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This article critically explores responses to the suffering of animals caused by industrialised agriculture aiming to reflect on broader aspects of the current state of animal politics in the 21st century. Focusing on the regulatory schemes introduced to control the welfare of animals in Denmark, the article foregrounds sites of law enforcement and industry regulation, in which animal suffering is 'carefully' curated. The analysed material comprises inspection reports and interviews with veterinary officers and technicians charged with monitoring the level of care in Danish agribusinesses. The article builds upon Kelly Oliver's theory of witnessing to develop a sociological perspective on the function of expert testimony within regulatory and administrative domains – what is defined as acts of juridical eyewitnessing. Through this framework, it becomes evident that law and bureaucratic procedures wield considerable influence in transforming a social and legal expectation to reduce animal suffering into specific ethical-scientific and bureaucratic standards. Furthermore, in adopting a de-human-centred sociological lens, the article presents an alternative interpretation of the evolution of anti-suffering sentiment – understood as negative emotional responses to animal suffering – one in which the state plays a prominent role in shaping particular attitudes towards other animals based on 'seeing' and 'knowing' suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood cancers are life-threatening diseases that affect the whole family. During the treatment moral situations might arise. Research on how parents perceive moral challenges in childhood cancer care is sparse. The aim was to explore parents' main concern, and how they deal with their main concern, when facing moral challenges in childhood cancer care. Data collection included focus group interviews with parents. The data analysis was carried out according to a classical theory and revealed the core category "Sheltering in chaos". The strategies to handle the main concern included "To bring the child through a life-saving trajectory" by "Balancing control" and "Deliberating of suffering. The consequences included feelings of being "Torn between roles". "Familiarity" emerged as a facilitating factor to handle moral challenges. The results indicate that parents are torn between different roles, and that the care experience is improved through familiarity with the healthcare professionals. The following findings may inspire new ways of offering moral support to families in childhood cancer care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The understanding and treatment of prearthritic hip disease has evolved remarkably over the past 20 years. The principal investigator and the multicenter Academic Network of Conservational Hip Outcomes Research (ANCHOR) group have had a key role in improving the quality of care for these patients suffering from the three most common prearthritic conditions: femoroacetabular impingement, developmental dysplasia of the hip, and residual Legg‐Calve‐Perthes Disease. We aim to demonstrate that based on the six quality of care dimensions as defined by Donabedian, our 20‐year academic journey has markedly improved the quality of care for young patients with prearthritic hip disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most progressively increasing chronic diseases of the 21st century, which has a great effect on the quality of life of patients. Modern medical practice defines the disease as an important risk factor for the development of severe debilitating complications, impaired quality of life, requiring significant economic costs. The impact of this chronic disease on the affected individuals seriously reduces the quality of life in physical, psychological and social aspects. The concept of quality of life makes it possible to address and satisfy all the individual physical and mental health needs of patients. The quality of life reflects the subjective opinion and selfevaluation of patients suffering from diabetes mellitus, expressed in the reflection of the disease on their daily life. One of the complications and a health-related decrease in the quality of life is diabetic retinopathy. It is a serious and frequent complication of diabetes mellitus, with a chronic progressive course of development, which without adequate treatment can lead to a greatly impaired quality of life. The aim of the present study was to assess satisfaction and health-related quality of life in individuals suffering from type-2 diabetes and a realized ocular complication. Researched and surveyed during the period November 2022. - April 2023, there are 23 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and a diagnosed complication - diabetic retinopathy. With the help of a questionnaire consisting of 69 questions, divided into 3 groups of previously formulated questions, the patients were surveyed. Medical records were also used. Regarding general health, 17.39%(4) of the patients rate it as good, 78.26%(18) and 4.34%(1) rate it as very good. Compared to 1 year ago, 60.86%(14) of patients with diabetic retinopathy rated their health as the same, 26.08% (6) rated it as slightly worse, and 13.04%(3) of patients rated it rated as much worse now. Patients with DM and a realized eye complication are not only physically sick, but also have a lower self-assessment of quality of life, compared to the healthy population. Diabetes mellitus affects the quality of life of patients at different levels. Pain, discomfort, mobility are the main problems that affect the quality of life of patients with diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coenzyme Q10 (Q10) and cholesterol are end-products of the mevalonate pathway, which is an essential metabolic network in the cell. Q10 has an established role as an electron transporter in the mitochondrial electron transport system and antioxidant protection. Here we investigated the hypothesis that chronic supplementation of Q10 could lower the cholesterol blood level in patients suffering from lipid disorders and ischemic heart disease (IHD). We also determined whether Q10 could influence the course of IHD assessed with the Rose questionnaire for the intensity of stenocardia symptoms. The study was conducted on 13 patients with mixed hyperlipidemia consisting of total cholesterol (TC) >300 mg/dL and triglycerides >200 mg/dL who were divided into those receiving orally either 50 mg Q10 t.i.d. (7 patients) or matching placebo pills (6 patients) over three months. We assessed TC and its fractions at monthly intervals. The findings were that Q10 significantly decreased the level of TC and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol by about 20% either, with inappreciable changes in other lipid fractions. Q10 also had a beneficial effect on stenocardia symptoms, lowering the incidence of chest pain attacks and the number of nitrate pills ingested. We conclude that Q10 exerts anticholesterolemic effects and is a viable candidate for adjunct hypercholesterolemia prophylaxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the discourse on global justice as it pertains to resources and the just distribution of resources. The focus is on the concept of scarcity. In examining