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Results for “EXISTENTIALISM”

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At least 1,243 records · Page 69Linked to original sources
PubMed2000

[Caring for patients with AIDS].

This study presents the results of a research conducted with 27 health professionals caring for patients with aids on the isolation ward of a Regional Reference Center of aids. Data were analyzed and interpreted according to the Existential Phenomenology and demonstrate the view of professionals regarding to this type of caring for. This is a tough, demanding and discriminated patient who should be seen just like any other patient; the fear of contagion and prejudice interfere in the deliver of care and in the relationship with this patient, damaging the professional attitude. Although the deleterious effects of the isolation ward on patients are perceived, there are no signs of any perspectives of offering effective support to these patients. The results of the research suggest the need of introducing educational and supporting programs to professionals of this area.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed2000

[The meaning of child and family care in the community: the learning experience of nursing students].

This present study, by applying qualitative research under a phenomenological perspective, attempts to seek an understanding of the meaning of the learning experiences of nursing students who care for child and family in the community. The data have been obtained through individual open interviews with nine students. Two themes have emerged from the analysis of the data: FACING CHALLENGES and GENERATING A NEW VIEW. Applying the theoretical approach of Viktor Frankl's existential analysis allows us to understand that what mobilizes students when facing challenges is the search for knowledge and desire to do something. Moreover, this study allows a reflection about significant learning in nursing, generating a new view as a consequence to the student feelings, thoughts and actions in the promotion of the personal and professional growth.

Child↗
PubMed2002

[Preventive screening for cancer of the uterine cervix: awareness and meaning for employees in a public nursing school].

This is an exploratory descriptive study, carried out at a nursing school, in which 63 non-teacher workers participated. Its objectives were to check their knowledge about screening of cervix-uterine cancer and to know their feelings and expectations as they undergo this test. A questionnaire was used to collect data and the last question was recorded and analyzed using the social phenomenology theoretical framework. The answers provided information which made it possible for us to rethink about adequate assistance guided by humanized actions considering the being in this existential entirety and belonging to a social economical cultural context.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The patient's perspective. Reflections on past, present, and future in the chronic illness experience].

The illness experience is a relevant issue in current research and academic discussions. A growing number of research initiatives have undertaken to account for the subject's perspective and subjectivity in the health field. This paper discusses our research team's approach and results in studying the experience of people living with chronic illness. Our perspective is based upon the production in this relatively new field as well as health-related discussions in Latin America. The illness experience calls for an understanding of it as a subjective and existential phenomenon, entailing the phenomenological arena, immersed in the process where ill people "produce" and "reproduce" themselves. The unfolding and course of the illness as well as treatment management are some salient dimensions we evoke. Some lines of future work are presented in order to create a research agenda, highlighting its implications for existing proposals pertaining to health reform in our Latin American countries.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed2003

[An hermeneutic approach to health-disease relationship].

This work aims to contribute to the current discussion on the relationship between health and disease, taking a hermeneutic perspective on the issue. The first section, referring to the discussion among the hermeneutic, phenomenological, and existential lines of philosophy, analyzes the work of two philosophers, Kierkegaard and Heidegger, who profoundly influenced contemporary hermeneutics. The article discusses the concept of anguish, which for Kierkegaard (contrary to the biomedical approach) is a constitutive component of human beings: for Kierkegaard, as subsequently for Heidegger, anxiety is not a pathological symptom but a state that allows for privileged access to self-knowledge. In the second section, we approach how hermeneutics, and especially the work of Gadamer, developed the concepts of health, illness, and suffering; we also analyze how in recent years this perspective has influenced the social sciences (and particularly medical anthropology) in their approach to health problems. The third and final section discusses the implications of hermeneutics for clinical training and practice, demonstrating the applicability of Heidegger's and Gadamer's thinking for work by physicians and nurses.

Anthropology↗
PubMed2004

[Care to mastectomized woman: discussing ontic aspects and the ontological dimension in nurses performance at a Cancer Hospital].

This reflection approaches aspects related to the ontic and ontological dimensions that constitute and, therefore, permeate nursing care delivered to the client with breast cancer submitted to mastectomy. This reflexive analysis was developed considering the author's professional experience as a clinical nurse at the Cancer Hospital III and at the National Cancer Institute (INCA) as well as using the theoretical frameworks studied during her master and doctoral courses. Through a comprehensive attitude and using phenomenological interpretation, this study aimed at reflecting about nurse's clinical actions in the routine of an institution, pointing out possibilities for a care based on the existential dimension of the involved persons. Therefore, the author emphasizes nurse's performance with the client that is not only translated in the application of scientific techniques, orientations and information but also considering the perception, understanding and care provided by a human being in his/her singularity.

Cancer Care Facilities↗
PubMed2006

[The act of taking care in the dying process from the perspective of women with cancer: a phenomenological attitude].

