSD with AD is critical.     

Eating Disorder Recovery

Abstract

Qualitative studies addressing the eating disorder recovery process from the client's point of view are notably absent in the literature. For this case study, we conducted a retrospective examination of the recovery process, as recounted by a 37-year-old female who was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, binge eating/purging subtype at the age of 30. Two in-person interview sessions provided insight into coping skills, multidisciplinary intervention strategies, and long-term treatment challenges. In sum, the client's perspective can add new information to the understanding of eating disorder recovery from feminist and other theoretical frameworks.     

Deformation twinning and plastic recovery in Cu/Ag nanolayers under uniaxial tensile straining

Molecular dynamics simulations of nanoscale multilayered Cu/Ag metals have been conducted under uniaxial tensile straining to elucidate the out-of-plane deformation behaviour relevant to tensile spallation experiments. In nanolayers with pristine architectures, plastic dissipation prior to crack nucleation is suppressed owing to the high hydrostatic tensile stress state. The presence of sources for micro-twinning partials, such as micro-cracks or columnar grain boundaries, result in abundant deformation twin lamellae across multiple Cu/Ag interlayers. Plastic recovery is observed during unloading of the nanolayers.     

Crystallization behaviour of Al-based amorphous alloy and nanocomposites by rapid quenching

The microstructure and crystallization behaviour of melt-spun Al₈₈Ni₉Ce₂Fe₁ amorphous alloy and nanophase composites have been studied by means of X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and scanning and isothermal calorimetry. The diffraction patterns from Al₈₈Ni₉Ce₂Fe₁ amorphous alloys are diffuse, indicating a basically amorphous structure but contain two rings presumed to be associated with quenched-in nuclei. In the cases of Al₈₈Ni₉Ce₂Fe₁ nanophase composites, nanoscale precipitated particles are homogeneously dispersed in an amorphous matrix, and the crystallite diameter and volume fraction are sensitive to quenching conditions. During thermal crystallization, a two-step phase transformation occurs in the amorphous alloy and nanocomposites, which is characterized by a diffusion-controlled precipitation of nanoscale Al particles and the growth of a Al₃(Ni, Fe) nanophase prior to a Al₁₁Ce₃ nanophase. This study gives insight into structure-control for obtaining nanophases dispersed in an amorphous matrix by rapid quenching.     

Some thoughts about psychoanalysis and cinema

Abstract

This article approaches the pleasures of the cinema through a discussion of the conditions of cinema going and the place of the cinema in twentieth-century culture. It links them to the history of cinema and to the debates about art and psychoanalysis. It introduces the centrality of parallels between the cinema and dreaming and the importance of sexuality for the cinema. It suggests that discussion about the psychic mechanisms elicited by film going is a productive way of thinking about the cinema.     

Therapeutic Implications of Religious-Related Emotional Abuse

Religion can play a positive role in preventing all types of abuse. Consequently, it is often difficult to believe that religion or a particular manner of religious awareness can also be conducive to the degradation and humiliation of individuals, and that it can be maneuvered to justify abusive behavior. In this article we discuss the emotional repercussions of religious-related abuse in the family, an aspect that is rarely documented in the field of psychotherapy, but has many negative consequences. Religious-oriented emotional abuse is traceable to several levels of human functioning: the individual's internal level of experiencing themselves, the interpersonal and systemic levels, where the individual enters relationships, as well as within the framework of the individual's relationship with God.     

Current Treatment Strategies for Dissociative Identity Disorders in Adult Sexual Abuse Survivors

SUMMARY

During the past decade, increasing numbers of clinicians and researchers have suggested that the dissociative disorders, including dissociative identity disorder (DID), may be more prevalent than previously hypothesized. The “rediscovery” of DID is due, in part, to the recognition that early childhood trauma in conjunction with the propensity to dissociate, are etiologic factors for the development of DID. The purpose of this article is to raise clinical consciousness regarding DID, discuss the definition and etiology of the dissociative disorders, their assessment, and an approach to treatment of the sexual abuse survivor who has DID. This treatment program, while integrating some of the techniques recommended by others, is unique in its step-by-step flexible organization as well as its multifaceted format. The author's experience to date suggests that the sooner that a dissociative disorder can be identified in the adult sexual abuse survivor client, the more rapid the therapeutic progress.     

Exploration of Recovery Trajectories in Sexually Abused Adolescents

Abstract

This study documents recovery status and symptom changes in a one-year follow-up of sexually abused adolescent girls in child protection services in the province of Québec, Canada. Sixteen French-speaking participants completed questionnaires assessing symptoms, types of maltreatment endured, and services received and were interviewed using the Multidimensional Trauma Recovery and Resiliency Interview (MTRR-I), which was in turn rated by interviewers using the companion rating scale, the MTRR. Analyses of one-year follow-up data revealed statistically significant changes towards better functioning on multiple domains and less symptomatology for a majority of the girls interviewed. The recovery status of a minority of research participants seems to have worsened in the interval. The discussion considers these findings and addresses relevancy of the MTRR measures in cases of sexually abused adolescents.