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This commentary is a response to Veronica Csillag’s exploration of the influence of historical and transgenerational trauma on the lives of immigrants, and on the psychoanalytic process (this issue). Dr. Csillag’s paper deepens our understanding of the intrapsychic life of immigrants who have suffered collective trauma pre-migration and continue to suffer from “ghosts” from the past. Her ideas are critical to examining not only the specific traumas incurred in Europe related to the Nazi Holocaust and totalitarian and socialist regimes but also to contemporary traumas related to social identity and position in the United States. In this commentary, I elaborate three primary areas within Dr. Csillag’s contribution: (a) the illusion of choice in traumatic migration, (b) secrecy and privacy, and (c) experience of the outsider and the insider. My discussion underscores the importance of engaging with historical and ongoing trauma in psychoanalytic psychotherapy as a path to healing within individual and collective dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper endeavors to argue that Derrida's deconstructionist ethics can be construed as an embodiment of immanent ethics. To achieve this goal, it commences with Friedrich Nietzsche's articulation of immanent ethics, drawing a contrast with formalist and conformist accounts of morality, exemplified in Kant. Following that, the paper explores the ethical thoughts of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze to establish a connection between immanent ethics and the problem of life. In this context, we observe how immanent ethics redirects ethical concerns from human consciousness to the domain of life, modes of existence, the unconscious desire and its exteriority. Within this framework, the paper characterizes Derrida's ethics of deconstruction as a convergence of the immanence of deconstruction and deconstruction as a creative mode of life. As a result, Derrida's formulation of ethical challenges within the context of aporias, impossibility, and responsibility can be understood as a call for resistance against conformity to established forms of life. This imbues deconstruction with an intrinsic ethical-political character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Middle-aged adults typically play multiple roles with centralized responsibility for younger and older persons. Midlife health and well-being impact the state of aging in later years. Limited studies have investigated midlife experiences from the perspective of the middle-aged group themselves. This paper presents a systematic review of middle-aged women's perceptions and experiences of midlife through a qualitative synthesis. Systematic databases searches resulted in 938 articles. Six selected articles were analyzed and three core themes were identified using thematic analysis: heightened awareness of lifespan, expectation of establishment and freedom from expectations, clarity of values, and self-acceptance. The findings showed the interconnected and progressive nature of midlife experiences toward a hoped for sense of congruence, revealing its connectivity to subsequent life stages and importance for healthy development. Credible and relevant information need to be provided as resources for the middle-aged women themselves and pertinent healthcare professionals. Proper information is also needed to address stereotypes, educate the public and equip relevant educators with evidence-based knowledge. Further research on midlife experiences in general from the perspective of middle-aged males, and in diverse settings is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an extension of a conversation begun at the CARN 2020 Conference. It outlines how an accelerated, rushed lifestyle impacts negatively on almost every aspect of life. In education, the fast-paced life is reflected in the trend towards incessant production. This trend impacts negatively on the lives of university lecturers, teacher-educators, students and on teacher-researchers, and is reflected in the unrelenting demand for research output and performance reports. It is mirrored in the lack of time for thoughtful, critical reflection and impacts on the quality of scholarship and on professional agency. It also has negative implications for health and well-being. The contrary motion of the 'slow' movement formulates a sustainable alternative to the onslaught of speed. It manifests itself in the slow movement initiatives which are percolating into the fields of education and research also. The first section of this paper explains why the development of a 'slow approach' to action research might be sought. The second section of the paper outlines how a slow approach to action research might be envisaged in a practical manner. It outlines ideas around (i) personal awareness, (ii) intellectual awareness and (iii) relational awareness as suggested slow approaches to action research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time perspective (TP) offers a new understanding of human personality, postulating that there are individual differences in how our mind assigns our experiences to different time categories. This concept may shed new light on the role of personality traits in shaping vulnerability to the internalized stigma. In this paper we propose a novel approach to clarifying the underpinning of self-stigma by empirically exploring its links with TP. We conducted a cross-sectional study among 86 patients with ICD-10 diagnoses of paranoid schizophrenia to validate the predictive role of TP for self-stigma. We used the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI), Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness scale (ISMI) and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). We found significant positive correlations of self-stigma with Past-Negative, Future-Negative and Present-Fatalistic TP categories and negative correlation with the Future-Positive category. The hierarchical regression analyses revealed that two TP categories and Deviation from the Balanced Time Perspective (DBTP) are significant predictors of self-stigma over and above sociodemographic and clinical control variables. Conclusion. The results of the study confirm the hypothesis that TP opens new possibilities to understand proneness or resistance to self-stigmatization, and this may provide a basis for novel approaches to anti-self-stigma interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper presents qualitative research findings from the evaluation of a Parkinson's Dance well-being venture in the UK. Methods: Qualitative data was gathered to see how bespoke dancing sessions helped people with Parkinson's (PwP) to manage their conditions and improve their lives and prospects. Principles of a participatory approach were incorporated and methods included semi-structured interviewing, researchers participant observation and an elicitation-based activity. Nineteen PwP, six