Fragmentation,persecution and primitive guilt

The clinical and theoretical approaches of Melanie Klein and her followers provide valuable direction in the psychoanalytic treatment of psychotic patients. This paper looks at Klein's work as well as the goals of psychoanalytic work. The clinical issues of primitive guilt and paranoia are discussed with regard to more primitive patients who experience internal fragmentation and psychic chaos. Finally, a case is explored in which a psychotic patient struggled with experiences of primitive guilt and intense persecutory phantasies.     

Gone but not forgotten: A new look at difficult cases

Many treatments never seem to get off the ground. They end almost as quickly as they begin. These are often treatments of borderline, narcissistic or psychotic patients. While it is easy to dismiss these cases as failed, or unanalysable, they are valuable to study. One such case is presented.     

“Noxious Weed”: Persecution in the Development of Korean Christianity

The experience of persecution during the late Joseon and Japanese colonial period was not unusual for Korean Christians, who endured living as a minority faith within a hostile context. Like the pre‐Constantinian Christian communities and many Christians today who live in the global South, suspicion and persecution defined their world as openly confessing Christians, and they embraced, as part of converting to Christianity, the stark reality that their faith could incur personal harm in the form of hostility, incarceration, and even death. This article explores how conversion and maintaining Christian faith in a society adverse to Christianity shaped believers’ self‐understanding of the breadth of faith and acceptance of its mortal implications. Focusing on the Catholic and Protestant experience in Korea, Christian believers rigorously tested the country's attitudes against Christianity. In so doing, their experience provokes a critical reflection on the profoundness of the missionary mandate and illuminates the complexity with which their faith is forged as they must confront the brutal reality that they may be, at the very least, arrested. For many Korean Christians during Joseon Dynasty and the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945), conversion to Christianity was part of the process that transformed for believers a religious identity that was understood to be potentially detrimental to their relationship with the state.     

Discipleship Transforming the World: A Coptic Orthodox Perspective

Discipleship is the core of Christianity, based on the work of the Holy Spirit, in fulfilment of the Lord's command. True discipleship is capable of transforming the world, so that in the end all kingdoms and reign shall be to the Lord and his Christ. Therefore, discipleship is linked with evangelism, missionary, teaching, and social work. With the emerging hostile trends all over the world, faith is endangered. So it is important to remind ourselves of the aim of Christianity for humanity, for which so great a price was paid by our Lord (his precious blood) to bring the world into the knowledge of the truth. We have the privilege and honour to bear the precious name and to declare it to the whole world, even if we suffer for that. Even though this means that we have to bear his cross, to face the challenges, and to resist the powers of evil in the world. The church is aware of its mission, to reveal to the world Christ the lover of humanity, and for this end to serve them – to warn, teach, and guide them – through our behaviour, our acts, and our words. Copts are keen on serving their communities and everywhere they go, are always ready to teach others about the cause of our hope, that they also may enjoy the fruit and the deserts of the blood of Christ. This article honestly records the experience of the Coptic Orthodox Church regarding discipleship in practice throughout its history up to the present day.