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Modern reports on lycanthropy mainly concentrate on the content of patients' beliefs in being transformed into an animal. By contrast, an interest in the form of the symptomatology is usually minimal. This paper draws on Karl Jaspers' phenomenological views and focuses on some important albeit neglected psychopathological issues related to form which are relevant to any comprehensive consideration of lycanthropic phenomena.
Thirty married agoraphobic women referred to out-patient clinics in Edinburgh were compared with 'normal' controls (selected from GP records and screened for the absence of psychiatric symptoms) matched on age, sex social class and marital status. The agoraphobics' husbands were similarly compared with the husbands of the controls. On most measures of attitudes, behaviour, domestic organization and marital interaction, the 2 groups were strikingly similar.
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BACKGROUND: In order to improve the treatment of medication-resistant negative symptoms in schizophrenia, new interventions are needed. Neuropsychological considerations and older reports in the literature point towards a potential benefit of body-oriented psychological therapy (BPT). This is the first randomized controlled trial specifically designed to test the effectiveness of manualized BPT on negative symptoms in chronic schizophrenia. METHOD: Out-patients with DSM-IV continuous schizophrenia were randomly allocated to either BPT (n=24) or supportive counseling (SC, n=21). Both therapies were administered in small groups in addition to treatment as usual (20 sessions over 10 weeks). Changes in negative symptom scores on the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) between baseline, post-treatment and 4-month follow-up were taken as primary outcome criteria in an intention-to-treat analysis. RESULTS: Patients receiving BPT attended more sessions and had significantly lower negative symptom scores after treatment (PANSS negative, blunted affect, motor retardation). The differences held true at 4-month follow-up. Other aspects of psychopathology and subjective quality of life did not change significantly in either group. Treatment satisfaction and ratings of the therapeutic relationship were similar in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: BPT may be an effective treatment for negative symptoms in patients with chronic schizophrenia. The findings should merit further trials with larger sample sizes and detailed studies to explore the therapeutic mechanisms involved.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Anaesthesiology is considered a stressful occupation. Our purpose was to assess stress and burnout among Portuguese anaesthesiologists. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey based on an anonymous questionnaire was sent to all Portuguese anaesthesiologists registered by the Portuguese Medical Association. Data on patient characteristics and professional variables, perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale), the subscale of work satisfaction of the Pressure Management Indicator scale, burnout (Maslach Burnout Inventory) and main stress factors were collected. The proportion of participation was 31.8%. RESULTS: The average value of perceived stress scale was 24.0 (range: 0-56). Among the 263 anaesthesiologists, 57.9% experienced emotional exhaustion, 44.8% lack of personal accomplishment and 90.9% depersonalisation. Lack of personal accomplishment increased with number of children among women but not among men; depersonalisation was more frequent among anaesthesiologists working in community hospitals and anaesthesiologists with leadership functions experienced less professional stress. CONCLUSION: There are stress conditions and burnout amongst Portuguese anaesthesiologists. The prevalence of depersonalisation was extremely high in the studied sample. Emotional exhaustion is partially explained by high perceived-stress and low satisfaction with organisation in the job according to Pressure Management Indicator scale.
The introduction of contraceptive technologies has resulted in the separation of sex and procreation. The introduction of new reproductive technologies (mainly IVF and embryo transfer) has led not only to the separation of procreation and sex, but also to the redefinition of the terms mother and family. For the purpose of this essay, I will distinguish between: 1. the genetic mother--the donor of the egg; 2. the gestational mother--she who bears and gives birth to the baby; 3. the social mother--the woman who raises the child. This essay will deal only with the form of gestational surrogacy in which the genetic parents intend to be the social parents, and the surrogate mother has no genetic relationship to the child she bears and delivers. I will raise questions regarding medical ethical aspects of surrogacy and the obligation(s) of the physician(s) to the parties involved. I will argue that the gestational surrogate is "a womb to rent," that there is great similarity between gestational commercial surrogacy and organ transplant marketing. Furthermore, despite claims to freedom of choice and free marketing, I will claim that gestational surrogacy is a form of prostitution and slavery, exploitation of the poor and needy by those who are better off. The right to be a parent, although not constitutional, is intuitive and deeply rooted. However, the issue remains whether this right overrules all other rights, and at what price to the parties involved. I will finally raise the following provocative question to society: In the interim period between today's limited technology and tomorrow's extra-corporeal gestation technology (ectogenesis), should utilizing females in PVS (persistent vehetative state) for gestational surrogacy be socially acceptable/permissible--provided they have left permission in writing?