carers, four dance artists and seven helpers participated in the study. Results: Participating in Parkinson's Dance sessions meant that PwP could experience the possibilities to dance, develop a "can do" attitude, experience fun, enjoyment, social connection, exercise, movement to music, improvement and/or maintenance of their balance, suppleness, coordination and confidence with movement, symptoms being pushed back and ability to learn new things. Conclusions: Our findings add to the evidence-base about the benefits of dance for people experiencing Parkinson's and through novel application of the Life-world based well-being framework of K. T. Galvin and Todres (2011) we propose a theoretical basis for Parkinson's Dance as a resource for well-being. There is scope to consider application of the well-being framework to other arts activities and as the basis of an arts and well-being evaluation tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although each person faces their own share of challenges, it is their individual perception and responses to these difficulties that determine how they are affected by them. In this paper we investigate the association between gratitude and human prosperity including the underlying mechanism that helps people thrive during trying circumstances. We survey the literature, examining how gratitude enables people to prosper amidst adversity and employ a narrative style to present these unique characteristics. This review suggests that gratitude enhances coping abilities, such as meaning-focused coping and positive reframing, which foster positive emotions and augment personal resources like resilience, perseverance, and social bonds. These elements, in turn, may possibly explain the association between gratitude and human prosperity during dire circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper expands the discussion on the effect of the subjective Holocaust influence level (SHIL) on the daily financial thinking and attitude of Holocaust survivors' offspring (HSO). For this purpose, we asked 253 Jewish-Israeli HSO about their financial satisfaction, materialism, income confidence, willingness to save money, generosity, and miserliness, and divided them into three groups based on their SHIL. We find that SHIL affects materialism, income confidence and generosity, but not financial satisfaction or motivation to save money. This paper increases our understanding of how the subjective perceptions of HSO impact the long-term influence of the Holocaust on their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to reinvigorate sociotherapy by contextualizing its practice within a logotherapeutic and an existential health discourse. This approach is used to enhance meaningfulness in life within the framework of a sociotherapy, through mindfulness, and greenspace activities such as walking and gardening. This discourse has been largely inspired by: 1) sociotherapy's capacity to facilitate existential health; 2) the international research community's struggle for a broader concept of health; 3) World Health Organization's concept of existential health; and, 4) Frankl's assertion that people must be understood holistically as physical, psychological, social and spiritual beings. This paper approaches the social worker as sociotherapist (SWS) from an ecological and systemic perspective, the aim being to move the client from an egoistic to a mindful and ecological mind-set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assistive technologies have allowed people with disabilities to perform daily tasks with greater independence and autonomy, especially for visually impaired people. Using smart home solutions allows these users to control their homes with less cognitive and physical demand. However, making such applications accessible to meet the needs of visually impaired users, especially in developing countries, remains a challenge. This paper investigates the perceptions of these users about home automation technologies through semi-structured interviews. A total of 20 visually impaired people participated in the interviews. A thematic analysis revealed results concerning the following themes: (1) how people go about their lives at home and around, how people interact with current appliances, objects and environments, (3) how people perceive their attitude to technologies, (4) the Brazilian context of smart homes, (5) what people think smart homes should do and (6) envisaging ways of interacting with smart home systems. The results obtained provide significant insight into the needs of visually-impaired people in Brazil, with analysis of issues that are common with previous studies in more developed countries and specific issues that have important particularities and implications in Brazil and other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper forms an intervention into existing literature on the life stage transitional crisis of emerging adulthood, commonly referred to as quarter life crisis. Whilst among existing analyses, aspects such as gender and ethnic dimensions are considered, a marked absence of attention to disability within quarter life crisis persists. Toward theorizing the position of disabled emerging adults undergoing transitional life crisis, a composite theoretical framework is envisioned and applied. This entails the application of a five-part typology of critical disability studies, within which a life course approach to disability is integrated. Given the novelty of the subject matter, aspirations for the analysis are modest. The aim is to destabilise and refigure present individualistic psychologised discourses and common popular culture understandings of quarter life crisis. To undertake this work, disability is taken up as a transformative site to rethink the meaning of life stage transitions in emerging adulthood. As young people move from adolescence to adulthood, they can experience a difficult period in their life known as 'quarter life crisis.' Little is known or written about the experience of disability within quarter life crisis. Much of the way that quarter life crisis is understood presently is from an area of study known as psychology and from movies, articles, books and television shows for people in general. To better understand disability in quarter life crisis, this paper suggests that one perspective is particularly useful. This perspective is made up of an area of study that is known as 'critical disability studies' and an approach to understanding people's lives that is called the 'life course approach'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Love is the core of human experience and central to our meaning in life and wellbeing, yet it is also a complex concept full of ambiguity and contradiction. The main purpose of this paper is fourfold: Firstly, we want to clarify questions such as 'What is the meaning of love?' and 'Why is meaning of love so important to us?' Secondly, we want to explain why love is both suffering and essential