The trajectory of this study was focused on understanding the meaning of taking care of women with cancer, without any possibilities of cure, through their perspective. With this proposal, we chose to carry out a qualitative survey, according to a phenomenological approach, based on these directive questions: "Tell me how I can take care of you. How would you like to be taken care of?" The descriptions evidenced the ontological unifications that were analyzed and interpreted according to Martin Heidegger's reference framework. These unifications made it possible to reveal ways for the act of taking care in the dying process that go beyond technical-scientific knowledge, because taking care also involves empathy, listening, patience, zeal, pain control and autonomy. Based on these women's point of view, we could reach the sense of being a person with cancer in the dying process, not as something finished, but as a person with possibilities, in spite of facing the factual situation of living with the existential end.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Schizophrenia patients' daily life after the use of clozapine and group accompaniment: Family's view].

This study described the daily life of schizophrenia patients after the use of clozapine and group accompaniment from the perspective of family members. The research population consisted of 11 family members who most frequently accompanied 11 schizophrenia patients who participate in the group and use clozapine. With a view to data collection, interviews oriented by a script were held in April 2003, which were taped and fully transcribed afterwards. Results indicated an improvement in patients' symptoms, demonstrated by decreased social isolation, resumption of home/work activities and study as well as by participation in social events. These results point towards the need for a new view on patients who suffer from mental disorder and their family members, with a view to seeking therapeutic attitudes that act in the production of life with a view to a new existential meaning, in the different forms of social contact and sociability.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2001

Losing God.

Shortly before his death in 1995, Kenneth B. Schwartz, a cancer patient at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), founded the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center. The Schwartz Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and advancing compassionate health care delivery, which provides hope to the patient, support to caregivers, and sustenance to the healing process. The center sponsors the Schwartz Center Rounds, a monthly multidisciplinary forum where caregivers reflect on important psychosocial issues faced by patients, their families, and their caregivers, and gain insight and support from fellow staff members. Nebulous language, distrust, and dogma confound spiritual aspects of cancer care. However, existential well being is an important determinant of quality of life: finding meaning and purpose make suffering more tolerable. The case presented is of a patient who experienced "losing God" as a Hodgkin's disease survivor with metastatic prostate cancer and severe coronary artery disease. His caregivers were able to provide the sense of community in which he could re-establish his faith. Health care providers do not have to be religious in order to help patients to deal with a spiritual crisis. The clinical skills of compassion need to be deployed to diagnose and respond to spiritual suffering. Acknowledging and addressing anger or guilt, common sources of suffering, are essential to adjustment. Simply being there for the patient and being open to their hurt can help resolve their spiritual crisis, a responsibility that is shared by the whole health care team.

Hodgkin Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Functional use of secondary cancer symptomatology.

This article presents several case studies which illustrate the way in which a terminal patient's attention may be diverted from the primary disease process, cancer, to secondary somatic symptomatology such as pain and nausea. This phenomenon has important consequences for the patient, family, physician, and the patient's medical treatment. These consequences are discussed in terms of primary gain, tertiary gain, and the "medicalization of existential problems."

Aged↗
PubMed1987

The emergency treatment of the depressed patient with physical illness.

Approaching individuals in the emergency situation presenting with medical illness and depression requires an understanding of psychologic, biologic, social, and existential factors that converge to create alterations in mood, thought, and behavior. Clinicians must understand how these same factors may be used in managing patient response to treatment of both the depression associated with an illness and the physical illness itself. Whenever a physical illness is present, it is imperative to ascertain the degree to which physical illness and concomitant treatment may be responsible for the psychiatric symptoms.

Brain Diseases, Metabolic↗
PubMed1998

Unsettled, uncertain and striving to understand: toward an understanding of the situation of persons with suspected dementia.

The main purpose of this study was to understand the part played by clinical diagnosis in relation to persons with suspected dementia. Interviews were held with eight persons who had been evaluated clinically because of suspected dementia. A phenomenological-hermeneutic analysis inspired by Ricoeur's philosophy was performed. The findings revealed the overall meaning of "making sense" of early experiences of memory loss in terms of a clinical diagnosis by which participants are provided with a means of interpreting and ascribing some meanings to the changes in themselves. When a meaning cannot be established and the future is unknown, these experiences are found to pose an existential threat that projects into future existence. The study suggests that understanding how an informed diagnosis is comprehended by the client becomes essential when evaluating persons due to suspected dementia.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Profiles of reminiscence among older adults: perceived stress, life attitudes, and personality variables.

The goal of the present study was to identify subgroups of older participants on the basis of unique configurations of variables among functions of reminiscence, personality traits, life attitudes, and perceived stress by means of cluster analysis. Ninety-three older adults (M = 66.7 years of age) completed the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, the Life Attitude Profile-Revised, the Reminiscence Functions Scale, and the Psychological State of Stress Measure. Cluster membership was determined on the basis of intra-personal functions of reminiscence (Boredom Reduction, Death Preparation, Identity, Bitterness Revival). These groups were subsequently compared on personality traits (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to experience), life attitudes (Existential Vacuum, Goal Seeking), and perceived stress. Three distinct groupings emerged. A greater tendency to ruminate about negative memories and lower extraversion characterized the negative reminiscers. Higher frequency of reminiscence related to issues of identity, life meaning and death, together with a tendency toward openness to experience, typified the meaning seekers. Lower reminiscence frequency for each of the four functions, combined with lower perceived stress and neuroticism, characterized the infrequent reminiscers. These results are interpreted in terms of differential patterns of coping and adaptation.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The children of the Valley of Death--reflections on terminal children].

