Clinical fields of the “sciences of the mind” (psychotherapy, psychiatry, etc.) lack integrative conceptual frameworks that have explanatory power. Mainly descriptive-classificatory taxonomies like DSM dominate the field. New taxonomies such as Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) aim to collect scientific knowledge regarding “systems” for “processes” of the brain. These terms have a supradisciplinary” meaning if they are considered in context of Systems Science. This field emerges as a platform of theories like general systems theory, catastrophe theory, synergetics, chaos theory, etc. It (...) provides a lot of abstract concepts, constructs, methods and models. We assume that these tools also enable theoretical integration in the diversified field of clinical practice in the sciences of the mind. Additionally, systems thinking in clinical psychology improves conceptual links to currently network-oriented neurobiology. However, clear definitions of systemic terms are necessary to emerge from their mainly metaphorical use. Here we revise mainly terms like “structure”, “process” and “dynamics” as they are used already in psychology, psychoanalysis, psychopathology and psychiatry in an ill-defined way. For instance, affective-cognitive structures like “life space” or “object representations” can be seen as products of mental processing. These structures, in turn, modulate dynamics of mental processes. Additionally, we suggest a coupled network concept of emotions and motivations as the main subsystem that modulates mental dynamics that results in a qualitative systemic model of the mind. Finally, we assume that a revisited systemic approach could improve interdisciplinary understanding of the mental. ystem for mental dynamics. In this context, we assume that a revisited systemic approach could improve interdisciplinary understanding of the mental. (shrink)

Depression has been widely studied by researchers from different fields, but its causes, and mechanism of action are still not clear. A difficulty emerges from the shifting from objective diagnosis or analysis to exploration of subjective feelings and experiences that influence the individuals' expression, communication and coping in facing depression. The integration of the experiential dimension of the first-person in studies on depression–and related methodological recommendations–are needed to improve the validity and generalizability of research findings. It will allow the development (...) of timely and effective actions of care. Starting from providing a summary of the literature on theoretical assumptions and considerations for the study of the mind, with particular attention to the experiential dimension of patients with depression, this contribution is aimed to provide practical suggestions for the design of research able to incorporate first- and third-person accounts. It is also aimed to review qualified phenomenological methods for the acquisition and interpretation of experiential data in patients with depression. Recognizing the first-person perspective in the study of depression is a major step toward a better understanding and treatment of this disorder. Theoretical constructs and technique suggestions that result from this review offer a valid starting point for the inclusion of the experiential dimension to common third-person research in the study of the mind. (shrink)

Given the tight interconnections proposed between brain and psyche, psychoanalysis was conceptualized as an interdisciplinary theory right from the beginning. The diversification of knowledge performed by different science and technology fields, concerned with the same matter, makes this interdisciplinarity even more visible and evident. This challenges the integrative potential lying in psychoanalytic meta-theory.

Introduction:The concept of mentalizing is nowadays widely used in research as well as in clinical practice. Despite its popularity, the development of an economic assessment is still challenging. The Mentalization Scale appears to be a promising measurement with good psychometric properties but lacking convergent validity with the Reflective Functioning Scale.Objective:This study aims to test the construct validity of the Mentalization Scale through correlations with the gold standard, the Reflective Functioning Scale, within a clinical sample. Furthermore, it was of interest to (...) replicate its internal consistency.Methods:Twenty-six inpatients of an acute psychiatric ward in Vienna were given the Mentalization Scale (MentS). They were interviewed with the Brief Reflective Function Interview, which was coded with the Reflective Functioning Scale. Correlations and internal consistency were calculated.Results:Concerning the primary aim of this study, the validity was satisfactory for the MentS whole-scale mentalizing as well as for the subscales self- and other-oriented mentalizing. Internal consistency was lower to the findings of the developer and close to the 0.70 threshold.Conclusion:Our findings could foster the psychometric properties of the MentS. Furthermore, the MentS seems to be a promising measurement tool for detecting different dimensions of reflective functioning. Limitations and further research are discussed. (shrink)

