Theological and Ethical Reflections on Men and Violence: Toward a New Understanding of Masculinity

Abstract

This paper explores the reasons why men express violence against women, children and other men, suggesting that men's violence represents one of the darkest features of masculinity. The way men are socialized and conditioned requires and produces violent behaviors that are destructive to men themselves as well as to women, children, and the earth. The author proposes the need to re-envision masculinity to enable men and women to create communities in which people are encouraged to participate in ‘adventurous partnering for peace’.     

Prolonged grief disorder symptoms in bereaved internally displaced Tiv persons in Nigeria: associations with rumination,rebirth concerns and gender

ABSTRACT

There is burgeoning research on prolonged grief disorder (PGD) among several vulnerable populations but PGD symptoms have been scarcely examined among bereaved internally displaced persons (IDPs). This study investigated the associations of rumination, rebirth concerns and gender with symptoms of PGD following conflict-related bereavement. Participants were 379 Nigerian IDPs who were of the Tiv ethnic group. They provided demographics and completed self-report measures grief and rumination, while concern about rebirth status of the deceased was assessed using a single item which requested participants to indicate whether they had any concerns about the re-incarnation of the deceased. Results showed that gender was not associated with PGD symptoms. High intrusive rumination and high deliberate rumination were associated with increased PGD symptoms in males and females. Rebirth concern was associated with high PGD symptoms in males but not in females. Findings highlight the need for socio-culturally-informed screening/intervention in the wake of conflict-related bereavement.     

Acceptance and values-based action in chronic pain: a three-year follow-up analysis of treatment effectiveness and process

Recent developments in CBT emphasize the promotion of psychological flexibility to improve daily functioning for people with a wide range of health conditions. In particular, one of these approaches, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), has been studied for treatment of chronic pain. While trials have provided good support for treatment effectiveness through follow-ups of as long as seven months, the longer-term impact is not known. The present study of 108 participants with chronic pain examined outcomes three years after treatment completion and included analyses of two key treatment processes, acceptance of pain and values-based action. Overall, results indicated significant improvements in emotional and physical functioning relative to the start of treatment, as well as good maintenance of treatment gains relative to an earlier follow-up assessment. Effect size statistics were generally medium or large. At the three-year follow-up, 64.8% of patients had reliably improved in at least one key domain. Improvements in acceptance of pain and values-based action were associated with improvements in outcome measures. A “treatment responder” analysis, using variables collected at pre-treatment and shorter term follow-up, failed to identify any salient predictors of response. This study adds to the growing literature supporting the effectiveness of ACT for chronic pain and yields evidence for both statistical and clinical significance of improvements over a three-year period.     

Processes of change in psychological flexibility in an interdisciplinary group-based treatment for chronic pain based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

There are now numerous studies of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for chronic pain. These studies provide growing support for the efficacy and effectiveness of ACT in this context as well as for the role of ACT-specific therapeutic processes, particularly those underlying psychological flexibility. The purpose of the present study was to continue to build on this work with a broader focus on these processes, including acceptance of pain, general psychological acceptance, mindfulness, and values-based action. Participants included 168 patients who completed an ACT-based treatment for chronic pain and a three-month follow-up. Following treatment and at follow-up, participants reported significantly reduced levels of depression, pain-related anxiety, physical and psychosocial disability, medical visits, and pain intensity in comparison to the start of treatment. They also showed significant increases in each of the processes of psychological flexibility. Most uncontrolled effect sizes were medium or large at the follow-up. In correlation analyses changes in the four processes measures generally were significantly related to changes in the measures of depression, anxiety, and disability. In regression analyses the combined processes were related to changes in outcomes above and beyond change in pain intensity. Although in some ways preliminary, these results specifically support the unique role of general psychological acceptance in relation to improvements achieved by treatment participants. The current study clarifies potential processes of change in treatment for chronic pain, particularly those aiming to enhance psychological flexibility.     