different understandings of scarcity through the use of analogies and examples, a distinction is made between absolute scarcity and relative scarcity. I examine the conceptual understanding of scarcity of resources in the context of distributive justice. Conceptual clarity is necessary to ensure that scarcity is properly referred to in the discourse so that scarcity is not erroneously used when justifications are sought for material deprivation and consequent human suffering. The field of distributive justice arguably requires a full comprehension of scarcity of resources, and this can only be achieved by properly examining the concept of scarcity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a phenomenological account of the role of existential feelings in the acute and lasting effects of psychedelic therapy and attempts to elucidate phenomenologically why certain psychedelic experiences in specific contexts have the potential of providing long-term relief from mental suffering. First, we explain Matthew Ratcliffe’s theory of existential feelings and use it to highlight shared phenomenological characteristics between various mental disorders. Next, we discuss the phenomenology of oceanic feelings to specify the kind of existential feeling that is involved in acute psychedelic experiences and connect this to the existential reorientation that may occur after the use of psychedelics. Following this, we show how this framework of existential feelings allows us to (1) characterize the phenomenological process that takes during therapeutic use of psychedelics, and (2) describe various conditions required for a successful therapeutic psychedelic experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper aimed to explore the palliative care (PC) needs and barriers to access among cancer patients in a rural region of North India with a high cancer burden. Methods: A Participatory action research (PAR) approach was employed. Situational assessment, community sensitization workshops (CSWs) and door-to-door surveys were planned, conducted and developed over three PAR cycles. A parallel convergent mixed-methods approach was adopted wherein the quantitative data from door-to-door surveys and qualitative data from CSWs and investigator field notes were collected and analyzed to provide a comprehensive understanding of PC needs and barriers to access. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used. Results: A total of 27 CSWs involving 526 stakeholders were conducted. A total of 256 cancer patients were assessed for PC needs and symptom burden using the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators (SPICT-4ALL) and the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) tool, respectively. Based on the SPICT assessment, all patients (n = 256) satisfied general and/or cancer-specific indicators for PC. The majority (56.6%) had ≥ one moderate-severe symptom, with the most common symptoms being tiredness, pain and loss of appetite. Analysis of qualitative findings generated three themes: unmet needs, burden of caregiving, and barriers and challenges. Cancer affected all domains of patients' and their families' lives, contributing to biopsychosocial suffering. Social stigma, discrimination, sympathizing attitudes and lack of emotional and material support contributed to psychosocial suffering among cancer patients and their caregivers. Lack of awareness, nearby healthcare facilities, transportation, essential medicines, trained manpower and education in PC, collusion, fear of social discrimination, faulty perceptions and misconceptions about cancer made access to PC difficult. Conclusions: The study emphasize the need for and provide a roadmap for developing context-specific and culturally appropriate CBPC services to address the identified challenges and needs. The findings point towards education of CHWs in PC; improving community awareness about cancer, PC, government support schemes; ensuring an uninterrupted supply of essential medicines; and developing active linkages within the community and with NGOs to address the financial, transportation, educational, vocational and other social needs as some of the strategies to ensure holistic CBPC services. Trial registration: Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI/2023/04/051357). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The word proper to theology in the question of evil is neither ponerology nor theodicy, but soteriology. Evil acquires its true meaning in a profound theology of salvation which integrates the doctrine of creation, Christology and eschatology. For this reason, Christian theology tries to understand evil in the context of salvation history, which has its origin in the Father's plan, its realization through the Son and its perfection through the action of the Spirit. Christian faith and theology confront the reality of evil with the hope that Christ's resurrection gives us, while we walk by the power and action of the Spirit who leads us to definitive beatitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to shed new light on the understudied classical Hebrew formulaic expression יום / עת צרה , "day/time of distress," by investigating the Hebrew Bible, the Hebrew texts of Ben Sira, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. After describing the formulaic dimension of this phrase and its fixed linguistic and conceptual patterns, it will be argued that the concept of narrowness usually attributed to צרה does not stand out when this lexeme is in collocation with יום / עת. The formulaic expression יום / עת צרה indicates the inner turmoil caused by threats to life. The notion of narrowness may belong to the etymology and meaning potential of צרה , but is insufficient to describe the patchwork of emotional states that assaults on life cause in those who go through the יום / עת צרה. It will also be shown that sometimes the idiomatic expression יום / עת צרה is replaced by cognate phrases that, although semantically similar, are usually used to convey ideas that are not intrinsic to the widely used phrase יום / עת צרה. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 global pandemic has brought unprecedented physical and mental health challenges to many, making the exploration of the spiritual dimension of suffering increasingly meaningful and relevant. Pope John Paul II's theologico-pastoral approach in Salvifici Doloris (SD) sheds light on how spiritual reflections and pastoral care anchored on the theology of Jesus Christ's sufferings can be put together to contribute to post-COVID-19 reflections. Given this context, this paper explores the perceptions and coping mechanisms of COVID-19 patients as they navigate the challenges of their illness. By examining patient experiences gleaned from medical and scientific journals, the study underscores the necessity of supporting individuals suffering from various diseases. As John Paul II thoughtfully remarks in Salvifici Doloris, there is a profound need to address patients' inquiries about "the cause, the reason, and equally, the purpose of suffering, and, in brief, a question about its meaning." Taking this into account, this paper contextualizes the theology of suffering articulated by Pope John Paul II in SD within the experiences of patients who contracted COVID-19 during the global pandemic. To embark on this discussion, the following themes about suffering are expounded: First, Insights into the Weight of Suffering Among Persons who Contracted COVID-19. Second, Understanding of Suffering in Salvifici Doloris, and Third, The Salvific Meaning of Suffering in COVID-19 and its Transformative Experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For almost three years, the COVID-19 pandemic seriously affected society. Mass gatherings were restricted during the surge, including religious activities and other public practices. However, some Filipinos opted to continue their panata (sacred vow) of self-flagellation during this health crisis, thus putting themselves at risk of being inflicted with the virus or being a spreader. This article explores the experience of selected flagellants who continued to fulfill their religious practice amid the pandemic. It draws inspiration from their narratives about their personal experiences of how they faced, struggled, and hoped to battle the "unseen" virus and the criticisms of others for what they did. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), their interview transcripts elicit three recurrent themes: Suffering leads to finding God for support, sacred vow as unity to Christ's suffering, and spiritual reward over physical pain. These themes can contribute to future research on how opposing parties should negotiate when faith and health conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Downbeat nystagmus (DBN) is the most common form of acquired central vestibular nystagmus. Gravity perception in patients with DBN has previously been investigated by means of subjective visual straight ahead (SVA) and subjective visual vertical (SVV) in the pitch and roll planes only during whole-body tilts. To our knowledge, the effect of head tilt in the roll plane on the SVV and on DBN has not yet been systematically studied in patients. In this study, we investigated static and dynamic graviceptive function in the roll-plane in patients with DBN (patients) and healthy-controls (controls) by assessment of the Subjective Visual Vertical (SVV) and the modulation of slow-phase-velocity (SPV) of DBN. SPV of DBN and SVV were tested at different head-on trunk-tilt positions in the roll-plane (0°,30° clockwise (cw) and 30° counterclockwise (ccw)) in 26 patients suffering from DBN and 13 controls. In patients, SPV of DBN did not show significant modulations at different head-tilt angles in the roll-plane. SVV ratings did not differ significantly between DBN patients vs. controls, however patients with DBN exhibited a higher variability in mean SVV estimates than controls. Our results show that the DBN does not exhibit any modulation in the roll-plane, in contrast to the pitch-plane. Furthermore, patients with DBN show a higher uncertainty in the perception of verticality in the roll-plane in form of a higher variability of responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alleviation of human suffering is a key driver of antipoverty praxis. Poverty is a human experience of suffering from the violence of development, which often uses animals as relief and is insufficient to understand multispecies endurances of development. Positioning suffering per se as a critical reason to rethink development, this article aims to politicize animals' emotional, physical, and psychological suffering from being not human in relation to the human in development and antipoverty praxis. Animal suffering, although sharing characteristics with sufferings of vulnerable humans in poverty, contains distinct harms that arise from being not human. This article brings together relational poverty politics and critical animal geographies to showcase the sociospatial suffering of animals, entrenched in their inherent commodity-labor status, in and against the grain of poverty, the corollary of racial-anthropocentric-capitalist global development. It focuses on animals in coercive labor in the brick kilns in India's periurban regions, sites of peripheral capitalism that are constitutive of global production, and frontiers of extreme (human) poverty, and ecological degradation. Attending to fleeting moments of "everyday multispecies brilliance" from the grounded interspecific realities of the brick kilns, the article introduces human–animal relations into relational poverty politics, to overturn the anthropocentric theoretical hegemony of development and poverty, and address animal and human suffering together toward an anti-anthropocentric, antipoverty development praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is suffering really bad? The late Derek Parfit argued that we all have reasons to want to avoid future agony and that suffering is in itself bad both for the one who suffers and impersonally. Nietzsche denied that suffering was intrinsically bad and that its value could even be impersonal. This paper has two aims. It argues against what I call 'Realism about the Value of Suffering' by drawing from a broadly Nietzschean debunking of our evaluative attitudes, showing that a recently influential response to the debunking challenge (the appeal to phenomenal introspection) fails. It also argues that a Nietzschean approach is well suited to support the challenge and is bolstered by the empirical literature. As strangers to ourselves, we cannot know whether suffering is really intrinsically bad for us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The life‐giving power of Christ's flesh and the unique efficacy of his atoning death are grounded in the fact that the flesh belongs to a divine person, the eternal Word. Though some theologians have argued that this should be explained by a divine sort of suffering taking place on the cross, this essay briefly critiques the idea of divine suffering in the atonement and proceeds to offer constructive discussion of other ways in which the life‐giving power of Christ's flesh and the efficacy of his atoning death are grounded in his deity. This first requires a consideration of the way in which Christ's humanity is empowered and supported by his deity in his suffering and atoning death, which will be articulated in dialogue with several patristic, medieval, and early modern theologians. A second essay will then elaborate further on the relationship between the efficacy of the atonement and the deity of Christ by discussing the way in which the ransom that Christ pays on the cross derives its infinite worth from his deity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The life‐giving power of Christ's flesh and the unique efficacy of his atoning death is grounded in the fact that the flesh belongs to a divine person, the eternal Word. The previous article critiqued an attempt to explain the life‐giving power of Christ's flesh by way of a divine suffering on the cross and instead sought to ground the efficacy of Christ's atoning death in the proper and instrumental power of Christ's humanity. This second article argues that the efficacy of Christ's atoning death is grounded also in the infinite worth of the ransom that he pays on the cross. The claim that the infinite worth of Christ's ransom is derived from his deity, which itself does not suffer or die, will be articulated in dialogue with several patristic, medieval, and early modern