While psychotherapists are trained to improve their clients’ quality of life, little work has examined the quality of life experienced by psychotherapist trainees themselves. Yet their life satisfactions and stresses would plausibly affect both their ability to learn new skills and conduct psychotherapy. Therefore, in the Society for Psychotherapy Research Interest Section on Psychotherapist Development and Training study, we investigated the patterns of self-reported life quality and their correlates in a multinational sample of 1,214 psychotherapist trainees. A comprehensive questionnaire was (...) used at the outset of trainings to assess trainees’ professional background, current life situation, personal characteristics, family background, and social and national origin. The findings indicated 54.3% of trainees’ lives could be characterized as fortunate or happy, whereas 14.3% could be characterized as clearly distressed or troubled. The strongest correlates of high life stress, a contributor to poor life quality, were economic insecurity, self-protectiveness, and attachment-related anxiety in relationships, and economic or psychological hardship in childhood. In turn, greater wellbeing was most strongly associated with a warm and open interpersonal style, being married, having sufficient economic means, and material and emotional security in childhood. While the results indicate the majority of therapists experience a relatively good quality of life, the findings also suggest potential targets for increasing trainees’ life quality when it may be deficient, such as those on a societal level, training program level, and individual level, in order to promote effective learning and therapy practice. (shrink)

To reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C, individuals and households play a key role. Behavior change interventions to promote pro-environmental behavior in individuals are needed to reduce emissions globally. This systematic literature review aims to assess the a) evidence-based effectiveness of such interventions and b) the content of very successful interventions without limiting the results to specific emitting sectors or countries. Based on the “PICOS” mnemonic and PRISMA statement, a search strategy was developed, (...) and eligibility criteria were defined. Three databases were searched to retrieve and review potential literature. As a result, 54 publications from 2010 to 2021 were included in the analysis. The results show that most interventions only have small positive effects or none at all. A total of 15 very successful interventions focused on the sectors of mobility, energy, and waste and incorporated improved structures, education, feedback, enablement or made the sustainable option the default. Six evidence-based recommendations for content, timing, and setting are deducted and given for interventions on enhancing pro-environmental behavior. In summary, although the various interventions and intervention types to promote PEB differ in their effectiveness, very successful interventions have common elements. Future research should focus on high-/low-impact and high-/low-cost behavior to develop interventions that aim at high-impact but low-cost behavior changes, or avoid low-impact but high-cost behavior. (shrink)

An ethics reflection group is one of a range of ethics support services developed to better handle ethical challenges in healthcare. The aim of this article is to evaluate the implementation process of interdisciplinary ERGs in psychiatric and general hospital departments in Denmark. To our knowledge, this is the first study of ERG implementation to include both psychiatric and general hospital departments. The implementation and evaluation strategies are inspired by action research, using a qualitative approach and systematic text condensation of (...) 28 individual interviews and 4 focus groups with clinicians, ethics facilitators and ward managers. The implementation process was influenced by both structural factors and factors related to clinicians having different values, interests and experiences. Structural barriers and promotors in the process to implement ERG included the following sub-categories: Organizational factors, recruitment and training of ethics facilitators, the deliberation model, planning and recruitment of participants to the ERGs, the support of the ward managers and the project group. Barriers and promotors found among clinicians included the following sub-categories: Expectations and pre-understandings of ERGs, understandings of a physician’s job, challenges experienced by ethics facilitators. At the end of the study, when it was decided that the ERGs should be continued, the implementation strategies were remodeled by the participants to meet new challenges. The study of ERG implementation identified important structural and professional barriers and promotors that are likely to be relevant to anyone wanting to implement ethics support services across various types of healthcare services. (shrink)

Abordagem do protagonismo social, analisando sua relação com a informação, concluindo pela compreensão deste como objetivo do trabalho informacional, situando a mediação da informação como sua ação central. Parte da apresentação das origens conceituais em torno do protagonismo, buscando, à medida que debate as referências acerca do tema, demonstrar a relação do desenvolvimento do protagonismo social com o trabalho informacional, assim como sua posição de meta da atividade da mediação da informação, executada nas suas cinco dimensões e na condição de (...) elemento central desse trabalho. As assertivas apresentadas são resultado do estudo crítico da bibliografia da área da Ciência da Informação que aborda o protagonismo e a mediação da informação, assim como de estudos de filósofos e pensadores que abordam os aspectos sociais e políticos da comunicação e da formação de sujeitos socialmente ativos, permitindo a identificação das relações entre protagonismo e mediação da informação, como também que a mediação consciente favorece o primeiro, concluindo que o apoio ao seu desenvolvimento representa a principal responsabilidade social do trabalho com a informação. (shrink)

Fred. L. Polak explored the mechanisms of social change in terms of “future—visions” held by a community. The future, says Polak, participates actively in the present, providing part of the context within which today's decisions are made. Barbara McClintock acquired her insights in maize genetics by developing “a feeling for the organism.” New insights, she maintains, emerge through a mutual relationship between researcher and subject. Though scholars in different fields, both acknowledge the power of images in the creative process. There (...) is a difference in the extent to which each scientist perceives this power to be available to create new ideas. (shrink)

