Not so unfortunate: carnivalisation,metafiction & the elements of grotesque realism in The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

As the harbinger in Lemony Snicket’s children’s novel series, A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Bad Beginning unfolds subversively from the outset. This woeful tale is a far cry from what we traditionally expect to be a story written for children. Klaus, Violet and Sunny, the orphaned protagonists of the story, are literally the ‘magnets for misfortune’. As they experience the tragic events, the Baudelaires’ talents and abilities are constantly put to the test. A series of unfortunate events, this essay argues, leads to a fortunate and spiritual insight in the Baudelaires that underlines a sense of connectedness in the children who go through traumatic calamities, a spiritual sense that deals with both the bright and dark sides of the events. To substantiate this argument, Mikhail Bakhtin’s carnivalisation and degradation are utilised to shed a different and, of course, a spiritual shade of light on the seeming unfortunate events. Hierarchies are reversed and grotesque imageries reinforce degradation. This degradation, however, sparks off a new genesis in the life of the Baudelaires. Turning to the metafictional side of the novel and its conflicting relations with didacticism, this essay verifies the claim that Lemony Snicket provokes children into a critical reading of their own choice. Ultimately, the essay examines the mentioned Bakhtinian elements to gain a richer understanding of the melancholic narrative of the Baudelaires in the context of an upside down genre. This is when a tragic tale is read like a fairy tale.     

Adverse childhood experiences,religious/spiritual struggles,and mental health symptoms: examination of mediation models

Emerging research has documented greater risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression among young adults with prior adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Building upon prior findings, we hypothesised that religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles may serve as an intervening pathway through which accumulation of ACEs impacts mental health symptom severity in this population. Young adults (N?=?458) were recruited from a southeastern university to complete an online self-report survey that assessed for ACEs, lifetime trauma exposure, R/S struggles, PTSD and depressive symptomatology. Bivariate correlations yielded significant positive relationships between ACEs and all six types of R/S struggles, depression, and PTSD. Additionally, when accounting for non-childhood trauma exposure, the mediational analyses indicated an indirect effect of struggles with ultimate meaning on the well-establish association between ACEs and mental health symptoms. Clinical implications (such as the importance of fostering meaning making), study limitations, and future research directions are discussed.     

Locating experience in time and place: a look at young adult fiction and spiritual intelligence

Spiritual intelligence describes self-awareness and intuition, with the development of creative thinking, compassion and connectedness with others. Many researchers point to an awakening and development of spiritual intelligence that is enhanced through exploration of existential questions within the genre of young adult fiction. Such literature absorbs the adolescent reader so that they become transported into the narrative, exploring a sense of self and of others This article discusses the ways in which young adult fiction, including comparison of a novel of older context (An Episode of Sparrows) with contemporary dystopian fiction (The Maze Runner), can foster young adults’ exploration of self-awareness and cultivate the continued development of notions of connectedness, justice and responsibility. It describes current research on the relationship between spiritual intelligence in young adults and the narrative transportation effect of young adult fiction.     

Adam and Eve’s Origin: A Theory Harmonising Scientific Evidence with the Qur’anic Text1

A Muslim scientist engaged in interaction between theology and science needs to remain completely faithful to the Holy Qur’an. This also applies to understanding the historical and spiritual dimensions of Adam and Eve. When Islamic scholars (‘ulama’) differ on subject details, this author chooses the position closest to that suggested by the scientific data. This method, then, allows incorporation of facts drawn from skeletal material of early Homo sapiens who could well have provided our ancestral physical form. This article tenders a parsimonious and probable theory that accommodates all relevant Qur’anic statements in conjunction with the scientific data.     

Jean Baker Miller,MD, Visionary Pragmatist

ABSTRACT

Jean Baker Miller’s 1976 book, Toward a New Psychology of Women, was an overnight success. It struck a deep chord in many women because it was based on listening to women’s stories. Instead of seeing women through the lens of male psychology with its emphasis on separation and autonomy, Jean suggested that relationships are central to women’s experience of themselves and the world. Traits that were typically pathologized (needing other people, attending to the messages of emotions, wanting to participate in growth fostering relationships for all involved) were revisited by Jean and her colleagues who discovered strengths where others had seen weakness. The resulting work is known as Relational-Cultural Theory (RCT) and has offered new understandings of women’s and men’s development with a special emphasis on the impact of power and marginalization on personal and collective wellbeing. Jean’s work is carried forward by members of a collaborative group with whom Jean worked for many years. RCT theorists have written and edited over 20 books, 115 works in progress, and numerous chapters and articles that continue to elaborate on Jean’s groundbreaking work. RCT is applied to both clinical and social justice settings. Jean was devoted to contributing to the creation of a more just society.     

Addressing the spiritual domain in a plural society: what is the best mode of integrating spiritual care into healthcare?

This study aims to rethink the integration of spiritual care into healthcare in spiritually plural societies. Based on a systematic review of the theoretical literature, we analysed 74 studies and distinguish four positions regarding the integration of spiritual care into healthcare: generalist-particularists who see the spiritual domain as a field to be addressed by all professional caregivers and in which caregivers’ own spiritual orientations play a vital role; generalist-universalists who advocate for all caregivers to provide spiritual care regardless of their spiritual orientations; specialist-particularists who argue that experts should address the spiritual domain in light of their own spiritual orientations; and specialist-universalists who call for experts to provide spiritual care regardless of their spiritual orientations. We argue that these four positions give different weight to the professional, personal, and confessional roles of the spiritual caregiver. Acknowledging these positions is a prerequisite for future scenarios of integrating spiritual care into healthcare.     

Job apathy and work engagement: Moderating influence of perceived leader integrity and spiritual intelligence in a Nigerian mass transit company

This study explored the direct and interactive roles of job apathy, perceived leader integrity, and spiritual intelligence on work engagement among 206 Nigerian employees of a leading mass transit company (females = 33%; mean age = 35.81years, SD = 5.04; mean organisational tenure = 6.27 years, SD = 2.26). Results following moderated hierarchical multiple regression showed that work engagement was lower with job apathy and higher with perceived leader integrity and employee spiritual intelligence. Moreover, employees with a high perception of leader integrity reported being more work engaged, regardless of feeling apathetic about their job, compared to those with a low perception of leader integrity. Perceived leader integrity and spiritual intelligence are important for work engagement in Nigeria’s transportation sector setting.     

‘Just black sometimes’, part 2: reflections on an adolescent's journey

In this second article about work at a refugee centre for unaccompanied minors in Berlin, the author discusses his encounter with Syrian and Afghani adolescents who were enrolled in the program. Issues around adaptation to a new culture are explored with attention to the dynamics of conformity and marginalization. The questions of what happens to adolescent refugees separated from their families, and how their identity formation is shaped by this burden is explored in relation to the author's meeting with a Syrian adolescent living in Berlin. To illustrate the long reach of a missing father who has been left behind, characters from Virgil's Aeneid are discussed to amplify heroic and spiritual aspects within father‐son relationships. The interplay between needing help and allowing for resilience is explored as an important aspect of refugees’ transitions, while also considering variables such as dependence and independence, foreign and familiar, being with or without family, and adjusting to the present and/whilst relating to the past; tensions between these alternatives can create various psychosocial challenges for adolescent refugees.