Suicidality Protective Factors Among Black College Students: Which Cultural and Personal Resources Matter?

This study examined the influence of cultural resources (ethnic identity, Afrocentric worldview, and religiosity) on suicidal thoughts and behaviors among Black college students and the role of personal resources (ego resiliency and optimism) as mediators of this link. Data collected from 257 participants were analyzed. A bivariate correlational analysis showed that ethnic identity was significantly associated with lower levels of suicidality. In addition, ego resiliency mediated the relationships between Afrocentric worldview, ethnic identity, and religiosity and suicidality. Este estudio examinó la influencia que tienen los recursos culturales (identidad étnica, visión del mundo afrocéntrica y religiosidad) sobre los pensamientos y comportamientos suicidas entre estudiantes universitarios negros, así como el papel de los recursos personales (resiliencia del ego y optimismo) como mediadores de esta conexión. Se analizaron los resultados recogidos de 257 participantes. Un análisis correlacional bivariado mostró que la identidad étnica estaba asociada significativamente a niveles más bajos de tendencias suicidas. Además, la resiliencia del ego medió la relación entre la visión del mundo afrocéntrica, la identidad étnica y la religiosidad y las tendencias suicidas.     

Too much to swallow? Some reflections on adolescent overdose

Overdose, as a subcategory of self-harm, is under-represented in the psychoanalytic literature in terms of attempts to understand what may underpin it. Given the current prevalence of overdose amongst self-harming adolescents, it seems important to try to understand this from a psychoanalytic perspective. Drawing on clinical material from adolescent patients who overdosed, the author attempts to make sense of how overdose was used by these patients as a means of unconsciously communicating their difficulties. It is suggested that overdose might be understood in the following ways: as a physical enactment of the way in which the patient’s mind is overwhelmed by thoughts, feelings and experiences which it cannot digest or process; as a disguised wish beneath overt self-destructiveness to take in a ‘good feed’; as an enactment of past and present force-feeding, both literally and figuratively, by parents or carers; as an enactment of an internalised death wish from an object which has projected something poisonous into the patient.     

A Heideggerian Defense of Therapeutic Cloning

Debates about the legitimacy of embryonic stem-cell research have largely focused on the type of ethical value that should be accorded to the human embryo in␣vitro. In this paper, I try to show that, to broaden the scope of these debates, one needs to articulate an ontology that does not limit itself to biological accounts, but that instead focuses on the embryo’s place in a totality of relevance surrounding and guiding a human practice. Instead of attempting to substantiate the ethical value of the embryo exclusively by pointing out that it has potentiality for personhood, one should examine the types of practices in which the embryo occurs and focus on the ends inherent to these practices. With this emphasis on context, it becomes apparent that the embryo’s ethical significance can only be understood by elucidating the attitudes that are established towards it in the course of specific activities. The distinction between fertilized embryos and cloned embryos proves to be important in this contextual analysis, since, from the point of view of practice, the two types of embryos appear to belong to different human practices: (assisted) procreation and medical research, respectively. In my arguments, I highlight the concepts of practice, technology, and nature, as they have been analyzed in the phenomenological tradition, particularly by Martin Heidegger. I come to the conclusion that therapeutic cloning should be allowed, provided that it turns out to be a project that benefits medical science in its aim to battle diseases. Important precautions have to be taken, however, in order to safeguard the practice of procreation from becoming perverted by the aims and attitudes of medical science when the two practices intersect. The threat in question needs to be taken seriously, since it concerns the structure and goal of practices which are central to our very self understanding as human beings.     

From da Vinci to CAD and beyond

Here what I would like to accomplish is to set something of the stage from which the growing recognition of what I shall now term technoscience’s visualism—a term which can accommodate both sciences and engineering, and both imaging and design practices—takes its recognition. I shall very briefly look at the ‘godfathers and peers’ who help set this stage, and then proceed to an examination of a few moments in the development of visualism from da Vinci to computer assisted design (CAD) and beyond.     

The Coping Self-Efficacy Scale: Psychometric properties in an outpatient sample of active duty military personnel

ABSTRACT

Active duty military service members endure a unique constellation of stressors while deployed or at home. Yet, assessment of protective factors against these stressors among active duty service members represents an under studied area. The present study advances the assessment of protective factors through the psychometric evaluation of the Coping Self-Efficacy Scale (CSES) in a clinical sample of military service members in mental health or substance abuse treatment (n = 200). Cross-sectional data were drawn from military medical records and a supplemental self-report questionnaire. Data extracted included demographic (e.g., sex, age), military characteristics (e.g., rank, years in service), physical health and mental health (e.g., anxiety, depression), and coping self-efficacy. Findings suggest a 3-factor (i.e., problem-focused coping, thought-stopping, and getting social support) CSES structure with acceptable internal consistency. Further, there were small-to-moderate associations with physical and mental health outcomes, providing evidence of construct validity. There were few significant associations with military-related characteristics. Finally, controlling for covariates, thought-stopping beliefs explained unique variance in suicide-related behaviors. Together, findings support the use of the CSES to measure coping-related beliefs in military service members. Recommendations are offered for future research and practice with active duty service members.     

The Epistemology of Communitarian Bioethics:Traditions in the Public Debates

I consider the problem liberalism poses for bioethics.Liberalism is a view that advocates that the state remain neutralto views of the good life. This view is sometimes supported by askeptical moral epistemology that tends to propel liberalismtoward libertarianism. I argue that the possibilities for sharedagreement on moral matters are more promising than is sometimesappreciated by such a view of liberalism. Using two examples ofpublic debates of moral issues, I show that commonly sharedintuitions may ground moral principles even if they may be givendifferent weight by persons of different moral and religioustraditions. Nevertheless, the fact that the intuition andprinciple is widely shared may be sufficient to chart somedirections for public policy or cooperative action even if theydo not lead to complete agreement. As a result, I argue that aliberal communitarianism that presupposes a fairly minimalistepistemology is a legitimate approach to achieving sharedagreement in a pluralistic society.