for our happiness and mental health. Thirdly, we identify the major types of love and clarify which types are constructive and which are destructive. We also identify the key dimensions of true love. Finally, we emphasise that love does not always mean happiness; rather, it is meant to be a school to teach us important lessons and to make us complete. Therefore, we need to embrace suffering and at the same time cultivate the constructive types of love to improve our mental health and to make the world a more compassionate place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Venous leg ulcer is a recognized condition, affecting people globally. Ulcers mainly affect the elderly and recurrences are not uncommon. There is knowledge about life with venous leg ulcers, but the situation after healing is unexplored. This paper explores and describes meanings of experiences of daily life after healing of a hard-to-heal venous leg ulcer. Lived experiences of 15 individuals with healed hard-to-heal venous leg ulcers generated data for this study. Interviews were recorded for analysis using a reflective lifeworld research approach. An essence emerged, further described by its constituents. Memories of a difficult time with leg ulcer were ever present, in a way becoming part of the self. A striving for control in daily life entailed a struggle to do what was best for the own body. After healing, a new normal emerged in daily life, a reality that encompassed the risk for a new ulcer. The body had changed physically, with marks alongside those from ageing, in a life that still went on. For those who had healed from a venous leg ulcer, life had changed. Even if they referred to life as normal, it was not the same normal as before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades predictors of alcohol use disorder (AUD) relapse have been studied, and around 40 different clinical and demographic relapse determinants have been identified. This paper aims to investigate the relationship of two of these AUD relapse factors, namely craving and meaning in life (MiL). We hypothesized that greater meaning in life would be associated with lower cravings and lower relapse rates. An AUD subsample of 81 patients within a clinical population that participated in ongoing exploratory research on religious/spiritual factors related to substance use disorders was followed up to 1 year. Craving (as measured with the Penn Alcohol Craving Scale) and meaning in life (as measured with the Meaning in Life Questionnaire- presence subscale) measures were assessed at baseline and relapse was assessed at 6- and 12-month follow up. Main effects and the interaction between craving and meaning in life in predicting alcohol relapse (with relapse defined as 'any alcohol use' and ≥ 3 consecutive days of drinking) were calculated/subject of analyses. We also investigated the relationship between relapse and alcohol dependence severity as measured with the Leeds Dependence Questionnaire. Baseline craving and dependence severity were related to relapse, but there were no associations between meaning in life and levels of craving or alcohol relapse. Our findings suggest a need for additional research on characterizing the Meaning in Life concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our contemporary life is an intertwined arrangement of 'Life' with digital technologies. Increasingly, we are seeing the prevalence of automation and machines, predominantly through artificial intelligence (AI), as a means to make sense of our worlds, engage with our employers, understand the political system and interact with our social lives as some of the key methods among a wide variety of other interpersonal communication processes. Not only are these often machine-based activities seen through digital communication itself, but also in the surrounding regulatory systems, the growing concerns of digital inequality, the act of datafication, and the infrastructures that enable and inhibit digital communication. These are some of the key themes that emerged from the selected papers in this special issue emerging from the 2020 Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) conference, entirely held online and themed around 'Life'. In this special issue, we present seven papers from senior and emerging scholars within Asia, Europe, Africa, and North and South America that address and unpack the contemporary moment of communication in our Life. The papers in this special issue discuss chatbots, games, smart lighting, wearables, doorbells, sensors, biometrics, and facial recognition technology - – very much everyday technologies that shape many of our lives. They ground our expectations of AI and highlight the importance of context in internet research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life-threatening illness such as cancer may lead to existential distress, fears about dying, and questioning our legacy and impact on those around us. Building on the foundation of meaning-focused interventions in cancer care and the significance of the therapeutic alliance, the paradigm of vicarious resilience can inform oncology social work, serving as a means of growth, resilience, and self-care for clinicians. Vicarious resilience is the strength clinicians may experience through clients' resilience in facing adversity, and the meaning that practitioners can gain from supporting individuals through traumatic situations, namely life-threatening illness. Social workers in the field of oncology are at risk for vicarious traumatization and compassion fatigue, as they walk alongside clients through suffering and loss, while also positioned to experience vicarious resilience and meaning through the resilience displayed by clients. This paper will examine the potential benefits of vicarious resilience in the field, and through enhancing psychoeducation and incorporating it into training and supervision, it can be brought to the fore as a paradigm in cancer care, offering a means to support practitioners. A case study involving a composite client navigating her cancer journey will be shared, illustrating the companionship and vicarious resilience through the oncology social work relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that the Epicurean argument against death's badness can be much more easily defended if one endorses the view that lives and people are evaluated differently. Drawing on the work of philosophers Shelly Kagan and Stephen Rosenbaum, it is argued that death is not bad for those who are dead, but that it can be bad for the lives of those who are dead. Although death never harms the one who dies, it always affects the value of one's life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This autoethnography explores the experience of societal meanings of suicide from the perspective of people bereaved by suicide. The research focuses on three autoethnographic stories of everyday experiences in which personal meaning making and societal meanings of suicide