Workaholism and Family Functioning: A Profile of Familial Relationships, Psychological Outcomes, and Research Considerations

This paper examines the relationship between workaholism and family functioning and the psychological outcomes of family members. A profile of the workaholic family is presented, along with an argument for family scientists and practitioners to pay more attention to this neglected area of family life. Considerations for how to address the need in family research and practice also are presented.     

Referral Source Differences in Functional Impairment Levels for Children Served in the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program

We report one of the first multi-site investigations into referral source variation in functional impairment for children with serious emotional disturbance served in systems of care settings. Baseline data collected as part of the national evaluation for the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program was used to assess the comparability of functional status for children referred from traditional mental health versus non-mental health agencies. Results indicate that children referred from child welfare and family groups have significantly lower levels of overall dysfunction than those referred from mental health, while children referred from school and juvenile justice agencies have comparable levels. Clinical and research implications are discussed.     

The Genesis of Mind and Spirit

Spiritual life is made possible by the evolution of a human neuropsychology that requires social interdependence for its development. Extensive neuroplasticity requires experiential shaping throughout life. The evolution of frontal cortex hypertrophy suggests that much of this shaping is produced by a socially constructed virtual reality, extending beyond immediate experience. Prefrontal colonization makes possible the social scaffolding of neuroregulation, including the emotional attachments necessary for moral life. Cognitive independence from immediate environments enables symbioses with external memory systems, producing novel forms of socially constituted experience and making possible the transformative effect of religious systems upon individual biologies and psychologies.     

骨源性因子ucOCN在运动抗抑郁中的作用机制

羧化不全骨钙素(ucOCN)是骨中成骨细胞分泌的特异性蛋白,因其在调控神经发育、神经可塑性等中的重要角色而受到神经科学领域关注。"骨-脑"串联"对话"是骨内分泌-神经介导的应答系统,ucOCN透过血脑屏障后介导单胺类神经递质、神经内分泌、神经免疫、神经再生及基因表达等机制,进而作用于海马CA3区、扣带回等脑区功能发挥来调节抑郁发生及改善。而ucOCN作为骨源性力学刺激敏感基因,运动上调其表达后进入血液循环,通过介导5-HT/GABA分泌、HPA轴功能、炎症反应、神经营养因子(BDNF等)表达或信号途径(如GSK3β/β-catenin、TLR4/miR-223/NLRP3等)激活等来实现"骨串联脑",发挥运动抗抑郁作用。通过对骨源性因子ucOCN介导脑区功能变化从而实现运动抗抑郁的作用机制进行探讨、梳理,一方面有助于更深入了解骨内分泌功能,另一方面为抑郁发生、改善和运动抗抑郁研究提供新的理论基础和研究思路。     

Conceptual framework from the Paris Psychosomatic School: A clinical psychoanalytic approach to oncology1

This article presents further clinical material from the Paris Psychosomatic School ( Aisenstein, 2006 ). The Freudian foundations of psychosomatics are detailed and post-Freudian developments focusing on the contribution of the Paris Psychosomatic School are outlined, in particular, the somatizing process as a result of regression and the somatizing process as a result of drive unbinding. The authors argue that the latter possibly gives rise to progressive and serious illness leading to death. The relationship of classical psychoanalysis to psychotherapeutic treatment from the angle of the Paris school is commented on. The authors then turn to two clinical presentations of women suffering from breast cancer. The method of evaluating the patients’ capacities for undergoing psychotherapeutic treatment and their mental capacity for healing is discussed. The face-to-face psychoanalytic treatment undertaken with the second case is discussed. Finally, the authors recall Freud’s insistence after 1920 on the opposition of the life drives and the death drives, which placed self-destruction at the centre of psychic functioning. They conclude that current research in biology and medicine, notably research concerning programmed cell death, will converge with psychoanalytic psychosomatics to illuminate somatizing processes and demonstrate the relevance of psychoanalytic treatment to patients who are capable of mental reorganization in the course of their illness and medical treatment.     

Testing for DIF in a model with single peaked item characteristic curves: The parella model

The PARELLA model is a probabilistic parallelogram model that can be used for the measurement of latent attitudes or latent preferences. The data analyzed are the dichotomous responses of persons to items, with a one (zero) indicating agreement (disagreement) with the content of the item. The model provides a unidimensional representation of persons and items. The response probabilities are a function of the distance between person and item: the smaller the distance, the larger the probability that a person will agree with the content of the item. This paper discusses how the approach to differential item functioning presented by Thissen, Steinberg, and Wainer can be implemented for the PARELLA model. Requests for the PARELLA software should be sent to Iec Progamma PO Box 841, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands.     

CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE MACHINE

Abstract. We consider only the relationship of consciousness to physical reality, whether physical reality is interpreted as the brain, artificial intelligence, or the universe as a whole. The difficulties with starting the analysis with physical reality on the one hand and with consciousness on the other are delineated. We consider how one may derive from the other. Concepts of universal or pure consciousness versus local or ego consciousness are explored with the possibility that consciousness may be physically creative. We examine whether artificial intelligence can possess consciousness as an extension of the interrelationship between consciousness and the brain or material reality.     

GOD IS GREAT, GOD IS GOOD: JAMES ASHBROOK'S CONTRIBUTION TO NEUROETHICAL THEOLOGY

Abstract. James Ashbrook's work has not only clarified issues in brain and belief, it has offered intriguing suggestions for ethics. The relevance of neurotheology to ethics is evident if we assume that ethics entails, in part, concerns about character, responsibility, and the art of living.