The author traces the ways in which various patients and collective associations of patients come to regard themselves as the users of future stem cell technologies. The author uses Althusser’s notion of interpellation, whereby an identity is the result of the situated encounter of a subject and an authority, to analyze the ways in which patient associations’ current involvement with basic research is related to the enactment of science as a series of technology development projects. The author argues that this (...) ‘‘project-ness’’ forms a certain privileged logic that interpellates patients and their associations in specific ways. Through the listings of illnesses circulated in the mass media, which are hoped to be treatable or curable with stem cell therapies, patients come to recognize themselves as the projected users of stem cell technologies. The author fleshes out the process of this userfication and the various responses made by patients and their associations when hailed by the entrepreneurial projects of stem cell research. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungBedingt durch den demographischen Wandel wird der Anteil an alten Patienten in Kliniken und Arztpraxen zunehmen. Damit müssen sich Ärzte verstärkt auf die spezifischen Anforderungen der Behandlung von alten Patienten einstellen. Diese sind wesentlich durch die Faktoren Alter, Multimorbidität und Demenz geprägt. Die Abhandlung analysiert die hiermit gegebenen sozial- und personalethischen Implikationen für Ausbildung und Arbeitsalltag der Ärzte sowie für das Gesundheitssystem.

Nous avons cherché à identifier un aspect du refoulement du cosmopolitismel'des Lumières, complémentaire de la fabrique des identités nationales enl'Europe au XIXe siècle et dans l'entre-deux-guerres. L'idée de civilisation communel'serait maintenue par la capacité réciproque de traduction des langues nationales, dul'fait de leurs origines communes indo-européennes. L'utopie de la langue remplaceraitl'le parcours matériel des Lumières. C'est l'échec de la construction du mythe indianistel'européen et non pas son succès qui explique le dévoiement idéologique des relationsl'entre langue et nation. La promotion manquée (...) de la langue tsigane dans le mondel'académique illustre bien cet échec. Après la Première Guerre mondiale, la transformationl'du principe des nationalités en ethnopolitique fit disparaître jusqu'au souvenirl'de cette ambition commune. (shrink)

This exciting collection offers a range of perspectives from some of the most prominent feminist voices of our time, including Rosi Braidotti, Judith Butler, Claire Colebrook, Elizabeth Grosz, and Jack Halberstam. Employing experimental modes of thinking and writing, the contributors remain faithful to the feminist tradition of subversion and resistance, while refusing to submit to its political tradition of a loving sisterhood or dutiful daughterhood. Through productive disagreement and cognitive dissonance, the essays presented here reflect the specific circumstances of our (...) present, and attempt to dream and envision possible alternatives for the future. The volume thus invites us to think of the becoming of feminism itself, and the possibilities of future feminisms-to-come. (shrink)

Ever decreasing numbers of applicants arrive in language departments at UK universities. In the face of this decline, and against the backdrop of higher education languages departments being reduced across the UK, it is important to investigate the supply chain of languages undergraduates in the pre-entry sector. This article reports on a collaborative action research project between Language Networks for Excellence, University of Wolverhampton, and King Edward VI College, Stourbridge. The objective was to investigate how the HE sector can effectively (...) influence and support linguists and post-16 establishments in enhancing progression to studying languages at university and how the post-16 sector can ensure they meet language students’ needs in progression to HE. The research presents a number of conclusions and recommendations, not least that, whilst support from HE for 17—18-year-old school students and their institutions is welcome and contributes to students’ confidence and skills, there may be merit in targeting students much further down the supply chain, encouraging progression to HE through tailored linguistic and motivational support strategies. (shrink)