theologians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this essay is to reconsider the way scholarship conceives the role of the devil in early Christian approaches to evil and suffering, using as a case study theological reflection on this theme by Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus. Through a close reading of three texts concerned with the origins of evil, suffering, and the continued presence of the devil on earth after Christ's victory, I propose the devil's existence contributes to the mystery of evil for Basil and Gregory. Put simply, the devil does not serve as a strategy to solve problems of evil and suffering. The devil himself is a problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of neoliberalism and increasing globalization, technocratization, and scientification of mental health care, people suffering from socio-politico-economic problems ranging from poverty to structural violence are often transmogrified into "patients" with mental health problems to be "treated" with psychopharmaceuticals and individualized psychological therapies. Drawing from three socio-political issues India witnessed in the past 3 years, concerning three marginalized sections, namely, farmers, LGBTQIA+ people, and migrant workers, I illustrate the silence of mainstream mental health disciplines in India on sheer instances of structural violence and social suffering. Deflection of attention from human rights violations by mainstream mental health systems raises critical questions about the ethics and politics of mental health disciplines. The social, political, and material contexts that are central to lived experiences are almost always unaccounted in mental health academia, research, and practice. Engaging people with lived experiences advances equity by breaking down power dynamics, establishing collaborative decision-making, and improving equitable outcomes. Thus, knowledge production in mental health becomes irrelevant to political action and transformative policies that are crucial for positive mental health outcomes. By ignoring and thus implicitly sanctioning discriminatory, exploitive neoliberal architecture, mental health systems maintain the very upstream factors that cultivate and sustain mental distress. In this way, mainstream mental health practice in India fails to undertake world-making , raising deeper questions in public mental health ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Exposure to suffering can lead to compassion fatigue in undergraduate nursing students. Objective: Guided by resilience theory, a cross-sectional, correlational design was used to investigate the potential moderating effect of positive thinking skills on the relationships between views of suffering, compassion fatigue, and compassion satisfaction. Results: In 157 undergraduate nursing students, multiple regressions revealed that views of suffering and positive thinking explained 23.8% of the variance in compassion satisfaction (F 11,145 = 4.121, P <.001), and 21.9% of the variance in burnout (F 11,144 = 3.786, P <.001). The Suffering God view, which stresses the presence of a compassionate deity amid suffering, and positive thinking had significant main effects on compassion satisfaction (β = 0.349, P =.025; and β = 0.309, P <.001, respectively). Positive thinking, the Suffering God view, and the Random view, in which the occurrence of suffering is random and purposeless, had significant main effects on burnout (β = −0.280, P <.001; β = −0.392, P =.014; and β = −0.206, P =.014, respectively). The Unorthodox view, in which a deity exists that allows suffering, had a significant main effect on secondary traumatic stress (β = 0.232, P =.027). Positive thinking did not moderate any of the relationships between the views of suffering and the dependent variables. Conclusions: Knowledge of these relationships can aid in the assessment of nursing students at risk for poor outcomes and guide intervention development to promote professional quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The First World War created landscapes in which people and the natural world became deeply entangled through conflict in a never-ending cycle of destruction and rebirth. Soldiers renegotiated their understanding of the natural world to survive, which in turn led to empathy for its suffering. After 1918, these more-than-human worlds of war became sites of pilgrimage and remembrance, strictly human places in which nature's war-life was not acknowledged, influencing the post-conflict heritage process to focus on the human cost of war. Nevertheless, some areas could not be salvaged and were designated as 'zone rouge' (red zones), places heavily destroyed and contaminated with war-waste, unfit for human beings. Today, isolated sections of the Western Front retain this status, as do many post-1918 conflict landscapes around the world, with ecologies of violence managed by people, but not controlled. This paper critically analyses the memorial landscape of Vimy Ridge in northern France, comparing its adjacent section of zone rouge with the more manicured publicly accessible ritualised space. In doing so, it suggests these forbidden places can act as memorials to the more-than-human cost of modern warfare and thereby play a pivotal role in the Authorised Heritage Discourse of remembrance as heritage practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Cormac McCarthy's Suttree, the novel's titular protagonist Cornelius Suttree resists his father's self‐righteous conviction in the Nietzschean "pathos of distance" by living among Knoxville's helpless and destitute and testing the theory that "there is nothing occurring in the streets." Among the city's underclass, Suttree finds a commonality in human suffering and comes to the profound realization that "all souls are one and all souls lonely." The essay demonstrates how Suttree's personal experience of dearth and deprivation and the sense of fellow feeling, pity, and outrage elicited from his perception of and concern for the frequently unjust suffering of others are instances of pathos that persuade him to reject his father's aristocratic and elitist "pathos of distance" in favor of the egalitarian and democratic "pathos of oneness." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article starts by examining the present state of death ethics by attending to the euthanasia debate. Given that voluntary active euthanasia has seen strong support in the academic community, insights on the choiceworthiness of continued existence may be derived. Having derived cases of choiceworthy nonexistence (which I refer to as choiceworthy nonexistence [CNE] cases), I extend these intuitions to lives not worth starting, or choiceworthy nonexistence for potential people (which I refer to as foetal‐CNE, or fCNE cases). Although I depart from Benatarian antinatalism by rejecting Benatar's claim that all existence is necessarily a harm, I posit a weaker argument that all existence is likely a harm since we cannot know until later in life if an existence is a harm. If I am right, then we have prudential reasons not to bear children, since they are more likely to suffer in lives not worth living than not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A ‘no‐ownership’ or ‘no‐self theory’ holds that there is no proper subject of experience; the ownership of experience can only be accounted for by invoking a sub‐personal entity. In the recent self‐versus‐no‐self debate, it is widely assumed that the no‐ referent view of ‘I’, which is closely associated with Wittgenstein and G. E. M. Anscombe, implies a no‐ownership theory of experience. I spell out this assumption with regard to both non‐reflective and reflective consciousness and show that it is false. If the so‐called ‘self’ is an individual, the person, nothing more is required for the ownership of sensations than the non‐reflective experiencing, undergoing, or suffering of them, whereas the sense of ‘ownership’ of reflective consciousness varies according to the type of ‘I’‐thought in question. Ownership of ‘I’‐thoughts about one’s own actions, for one thing, is a matter of being able to fit future actions to them or answer questions as to why one is doing what one does. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent article, James Spiegel has suggested ways in which premortalism may bolster the free will defence in response to the logical problem of evil. Building on his presentation, this present article further reinforces the premortalist free will defence whilst also critiquing similarly related defences (such as the necessity of nomic regularity for significant freedom). Contrary to expectation, the premortalist defence is compatible with diverse accounts of divine knowledge (i.e., middle knowledge, dynamic omniscience, etc.) and does not present overly problematic questions of identity if substance dualism is presupposed. More importantly, the premortalist free will defence raises critical questions of consent and agential contractualism that are often overlooked in the literature. Over against a consequentialist framework, the premortalist defence acknowledges the importance of treating the agent as an end in and of herself. Questions of eschatology naturally arise, and contra James Spiegel, this article will propose that universalism, the belief that eventually all will be saved, is nigh undeniable on a premortalist account, given perfect being theism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Witnessing the suffering of innocent victims can motivate observers to interpret the situation in ways that justify that suffering, such as viewing victims as more personally responsible or possessing negative traits. In a pre‐registered cross‐cultural experiment (N = 831 from India, Singapore and the USA), we tested whether belief in karma—a supernatural force that can be used to explain current misfortune as payback for past misdeeds—affects people's tendencies to blame victims for their misfortune. Participants read and evaluated descriptions of ostensibly innocent victims of misfortune, both before and after thinking about karma. When thinking about karma, participants rated victims as possessing more negative traits, and (in the USA) being less similar to participants themselves, compared to their baseline judgements. Belief in karma also indirectly predicted negative evaluations, due to karma believers' greater perception that victims were personally responsible for their situation. These results are consistent with previously established patterns of victim derogation and show how karma can shape social judgements in a manner that bolsters the perception of a just world where bad things are believed to happen to bad people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic changed people’s lives and resulted in tremendous pain, loss and suffering. The Rio Grande Valley (RGV), in the state of Texas in the U.S., was one of the regions with the highest number of infections and deaths during the pandemic. However, individuals’ bereavement in the RGV is rarely addressed. In this qualitative study, a snowball sample of 47 individuals who had lost their loved ones during the years 2020–2021 were interviewed and invited to engage in an art activity. The findings revealed four themes: peculiar funeral, grieving confusion, loved ones’ memories, and connection to self and the lost one through art. Results indicate that the collective aspect of the funeral was disrupted during the pandemic and created emotional numbness and denial. The intensity of grieving did not decrease with time. The participants mainly relied on their family support and rarely sought professional help. A culturally adapted intervention is needed to address long-term bereavement in this community. Analysis of the art activities indicated that all participants had a feeling of peace and relief afterward, especially male participants who had difficulty expressing their emotions. The participants reported that the artwork positively affected their grievances and that the process was satisfying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article is interested in entering the conversation at the intersection of Biblical studies of suffering and the experiences of those living with disabilities. It will begin by focusing on the suffering portrayed in the Book of Job, and more specifically his discourse with God in Job 7:17-20. In the story of Job, we find perhaps the central question of the human condition, the question of suffering. And, more profoundly, the question of unmerited suffering of the innocent, the good, the faithful. The scholarship around the Book of Job, and readers of Job throughout time, have reflected on this problem of theodicy: how can a good and loving God permit, even ordain, human suffering? This article is interested in a slightly different question, arising from engagement with Job 7:17-20. It will explore the question of divine attention in the form of disability, and how this attention is experienced first by Job and, in the latter part of the article, by individuals living with disabilities today. This article, through the voices of individuals living with disabilities, will evince that the presence of God is experienced by many not as divine surveillance or oppression, as we read in Job’s lament, but is instead a source of grace, healing and connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been growing interest in the concept of political anxiety. One important question that remains unanswered is whether political anxiety is just a symptom of general anxiety—that those reporting anxiety tied to politics are the same individuals who would already score highly on measures of general anxiety. Using survey data collected in 2023 (N = 436), we find that measures of political and generalized anxiety do not appear to be tapping into a single underlying construct. In addition, the systematic correlates of these measures identified by previous literature are not equivalent predictors of the different types of anxiety. Politics seems to be a source of apprehensiveness and worry that affects individuals who are not necessarily suffering from general anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empathic qualitative methods have become emblematic of early Chicago sociology. Yet methods were not formalized through the early 20th century and empathy was not in usage as a term. Only at mid‐20th century did methodological formalization in sociology begin to occur, and an additional quarter‐century passed before writing about empathy in sociological methods began to crystallize. Nevertheless, a portion of early Chicago