intersect in contemporary Australian settings. Personal perspectives are positioned alongside broader discussions of suicide taboo to consider the implications for agency and meaning making. Key differences between conventional notions of stigma and structural stigma, and ways in which suicide taboo influences meaning making for people bereaved by suicide are explored. The paper proposes a recasting of action previously framed as internalised stigma as proactive self-preservation by people bereaved by suicide. It concludes by arguing that building capacity to see the societal taboos of suicide creates opportunities for strengthening agency in personal narratives of bereavement by suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feelings and hopes of young people around the world are often neglected in policymaking and research, with consequences for both their wellbeing and the effectiveness of humanity's response to the climate crisis. Many of them are distressed by climate change's impacts, the inaction of political and corporate leaders, the ways other people respond to their feelings, and the lack of support they have to share their feelings or get involved in meaningful climate-related work. This paper is written by a group of twenty-three concerned young people from fifteen countries. It provides a first-hand account of our deepest feelings, how these feelings affect our daily lives, the support we want to help us cope, and our hopes for a radically more compassionate future. The results are particularly relevant to policymakers, mental health professionals, journalists, educators, and people working with young people more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternating a return to Freud's propositions in the well-known paper "Why War?" revisited with her own hypothesis of a feminine-maternal matricial third sitting at the origin of ethics conceived as responsibility towards the other, the author refers to Levinas's reflections on the phenomenon of war. She relates in particular to his introduction of Totality and Infinity, to passages from Difficult Freedom, as well as to one of his later works, which, in an interesting resonance with contemporary violence, is called: From the Sacred to the Holy. While contributing clinical illustrations or elements connected with the Israeli socio-political context in which she practices, the author focuses on the tension between the reality of wars and the aspiration for peace which she sees as related to a nostalgia to intimacy, that is to the feminine-maternal residing in every human. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential detection of ppb levels phosphine (PH3) in the clouds of Venus through millimeter-wavelength astronomical observations is extremely surprising as PH3 is an unexpected component of an oxidized environment of Venus. A thorough analysis of potential sources suggests that no known process in the consensus model of Venus' atmosphere or geology could produce PH3 at anywhere near the observed abundance. Therefore, if the presence of PH3 in Venus' atmosphere is confirmed, it is highly likely to be the result of a process not previously considered plausible for Venusian conditions. The source of atmospheric PH3 could be unknown geo- or photochemistry, which would imply that the consensus on Venus' chemistry is significantly incomplete. An even more extreme possibility is that strictly aerial microbial biosphere produces PH3. This paper summarizes the Venusian PH3 discovery and the scientific debate that arose since the original candidate detection one year ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the rich extant research in the field of mental health in acculturation, it is calling to identify religion as one of the meditative variables of the relationship between acculturation and mental health. In addition, little knowledge exists about the detailed religious experience of Chinese migrants in Ireland. This research adopted classic grounded theory to guide data collection and analysis. The findings show that Christian faith plays a significant role as a mediator in the cross-cultural adaptation of the participants with two aspects of the mental impacts: helping to cope with mental stress and providing spiritual satisfaction. The results in this paper are part of the findings from an investigation of the religious experience of the participants during their cross-cultural adaptation in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As much as humanity has always been driven by the idea of conquering death, it is also haunted by the impossibility of dying completely; that is, by a possible persistence and recurrence of something undead and indestructible that pertains to us; not necessarily as our ally, but rather as our enemy. This paper explores this strange non-coincidence of death (and life) with itself. Following various authors (Lacan, de Sade), it develops the thesis that the difference between the "real" (empirical) and the symbolic is not sufficient to explain this irreducible surplus of life, this undeadness, which is not the same as "symbolic life." Rather, it corresponds to a surplus of life that occurs as a by-product of the symbolic, but which is not itself symbolic or covered by it. Lacanian theory differs from the so-called "linguistic turn" in that it alerts us to the following paradox: language is not reducible (back) to language. It is because of language that another, additional non-linguistic Real exists in the universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finitude as an affirmative moment is what stands at the center of this paper. While death cannot be represented or conceptualized, it is present in events of death in the life of an individual and of a society. Here we look at formations split between the presencing of death and death's denial or deferral as ways of symbolizing death as imminently present and certain for those who live. Death is affirmed as what cannot be known, represented, or imagined. Based on the Freudian death drive and its interpretation, I look into poetic and philosophical instances of this idea of affirmation: from Freud's dreams of dead people who return to the scene of the living, through inventive modes of recounting death in its singular occurrence, to modes of presencing death in war, mourning, melancholia, and tragedy as well as in philosophical ideas regarding the necessary, irreducible presence of death in language or culture. All these work as symbolic formations that enact the presence of death in the form of denial. The disruptive presence of death in the life of a culture and of singular life, the presence of what is necessary yet cannot be known or represented, attests to the irreducible inclination of the human psyche toward its ownmost death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) and theoretically framed within Frankl's logotherapy, the current paper explored how members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) with long-term recovery (LTR) experience aging and health-related issues. