Women's mental health: coping mechanisms in the context of poverty

This study explored the coping mechanisms of women from an economically disadvantaged community in a South African setting. Data on symptoms of depression, prevalence of ego-resilience and demographics were collected from 60 women (African women aged 20–78 years) using a survey and individual interviews. The quantitative data were analysed using the Spearman's correlation coefficient and Mann–Whitney-U tests, while thematic analysis was used for the qualitative component. The results indicated protective factors of inner strength, peer relationships, religion and music, and community group participation as coping mechanisms for depressive symptoms in resource scarce environments. A sense of purpose was found in caring for children, and social participation was a crucial support mechanism.     

Exploring risk and protective mechanisms associated with HIV infection among adolescents in South Africa

This study explored South African adolescents’ perceived risk and protection for HIV infection. Adolescents (N=28) with a mean age of 14.6 years receiving mental health care participated in Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) to engage in an in-depth exploration of their perceived risk and protective mechanisms for HIV prevention. The data were analysed using thematic content analysis. Themes that emerged from the FGDs associated with risk for HIV infection were: Alcohol and illicit drug use; Non-condom use; Prostitution and risky sexual activity with multiple partners; and Non-disclosure of HIV status. Themes that emerged as protective mechanisms included: HIV knowledge and appropriate HIV risk reducing behaviour; and Proactive parental attitudes and behaviour. These findings highlight the importance of ascertaining the perceptions of adolescents about risk and protection from HIV infection in order to inform future programs for HIV prevention among adolescents.     

Experiences of Managers of Aggression in the Workplace

The study explored and described the experiences of workplace aggression by managers in a northern South African district. Participants were seven managers from two medium sized companies. One of the companies was from the dairy industry and the other from the auditors' industry. These participants held managerial positions over other workers for at least one year, were from the same district and could converse fluently in Afrikaans and English. Data were gathered using in-depth phenomenological interviews and analysed by means of open coding. Findings suggest that work place aggression could be confused with ambition, the quality of discipline and conflict, and power play. Managers also observed that while an aggressive management style was effective to get the job done, it could also hamper constructive communication and the quality of work life.     

Mental Health among Youth in South Australia: A Survey of Flourishing,Languishing, Struggling,and Floundering

The Complete State Model of Mental Health was used to describe the prevalence of flourishing, languishing, struggling, and floundering in life in a sample of young South Australians (n = 3,913; 13–17 years, 52% female). Categorisation was based on the relative proportion of mental health and mental illness symptoms reported on standardised measures and the association of these categories to health‐risk behaviour. Variability in categories and health‐risk behaviour due to gender or region was investigated. Results indicated that a disturbingly small proportion of adolescents (<50%) were flourishing in life, that poorer states of mental health were associated with increased health‐risk behaviour, and that the propensity to engage in health‐risk behaviour did vary by gender and region. The current study extends the platform from which positively focused mental health strategies can be tailored and launched to meet the mental health needs of adolescents.     

Changes in Limb Stiffness Under Conditions of Mental Stress

In 2 experiments, the effects of mental stress on limb stiffness were investigated. The relative contribution to arm stiffness of individual muscle activity, co-contraction, muscle reflexes, and postural adjustments were examined. In each experiment, participants (N = 24, Experiment 1; N = 16, Experiment 2) held their supinated hand under a tray that they were required to return to horizontal after it had been suddenly released. Electromyographic activity in the biceps and triceps muscles was recorded, as were elbow and wrist angles and tray displacement. In Experiment 1, mental arithmetic stress was shown to lead to decreased tray displacement (i.e., increased resistance) compared with displacements under the control, unstressed condition, as well as to increased elbow flexion before tray release. In Experiment 2, the increased resistance to perturbation caused by mental stress was found to be independent of initial elbow angle, but to vary as a function of the amount of upward force exerted before tray release. The authors conclude that stress-induced increases in limb stiffness result from changes in the initial position of the elbow, specified by its angle, together with the initial force exerted by participants to counteract the mechanical perturbations.     