sociologists, assimilating pragmatist thought, established a framework for the deployment of empathic acumen. Because empathy involves understanding others, it is argued that it is central to the study of social life. The article contends that understanding empathy must be as central to the social scientist's knowledge as it is to the effective deployment of research methods: a competent quest to generate knowledge about social life is premised on empathy. To heighten awareness of empathy, an epistemology is necessary. To this end, the article examines empathy as situated by a set of organizational and historical conditions that account for its origin and ascendance as a prescriptive characteristic of sociological work. The author draws attention to the significance of suffering and suggests that its religious precepts are transmuted for the conditions under which sociology develops in turn‐of‐the‐century Chicago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explains that, why, and how process thinkers and Hartmanian axiologists affirm most, if not all, that Buddhism denies with respect to the positive goodness of ordinary conscious or aware lives, human and nonhuman. According to mainstream Buddhism, all the intrinsic, extrinsic, and systemic values of ordinary human existence are illusions, so we should avoid being involved with or attaching ourselves to any of them. By contrast, process thought and axiology affirm, cultivate, nurture, and encourage involvement with and attachment to all positive human values. Buddhism insists on the illusory nature of all intrinsic values (e.g., individual human selves, including ourselves), all extrinsic values (e.g., the everyday practical, useful, and sensory objects, processes, and activities of life), and all systemic values (e.g., all human thoughts, beliefs, and systems, except for the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path). Process thinkers and Hartmanian axiologists insist that such things are very real and should be taken with utmost seriousness. By "illusory," Buddhists may mean nothing more than that all such things are temporal, fleeting, transient. For this reason, they claim, all attachment to or positive valuation of such things leads to suffering. I fully agree with the transience of all momentary actualities, but I react to and deal very differently with the positive values involved in such transience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poetry of complaint expanded in the seventh century of the Hijra due to the deteriorating social, economic, and political conditions that people experienced during the late Abbasid rule and the onset of Mongol and Crusader invasions of large parts of the Islamic state. It was natural for all these events to reflect on the psyches of poets and subsequently on their poetry, as they serve as the voice of their community, depicting its suffering from these events. Complaint is a means that helps individuals express the hidden sorrows of their hearts and the pains they endure, in a sincere manner, stemming from a genuine experience where there is no room for flattery or time to choose words. It is an immediate reaction to the personal concerns that the poet suffers from, which they alleviate by sharing with others, achieving a sense of catharsis that brings them psychological comfort. The research is structured into an introduction and four sections. The introduction defines the concept of "self-complaint poetry." The first section is dedicated to complaints about illness, the second to complaints about aging and gray hair, the third to complaints about time, and the fourth to complaints about the loss of loved ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The confessional doctrine of the exalted post-Easter Jesus, divine saviour, planted by nineteenth-century missionaries, has a long tradition in Myanmar churches. In order to equip these churches for the current Myanmar context, it is time to decolonize the Western heritage of confessional reading of the New Testament. It is essential to reread the Jesus tradition recorded in the Gospels in the specific contexts of then and now. Thus, this paper argues that in the current context of the critical situation in Myanmar, the exalted Christian saviour does not save the suffering citizens from life-threatening war or injustice, nor churches from being destroyed by abusive authority. This exalted heavenly Christ does not liberate the suffering people from the physical, spiritual, and mental sufferings inflicted on them. Nor does he liberate them from the homelessness or IDP camps or from their status as outcasts. What is needed instead is a contextual reading of the life of Jesus, within the Jewish context of second temple Judaism. This theopolitical Jesus encourages Myanmar Christians and the citizens of Myanmar; he becomes a sympathetic figure sharing comparable troubles and an example of how to stand up for the people who suffer injustice and to engage in the work of restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, I present the Chan Buddhist alternative to phronesis or 'practical wisdom'. Instead of involving the skill or 'know-how' in applying moral principles to particular situations, the Chan Buddhist virtuously responds to situations because they understand how each situation is a 'part' of a larger whole or a 'function' (用) of the 'body' (體). Ultimately, this sensitivity to how each situation is meaningfully situated within a context of relationships is what motivates the Chan Buddhist's spontaneous compassion towards the suffering of existence in its entirety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In everyday life, one encounters many experiences of affliction that, for whatever reason, nature (ours or others') cannot resolve. Yet, when nature's finite resources are exhausted and hope seems in vain, humans often experience extra-ordinary moments of renewal and resolution—breakthroughs, remissions, insights, and conversions. We experience these moments in our natural existence; yet, we feel they cannot originate, cannot be attributed to nature alone. Rather, these experiences, called "graces" in Christianity, are attributed to a divine power acting in us. How do we come to describe these experiences in this way? Is it possible to formulate a general theory of these experiences as "graces"? Is there an "experience" of grace in general, a "state of grace", which serves as ground and unifying experience for the "graces" we receive? Working from the Catholic theological point of view, this paper examines such experiences of affliction and renewal, as well as the basic Catholic framework schematizing them as found in the Bible and Catholic religious writings. In doing so, this paper highlights the theme of impossibility (absolutely or in context) underlying each experience, and broadly categorizes them as happening within three regions of human life: the external, ethical sphere, the interior self-relationship, and the vertical relationship to the Divine. In dialogue with theologians and phenomenological thinkers, general formulations of the experiences are placed within their respective spheres, and certain problems in the identification or interpretation of these experiences are identified. The paper then explores how the experience of a "New Creation" can serve