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken to explore the lived experiences of three older members of AA with LTR. IPA revealed five higher-order group concepts: spirituality, being in the present, acceptance, self-esteemandfellowship: a support network. Interpretation of the themes revealed that LTR in AA is beneficial in helping individuals transition to later life, develop coping mechanisms for poor health and find a purpose and meaning to life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metallic structures operating at high temperatures can have creep as a life-limiting mechanism. The limit can arise by nucleation and growth of creep cavities that eventually merge becoming the leading damage of the fracture mechanisms. Understanding and modelling for creep cavitation can therefore help in prediction of structural safety and condition of such structures. The present paper will introduce a new model to predict creep cavitation damage so that the associated creep strain is also modelled out of the predictive expression without losing accuracy in the time to critical damage and corresponding residual life. The model was verified for OFHC copper, low-alloy 0.5CMV steel and higher-alloy X20 steel, to cover a wide range of polycrystalline metals and their microstructures. The new model performed as well as or better than the classical approach which requires access to measured strain. The model was applied to predict creep cavitation damage from time, stress and temperature as predictive variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethics is ever-present in all aspects of human interaction and, in any physiotherapy situation there is an inherent claim to act and care for the patient in the best possible way. The physiotherapy profession is provided with rules, guidelines and codes to support and ensure ethical professional conduct. In recent decades however, physiotherapy literature has emphasized how ethical agency is immersed in clinical reasoning in each particular situation, in the doing of physiotherapy. The Danish philosopher and theologian Knud E. Løgstrup offers a bottom-up approach to ethics, which may augment the philosophical underpinning of this development in ethical thinking. Løgstrup departs from the given pre-conditions of life; a point of departure where the ethical claim emerges from sensation in the concrete situations. This paper introduces Løgstrup's situational ethics and its ontological framing, with four foci: how we can tune in to sensation and sense the ethical claim of the other; how human interdependence can be heard in what Løgstrup calls sovereign life utterances; relational responsibility and ethical norms; and the metaphorical importance of poetic understandings of the world. In four themes we reflect on how these ethical issues are at stake in physiotherapy practice with regards to: (1) uncertainty, tuned sensation and therapeutic attitude in physiotherapy; (2) sensuous, narrative and poetic meaning-making in physiotherapy; (3) physiotherapy and coming to oneself in new embodied experiences; and (4) ethical claims and codes of conduct in physiotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Self-reliance and social participation are strongly promoted by social policy. Both concepts are linked to the concept of vulnerability, for people who do not meet these standards are labelled "vulnerable people". In this paper, the insider's perspective takes central stage by seeking to explore what it means to be labelled a "vulnerable person", and through this to further our insight into the meaning of the concept of vulnerability. Method: Thirty-three in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 allegedly vulnerable people. The data were subjected to thematic content analysis. Results: Our analysis revealed three main dimensions and eight sub-dimensions of perceived vulnerability, outlining an insider's concept of vulnerability. This concept includes manifestations of vulnerability, feelings coexisting with vulnerability, and the image of vulnerable people. Conclusion: The perception of vulnerability changes when interacting with others in society, especially with social policy implementers. In this interaction, the perceived vulnerability increases and becomes societal vulnerability. It concerns a dependency situation in which one's strength and self-determination are not recognized, and the help needed is not provided. By acknowledging the insider's perspective, social policy can fulfil a more empowering role towards "vulnerable people" and contribute to people's well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medicalisation of hospice care has been discussed simultaneously with the development of palliative care into a medical speciality. However empirical knowledge of the role of medicalisation in hospice practice is underexplored. This paper considers hospice managers' perspectives on hospice care in the complex between values related to hospice philosophy and a specialised medical approach to hospice care. Focus groups and small group interviews were conducted with hospice managers from 16 out of the 19 Danish hospices. Drawing on hope as a theoretical framework, the study contributes to further understanding of the complexity of navigating hospice care in the impasse between an existential hope focused on meaning at the end of life and a medical hope for control of the dying body. Hospice care appeared as pulled between these dimensions of hope. The hospice managers took a pragmatic approach to medicalisation but their emphasis on dying as an existential event also points to a role for hospices as a critical voice against over-medicalisation of dying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to shed further light on the life and work of the little-known author Catalina Clara Ramírez de Guzmán (1618-c.1684) by attempting to situate her production in an as yet unexplored context, namely, the tradition of literary forums and academias in her home city of Llerena and in Extremadura generally. The task is not without difficulties due to the paucity of surviving records of such circles in the region. Although there are no actual records of her participation in academies or formal competitions, a detailed consideration of Ramírez de Guzmán's family and social background and an analysis of a broad selection of her poetry provide strong circumstantial evidence that she was familiar with, and very probably contributed to, gatherings of this nature in Llerena, which boasted a flourishing community of poets, including members of her own family. The paper contends that a sizeable portion of her poetry may have been penned for such occasions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the final chapters of her 1824 Essay upon the Relation of Cause and Effect, Lady Mary Shepherd considers what it means for an organism to be alive. The physician William Lawrence (1783–1867) had recently