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We present proposed changes to the dissociative disorders section of the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and review the concept of pathological and nonpathological dissociation, including empirical findings on the relations between trauma and dissociative phenomenology and between dissociation and hypnosis. The most important proposals include the creation of two new diagnostic entities, brief reactive dissociative disorder and transient dissociative disturbance, and the readoption of the criterion of amnesia for a multiple personality disorder diagnosis. We conclude that further work on dissociative processes will provide an important link between clinical and experimental approaches to human cognition, emotion, and personality.
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This laboratory investigation using 64 college students as subjects assessed the role of three disinhibiting variables in producing both physical aggression and an internal state of deindividuation. Altered responsibility, congnitive set, and modeling were manipulated in a factorial design, and all three variables significantly increased physical aggression. No interaction produced significant results. The increase due to altered responsibility and varying cognitions supports Zimbardo's theory of deindividuation which relates certain input variables to wild, impulsive behavior. Questionnaire data indicated that the increase in aggression was not accompanied by internal mediational factors such as reduced self-awareness. It appears that disinhibiting forces may produce increases in antisocial behavior without necessarily producing a deindividuated internal state.
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There is some evidence to suggest that dentists suffer a high level of job-related stress. Specifically, social interaction between dentist and patient is considered to be a type of job-related stress which may produce 'burnout', a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur in individuals whose work involves close personal contact with their clients. A study was carried out during January to June 1992 to assess the levels of burnout, using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, in three samples of British GDPs recruited from the south-east of England. A total of 440 dentists were surveyed and 340 usable replies were returned. There were high levels of burnout in the British dentists. A number of demographic variables relating to marital status, educational status, time since qualification, numbers of dentists in the practice, number of days per week spent in practice and the proportion of NHS/private work undertaken were identified as being associated with some aspects of the burnout syndrome.
Carbamazepine-induced pitch perception shifts have rarely been described. Two cases of shifted pitch perception developing during medication with carbamazepine are described. Case 1 possessed absolute pitch. Her pitch perception shift disappeared with the discontinuance of carbamazepine. Case 2 did not have absolute pitch. Even though he experienced a pitch perception shift, he developed a tolerance to the shift. We concluded that carbamazepine was the cause of the pitch perception shift in the first case, while the second case probably became attuned to the change in pitch perception because he did not possess absolute pitch.
Disorders of self-experience were emphasized in classic literature and in phenomenological psychiatry as essential clinical features of the schizophrenia spectrum disorders, but are neglected in the contemporary psychopathology due to epistemologically motivated distrust of studying anomalies of subjectivity. Based on our own and other empirical studies, we present here detailed clinical phenomenological descriptions of nonpsychotic anomalies of self-experience that may be observable in the prodromal phases of schizophrenia and in the schizotypal disorders. Anomalies of self-experience are grouped according the experiential domain that appears to be affected and are illustrated by short vignettes or verbatim quotes from the patients. It is suggested that disorders of the self deserve further systematic empirical investigations, also from an etiological perspective. Self-disorders may turn out to be potentially useful as a psychopathological organizer of the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Psychopathological emphasis on these disorders may also help to integrate the search for the neurodevelopmental mechanisms in schizophrenia with developmental-psychological research on the ontogenesis of the self.
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