The Theater of Terror

Summary

Modern terrorists became aware of the new opportunities for exerting mass psychological impact using the latest means of mass communications. Academic observers remarked increasingly on the theater-like nature of terrorist operations. According to this notion, modern terrorism can be understood in terms of the production requirements of theatrical engagements. Several terrorist organizations realized the potentials of media-oriented terror, in terms of effectively reaching huge audiences. This article examines the strategies and tactics of this new pattern of media-oriented terrorism and their impact on the audiences who, through the media's mediation, join the widening circles of victims of terrorism.     

Suicidal ideation,affective lability,and religion in depressed adults

Suicidal ideation is a strong precursor to suicidal acts and like depression is complex with many risk and protective factors. The purpose of this study is to determine if affect lability, positive and negative religion/spirituality (RS) are related to suicidal ideation and if RS mediates the relationship between affect lability and suicidal ideation. RS are used synonymously to reflect a multidimensional construct. In this cross-sectional study of 183 depressed psychiatric patients, we confirm that depression and affective lability both contribute to suicidal ideation. Positive RS is associated with lower suicidal ideation. Negative RS is associated with higher suicidal ideation; however, this occurs through its association with affective lability. Affective lability and negative aspects of RS are two factors related to suicide ideation that could be addressed in the treatment of depressed patients.     

‘Between the bridge and the brook’

Abstract

That suicide was a damnable sin in Reformation England has been emphasized so far in the historiography of self-killing, but in practice the clergy were equivocal over the question of whether all self-killers were damned. This article re-examines English Protestant beliefs about suicide and salvation from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century. It suggests that clerical statements about the damnableness of suicide need to be understood in the context of the threat posed by Stoic philosophy. Religious writers rejected the notion of noble suicide and reiterated Augustinian theology that premeditated self-killing was a form of murder. However, the harsh rhetoric was mitigated by a number of factors that brought into question the idea that all suicides were destined for Hell. These included changing medical opinion about mental states, evidence of the good character of many suicides, belief in the overpowering influence of demonic forces and basic Christian charity and compassion.     

Extending fields of work

The aim of this paper is to describe some acute responses to the suicide of a parent, through the account of the analytic psychotherapy of a latency child who found the body of his dead father. The acute traumatic responses of the child show that the perceptual apparatus, time and space are subverted, while the functioning of the contact barrier is deeply damaged. The importance of the environment in facilitating the first stages of the mourning process is stressed as well as the pre-traumatic personality structure. Both the Bionian model of preconception and the post-Jungian notion of archetype, revisited in terms of an unsaturated predisposition, are considered from a theoretical point of view. Preconceptions and archetypal dispositions to survive traumatic events are very important to the therapeutic outcome, along with the opportunity to start the treatment as early as possible after the traumatic event. This is particularly relevant in relation to the latency period, in terms of the capacity to contemplate the effects of the drives. The importance of allowing the child to work through all the stages of mourning is also considered, particularly rage, protest and hostile fantasies towards the lost object. The clinical material is structured as a narrative in an attempt to evoke the emotional climate experienced during the sessions as well as the state of mind of the child. The narrative is a secondary elaborated account with condensation and displacement at its core, like in dream work. Events, filtered through the analyst's state of self, are reported by lending the first person to the child in the narrative reconstruction.     

Superego distortions and self-attack

Some people demand an unachievable level of self-perfection, and experience extremely harsh self-criticism when they inevitably fall short of this impossibly high standard. As a result of early trauma or neglect, patients who have internalized part-objects that are particularly responsive to aggression also appear to lack supportive introjects which could normally serve to counterbalance innate aggressivity. The resultant superego malformations are overly harsh and charged with self-destructive intent. Self-attack may range from guilt-ridden self-loathing to physical assault on the body. Suicide is viewed as restorative and survivable. Treatment interventions include superego analysis as a way to identify internalized self-attack, disentangle organized self-destructive elements and support counter-balancing forces for affect tolerance.     

The shame of existing: An extreme form of shame

This paper presents ‘the shame of existing’ as a form of shame that is deeper and more extensive than those customarily encountered. ‘The shame of existing’ is defined as shame about existing as we are and especially at the fact that we are. It is accompanied by merciless and total rejection of the subject's self and by feelings of extreme worthlessness and inferiority coupled with the all‐pervasive conviction that it would be better not to exist. On the basis of clinical material, consideration is given to the specific transference and countertransference aspects of analyses in which the shame of existing constitutes an important part of the patient's pathology. Disturbance of handling and holding by the primary objects right from birth is suggested as the earliest developmental basis of the shame of existing. This disturbance is attributed to hate and rejection of the infant by the primary objects and to the infant's not being touched emotionally and physically and not having its right to exist acknowledged. The paper begins with an introduction to shame as an affect and as a concept in psychoanalytic theory.     

Suicide and Religion: New Evidence on the Differences Between Protestantism and Catholicism

Suicide has remained a persistent social phenomenon and now accounts for more deaths than motor vehicle accidents. There has been much debate, however, over which religious constructs might best explain the variation in suicide rates. Our empirical analysis reveals that even though theological and social differences between Catholicism and Protestantism have decreased, Catholics are still less likely than Protestants to commit or accept suicide. This difference holds even after we control for such confounding factors as social and religious networks. In addition, although religious networks do mitigate suicides among Protestants, the influence of church attendance is more dominant among Catholics. Our analysis also indicates that alternative concepts such as religious commitment and religiosity strongly reduce suicide acceptance.     

中美辅助生殖技术伦理规范的比较研究

人类辅助生殖技术给不孕不育症患者带来了福音,但在一定程度上改变了人类的自然生殖过程,同时也为医务工作人员在实施该项技术的过程中增添了新的伦理困惑.通过比较研究,拟从伦理法规制定机构、单一精子供应上限、精子库精源、受者范围、捐献目的、捐献方式等对中美两国在人类辅助生殖技术方面伦理规范的差异进行阐述,为我国提高此项技术的伦理审查能力、增强政策研究、保证伦理监督的公平和客观提供科学合理的借鉴.     

Are Nonfatal Suicide Attempts Instrumental in Achieving Personal and Interpersonal Goals?

This study focused on the well-being of the survivors of suicide attempts and the well-being of their interpersonal relationships after the attempt. The data came from a sample of 392 college students from 10 Muslim majority countries who reported having attempted suicide in the last 4 years. Suicide was conceptualized as a goal-directed behavior embedded in a sociocultural context and motivated by personal or interpersonal goals. We tested a process that linked culturally shaped self-construal to the postsuicidal personal and interpersonal well-being. We posited that this process would operate through the attitudes towards suicide, motives for suicide, the strength of the intention to die. Our model indicated that the acceptability of suicide was positively associated with escape motives, and this association was even stronger for the individuals with interdependent self-construals. Escape motives were negatively associated with postsuicidal personal and interpersonal well-being, but communication motives were not associated with these outcomes. We also found evidence that having an interdependent self-construal might be beneficial for postsuicidal personal and interpersonal well-being. Our results further suggested that the postsuicidal personal and interpersonal well-being of highly interdependent individuals may depend on the interpretation of their act of suicide by their close others.