Obsessional slowness: a meticulous replication.

The treatment of an apparently authentic case of obsessional slowness is described. The relationship between behaviour change and emotional events is discussed. The findings replicate those of Rachman (1974).     

From Compassion to Obedience: Gender and Emotion in Two Danish Prayer Books

Drawing from recent scholarship on prayer, identity formation and the history and sociology of emotion, this article explores the intersection of gender and emotion in two Danish prayer books dating from before and after the Lutheran Reformation in 1536. It is argued that the introduction of Lutheranism in Denmark resulted in a more strictly gendered understanding of family prayer. In this, the social and emotional ideal of obedience to paternal authority came to eclipse the expression of compassion with the suffering Christ that was a characteristic feature of late-medieval prayer.     

Psychometric properties and reference data for Danish versions of Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test,Category Cued Memory Test and Logical Memory

Memory assessment is a key element in neuropsychological testing. Gold standard evaluation is based on updated normative data, but in many small countries (e.g. in Scandinavia) such data are sparse. In Denmark, reference data exist for non‐verbal memory tests and list‐learning tests but there is no normative data for memory tests which capture narrative recall and cued recall. In a nation‐wide study, Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT ), WMS ‐III Logical Memory (LM ) and a newly developed test Category Cued Memory Test (CCMT ‐48) were applied in 131 cognitively intact persons (aged 60–96 years). Regression‐based reference data for Danish versions of FCSRT , CCMT ‐48 and LM adjusted for age, education and gender are provided. Gender and age‐group had a significant impact on the expected scores, whereas the effect of education had a limited effect on expected scores. Test performances were significantly correlated in the range 0.21–0.51. Based on these findings and previous results it may be relevant to assess both free recall, cued recall and recognition to tap the earliest changes associated with neurodegeneration, and this study therefore provides an important supplement to existing Danish normative data. Future studies should investigate the discriminative validity of the tests and the clinical utility of the presented reference data.     

Metacognitive therapy in recurrent depression: A case replication series in Denmark

Metacognitive therapy (MCT) for depression is derived from the Wells and Matthews (1994) self‐regulatory model, in which a Cognitive‐Attentional Syndrome (CAS) is the cause of psychological disorders. MCT for depression focuses on identifying patients' CAS and helps them to stop it. The CAS consists of worry, rumination and dysfunctional coping strategies. The focus in MCT is on removing the CAS by challenging positive and negative metacognitive beliefs and eliminating dysfunctional behaviors. In this case series, MCT was delivered to four depressed Danes and treatment was evaluated in 5–11 sessions of up to one hour each. An A‐B design with follow‐up at 3 and 6 months was conducted and the primary outcome was Beck's Depression Inventory II (BDI‐II). We measured CAS processes with the Major depressive Disorder Scale (MDD‐S). The results of the case series showed clinically significant improvements in depressive symptoms, rumination and metacognitive beliefs and the effects were still present at follow‐up for all patients. The small number of patients and decreasing baselines observed in some cases limits the conclusions. However, the results suggest that this treatment is feasible and was associated with large improvements in symptoms when delivered away from its point of origin and in a Danish help‐seeking sample.     

Lighting up cosy atmospheres in Denmark

This article explores the use of light to stage atmospheres in a residential area of Copenhagen, Denmark. Both natural and electrical lights enable visibility but they also impart a certain sense of place that influences the way people behave and feel. The article investigates how light is about more than individual perception and plays a crucial role in orchestrating a sense of community, solitude and ‘secureness’ at home. Such staging of atmospheres, it is argued, importantly relies on cultural premises and notions of intimacy, informality and relaxation, encompassed in the Danish term hygge, or cosiness. Light frames such sense of secureness and cosiness by allowing for visual oscillations between separation and connection of people, places and things. In this way, investigating the use of light in shaping atmosphere offers a lens to explore how connections and networks of people, emotions and things, shape the home and links interior and exterior spaces.     

On Taboos: The Danish Cartoon Crisis 2005–20081

Abstract : The international crisis following the publication of 12 Muhammad cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands‐Posten (September 30, 2005) raises the general question of how to exercise the freedom of expression in relation to religious taboos. After briefly reviewing the Cartoon Crisis from September 2005 to the bombings on the Danish Ambassay in Pakistan in June 2008, the article addresses Lutheran resources for coping with secularisation and desecularisation, in particular as regards the taboos that persist as a part of religious and humanistic values. The thesis is that the Lutheran doctrine of the two kingdoms has given rise to two models of interpretation that have both been historically active. The doctrine of the two regiments has been interpreted both as a ‘liberalist’ argument for a principled separation of religion and politics, and as a ‘social‐conservative’ (later Social Democratic) argument for the view that the state should take care of its citizens' welfare through education, the legal system and social services. In today's global and multi‐religious world, this leads us to ask the question to what extent a welfare society, for the sake of peace and social order, should, or should not, protect religious sensitivities. Should religious communities always be kept out of public life, or can they be recognised as non‐governmental organizations in civil society, hence as potential partners for the state?