Can I Be Ill and Happy?

Can one be ill and happy? I use a phenomenological approach to provide an answer to this question, using Merleau-Ponty’s distinction between the biological and the lived body. I begin by discussing the rift between the biological body and the ill person’s lived experience, which occurs in illness. The transparent and taken for granted biological body is problematised by illness, which exposes it as different from the lived experience of this body. I argue that because of this rift, the experience of illness cannot be captured within a naturalistic view and propose to supplant this view with a phenomenological approach. The latter approach accounts for changes in the ill person’s relationship to her social and physical world. These changes, I argue, cannot be captured by a naturalistic perspective. I then propose the notion of health within illness as a useful concept for capturing the experience of well-being reported by some ill people. I present empirical evidence for this phenomenon and assess its philosophical significance. Finally, I suggest that adaptability and creativity are two common positive responses to illness, demonstrating that health within illness is possible. The three elements combined – the transformed body, health within illness and adaptability and creativity – serve as the basis for a positive answer to the question posed above.     

Housing for People with Serious Mental Illness: A Comparison of Values and Research

This article contrasts values associated with the delivery of housing programs for people with serious mental illness with the typical topics pertaining to housing that are studied by researchers. Six values were identified through a search and content analysis of the literature on housing for people with serious mental illness. A second review of the literature was conducted to identify research on housing for this population. A comparison of findings from the two reviews suggested that whereas values concerned with the therapeutic benefits of housing had received considerable research attention, those concerned with a citizenship dimension had received relatively little. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the delivery of housing services and for housing research.     

Mental Illness Publications in Major Pastoral Care Journals from 1950 to 2003

The issue of mental illness has been of considerable interest to both of us over the past several years. The first author has taught a course on the subject for a decade, and his recent publications on the subject include several articles on John Nash (Capps, 2003b, 2004a,b, 2005b), a book on mental illness for pastoral care professionals (2005a), and an article on whether William James was a patient at McLean Hospital (2007). The second author has had experience with the mentally ill through his pastoral work at Trenton Psychiatrist Hospital in Trenton, New Jersey, a mental hospital with a rather checkered history (see Scull, 2005), and in Scotland and has also written an article on John Nash (Carlin, 2006). This shared interest, together with evidence that serious mental illness in America has been steadily increasing (Torrey &; Miller, 2001, pp. 295–299), caused us to wonder what sort of attention mental illness has received in our major journals of pastoral care from 1950 to the present. Specifically, has this attention kept pace with the increase in mental illness?     

Parentification and Maternal HIV Infection: Beneficial Role or Pathological Burden?

Parentification, along with parenting and child adjustment, were examined in 23 9-through 16-year-old youth from families affected by maternal HIV infection and 20 same-age peers whose mothers were not infected. Children whose mothers were HIV-positive reported to more often engage in parental role behaviors, relative to children of HIV-negative mothers. This difference remained even after controlling for the effects of current drug use, number of adults per child in the household, and marital status. Findings revealed a beneficial relationship between parentification and both child adjustment and parenting, particularly among families affected by maternal HIV infection. When relationships were examined separately by HIV status, the pattern of results suggested that parentification, which involves increased emotional closeness, rather than role-related tasks, which may involve increased responsibility of household maintenance, seems to foster an association with concurrent positive parenting and child adjustment among families coping with HIV/AIDS. Directions for future research, including the need for methodological advances in the field are discussed.     

A terminal diagnosis: The carers’ perspective

This qualitative study explored the views of spouse carers in relation to the emotional impact of caring for a partner with a chronic or terminal illness. The study population consisted of nine full‐time spouse carers, recruited using a snowball sampling strategy. Semi‐structured interviews took place in the carers’ homes. These were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data were then analysed using constant comparative analysis. Themes identified included the emotional and physical health of the carer, personality changes in the spouse, relationship issues, denial, anticipating death, accessing support and coping strategies. Findings indicate that these carers experienced a whole range of feelings and emotions, which impacted on their health and well‐being. They included fatigue, stress, distress, anxiety, depression, feelings of isolation and suicidal thoughts. These were particularly profound around the time of diagnosis, end of treatment, during a relapse and most particularly around the time of death. An increasing number of terminally ill people are now expressing a preference to be cared for at home. The potential risks to the health of caregivers therefore need to be taken into account. This study highlights the importance of assessing the needs of carers in order to identify those at risk of compromised health, which would then allow those requiring support to be offered prompt referral to specialist services.     

