"There Needs to be a Place in Society for Madness": The Psychiatric Survivor Movement and New Directions in Mental Health Care
This article focuses on one of the survivor-therapist’s experiences, and I explore the broader clinical implications for both survivors and mental health professionals and next steps for developing viable alternatives to the traditional system. (Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology)
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - September 11, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Adame, A. L. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
The Lived Experience of Gratitude
Conclusions point to (a) the need for an expanded definition of the transactional nature of gratitude that accounts for the affective range of emotional experience, (b) the intentionality of gratitude focused on a transpersonal "other," (c) the frequency and characteristics of the occurrence of an overwhelming emotional experience of gratitude associated with awe, and (d) the potential impact of gratitude on relational boundaries between self and other. (Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology)
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - September 11, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Hlava, P., Elfers, J. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Death Anxiety and the Relational
This article introduces death anxiety experiments and theories (mostly contributions of Terror Management Theory) that have more recently demonstrated the buffering and mitigating potential of close relationships on an individual’s death fears. Additionally, this article illuminates the significance of the close relationship, which is a commonly accepted psychotherapeutic agent of change and also, paradoxically, produces death fears. The article concludes by suggesting that death anxiety plays a dominant role in the socially constructed mind and should therefore play a prevalent role in clinical depth work. (Source: ...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - September 11, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Vance, L. M. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
When Health Is an Attitudinal Matter: A Qualitative Research
Health and illness are complex constructs for which a biomedical approach alone is insufficient. The purpose of the present study was to explore how personal attitudes toward health and illness affect health experience. By adopting a constructivist perspective, we carried out individual semistructured interviews with 15 persons enrolled in a yoga class in northern Italy. We analyzed the interview data using interpretative phenomenological analysis and found that participants’ attitudes toward health and wellness were linked to their experiences and perceptions of health and illness, their somatic awareness, and their...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - September 11, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Cipolletta, S., Consolaro, F., Horvath, P. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
From an Epistemology of Faith to Everyday Understanding: Reflections on Kierkegaard, Rosenzweig, and Clinical Practice
Practitioners of psychotherapy often find themselves in clinical situations that challenge their ability to maintain both empathy and "charitable skepticism" toward clients’ narratives. The author approaches this question of clinical credulity through a comparison of the religious philosophies of Søren Kierkegaard and Franz Rosenzweig. Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments is read as advocating a necessary and provisional "leap of faith" when confronting such clinical aporias. This reading of Kierkegaard is then contrasted to Rosenzweig’s recommendations in his clinical allegory, Understanding the ...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - May 22, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Pittenger, F. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Cultural Understanding and Personal Growth Through Taekwondo as Cross-Cultural Activity
This study also provided evidence of the role of recreation activities in positive cross-cultural contacts and interactions. (Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology)
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - May 22, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Kim, J., Heo, J., King, C., Kim, S. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Psychological Growth in Aging Vietnam Veterans: Redefining Shame and Betrayal
This study offers alternative interpretations of war-related distress embedded within the social and political context of the Vietnam War. Subjective interpretations from aging Vietnam veterans were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. A central theme—Moral authenticity: Overcoming the betrayal and shame of war—overarched five subordinate themes. Four subordinate themes encapsulated layers of war-related betrayal associated with shame. Shame was likely to be described as either (a) internal/sense of personal failure, with no acts of rage; or (b) external/reckless or threatening acts of other...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - May 22, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: McCormack, L., Joseph, S. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Pathways From Personality to Happiness: Sense of Uniqueness as a Mediator
Personal sense of uniqueness, a major construct in humanistic psychology, has been recently shown to be a robust correlate of happiness. Yet the antecedents of this experience are not known. To address this limitation, we focused on extraversion and openness to experience, the two traits referred to as plasticity in higher-order framework of personality, as predictors of uniqueness and happiness. In light of theory and past empirical research, we proposed that the two traits representing plasticity would promote a sense of uniqueness, which in turn influence happiness. This model was tested in a college sample (N = 370) by...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - May 22, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Koydemir, S., Şimşek, O. F., Demir, M. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Evaluating the Phenomenological Approach to Empathy Training