presented a theory of life that historian Stephen Jacyna has labelled 'immanentist'. Shepherd's critique of Lawrence's arguments reveals a specific application of her own anti-Humean causal theory and shows her own affinities with the 'transcendentalist' camp. This paper explores Shepherd's criticisms of Lawrence, offering some suggestions for understanding Shepherd's own account of life as a principle, power, or cause, that, when 'mixed' with a certain kind of organized body, makes that body living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Trinidad, this paper examines how the framing of a particular apocalyptic future provided a moral commentary and model for wellbeing in contemporary everyday life. Changing social, political, and economic circumstances and relations had brought a range of new risks and anxieties into daily life. These more recent problems originating from beyond the village (such as climate change, criminality, inequality, pollution, neglect by the State) could not be resolved through working with obeah spirits as might have been used previously for more local issues, or through the long-established Catholic and Anglican churches. Instead evangelical Christian cosmology and practices gave a means of making sense of such issues and for protecting oneself. The development of a strong individual relationship with God connected individuals to a greater power and a global community, framing such problems not only as the work of the Devil but as evidence of the coming of the End of Days. Political protest or attempts at wider change were futile therefore; individuals should focus on their own practices to develop a strong relationship with God. Health and wellbeing relied on an individualised and deep relationship with the Holy Spirit. This was developed through practices that both drew on, and helped create, a type of neoliberal logic and global subjectivity to understand and live within current times, evangelical Christianity promoting ways of living without anxiety in the present through understandings of an apocalyptic future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores connections between affect studies and critical disability studies. Our interest in affect is sparked by the beginnings of a new research project that seeks to illuminate the lives, hopes and desires of young people with ‘life-limiting’ or ‘life-threatening’ impairments. Cultural responses to these young people are shaped by dominant discourses associated with lives lived well and long. Before commencing our empirical work with young people we use this paper to think through how we might conceptualise affect and disability. We present three themes; ontological invalidation in neoliberal-able times; affect aliens and crip killjoys; disability and resistant assemblages. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to identify and describe the role of leisure in meaningful engagement with life, informed by leisure and positive psychology literature on these topics. Specifically, the paper identifies the key elements or factors of leisure-induced meaningful engagement with life. In particular, the paper emphasizes the contributions of leisure pursuits to maintaining: (a) a joyful life, (b) a connected life, (c) a discovered life, (d) a composed life, and (e) an empowered life. Not only do these elements seem to represent distinct factors of meaningful engagement with life through leisure, but multiple meanings can be also gained from a single leisure-engagement experience, and these meaning themes can be interconnected. The role of leisure in meaning-making and engagement is important, considering unique distinct characteristics of leisure as freely chosen, self-determined/autonomous, and intrinsically motivated engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article canvases some of the issues involved in the idea of form as a practice in Kant, Blumenberg and Foucault, and it also outlines the different contexts and approaches the individual papers collected in this Special Issue use to explore this idea. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the formation of South Indian children’s (11–15 years old) environmental subjectivities based on five months of qualitative fieldwork with children in their school and non-school lives. By doing so, this paper aims to widen the scope of the existing literature on children’s environmental subjectivities, which so far focused on separate aspects of children’s lives such as environmental education, social relations or children’s life courses. To do so, I use [Bourdieu, P. 1990.The Logic of Practice. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press] concepts of field, habitus and cultural capital along with a non-teleological notion of environmental subjectivity and insights from wider geographical literature on the formation of subjectivities. The paper shows how children’s environmental subjectivities are constituted by and partially constitute the material environments and fields in which children live, their cultural capital and habitus, their movements through their life course and their environments and a wide range of practices through which children experience their environments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Transcending the dark side of life and overcoming negative emotions may lead a person to mature happiness, characterized by inner peace and harmony. Such happiness can be found even in times of suffering through the pursuit of meaning and spirituality. This paper argues that nature happiness involves the spiritual aspects of being human, such as deep appreciation of life, finding joy through suffering, and being in tune with oneself and others (Clements, Hocoy, Hoffman, & Kaklauskas, 2016). Transpersonal Psychology in counseling focuses on cultivating spiritual and transcendent experiences. Through examination of the spectrum of being human, including spiritual yearning and aspirations, deeper meaning can be uncovered leading to personal and spiritual growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on the meanings of money in the lives of two very different people from Kolkata. Mr Mukharji, a 60 year-old Bengali man, was a branch manager of a state bank who devoted his life to Tantrik Yoga. Mr. Kathotia, a Marwari man, was a wholesale paper dealer, with an interest in stamp and coin collecting. After first developing a theoretical framework on the sociology of money, the authors go on to describe their encounters with these two people, their different ethnic belongings, their social and working lives and what matters to them in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper forms part of a larger project which seeks to derive a theory of art from a close reading of Spinoza's work. It focuses on the importance of the aligned terms of ingenium and dispositio, which are both used to discuss the central importance of "dispostion" to our capacity to live well. While it is not possible to avoid affects, it is