Utilizing Religious Schemas to Cope with Mental Illness

Recent Gallup Polls suggest that 96% of Americans polled believe in God or a universal supreme being (Gallup, 1995). In addition, large percentages of Americans polled report that they pray or believe in miracles. It appears then that religious belief might be a useful coping strategy for those experiencing significant distress or illness. Although much of the research regarding religious coping and illness has focused on physical illness, it seems likely that religious coping would also be useful to those who are experiencing a mental illness. Existing data regarding the use of religious coping and mental illness is discussed, and Daniel McIntosh's theory of religion as a cognitive schema is applied to those suffering severe mental illness.     

创造力有其“阴暗面”

创造力有其“阴暗面”。从产品角度而言,创造力可产出伤害性或消极的产品;从个体角度而言,高创造力者可能具有一些消极特征,如精神疾病易感性强、宜人性差、说谎、不诚信等;从情境角度而言,高创造力表现可能与不信任感、生存危机感、社会拒绝等消极因素有关。未来研究应开发高生态效度的恶意创造力测评工具,改进计算恶意创造力水平的算法,探索消极个体特征和消极情境因素作用于创造性思维的认知与神经机制。     

Supported Education Practitioners: Agents of Transformation?

Interviews with adult mental health in- and out-patients attending a psychiatric hospital-based supported education program, and their program staff and volunteers, demonstrated that while an informal program structure had initial success in increasing student confidence and independence, the subsequent expansion of the program requires formalizing it using adult and transformative education protocols to increase literacy gains. We argue that professional development in adult education showing the value of transformative learning for staff can complement their occupational therapy and mental healthcare training, so that the empowerment and identity transformation can be increased for these vulnerable students.     

Exploring the Current Usage and Preferences for Everyday Technology among People with Serious Mental Illnesses

While literature reports people with serious mental illnesses can benefit from everyday technology, evidence supporting whether or not they are using it in their daily lives is limited. This study investigated what people with serious mental illness are using technology for, what they would like to use it for, and why they are currently not using particular features. Results indicated 97.1% of participants own or use a wireless device, 82.4% use text messaging, 64.7% use email, and 70.6% use voicemail. Implications for further research as well as implications for therapeutic interventions using technology are discussed.     

Predicting jet lag in long-haul cabin crew: The role of illness cognitions and behaviour

Objective: Established risk factors for jet lag are mostly physiological including circadian preference, age, gender, the number of flight zones crossed and to some extent direction of travel. Some research has also highlighted a role for psychosocial factors including sleep, diet and ‘circadian’ health behaviours and illness cognitions although this remains relatively untested. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of sleep, diet and illness cognitions in predicting perceived jet lag amongst long-haul crew.

Design: Sixty long-haul crew took part in a longitudinal study. Profile characteristics (including chronotype), preparation strategies (sleep, eating and ‘circadian’ behaviours) and illness cognitions were measured at baseline (before a trip).

Main outcome measures: Subjective jet lag (unidimensional and multidimensional) was measured on the crews’ second day off (post-trip).

Results: Hierarchical regression analyses showed that unidimensional jet lag was predicted by the belief in a cyclical timeline, whereas multidimensional jet lag was predicted by multidimensional jet lag at baseline and to a lesser extent by identity. No role was found for profile characteristics and preparation strategies.

Conclusion: Illness cognitions partly explain the experience of perceived jet lag in long-haul cabin crew indicating that jet lag is in part a psycho-social construct, not just a biological one.