A neurodevelopmental perspective on male violence

Research is increasingly documenting a neurobiological basis to violence. This review takes a neurodevelopmental perspective on the very small group of males who grow up to become persistent violent offenders. After outlining six criteria for what constitutes a neurodevelopmental disorder, the extent to which chronic violence meets these definitional criteria is examined, covering the fields of genetics, structural and functional brain imaging, and neuropsychology. Early health risk factors for violence are then outlined, including birth complications, minor physical anomalies, prenatal smoking and alcohol exposure, poor nutrition, lead exposure, and traumatic brain injury. Persistent adult violence is argued to originate in aberrant temperamental behavior in early childhood, to have a stable developmental trajectory, and to be associated with impaired education, social, and occupational functioning. Taken together, it is argued that chronic adult violence meets criterion for being conceptualized as having neurodevelopmental origins and that an important, but not sole, source of neural maldevelopment lies in prenatal and early postnatal risk factors. This review concludes with a recognition of the sociopolitical context within which a neurodevelopmental perspective on chronic violence sits, together with directions for future research, including whether a neurodevelopmental hypothesis is best applied to reactive as opposed to proactive aggression.     

The CARE System in Its Importance in Dealing with Today's Crises1

The CARE system is a gift from Mother Nature, we have it in our biological heritage; it enables us humans—as a basic gift—to help each other in a large, life-serving context, and thus also to counterbalance destruction. It is about a basic human ability, linked to typical behaviour, but also about a basic human need for connectedness. In this paper, I would like to show how the CARE system can be activated as a collective attitude. The CARE system is strengthened by positive emotions. We are currently being affected by many crises and this triggers fear. How can we deal with this better? Fear is countered with hope and the associated positive emotions such as joy, awe, kama muta and others. These emotions and feelings can be consciously encouraged and placed alongside the feelings of fear. But also, when we share the feelings of grief with each other, it triggers an attitude of CARE. We can grieve together for the various experiences of loss that we go through—but we can also imagine together how we envisage a future that is worth living for everyone. An attitude in the sense of CARING has been practised in friendship for thousands of years. It would therefore be possible to move away from an attitude of competing and outdoing, to an attitude not only of recognition, care, and solidarity in human interaction, but also in our connection with nature.     

Alcohol interlocks and prevention of drunk-driving recidivism

IntroductionAlcohol interlock programs (AIP) are aimed at preventing drunk-driving recidivism. They first appeared in Europe in the nineties.ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was investigate whether AIPs are effective in reducing recidivism and determine what factors of such programs contribute to their positive impact.MethodWe performed a follow-up of AIP participants (n = 175) and control participants (n = 234) for five years. Data such as blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at time of arrest, previous and subsequent violations (alcohol-related or other types) were collected from the official driver's license files. For self-evaluation and evaluation of the program (since November 2009 only), we used questionnaires based on two theoretical models: the Transtheoretical Model of Change (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1984) and the Diamond of Change Model from the DRUID project, build to explain which are the elements of driver rehabilitation training courses that favor behavioral modification (Bukasa et al., 2009).ResultsThe data obtained allowed us to describe these populations of alcohol-drinking offenders, for both the interlock program group and the control group. Two salient features were male proneness to alcohol-related violations and a very high BAC (between 1.5 and 2 g/l) among the majority of drivers who drink under the influence of alcohol. In terms of recidivism reduction, the interlock program was not clearly linked to a beneficial effect. An analysis of behavioral change among the AIP participants showed that consciousness raising took effect more quickly than did environmental reevaluation or reinforcement management.ConclusionsThe application of Prochaska et al.’s model to the follow-up of AIP programs would be more fruitful in the future if psychologists are involved in the program. As we have seen, medical/psychological monitoring may not have been strong enough in the program studied here.     

Évolution du contrôle religieux la première année suivant l’annonce d’un cancer du sein : quels liens avec les stratégies de coping,l’anxiété, la dépression et la qualité de vie ?

The aim of this study was to examine the evolution of perception of religious control during the first year after breast cancer diagnosis and to establish how this evolution could have an effect on coping strategies, psychological distress and quality of life. One hundred and seventeen patients completed four self-reports questionnaires at surgery time and 1, 4, 7, 10, 13 months after the first assessment. Findings showed that religious control declined during the first 4 months treatment, although it is stable after. Furthermore, maintenance of religious control was associated with lower helplessness-hopelessness, denial, anxious preoccupations and avoidance and with better emotional and physical quality of life at all times of the study. We found no association with anxiety or depression.     

La représentation du but dans le contrôle exécutif chez l’enfant

Implementation of executive control over thought and action can only be guided by the goals that one desires to reach. Over the last decade, research has pointed out the central role of goal representation in executive control both during childhood and adulthood. The present paper reviews these findings, emphasizing the developmental dynamics observed during childhood. More precisely, it addresses the role of active goal maintenance in working memory, as it has been stressed by developmental and neurocognitive theoretical models. Beyond goal maintenance, the question as to how goal representations are formed in working memory has attracted research efforts lately. With age, children successfully process increasingly subtle environmental cues to infer the current task goal and when task goals need to be updated, as evidenced by the effect of cue transparency on switching and inhibition performance. In addition, the paper addresses how goal representation sheds light on the interplay between executive skills and conceptual knowledge, through the presentation of research in such domains as analogical reasoning, categorical flexibility, and class inclusion quantification. Taken together, these lines of research show that executive control development does not rely exclusively on a growing ability to implement appropriate actions, but it also depends largely on increasingly efficient identification of what such actions should be.     

Early childhood education and crime

This article presents new evidence on the crime-reducing impacts of a high-quality, intensive early childhood program with long-term follow-up, evaluated by a randomized controlled trial. Proportionately, more women than men decrease their criminal activity after participating in the program. This gender difference arises because of the worse home environments for girls, with corresponding greater scope for improvement by the program. For both genders, treatment effects are larger for the least-advantaged children, as measured by their mother's education at baseline. The dollar value of the social cost of criminal activity averted is higher for men because they commit more costly violent crimes.     

Moving towards Soul – an alchemical journey. Rehabilitation of women suffering from ‘chronic pain’ in a clinical and Jungian context

The aim of this paper is to explore the connection between symptom and symbol in the body of women suffering from chronic pain, diagnosed as fibromyalgia. The working hypothesis has been that the symbol that emerges from the symptom in the body can bridge the gap to a deeper meaning of pain and suffering, thereby becoming the agent of change for healing of the bodymind and the experience of pain in the physical body. To explore this subject I will introduce some recent research from the field of fibromyalgia, and the concepts of agency and affect systems in the body, which are important cornerstones in my work. I will briefly present my clinical concept of ‘Form and Freedom’. From this theoretical base I give some clinical examples of what I see as an alchemical journey towards soul, presented through vignettes, images and the words of three women – Maria, Riba and Ishtar. I conclude with how I see analytical psychology taking its rightful place alongside, informing or in conjunction with, as in my case, other psychotherapeutic modalities, working in creative ways that enhance healing in patients who suffer from chronic pain.