possible to order them in such a way that their negative impacts are lessened and their positive impacts are enhanced. We begin by underlining the importance of disposition to opening the way to understanding. We connect this to Spinoza's acknowledgement of the importance of art in helping to provide a plan for living. We turn to readings of ingenium in the work of Moreau and Balibar to further explore how the concept of disposition helps us to recognise the capacities of works of art to affect their audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Health professionals often have cumbersome responsibilities, performing their roles in complex environments under stressful circumstances. Resilience has been recognized as an enabler of thriving in such adversity and remains vague in the health profession literature. Aims: This paper aims to provide a synthesis of existing literature reviews of the evidence for resilience in health professionals, thematically integrating factors affecting resilience in health professionals. Methods: Electronic databases were searched systematically using inclusion and exclusion criteria to include literature reviews that explored resilience in health care professionals using purposive sampling of primary research studies. Results: Nine studies were identified. The definition of resilience varied across the studies. Four main themes of factors affecting resilience were found: (1) the influence of individual factors (e.g. individual traits, having a higher purpose, being self-determined), (2) environmental and organizational factors (e.g. workplace culture), (3) approaches that an individual takes when interacting with her/his professional circumstances (e.g. professional shielding and self-reflection), and (4) effective educational interventions (e.g. resilience workshops). Conclusions: Resilience is multidimensional and can be affected by multiple factors. Interventions to improve resilience should consider context and focus on improvement of adaptive abilities of health professionals in adversity. A more uniformed definition and measurement of resilience can further research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last writings of Pamela Sue Anderson dwell in some depth on the facts of "mutual vulnerability" and "precarious life," whether at a practical level or in philosophical argument. This topic can be considered in relation to the founding values of "philosophy" in the tradition we inherit from Plato. Although military imagery (immunity to attack etc.) is foregrounded in the Platonic conception of "dialectic" – that is, conversation or dialogue in a specialized sense, capable of leading to the stable possession of truth – we should also remember the more ordinary (imperfect, incomplete) prototype of conversation from which this idealized version emerges: conversation as exemplified by the sacrificial figure of Socrates, who claims not to know anything. The present paper suggests that there are these two sides to the classic dialectical encounter: aporia itself, along with the ambition to escape from aporia – to be no longer at a loss. But it also considers why, in that case, writers such as Anderson (or like Judith Butler) should still find so much potential in the theme of "precarity." This question returns us to the institutional critique of philosophy: to a mismatch between (1) the moment of vulnerability inherent in the discipline a priori, and (2) the lived experience of vulnerability about which some practitioners of the subject – namely women and other disadvantaged groups – know so much more than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various phenomena of life are typically explained by the physical sciences. Although the biological structures of a living being are subject to physical laws, we suggest that life, information, and consciousness are biological phenomena that are not. In this paper, we present new concepts and viewpoints about the very nature of biology. Life, information, and consciousness are identified as a unique set of biological phenomena that are common to only and all living beings. These three distinct phenomena always occur together in a whole pattern, and matter is viewed as the carrier of these phenomena. We explore the unique characteristics of life, information, and consciousness, and their relationships to one another. The experiences and behaviors of human beings, our presentday knowledge of biology, and some organisms' simple behaviors that we can observe are used to understand these biological phenomena. A distinction between genetic information and nongenetic information is also made, and their importance to life is emphasized. The interactions of biological activities between living beings and their environments are explained in the context of improving their chance of survival. Additionally, consciousness is simplified and exemplified via five categories from a hierarchical perspective, and various types of death are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores miscarriage in a variety of Qatari contexts to reveal the multiple realities of the unborn. During 18 months of ethnographic research, a range of settings in which fetuses emerged were explored. The unborn are represented and imagined differently, particularly in relation to the ways they are located, with multiple beings emerging according to the context and position of the stakeholder. This paper considers fetuses produced within these contexts and considers how they can be different beings simultaneously. The paper reveals how categories meant to define these beings are in flux and are constantly negotiated; it reflects moments of ambiguity. The paper serves as an illustration of the way in which value-afforded pregnancy materials affects the contexts in which they emerge; this then loops back as context dictates the significance of the material, hence multiple realities of these beings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This discussion of Veronica Csillag’s paper “Emmy Grant: Immigration as Repetition of Trauma and as Potential Space” (this issue) emphasizes the importance of place (rather than the more common psychoanalytic category of space) and the iteration of psychic dynamisms. Playing on the difference between being a subject of one’s own history and being a subject of History, this paper highlights the importance of recognizing the homology of our differences in order to become freer agents, more able to recognize what we have inherited and what we can make of it through creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this integrative literature review was to identify high quality empirical research and theoretical literature on the sources of meaning in life and people's beliefs regarding the meaning of life. This will inform current mental health clinical practice and research by providing a synthesis of empirical and theoretical literature. Failure to address meaninglessness or the existential crisis can lead to