In the summer of 2017, wildflower seeds were spread on a large, empty open space close to a motorway flyover just outside Copenhagen, Denmark. This was an effort to use non-mechanical methods to prepare the soil for an ‘urban forest’ to be established on the site, since the flowers’ roots would penetrate the ground and enable the planned new trees to settle. As a result, the site was transformed into a gorgeous meadow, and all summer long Copenhageners were invited to (...) come and pick the flowers. In this article, I critically examine different aspects of this project – including the role of design, the perception of nature–culture relationships, climate change, and flower-picking as an event – in relation to my personal experience of visiting this meadow both on-site and on social media. The different temporalities that clash at the site give rise to conflicting interpretations, and I suggest that the meadow can be seen as a living plant archive of the Anthropocene, both physically and digitally. In doing so, I introduce and critique key conceptual pairs, including archive/death and bloom/decay, suggested by Lee Edelman’s queer cross-reading of Jacques Derrida’s ‘Archive Fever’ and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I thereby contrast flower motifs pertaining to the cycles of blooming, decay, and nature’s (failed) eternal return in the meadow with the expansive futurity of the digitally mediated archive. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungIn der Erfahrung, Kommunikation und Bewältigung von Krankheit spielen Metaphern eine wichtige Rolle: Als Denkkonzepte spiegeln sie zugrundeliegende Haltungen gegenüber den durch sie beschriebenen Vorgängen wider. Susan Sontag hat mit ihrem Essay „Illness as Metaphor“ nachhaltig die moralisch kritischen Implikationen einer unreflektierten Metaphernverwendung im Umgang mit Erkrankung aufgezeigt, indem sie deren stigmatisierende und hierin zusätzlich belastende Wirkung für Erkrankte reflektiert.In der gegenwärtigen Situation der Covid-19-Pandemie trifft ein bisher unbekanntes Virus mit der Macht und Dynamik der Globalisierung auf die hierauf nicht (...) vorbereiteten spätmodernen Gegenwartsgesellschaften, die nun nach Erklärung und Sinnzuschreibung suchen. Auch hier fungieren Metaphern als Denkkonzepte und Vehikel von Interpretation. Im Rückgriff auf die Perspektive Susan Sontags und ihren Appell für einen entmystifizierten Umgang mit Krankheit geht dieser Beitrag folgenden Fragen nach: Welche Bilder werden in der Berichterstattung über CoV‑2 vermittelt? Welche Einstellung gegenüber Gesundheit und Krankheit wird mit den Metaphern transportiert, und welche Lebenshaltung liegt dieser zugrunde? Welche Einsichten für einen gesunden Umgang mit Covid-19 und Krankheit generell ergeben sich, wenn man die Pandemie aus ihren Metaphern und zugrundliegenden Denkkonzepten herausschält? (shrink)

During the last two years several committees discussed the question of enlarging patients' autonomy in living wills. The problern is to tind a way to grant patients' wishes without violating the state's duty to preserve human life. One basic question in the debate is the meaning of human dignity. Deducing from the Christian image of man the author describes chances and Iimits of living wills and presents a way of handling them. In her opinion living wills represent a chance for (...) a succeeding, trusting physician-patient- relationship in the age of high-tech medicine. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungBedingt durch den demographischen Wandel wird der Anteil an alten Patienten in Kliniken und Arztpraxen zunehmen. Damit müssen sich Ärzte verstärkt auf die spezifischen Anforderungen der Behandlung von alten Patienten einstellen. Diese sind wesentlich durch die Faktoren Alter, Multimorbidität und Demenz geprägt. Die Abhandlung analysiert die hiermit gegebenen sozial- und personalethischen Implikationen für Ausbildung und Arbeitsalltag der Ärzte sowie für das Gesundheitssystem.

Personal health technologies such as apps and wearables that generate health and behavior data close to the individual patient are envisioned to enable personalized healthcare - and self-care. And yet, they are consumer devices. Proponents of these devices presuppose that measuring will be helpful, and that data will be meaningful. However, a growing body of research suggests that self-tracking data does not necessarily make sense to users. Drawing together data studies and digital health research, we aim to further research on (...) data ambivalence, a term we use to refer to the ambiguities and uncertainties people experience when interpreting their own data, as well as the critical obligation towards cultivating ethically sound uses and responses to such data in context. We develop the relationship between data, interpretation, and context as a central theoretical and practical problem in the datafication of healthcare. We then show how interpretation and context matter for data ambivalence through an empirical study of heart patients with an implanted advanced pacemaker who were offered a Fitbit wristband for self-tracking as part of a research project. We argue that the hope, anxiety, and doubt connected to the promise and accuracy of data are tempered by the context and purpose of self-tracking, and by individual circumstances. Finally, we link the findings on context-sensitivity in data interpretation to questions about response-ability in cloud-based care infrastructures. We discuss the ethical dilemmas associated with the use of commercial wellness-technologies in healthcare, and with researching such emerging practices. (shrink)

Meaning and communication -- Mighty dead: Kant and Hegel -- Scorekeeping -- Sentence meaning, term meaning, Anaphora -- Empirical content and empirical knowledge -- Logical discourse -- Representation and communication -- Objectivity and phenomenalism about norms.

