The effect of religiosity and spirituality on psychological well-being among forensic psychiatric patients in Canada

All patients in a multilevel secure forensic psychiatric centre were surveyed to determine the relationship between religiosity and spirituality, and depression, anxiety and satisfaction with life. Of the whole population, 90% responded; 5% were females and 47% aboriginal. The mean anxiety and depression scores using the Beck anxiety and depression inventories were low at 11.4 and 17, respectively. Weekly attendance at worship and the private intrinsic religiosity scores were higher than comparable samples of Canadians and general mental-health inpatients. Satisfaction with life score was positively correlated with all religiosity and spirituality variables. There was an inverse relationship between the Existential Well-Being scale and depression scores. The Existential Well-Being scale also correlated positively with satisfaction with life. Weekly worship attendance was inversely correlated with depression scores. These results point to some important differences between this patient population and the general population.     

An Existential Perspective of Body Beliefs and Health Assessment

Successful health assessments are ongoing and rely on a clinician/client interaction, which is influenced by both the client’s and the clinician’s beliefs about their bodies. These beliefs about the human body arise out of religious and cultural contexts. Theories often explain cultural context by comparison of differences and similarities between the client and the clinician and/or between the client and the dominant culture. This approach can carry a bias inherent in the comparison to dominant beliefs held by those with the most power and economic advantage. The author suggests an existential approach in which client and clinician bodies interact each as adept, autonomous individuals with a conglomerate of beliefs about body and health.The author is an Interdisciplinary PhD candidate in Music Therapy and Health Psychology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Her research goals include the interrelationship of music, spirituality, and cardiovascular health. She is a Board Certified music therapist and has served in that capacity since 1980 in mental health facilities, hospice, and private practice.     

Basic concepts in existential psychotherapy with couples and families

Existential psychotherapy with couples and families is a treatment approach that pays close attention to both problems and the meanings and meaning potentials to be found in daily marital and family life. The author reviews both the elements and treatment dynamics to be found in existential treatment with couples and families and overviews the practice of creative interaction between the existential psychotherapist and the marital and/or family members requesting help.     

Kant,health care and justification

An argument based on Kant for access to health-care for all is a most helpful addition to prior discussions. My paper argues that while such a point of view is helpful it fails to be persuasive. What is needed, in addition to a notion of the legislative will, is a viewpoint of community which sees justice as originating not merely from considerations of reason alone but from a notion of community and from a framework of common human experiences and capabilities.     

The ontological status of minimal entities

Minimal entities are, roughly, those that fall under notions defined by only deflationary principles. In this paper I provide an accurate characterization of two types of minimal entities: minimal properties and minimal facts. This characterization is inspired by both Schiffer’s notion of a pleonastic entity and Horwich’s notion of minimal truth. I argue that we are committed to the existence of minimal properties and minimal facts according to a deflationary notion of existence, and that the appeal to the inferential role reading of the quantifiers does not dismiss this commitment. I also argue that deflationary existence is language-dependent existence—this clarifies why minimalists about properties and facts are not realists about these entities though their language may appear indistinguishable from the language of realists.

When quantity trumps number: discrimination experiments in cotton-top tamarins (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Saguinus oedipus</Emphasis>) and common marmosets (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Callithrix jacchus</Emphasis>)

The capacity for non-linguistic, numerical discrimination has been well characterized in non-human animals, with recent studies providing careful controls for non-numerical confounds such as continuous extent, density, and quantity. More poorly understood are the conditions under which animals use numerical versus non-numerical quantification, and the nature of the relation between these two systems. Here we test whether cotton-top tamarins and common marmosets can discriminate between two quantities on the basis of the amount of food rather than on number. In three experiments, we show that when choosing between arrays containing different numbers and sizes of food objects, both species based their decisions on the amount of food with only minor influences of numerical information. Further, we find that subjects successfully discriminated between two quantities differing by a 2:3 or greater ratio, which is consistent with the ratio limits found for numerical discrimination with this species. These studies demonstrate that non-human primates possess mechanisms that enable quantification of total amount, in addition to the numerical representations demonstrated in previous studies, with both types of quantification subject to similar processing limits.     

