The elephant in the living room: Centenarians' autobiographies, co-authorship and narratives of extreme longevity.

2020

The impact of attachment distress on affect-centered mentalization: An experimental study in psychosomatic patients and healthy adults

2018

Introduction We investigated the impact of attachment distress on affect-centered mentalization in a clinical and a non-clinical sample, comparing mentalization in a baseline condition to mentalization under a condition of attachment distress. Methods The sample consisted of 127 adults who underwent inpatient psychosomatic treatment, and 34 mentally healthy adults. Affect-centered mentalization was assessed by analyzing participants’ narratives on interpersonal situations in a baseline condition with the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS), and an experimental condition inducing attachment distress with the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP). Unlike the LEAS, the AAP is…

Can eastern wisdom resolve western epidemics? Traditional Chinese medicine therapies and the opioid crisis.

2020

The widespread use of opioids to treat chronic pain led to a nation-wide crisis in the United States. Tens of thousands of deaths annually occur mainly due to respiratory depression, the most dangerous side effect of opioids. Non-opioid drugs and non-pharmacological treatments without addictive potential are urgently required. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is based on a completely different medical theory than academic Western medicine. The scientific basis of acupuncture and herbal treatments as main TCM practices has been considerably improved during the past two decades, and large meta-analyses with thousands of patients provide evidence for their efficacy. Furthermore, opinion lead…

Literature, Simulation, and the Path Towards Deeper Learning

2019

This paper investigates the role of teaching literature for deeper learning. It draws on models of simulation, which have usually been more common in psychology, law, and political science. Teaching literature may be ideally suited for deeper learning since literary texts can be seen as experimental social action. Each text confronts its readers with ethical choices. This property of literature as a medium can in turn be transformed into new models for teaching literature. Ultimately, literary simulations can hence constitute a path towards civic education and social responsibility. Such approaches, in turn, may contribute not only to discussions of the “relevance” of the humanities as such…

MENTAL HEALTH AND SUICIDAL IDEATION AMONG 1ST AND 2ND GENERATION MIGRANTS - Results from the Gutenberg Health Study

2016

Broken heart, tako-tsubo or stress cardiomyopathy? Metaphors, meanings and their medical impact

2016

The cardiac impact of psychological stress historically and socially understood as boundary experiences of human life has long since become an icon. From the aching heart to the sudden death provoked by awe, horror, grief, anger, and humiliation on one side and extreme enchantment, enthusiasm, and excitement on the other, the broken heart has become a globally recognized and powerful metaphor present from folklore to popular culture to high literature and back to everyday communication. In medicine, the "broken heart syndrome" is described as a relatively new nosological entity that has been used synonymously with the term tako-tsubo or stress cardiomyopathy. Among those three terms, howeve…

Living autobiographically: Concepts of aging and artistic expression in painting and modern dance.

2016

This article discusses the ways in which artists have incorporated or failed to incorporate the aging process of their bodies into their art. Using Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and the French painter Claude Monet as cases in point, we explore situations in which physical changes brought about by aging compromises artists' ability to engage with their artistic medium. Connecting Monet's oeuvre and Baryshnikov's dance performances to life writing accounts, we draw on John Paul Eakin's concept of "living autobiographically": In this vein, life writing research does not only have to take into account concepts of identity as they emerge from life writing narratives, but it also need…

'Traveling Barbies' and rolling blackouts Images of mobility in Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding

2003

AbstractThis article proposes to read Mira Nair's film Monsoon Wedding through a critical framework provided by transnational anthropology. Such a framework suggests that approaches celebrating transnational mobility must be balanced against nationally specific forms of constraint. It is argued that Monsoon Wedding bears out precisely such a balance. Nair's film suggests that the mobility of human lives may not be quite as unfettered as that of cultural commodities. Moreover, the filmic narrative insists on a differentiation within the Indian diasporic community. Similarly, some theorists of transnationalism have cautioned that the concept of a 'diasporic community' may serve to obfuscate c…

Towards a Science of the Self: Autism, Autobiography, and Animal Behavior in Temple Grandin’sAnimals in Translation

2019

AbstractThis paper argues that Temple Grandin’s work serves as an intervention into the very framework of ‘disability.’Animals in Translationsuggests that the minds of people living with autism are ‘wired differently’; yet, this difference, Grandin makes clear, is by no means always a disadvantage. As a scientist in animal studies and a consultant for animal behavior, Grandin claims that persons on the autism spectrum may be ideally suited for understanding the animal mind. Describing both autism and animal behavior through the discourse of neuroscience, she takes the analogy between persons with autism and animals one step further. Both animals, especially birds, and people on the autism s…

Health(care) in the Crisis: Reflections in Science and Society on Opioid Addiction

2021

Opioid abuse and misuse have led to an epidemic which is currently spreading worldwide. Since the number of opioid overdoses is still increasing, it is becoming obvious that current rather unsystematic approaches to tackle this health problem are not effective. This review suggests that fighting the opioid epidemic requires a structured public health approach. Therefore, it is important to consider not only scientific and biomedical perspectives, but societal implications and the lived experience of groups at risk as well. Hence, this review evaluates the risk factors associated with opioid overdoses and investigates the rates of chronic opioid misuse, particularly in the context of chronic…