The present volume collects papers that were presented at the 34th International Wittgenstein Symposium “Epistemology: Contexts, Values, Disagreement” 2011 in Kirchberg. Contributors include: P. Baumann, A. Beckermann, E. Brendel, J. Bromand, G. Brun, M. David, W. Davis, C. Elgin, E. Fischer, W. Freitag, S. Goldberg, J. Greco, E. Harcourt, A. Kemmerling, M. Kober, D. Koppelberg, A. Koritensky, H. Kornblith, M. Kusch, M. Lee, N. Miscevic, K. Munn, B. Niederbacher, E. J. Olsson, C. Piller, R. Raaatzsch, S. Schmoranzer, S. Schroeder, G. (...) Schurz, N. Shackel, M. Solomon, M. Willaschek. (shrink)

IntroductionYounger age at diagnosis is a risk factor for poor health-related quality of life in long-term breast cancer survivors. However, few studies have specifically addressed HRQOL in young adults with breast cancer, nor have early changes in HRQOL been fully characterized.MethodsEligible female patients with breast cancer were identified through our local cancer center. To establish HRQOL, patients completed the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast around diagnosis and 12 months later. Sociodemographic factors, genetic susceptibility to cancer, tumor- and treatment-related factors, and (...) comorbidities were abstracted from medical records and the local oncology registry. Mixed-effects models were used to identify changes in FACT-B scores during the first year of treatment and to determine whether any demographic/treatment-related factors modulated changes in scores.ResultsHealth-related quality of life in young patients with breast cancer was within normal limits at baseline, with a FACT-B overall well-being score of 108.5. Participants reported slight improvements over a 12-month period: FACT-B overall well-being scores increased 6.6 points, functional well-being improved 3.0 points, emotional well-being improved 1.9 points, and physical well-being improved 1.5 points, on average. Participants with anxiety/depression at baseline reported greater improvements in FACT-B overall well-being and functional well-being than participants who did not have anxiety/depression at baseline. Marital status, reconstructive surgery, and baseline clinical staging were also significantly associated with changes in aspects of HRQOL, although their impact on change was relatively minimal.ConclusionYoung women with breast cancer do not report HRQOL concerns during the first year of treatment. Improvements in HRQOL during the first year of treatment may be attributable to a sense of relief that the cancer is being treated, which, in the short run, may outweigh the negative late effects of treatment. (shrink)

In recent years, several systematic theories of linguistic meaning have been offered that give pride of place to linguistic practice, or the process of linguistic communication. Often these theories are referred to as neo-pragmatist or new pragmatist; I call them 'practice-based'. According to practice-based theories of meaning, the process of linguistic communication is somehow constitutive of, or otherwise essential for the existence of, propositional linguistic meaning. Moreover, these theories disavow, or downplay, the semantic importance of inflationary notions of representation. I (...) introduce the basic ideas and motives behind some practice-based theories of meaning, and offer some reasons why an eliminativist, non-quietist, epistemic practice-based approach to meaning that 1) disavows any explanatory role for the linguistic community as such, 2) prioritizes sentence meaning over word meaning, and 3) may , in the end, be naturalistic, should be favored over its practice-based competitors. (shrink)

"One might say that 'chance' is anything but blind in forking-path narratives."Fictional worlds attract the attention of debaters in particular when they are supposed to activate the viewers' reflections in a special way. Thus, movies that are most likely to irritate the audience and seem to animate people to reflect on their own personality and life are of major interest. In the following, I want to discuss a certain type of movie that meets these criteria: forking-path or multiple-draft narratives. On (...) the one hand they rely on well-known narrative schemata, and on the other hand they comprise something that is actually impossible: alternative futures. One central thesis raised by spokespersons of the .. (shrink)

I outline Brandom’s theory of de re and de dicto belief ascriptions, which plays a central role in Brandom’s overall theory of linguistic communication, and show that this theory offers a surprising, new response to Burge’s (Midwest Stud 6:73–121, 1979) argument for social externalism. However, while this response is in principle available from the perspective of Brandom’s theory of belief ascription in abstraction from his wider theoretical enterprise, it ceases to be available from this perspective in the wider context of (...) his inferential role semantics and his doctrines of scorekeeping and of the expressive role of belief ascriptions in discourse. In this wider context, Brandom’s theory of belief ascriptions implies that Burge’s argument trivially fails to have the disquieting implications for psychological explanations that it is widely taken to have. Yet since this is not trivially so, Brandom’s theory apparently provides a false picture of our practice of interpreting belief ascriptions. I then argue that Brandom might as well accept the alternative picture of interpreting belief ascriptions that Burge’s argument presupposes: even in the context of his overall project, Brandom’s take on our practice of interpreting them does not afford belief ascriptions with the discursive significance Brandom claims they have. (shrink)