哲学的教化与教化的哲学——论儒学精神的根本特质

Edification 教化 is one of the central concepts of Confucianism. The metaphysical basis of the Confucian edification is the “philosophical theory” in the sense of rational humanism rather than the “religious doctrine” in the sense of pure faith. Confucianism did not create a system of ceremony and propriety owned by Confucians only. The system of ceremony and propriety on which Confucians depend to carry out their social edification is that of “rites and music,” the common life style of ancient China. After continual metaphysical explanation and elevation, the system of ceremony and propriety and that of rites and music have undergone a sort of ever-evolving historical fluctuation, and evinced a sort of openness and forgiveness comparable to that of any other religious form. Compared with typical religious practices, whose ceremonies and rituals that have their own special fixity and exclusivity, Confucian ceremonies and rituals are fundamentally different. The edification of Confucianism can be labeled as “edification in the sense of philosophy.” As a “philosophy”, Confucianism’s vision did not focus on cognition but on completion and realization. Translated by Lei Yongqiang from Tianjin Shehui Kexue 天津社会科学 (Tianjin Social Sciences), 2005, (6): 19–26     

The existential dimension in psychiatry: an enactive framework

ABSTRACT

In his paper Psychiatry and religion: Consensus reached!, Verhagen advocates the relevance of spirituality and religion for the “origins, understanding, and treatment of psychiatric disorders”. In this comment, I argue for the broader claim that the existential dimension is important for understanding psychiatric disorders – of which religion can, but must not necessarily be, part. The existential dimension refers to our ability to relate to ourselves, our experiences, and our situation. This evaluative relation can play an important role in psychiatry: it can co-constitute the disorder, be affected by the disorder, and/or modulate the course of the disorder. Given this importance, it makes sense to explicitly recognize the existential dimension in our explanatory model of psychiatric disorders. The biopsychosocial model goes a long way in providing an integrative model, but there is room for improvement, especially when it comes to integration of its aspects, and acknowledging the existential aspect. I briefly introduce the research paradigm of enactivism, and suggest that an enactive framework is well-suited to incorporate this existential dimension – along with the traditional dimensions of the biopsychosocial model.     

Psychological and existential vulnerability among clinical young women: a quantitative comparison of depression-related subgroups

The objective was to explore psychological and existential vulnerability among clinical young women in Sweden. Females (n?=?53) with depression as the most common preliminary diagnosis were investigated through an online questionnaire. Included measures were Karolinska Scales of Personality, Self-concept, Strategies to Handle Negative Emotions, Sense of Coherence, and questions pertaining to existential meaning-making, including religious/spiritual belief. The sample was divided into High (n?=?35) and Low/Inter (n?=?18) groups according to scores on the anxiety- and depression-related personality scale Inhibition of aggression. Using independent samples t-test, the High group showed signs of significantly higher psychological and existential vulnerability than the Low/Inter group. Salutogenic factors being (1) coming from socially and societally engaged families and (2) being in a functional existential meaning-making process. The conclusion is that vulnerabilities in the psychological and existential domains are linked, especially in individuals high on depression-like aspects of personality. However, no significant differences for religion/spirituality were found. Treatment implications were addressed.     

Truth Analysis of the Gettier Argument

Gettier (1963) presented the now famous Gettier problem as a challenge to epistemology. The methods Gettier used to construct his challenge, however, utilized certain principles of formal logic that are actually inappropriate for the natural language discourse of the Gettier cases. In that challenge to epistemology, Gettier also makes truth claims that would be considered controversial in analytic philosophy of language. The Gettier challenge has escaped scrutiny in these other relevant academic disciplines, however, because of its façade as an epistemological analysis. This article examines Gettier's methods with the analytical tools of logic and analytic philosophy of language.