Peripheral pain enhances the effects of incentive downshifts

Physical pain (induced by tissue damage) and psychological pain (induced by surprising incentive loss) share a set of common neural substrates, but little is known about their interactions. The present research studied such interactions using the formalin test to induce physical pain and consummatory successive negative contrast (cSNC) to induce psychological pain. In the formalin test, animals receive an intradermal injection of formalin (1%) in a hind paw. In cSNC, rats with free access to 32% sucrose show a sharp suppression of drinking behavior after a downshift to 4% sucrose, compared to rats that always receive 4% sucrose. In Experiment 1, formalin administration before the first and second 32-to-4% sucrose downshift trials enhanced cSNC. In Experiment 2, a similar treatment before the first downshift trial after a 16-to-4% sucrose downshift, which normally produces little or no evidence of cSNC, significantly increased cSNC. In Experiment 3, using a 32-to-4% sucrose downshift procedure similar to that of Experiment 1, no effects were observed following formalin administration immediately after Trial 11. Thus, no evidence was found that the effects of physical pain on cSNC were caused by changes in memory consolidation. The procedures used in these experiments offer a new approach to study the neural substrates of interactions between physical and psychological pain.     

Seeing bodies in pain: from Hippocrates to Freud

The study of pain has a history as long as that of Western medicine. In the 20th and 21st centuries much has been made about the epistemological problem of seeing somatic as well as psychic pain in the clinical setting. The two schools seem to be those which rely on self-reporting and those that rely on the interpretation of visual materials (expression or brain scans) by trained specialists. That this problem was central to the 19th century study of pain is clear as these origins (especially Darwin) are often cited in today's literature as 'proof' of their validity. That the problem was also central to one of the early 20th century thinkers most indebted to Darwin, Sigmund Freud, is less well known and how he resolved this paradox of self-reporting versus seeing seems to have been overlooked.     

Reflections on coma: Man deprived of his consciousness

In this paper the authors reflect on the phenomena produced by the surprising communication between the unconscious of a therapist and that of a comatose patient. In a particularly disturbing context, when the patient’s sternum is open and exposed, the therapist communicates empathically with the comatose person, identifying the patient’s inexpressible experience and generating signs of a response from him in the form of the blinking of his eyelids. The absence of any reaction to pain, a pathognomonic sign of the comatose condition, could be related to the splitting‐off of the trauma, as if the situation were frozen, through a denial of the sensory and neurological perception of pain – a kind of self‐anaesthesia as a defence against the catastrophic anxieties raised by the threat of the return of the primary trauma. Starting from this encounter a relationship is formed whose guiding thread emerges in the shared illusion of a regression that makes it possible. It involves a process of returning to the past and a re‐actualization of the past that includes the question of its change through representation.     

疼痛的心理学研究

心理学对疼痛的研究已经进行了几十年,成果颇丰。众多的研究已经证实了疼痛与基本心理过程之间的相互关系,包括注意、情绪、动机和记忆。除了基本心理过程外,社会因素也能够调节疼痛,如社会排斥、信仰、音乐、虚拟情境、金钱和权利等。已有疼痛研究中的疼痛测量方法过于主观,并且疼痛调节因素在临床中缺乏实践价值。当前疼痛研究呈现与具身思潮相结合的趋势,未来应更加重视发掘调节疼痛的社会因素。     

消费者决策分析的新视角:双通道心理账户理论

双通道心理账户是指人们在购买决策时具有一个双向通道的心理账户,其中一个通道记录了付款后消费者剩余的正效用,而另一个通道则记录了除去消费后付款带来的负效用.当消费与支付联结紧密时,会让人们更易想起支付的痛苦,从而降低消费快感,此时快乐弱化系数(α)大;当消费与支付联结较弱时,人们更不易记起支付的金额,从而在消费时拥有更多快乐,此时痛苦钝化系数(β)大.文章通过整理已有研究发现:先付款后消费的α系数更小,而先消费后付款的β系数更小;奢侈品的α系数更大,而必需品的β系数更大;吝啬者的α系数更大,而挥霍者的β系数更大.文章进一步阐述了影响消费者购买联结的心理机制是债务规避和负的时间偏好、支付贬值等.在此基础上为消费者做出购买决策以及商家选择促销方式提出了建议.同时也为消费者决策行为研究提供了新的视角和研究课题.     

评价和控制药物不良反应的认识与思考

用科学的世界观和方法论指导药物不良反应的评价和控制。从药物不良反应的发生机制、临床表现、因果关系的判定原则出发,与马克思主义哲学的基本观点相结合,提出了几点认识和思考。药物治疗作用与副作用既对立又统一;药物治疗效应向毒性反应的转变是量变到质变的过程;药物过敏反应的发生是内因外因相互作用的结果;药物与不良反应联系强度的判定必须符合前因后果性;药物与不良反应联系强度的判定必须排除混杂因素的干扰,找到内在的、本质的联系。