Assessment of the Barnum Effect in Computer-Based Test Interpretations

A prototypic experiment for validating computer-based test interpretations (CBTIs) was conducted. Undergraduates (N = 63) completed the Comprehensive Personality Profile Compatibility Questionnaire (CPPCQ; Craft, 1987). One treatment group rated real CBTIs for relative accuracy, and another group rated bogus CBTIs. A significant main effect for differences in ratings indicated that the real CPPCQ profiles were rated as 74.5% accurate whereas the bogus CBTIs were rated as 57.9% accurate. Several covariate effects were tested, but none were significant.     

The Need for Absolute Truth and Self-Rumination as Basic Suppressors in the Relationship Between Private Self-Consciousness and Mental Health

Self-reflection has not so far been shown to have any specific benefits for mental health except for self-knowledge. Recent research showed that the controversy concerning the relationship between self-reflection and mental health could completely be eliminated if self-rumination and the need for absolute truth, especially the need for absolute truth, were considered as suppressor variables. This research replicated these findings in a different sample and expanded these findings by showing that the same is true for private self-consciousness. The need for absolute truth as a new variable was shown to be highly important in understanding the effects of self-consciousness on mental health.     

Family Functioning,Parental Psychological Distress and Child Behaviours: Evidence from the Victorian Child Health and Wellbeing Study

We examined, using data from the 2006 Victorian Child Health and Wellbeing Study (VCHWS), whether family functioning is associated with parental psychological distress and children's behavioural difficulties. The VCHWS was a statewide cross‐sectional telephone survey to 5,000 randomly selected primary caregivers of 0‐ to 12‐year‐old children between October 2005 and March 2006. Only parents or guardians of children aged 4–12 years (n = 3,370) were included in this study. After adjusting for sociodemographic variables and ethnicity, parents or guardians scoring higher on the family functioning scale (i.e., from poorly functioning households) were at greater risk of psychological distress and had children with lower levels of prosocial behaviour and higher levels of behavioural difficulties relative to those from healthily functioning households. Mental health prevention programmes addressing child mental and conduct problems should consider the family environment and target those families functioning poorly.     

Mental health among people with psoriasis undergoing patient education in climate therapy

This study investigated the mental health of people with psoriasis undergoing patient education in climate therapy. A prospective design included a baseline assessment and two follow‐ups after a 3‐week patient education program. Participants were 254 adults. Positive mental health was measured by the mental health continuum short form (0–70), and negative mental health by the emotional distress subscale (1–4) of the health education impact questionnaire. Paired‐samples t‐tests were used to evaluate changes in mental health from baseline to follow‐up. Multiple linear regression was used to analyse the ability of socio‐demographic and clinical variables and emotional distress to predict changes in positive mental health. To predict change in negative mental health we repeated the same analysis but with a change in negative mental health as a dependent variable and positive mental health as an independent variable. The results show that positive mental health and health‐related emotional distress improved significantly from before to after the intervention by 7.1 points, p < 0.001 and 0.21 points, p < 0.001) respectively. At the second follow‐up, health‐related emotional distress remained significantly improved compared with baseline levels by 0.11 points, p = 0.004. The longer participants had lived with psoriasis ( β = 146, p = 0.027), and the presence of co‐morbid health problems (β  =  111, p = 0.051) the greater the improvement in the positive mental health immediately after the intervention. No predictors were identified for negative mental health. This study indicates that the promotion of positive mental health needs to be integrated into the climate therapy program, and sustained in their home context.     

‘Battling with the unlaid ghost’: psychotherapy with a child traumatised in infancy

This paper attempts to explore the nature and consequences of early trauma on the mental development of a 9-year-old boy I have called Luke. The traumatic event occurred within the context of a more chronic and ongoing trauma, which was due to the lack of receptive and containing parental figures. The combination of these two kinds of traumatic experiences had a destructive impact on the making of Luke's internal world and greatly disrupted the development of his capacity for thought. I will specifically refer to the theory of trauma and to Bion's theory of thinking in order to illustrate the crucial link between trauma and mental work and the complex challenge it brings. I will describe how, during the course of 2 years of intensive treatment, Luke gradually became able to restore his capacity for mental functioning, which made it possible for him to begin to think about and make sense of his extreme emotional experiences.