not only as a label for the totality of these experiences, but also as a totalizing and overarching ground-experience of "grace" and an interpretive hermeneutic for graces in general. As a result, a graced moment of total personal "rebirth" or "recreation", prevenient with respect to any personal co-operation or experiences of grace as grace, is identified as a potential ground for all other graces considered. Finally, this paper considers some potential implications of this account of grace for both Catholic thought and Phenomenology more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although people across the globe experience suffering, some individuals find it difficult to respond to others' distress because they might not know what would be most helpful to that person in that particular situation. For instance, would a response that focuses on the silver lining or one that acknowledges the suffering of the other person be more compassionate and helpful? In this paper, we demonstrate that the construct of avoided negative affect (ANA), the degree to which people want to avoid feeling negative, can predict individual differences and explain cultural variations in several aspects of compassion. Because ANA is a relatively new construct, we review research that focuses on concepts that are related to, but differ from ANA. Then, we summarize individual and cultural differences in ANA and their consequences for expressions of sympathy and compassion, conceptualizations of compassion, noticing suffering (including acknowledging suffering such as systemic racism), and well‐being. Across many studies conducted in various cultural contexts including Ecuador, Mexico, China, Japan, Germany, and the United States, ANA can partly explain cultural differences in different aspects of compassion. This work has important implications for cross‐cultural counseling, anti‐racism trainings, and conflict resolution. Noticing others' suffering and understanding what compassion entails for different people in different settings can result in treating others the way they want to be treated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term "Medically Unexplained Symptoms" (MUS) describes chronic symptoms for which medical investigations fail to reveal a specific pathology or biomarker. Even as MUS are among the most prevalent chronic health problems in the global north, patients who experience them reside in a nebulous space. Such nebulousness is heightened for women patients. Moreover, women report MUS at higher rates than men. In this review essay, we analyze the medicalization and feminization processes vis-à-vis MUS by focusing on two particular syndromes: Fibromyalgia (FMS) and Long COVID (LC). FMS and LC present clear parallels that allow us to trace an unhappy marriage of women and MUS. We demonstrate how the medical constructions of these two syndromes as knowledge categories are representations of medical uncertainty vis-a-vis women patients. We then scrutinize the resulting gendered consequences of these categories for the illness experience. We conclude our review by calling for a cultural reorientation in our thinking about MUS that centers a recognition that the origins and manifestations of a great deal of human suffering reside outside of medicine's ways of knowing. In so doing, we connect to foundational claims in medical anthropology and sociology; namely, that illness is more than disease, and health cannot be achieved primarily via biomedical means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Loitering aerial vehicle (LAV) swarm safety flight control is an unmanned system control problem under multiple constraints, which are derived to prevent the LAVs from suffering risks inside and outside the swarms. The computational complexity of the safety flight control problem grows as the number of LAVs and of the constraints increases. Besides some important constraints, the swarms will encounter with sudden appearing risks in a hostile environment. The purpose of this study is to design a safety flight control algorithm for LAV swarm, which can timely respond to sudden appearing risks and reduce the computational burden. Design/methodology/approach: To address the problem, this paper proposes a distributed safety flight control algorithm that includes a trajectory planning stage using kinodynamic rapidly exploring random trees (KRRT*) and a tracking stage based on distributed model predictive control (DMPC). Findings: The proposed algorithm reduces the computational burden of the safety flight control problem and can fast find optimal flight trajectories for the LAVs in a swarm even there are multi-constraints and sudden appearing risks. Originality/value: The proposed algorithm did not handle the constraints synchronously, but first uses the KRRT* to handle some constraints, and then uses the DMPC to deal with the rest constraints. In addition, the proposed algorithm can effectively respond to sudden appearing risks by online re-plan the trajectories of LAVs within the swarm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by critical trauma and embodiment theories, this study aims to illustrate how an arts-based approach such as body mapping assists in exploring the lived experiences of youth, potentially serving as a trauma-informed approach. This qualitative study collaborated with street-involved and homeless youth (SIHY) who have eating struggles while living in situations of food insecurity and other forms of oppression. Eleven participants partook in three individual face-to-face interview sessions and one arts-based body map activity, respectively, at a local SIHY resource centre in a metropolitan city in Canada. Guided by Interpretative Phenomenological Approach (IPA), our findings illustrated how body mapping (1) enabled a deepened understanding of SIHY's eating struggles as both a form of suffering and an embodied means of coping with food insecurity and other systemic and relational trauma(s); (2) provided a transformative experience leading to greater self-compassion and healing; and (3) served as a trauma-informed method that fostered choice and validation. We attest that, as a creative and supportive clinical and research tool, body mapping taps into the unspoken, expressive, embodied, and somatic aspects of eating struggles, food insecurity, poverty, and other forms of oppression deepening knowledge and informing social work research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing availability of gambling opportunities worldwide has the potential to impact youth gambling behavior and the prevalence of gambling-related harm. This paper studies whether starting gambling at an early age (i.e., below the minimum legal gambling age) increases an individual's likelihood of suffering some kind of gambling-related harm in the future. Data taken from the Study on the Prevalence, Behavior and Characteristics of Gamblers in Spain provide information on respondents' gambling starting age and assess gambling risk based on criteria established by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Estimates from an ordered probit model suggest that starting to gamble while under the minimum legal age is associated with a higher likelihood of problem gambling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nias women are an