The author ponders on the role of the pediatrician facing the death issue and its philosophical and existential implications. The author also ponders on the death issue in todaýs culture, as well as the transformation undergone by exequies, and modern man's death in the loneliness of emergency rooms, where he dies technologically well assisted but in a lonely, impersonal environment far away from his loved ones, and deprived of the sheltering warmth of his home. The author considers the difficult task of revealing a diagnosis and prognosis of a terminal illness to the patient's family and to the patient himself. He studies the several stages of such a revelation and offers an extensive bibliography of the literature concerning the issue. He judges the terminal patient's family's different reactions to the revelation, from the search for impossible miracles through wonderworkers and charlatans to the confrontation of natural products and magical fluids with scientific knowledge. He considers the role of the pediatricians in finding a solution to the dialectics of his own death, for only by doing so will the pediatrician be able to competently and maturely handle the challenge represented by the death of his terminal patients. He finishes by drawing attention to the importance of psychological assistance to the terminal child and its family.

English Abstract↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Social phobia in developmental period: from theory to therapy].

The contemporary integrative theoretical and therapeutic concepts of social phobia in developmental period have been presented in the study. Besides current neurobiological theories, a very important hypothesis about behavioral inhibition has been represented as a predisposition of social phobia. The cognitive-behavioral theories of social phobia are dominant among psychological theories. The integrative concept of social phobia is the most realistic approach to this disorder and the bridge between biological and psychological theories. The interaction between biological and psychological etiological factors is represented through different therapeutical approaches to social phobia. Therapy of social phobia is integrative and involves different therapeutical modalities in different phases of therapy. In integrative psychotherapy, we use cognitive-behavioral therapy, dynamic oriented supportive psychotherapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy and phenomenological-existential psychotherapy. The cognitive-behavioral therapy yields the best results. The medicaments in use are the following: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, high-potency benzodiazepines, new antiepileptic drugs and rarely beta-blockers. The combination of integrative psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy is the most optimal therapeutic approach to social phobia. This integrative and to patient adapted treatment will produce the best results in management of children's and adolescent's social phobia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Religious and mystical experiences as artifacts of temporal lobe function: a general hypothesis.

Mystical and religious experiences are hypothesized to be evoked by transient, electrical microseizures within deep structures of the temporal lobe. Although experiential details are affected by context and reinforcement history, basic themes reflect the inclusion of different amygdaloid-hippocampal structures and adjacent cortices. Whereas the unusual electrical coherence allows access to infantile memories of parents, a source of good expectations, specific stimulation evokes out-of-body experiences, space-time distortions, intense meaningfulness, and dreamy scenes. The species-specific similarities in temporal lobe properties enhance the homogeneity of cross-cultural experiences. They exist along a continuum that ranges from "early morning highs" to recurrent bouts of conversion and dominating religiosity. Predisposing factors include any biochemical or genetic factors that produce temporal lobe lability. A variety of precipitating stimuli provoke these experiences, but personal (life) crises and death bed conditions are optimal. These temporal lobe microseizures can be learned as responses to existential trauma because stimulation is of powerful intrinsic reward regions and reduction of death anxiety occurs. The implications of these transients as potent modifiers of human behavior are considered.

Culture↗
PubMed1989

Geophysical variables and behavior: LV. Predicting the details of visitor experiences and the personality of experients: the temporal lobe factor.

The visitor experience, a more intense form of the normal sense of presence, emphasizes the deep belief of personal contact with an extraterrestrial (or religious) entity. Phenomenological details of visitor experiences are expected to reflect the functions of deep temporal lobe structures; common details involve cosmic meaningfulness, vestibular experiences, flickering, complex visual sensations and alimentary references. After intense experiences, interictal-like behaviors similar to religious conversions (widening affect, sense of personal, desire to spread the word, concern about Man's destiny) emerge. Normal people who are prone to these experiences show frequent temporal lobe signs and specific personality characteristics that include enhanced creativity, suggestibility, mild hypomania, anxiety, and emotional lability. Learning histories that encourage the use of right temporal lobe functions for the consolidation of memory, such as compartmentalization of beliefs or repression due to early sexual abuse, predispose to intense visitor experiences. The most frequent precipitants are psychological depression, personal (existential) stress and proximal exposure to the focal tectonic strain fields that accompany luminous phenomena. Possible neuropsychological mechanisms are discussed.

Amygdala↗
PubMed1996

An analysis of students' reasons for studying martial arts.

Responses to a questionnaire study of initial reasons to study martial arts by 170 students in a school of martial arts are described. Although self-defense and physical fitness motives were prominently claimed, further analyses of more subtle existential and psychological issues are warranted.

Adolescent↗