Dans cet article, l'auteur cherche à explorer la nature et les conséquences, pour le développement psychique d'un garçon de neuf ans qu'il appelle Luke, d'un traumatisme précoce. L'événement traumatique s'est produit dans le contexte d'une situation traumatique plus chronique et plus globale en raison de l'absence de figures parentales réceptives et contenantes. L'association de ces deux types de vécu traumatique, avec leur impact destructeur sur la construction du monde interne de Luke, a créé des perturbations majeures du développement de sa capacité à penser. L'auteur se réfère tout particulièrement à la théorie du traumatisme ainsi qu'à la théorie de l'activité de pensée de W. R. Bion afin d'illustrer le lien fondamental qui existe entre traumatisme et travail psychique, ainsi que le défi complexe que ce travail doit confronter. L'auteur montre qu'au cours de deux années de traitement intensif Luke a progressivement retrouvé ses capacités de fonctionnement psychique, de sorte qu'il a pu commencer à réfléchir à ses vécus émotionnels insoutenables et réussir à y comprendre quelque chose.

Mots-clés: Traumatisme, “pare-excitation”, fonctionnement psychique, théorie de l'activité de pensée, fonction alpha, attaques contre l'activité de liaison

Riassunto: In questo articolo si cerca di esplorare la natura e le conseguenze del trauma precoce sullo sviluppo mentale di un bambino di nove anni che chiamerò Luca. L'evento traumatico accadde all'interno di un contesto di trauma pi[ugrave] cronico e duraturo dovuto all'assenza di figure parentali recettive e contenitive. La combinazione di questi due tipi di esperienze traumatiche ebbe un impatto distruttivo sul mondo interno di Luca e interferì enormemente con lo sviluppo della sua capacità di pensare. Farò principalmente riferimento alla teoria del trauma e alla teoria del pensiero di Bion per illustrare il legame particolare tra trauma e lavoro mentale e la complessa sfida che ne consegue. Descriverò come durante il lavoro intensivo di due anni, Luca divenne gradualmente capace di recuperare la sua capacità di funzionamento mentale che gli permise di incominciare a pensare e dare un senso alle sue esperienze emotive estreme.

Parole chiave: trauma, scudo protettivo, funzionamento mentale, teoria del pensiero, funzione alfa, attacco al legame

Der Artikel versucht, die Eigenschaften und Konsequenzen von frühem Trauma auf die psychische Entwicklung eines 9-jährigen Jungens, den ich Luke nenne, zu betrachten Das traumatische Ereignis passierte im Umfeld eines mehr chronischen und fortdauernden Traumas, wegen Mangel an rezeptiven und haltenden elterlichen Figuren. Die Kombination dieser zwei Arten von Trauma hatte eine destruktive Auswirkung auf das Entstehen von Lukes innerer Welt und störte erheblich die Entwicklung seiner Denkfähigkeit. Ich werden mich speziell auf Traumatheorie und auf Bion's Theorie des Denkens beziehen, um die entscheidende Verbindung zwischen Trauma und mentaler Arbeit und der komplexen Herausforderung, die das mit sich bringt, zu illustrieren. Ich werde beschreiben, wie Luke allmählich im Laufe einer zwei-jährigen intensiven Behandlung in der Lage war, seine Fähigkeit für mentales Funktionieren wiederherzustellen, was es ihm ermöglichte anzufangen, über seine extremen emotionalen Erfahrungen nachzudenken und Sinn herzustellen

Keywords: Trauma, Schutzschild, mentales Funktionieren, Theorie des Denkens, Alphafunktion, Angriffe auf Verbindungen