Reviews

2004

African Film: Re‐Imagining a Continent Josef Gugler James Currey, Oxford, 2003, pb 216pp ISBN 085255561X £14 Revolution: The Explosion of World Cinema in the Sixties Peter Cowie Faber, London, 2004, hb 304pp ISBN 05712 09033 £20.00 www.faber.co.uk Sembene: Imagining Alternatives in Film and Fiction David Murphy James Currey, Oxford and Africa World Press, Trenton, 2001, pb 275 pp ISBN 0 8525 5555 5 £14.95 www.jamescurrey.co.uk Films by Michael Ondaatje (115 min); including: The Clinton Special: A Film About The Farm Show (1974, 71 min) Sons of Captain Poetry (1970, 29 min) Carry on Crime and Punishment (1970, 5 min) Available as a DVD or video from www.mongrelmedia.com Yilmaz Guney: Bir Cir…

First Nations Healing: From Traditional Medicine to Experimental Ethnopharmacology

2020

Abstract Focusing on First Nations traditional medicine, we investigated whether traditional knowledge of medicinal plants can be validated by modern scientific methods of molecular and cellular pharmacology and whether this information is of value for improving current therapy options. Based on two projects on medicinal plants of the Gwich’in – a First Nations group on the Canadian North West Coast – we found that extracts from several plants traditionally used medically were able to kill tumor cells, including otherwise multidrug-resistant cells. Investigating medicinal plants from Indigenous communities raises questions about ownership, appropriation, and commercial use. At the same time…

Positive Learning and Pluriliteracies

2017

Deeper learning and the development of transferable knowledge and skills are highly desirable goals in Higher Education programs. However, current studies indicate that these goals are rarely achieved. In this article, we will present a model of deeper learning that promotes the development of disciplinary literacies and transferable knowledge. Based on our joint work we will outline a revised course design that aims at putting the principles of deeper learning into practice through a focus on affect, student engagement, knowledge construction, meaning making and active demonstration of understanding as well as reflective practice. Further, we will outline a research agenda for evaluating a…

Psychodynamic Online Treatment Following Supportive Expressive Therapy (SET):Therapeutic Rationale, Interventions and Treatment Process.

2018

The feasibility of psychodynamic online treatments has remained an issue of debate. The paper presents rationale and technique of a psychodynamic online intervention discussing therapeutic process and alliance based on two case examples from an RCT.A weekly writing task is followed by individual feedback from the online therapist. Treatment focuses on a 'Core Conflict Relationship Theme' based on relationship episodes according to the wish of the patient, reactions of the others and reactions of the self. Maladaptive interpersonal interactions are worked through by supportive and expressive therapeutic interventions.Case reports from our study illustrate a productive therapeutic process wit…

Biopiracy of natural products and good bioprospecting practice

2016

Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-26T16:27:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2016-02-15 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Background: Biopiracy mainly focuses on the use of biological resources and/or knowledge of indigenous tribes or communities without allowing them to share the revenues generated out of economic exploitation or other non-monetary incentives associated with the resource/knowledge. Methods: Based on collaborations of scientists from five continents, we have created a communication platform to discuss not only scientific topics, but also more general issues with social relevance. This platform was termed 'PhytCancer -Phytotherapy to Fight Cancer' (www.phy…

The gap between knowledge and belief: narrative, affect and students’ deeper learning in higher education

2021

One of the central challenges educators face today, especially in higher education, is the gap between warranted (domain-specific) knowledge and the prior beliefs students hold about certain concep...

How We Forgot Who Discovered DNA: Why It Matters How You Communicate Your Results

2019

One hundred and fifty years ago, a hopeful young researcher reported a recent discovery he had made. Working in the bowels of a medieval castle in the German city of Tübingen, he had isolated a then entirely new type of molecule. This was the birth of a field that would fundamentally change the course of biology, medicine, and beyond. His discovery: DNA. His name: Friedrich Miescher. In this article, the authors try to find answers to the question why-despite the fact that virtually everyone nowadays knows DNA-hardly anyone remembers the man who discovered it. In the history of science, the discovery of DNA was a seminal moment. Why then did it not enter into public memory? Ground-breaking …

Biopiracy in India: Seed diversity and the scramble for knowledge.

2018

Abstract Background: Biopiracy has usually been discussed mostly in the context of the life sciences, sometimes in dialogue with legal debates or political implications. This paper provides a humanities perspective on contemporary discussions of biopiracy and biopatenting. Hypothesis It proceeds from the hypothesis that contemporary debates and practices of biopiracy can be understood as harking back to colonial legacies, which systematically disregard “native” knowledge or seek to appropriate it for their own purposes. Results Drawing on the work of Vandana Shiva, the present article seeks to redefine the notion of ownership of knowledge from a cultural studies perspective. Exploring the 2…

Biopiracy versus One-World Medicine-From colonial relicts to global collaborative concepts.

2017

Abstract Background Practices of biopiracy to use genetic resources and indigenous knowledge by Western companies without benefit-sharing of those, who generated the traditional knowledge, can be understood as form of neocolonialism. Hypothesis The One-World Medicine concept attempts to merge the best of traditional medicine from developing countries and conventional Western medicine for the sake of patients around the globe. Study design Based on literature searches in several databases, a concept paper has been written. Legislative initiatives of the United Nations culminated in the Nagoya protocol aim to protect traditional knowledge and regulate benefit-sharing with indigenous communiti…

Positive Learning in the Internet Age: Developments and Perspectives in the PLATO Program

2019

The Internet has become the main informational entity, i.e., a public source of information. The Internet offers many new benefits and opportunities for human learning, teaching, and research. However, by providing a vast amount of information from innumerable sources, it also enables the manipulation of information; there are countless examples of disseminated misinformation and false data in mass and social media. Much of the information presented online is conflicting, preselected, or algorithmically obscure, often colliding with fundamental humanistic values and posing moral or ethical problems.