The purpose of this article is to report on a study that attempted to qualitatively evaluate the phenomenological approach to empathy training. A descriptive phenomenological psychological method was used to explicate the lived applied meaning of the training. The result disclosed a general structure of the phenomenon, composed of the following five constituents: (a) a serious context in which one is encountering the other who is emotionally distressed about something, (b) directing one’s lived presence to the other’s meaning-expression, (c) a shift in emotional context, (d) novelty of approach toward interpers...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - May 22, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Englander, M., Folkesson, A. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Experiential Psychotherapy of Unification: Classical and Modern Humanistic Psychology
Being a psychotherapist trained in experiential psychotherapy of unification, I can say that one has to live it to properly understand it, because it is about living and not only about understanding. But an introduction is necessary, and this is the purpose of this article: to make a presentation for psychologists from other countries. Another purpose is to make known how important concepts of humanistic psychology have been integrated, assimilated, and developed by a section of Romanian psychologists. In a few words, experiential psychotherapy of unification is mainly about creativity, authenticity, and a co-actualization...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - May 22, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Răban-Motounu, N. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Developing Sensitivity: A Qualitative Study on the Inner Development of Etty Hillesum
This article presents the results of a qualitative case study on the diaries of Etty Hillesum. The focus of this investigation is on the way her inner development leads to increased sensitivity. This research revealed that Etty’s inner development is characterized by a transformation from great opacity to transparency in three phases. Whereas she is at first lost in inner chaos, she shows an impressive serenity and inner peace at the end of her writings. It is argued that in each of the three phases, Etty adapts her strategies to the new challenges she has to face in life. The main processes involved here are "mental...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - May 22, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Bosma, H. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
An Empirical Investigation of Viktor Frankl's Logotherapeutic Model
The purpose of this study was to investigate the logotherapeutic model as described by Frankl that explains the relationships among the search for meaning in life, the presence of meaning in life, existential vacuum, existential frustration, noogenic neurosis, will-to-power, and will-to-pleasure. A sample of college students from a large Mid-Atlantic university (N = 750) completed paper-and-pencil instruments for the variables. Structural equation modeling was used to test and compare four competing alternative models of the relationships among the aforementioned constructs. Two models exhibited excellent fit, one model go...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - February 21, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Joshi, C., Marszalek, J. M., Berkel, L. A., Hinshaw, A. B. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Personal Transformation: Posttraumatic Growth and Gerotranscendence
This article connects two rich but distinct literatures on personal transformation and well-being that can benefit from cross-fertilization. It explores the intersection of posttraumatic growth (PTG), a model of positive changes following traumatic events, and gerotranscendence, a theory of positive changes related to aging. The two conceptualizations of positive change are compared on multiple dimensions. These include the philosophical base, domains, trigger, mechanism, and correlates of change, as well as the connection of change with wisdom and life satisfaction. The analysis reveals many similarities between the two p...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - February 21, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Weiss, T. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Facing Invisible Dragons: An East-West Discussion on Finding Meaning With a Sibling With Developmental Disability
This article was part of the authors’ submission for their presentation at the Second International Conference on Existential Psychology in Shanghai, China. (Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology)
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - February 21, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Rohde-Brown, J., Frain, B. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
A Phenomenological Psychological Study of the Police Officer's Lived Experience of the Use of Deadly Force
A police officer is sometimes required to literally make a potentially life or death decision and act on it under rapidly evolving and dynamic circumstances involving a variety of mental, physical, and emotional aspects of the deadly force experience. Because the act of using deadly force is so personally influencing, the descriptive phenomenological psychological method was used in this study to provide a qualitative, holistic, and personal viewpoint from the officers’ perspective in their lived experiences. Three city police officers were interviewed and each gave a descriptive account of their experiences with dea...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - February 21, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Broome, R. E. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