psychopathologies such as depression, anxiety, addiction, aggression, hopelessness, apathy, lower levels of well-being, physical illness, and suicide. Integrative literature reviews incorporate empirical research and theoretical literature. The inclusion criteria were primary research and theoretical papers and books by prominent theorists. Thirty-nine items underwent the critical appraisal process. Thirty-two papers or books were included. Overwhelmingly the results revealed that relationships, particularly relationships with family, are cited as the most important source of meaning in people's lives in all cultures and age groups. There was no consensus identified to answer the meaning of life question. These results and future research will allow mental health clinicians to help patients deepen their understanding of themselves, identify where they find meaning and understand their beliefs about meaning of life, contributing to a reduction in symptomatology and meaninglessness, and an increase in happiness, life satisfaction, positive affect, better coping, psychosocial health and well-being, and more meaningfulness in life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues that Jane Eyre’s struggle to develop epistemological authority in her own life is shaped by three key documents — a letter from her uncle, Richard Mason’s testimony, and her own signature — which are presented to her at climactic moments in her journey. The documents, in turn, present sites upon which Jane can confront the lasting influence of the past over her life and identity. In this regard, the documents are ‘Gothicized’, and interpreting their roles in the novel presents an opportunity for exploring how characters in the present, especially Jane, can create productive knowledge that gives them power over their own lives. Furthermore, by drawing on Jacques Rancière’s theories about the image, this paper argues that readers experience the aforementioned documents in unique ways that enable them to make connections between Charlotte Brontë’s novel and other forms of discourse, most notably legal discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is stated that people's need to live a good life is the key task of the whole nation in China. This paper proposed a pathway to human's good life in the Chinese culture context. The access to the goal should be in the human's spirituality. According to Existential Positive Psychology originated in the west and Yangming Theory of Mind in the east, individuals may find or create their meaning in life (meaning therapy) by flexibly adopting PURE strategies (a process of Purpose, Understanding, Responsible action, and Enjoyment or Evaluation), ABCDE strategies (a process of Acceptance, Belief, Commitment, Discovery, and Evaluation or Enjoyment) and another integrative strategies. The meaning-centered therapy includes cognitive approaches, narrative approaches, and acceptance & commitment therapy, etc. Also, it mainly bases on meaning management theory and the dual-systems model. Finally, with the ability of self-transcendence or people's spirituality, along with conscience and responsibility, people are responsible for everything in their life consciously and transcend self and circumstance to achieve good life at last. And the implications for Chinese community's mental health service are discussed in the background of current social reality of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The HIV response is hampered by many obstacles to progression along the HIV care cascade, with men, in particular, experiencing different forms of disruption. One group of men, whose stories remain untold, are those who have succumbed to HIV-related illness. In this paper, we explore how next-of-kin account for the death of a male relative. We conducted 26 qualitative after-death interviews with family members of male PLHIV who had recently died from HIV in health and demographic surveillance sites in Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The next-of-kin expressed frustration about the defiance of their male relative to disclose his HIV status and ask for support, and attributed this to shame, fear and a lack of self-acceptance of HIV diagnosis. Next-of-kin painted a picture of their male relative as rebellious. Some claimed that their deceased relative deliberately ignored instructions received by the health worker. Others described their male relatives as unable to maintain caring relationships that would avail day-to-day treatment partners, and give purpose to their lives. Through these accounts, next-of-kin vocalised the perceived rebellious behaviour of these men, and in the process of doing so neutralised their responsibility for the premature death of their relative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite significant research on purpose in adolescence and early adulthood, little is known about purpose in older adults. This paper defines purpose as ongoing commitment to and sustained action toward goals that are meaningful to the self and aim to contribute beyond the self. This study of purpose in later life draws on interviews of 102 respondents drawn from a U.S. nationally representative sample of 1198 men and women aged 50–92. Eighteen interviewees are identified as exemplars of purpose beyond the self and are matched with a comparison group of non-purposeful peers. Interview coding revealed that, in contrast to the non-purposeful comparison group, the purpose exemplars describe their lives as including several interconnected sources of well-being: purpose beyond the self, positive relationships, positive life engagement, a sense of competence, and freedom balanced with the desire to contribute. Implications for practitioners and the public are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary culture, it is natural to think that purchasing and owning the "right" possessions results in happiness. This belief supports our loyalty to consumer society. However, several lines of research demonstrate that high consumption lifestyles and materialistic values are not a trustworthy path to well-being. Instead, materially simpler lifestyles such as minimalism, with a focus on intrinsic values, have been suggested as contributing to happiness and fulfilment. Thus, the present paper exemplifies how individuals adopt minimalism. I propose Dialogical Self Theory (DST) to explain the decision-making processes in the transition from a materialist to a minimalist lifestyle since DST provides a useful framework to explore multiplicity in an individual's self-concept by recognising the self as moving between multiple and relatively autonomous I-positions. Thus, DST can be used to understand how internal inconsistencies, for example between a materialistic and a minimalistic I, are resolved. My elaborations suggest that the dialogical relations of different I-positions serve as a form of self-guidance leading the self to transform into a minimalist. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]