THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER AND GOETHE'S UNDERSTANDING OF MELANCHOLIA

The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Elizabeth Mayer and Louise Bogan. 167 pp. In The Sorrows of Young Werther, and Novella. New York: Random House, 1971.     

The concept of the death drive: A clinical perspective

This paper discusses Freud 's theory of the death drive in the light of clinical experience with severely self-destructive personality disorders, and contemporary object relations theory. Repetition compulsion, sadism and masochism, negative therapeutic reaction, suicide in depressed and in non-depressed patients, and destructive group processes are explored from this perspective. The paper concludes that the concept of the death drive is clinically relevant, but that this condition needs to be traced to the general dominance of aggressive affects as the primary etiological factor; only under severely pathological circumstances does this dominance lead to a focused drive to self-destruct.     

Perfectionism,Hopelessness, And Suicide Ideation: Revisions to Diathesis-Stress and Specific Vulnerability Models

The current study examined variables (daily hassles, self-esteem, dispositional optimism, coping modes, and perceived social support) that could potentially moderate associations between dimensions of perfectionism and current feelings of hopelessness and suicide ideation in university students (144 women; 61 men). Our study revealed several significant findings: (1) socially prescribed perfectionism was a significant predictor of suicide ideation, interpersonal hopelessness, and achievement hopelessness for both women and men; (2) self-oriented perfectionism did not have an independent relation with any of the suicide risk outcome variables in either women or men; (3) other-oriented perfectionism was associated negatively with both current hopelessness, particularly interpersonal hopelessness, and suicide ideation in men; (4) the cluster of proposed moderators accounted for additional unique variance in all suicide risk variables in women but in achievement hopelessness only in men; (5) optimism and social hassles were unique predictors but the results varied as a function of gender and outcome; (6) each perfectionism component interacted with specific moderators to enhance or buffer the link between perfectionism and suicide risk. The findings indicate that self-oriented and other-oriented perfectionism are possibly adaptive or maladaptive under certain conditions. Implications for the development of comprehensive, multidimensional, integrated models of the perfectionism–suicide risk link and for prevention and treatment in perfectionists at risk of suicide are discussed.

大学生自杀现象引发的生命教育的思考

大学生自杀现象屡见不鲜,大学生生命意识的淡薄,高校生命教育的缺失是大学生自杀很重要的因素.着重介绍了生命教育的内涵、发展沿革,大学教育中实施生命教育的意义和紧迫性,以及高校(包括医学院校)对如何实施生命教育作了一些思考.     

大学生自杀现象的心理分析和干预

大学生的自杀已成为社会、教育和行政管理部门越来越关注的话题,对大学生自杀现象的心理进行了分析,结合工作实际,提出了一些心理干预的措施。     

The descent into suicide

Suicidal breakdown requires attention both to attack upon the self (ego) as aggressive forces are unleashed against it by the superego, but also to the phases of self-breakup (ego regression) that follow. Less attention has been directed to ego-regression in suicide than to superego-directed assault on the ego in the psychoanalytic literature; this paper directs attention to the phenomena of ego failure and disarticulation of the self-representation. Clinical study of suicidal patients shows four aspects of suicidal collapse as ego loosens: affective flooding, desperate maneuvering to counter the resulting mental emergency, loss of control as the self begins to disintegrate, and grandiose magical scheming for mental survival as the self-representation splits up and body jettison becomes plausible. These phenomena are discussed theoretically in terms of failed affect regulation, ego helplessness, narcissistic surrender, breakdown of the representational world, and loss of reality testing.     

学前儿童朴素生物学研究新进展:活力因果机制及其应用

学前儿童倾向于采用活力因果机制,即用生命力的交换和获取来解释与机体有关的生命现象.活力因果解释介于意图因果解释和机制因果解释之间,被认为是专属于生物领域的一种因果认知机制,它的提出为存在独立的朴素生物学理论提供了强有力的证据.4到6岁是活力机制发展的关键时期.同时,在年长儿童和成人对机体生命现象的认识中,这一机制继续发挥着作用,并不会随着儿童年龄的增长被其它因果机制完全取代.探讨可能导致活力因果机制发展差异性的影响因素以及它与其它因果机制的共同作用将是未来研究的方向.     

A Psychobiographical Analysis of Faith, Hope, and Despair in Suicide

This paper presents a psychobiographical analysis of a young woman who committed suicide over 50 years ago. Among the documents analyzed are her letters, a high-school diary, creative writing, college newspaper book reviews, and academic papers. Using both an Eriksonian and object-relational theoretical framework, the roles of faith, hope, and despair in suicide—and the ways in which these were represented in the young woman's self-system—are analyzed. Although she possessed strong elements of both faith and hope, along with a will to implement them in a purposeful manner, she was prone to the defense mechanisms of splitting, devaluation, and dissociation, which led to an inability to create an abiding sense of self that may have prevented her descent to despair. Among other issues discussed in the article are the usefulness of psychobiography as a method of studying suicide and both the benefits and limitations of spiritual faith in countering depression and suicide.     

Dialectical Behavior Therapy Is Effective for the Treatment of Suicidal Behavior: A Meta-Analysis

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) prioritizes suicidal behavior and other self-directed violence as the primary treatment targets, and has been demonstrated to reduce self-directed violence in clinical trials. This paper synthesizes findings from controlled trials that assessed self-directed violence and suicidality, including suicide attempts, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), suicidal ideation, and accessing psychiatric crisis services. Eighteen controlled trials of DBT were identified. Random effects meta-analyses demonstrated that DBT reduced self-directed violence (d = -.324, 95% CI = -.471 to -.176), and reduced frequency of psychiatric crisis services (d = -.379, 95% CI = -.581 to -.176). There was not a significant pooled effect of DBT with regard to suicidal ideation (d = -.229, 95% CI = -.473 to .016). Our findings may reflect the prioritization of behavior over thoughts within DBT, and offer implications for clinical practice and future research concerning the implementation of DBT for acute suicidality.