essential part of the social life of the Nias people, a tribe that occupies the outer islands of western Sumatra. As patriarchal customs and culture strongly govern women in communities, there are crucial issues regarding the position, function, and existence of Nias women who, on the one hand, are honored but, on the other hand, are treated as servants in the household. This article will re-read the story of Hagar in the Old Testament from the perspective of the marital life of Nias women. This reading is critical not only in identifying the root of the problem but also in providing lessons from a biblical perspective on how to survive in the oppressive patriarchal environment of a society. Using narrative analysis of the Old Testament text of Hagar, it is concluded that the Nias bride is a modern portrait of Hagar's story in a patriarchal circle. In an unchangeable situation, Nias women must have resilience like Hagar to survive and continue to fight for their fundamental rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ramayana penned by Valmiki around 200 BCE is regarded as his magnum opus and is held in esteem as one of the greatest epics in history. Consisting of 24,000 shlokas or verses, it has served as a basis for moral conduct and gallantry for humans around the world. However, in recent times, there have been concerns about its supposed promotion of patriarchy. With feminists feeling that the epic has suppressed the voices of its female characters, numerous adaptations have emerged. The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is one such work, which aims to advocate the suffering of its female lead, Sita. The aim of this article is to analyse instances of feminism, gynocentrism and misogyny in the above-mentioned work and also to argue and support the claims that the condition of women since all those years ago has not changed. It critically examines the actions and thought processes of the author's myriad characters, extracts the values from them and endeavours to relate it with the condition of women in the twenty-first century. The article does not make a comment on the original epic written by the revered Valmiki, all conclusions drawn are based on The Forest of Enchantments alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nietzsche claims that suffering is needed for achievement. Morality, he thinks, aims to end suffering, and so would end achievement. I argue that at best some achievements are partly caused by suffering. Nietzsche could get a more secure connection between suffering and achievement by arguing that some achievements are constituted in part by suffering. But in both the causal and constitutive cases, moralists do not condemn inflicting on oneself the suffering involved in achievement. Nietzsche could instead argue, more simply, that morality is mistaken to think suffering is bad. He could deploy a 'conditionality' view of organic wholes, on which the value of suffering changes when part of an achievement, to argue that in some cases, suffering is good. I argue that here the conditionality view is less plausible than Moore's view of organic wholes, on which suffering would remain bad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: Leaving a religious community may occasionally lead to suffering in a human being's life and difficult existential life issues, such as loss of social relationships, identity and well‐being. Only a few studies have been conducted on what kind of care and support human beings who are suffering need in this context. The aim of this study was to increase the understanding of what a human being perceives as caring after religious disaffiliation. Methods: In‐depth interviews were conducted with 18 participants who had left different religious communities in Finland. The material was analysed through a deductive thematic analysis according to Braun and Clarke, based on the Dressing an existential wound model by Rehnsfeldt and Arman. Results and Conclusion: The results show that what human beings experience as caring after religious disaffiliation is encountering a care professional who understands the needs of someone in this life situation. Based on these needs, caring is described through seven themes. Care professionals need to understand the impact religious disaffiliation may have on clients' lives and respond to their needs. Understanding the suffering of a human being calls for a care professional's holistic view and caring for the whole human being, including spiritual dimensions. This new knowledge can be used by care professionals to develop caring for clients after religious disaffiliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Suicide is the fourth most common cause of death for the 15–29 age group. Research on the impact of suicide on parents is scarce and, therefore, poorly understood. Aim: To explore parents' experiences who have lost a son or a daughter due to suicide and their experience of the services available to them. Methods: This phenomenological study involved 1–2 interviews with ten parents aged 40–65, seven mothers and three fathers in all 13 interviews. The age range of their sons and daughters was 17–37 years when they died. Results: For the parents, losing a son or a daughter to suicide is an overwhelming life experience characterised by Excruciating existential suffering and complicated grief where they are confronted with deep meaning‐making and existential questions without answers since the person who can answer most of them is no longer alive. They, therefore, felt stuck in their grief for up to 4 years. The initial experience was an immense paralysing shock and sense of unreality. The subsequent period was a blur, and they were numb. Then, their psyche and bodies collapsed, and for a long time, they felt no grief processing was taking place. They sorely needed long‐term professional trauma‐informed support and felt that, in too many cases, they had to reach out for help themselves. They would have liked to see the healthcare system embrace them with more open arms, offer help and be met with information and individualised support. Conclusions: Standard operating procedures must be installed to support suicide‐bereaved parents better. Long‐term professional support and trauma‐focused care are required following such major trauma, and providing such support could help to reduce their adverse health impacts. Nurses and other health professionals must be better educated on existential suffering in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I argue that the blameworthy deserve to suffer in that they deserve to feel guilt, which is the unpleasant experience of appreciating one's apparent culpability for having done wrong. I argue that the blameworthy deserve to feel guilt because they owe it to those whom they've culpably wronged to (a) hold themselves accountable, (b) manifest the proper regard for those whom they've wronged, and (c) appreciate their culpability for, and the moral significance of, their wrongdoing. And I argue that the blameworthy must feel guilt to satisfy a–c. What's more, I argue that, in thinking about whether the blameworthy deserve to feel guilt, we need to compare the world in which the blameworthy feel guilt to the world in which the non-blameworthy feel guilt, for, as I argue, it's insufficient to compare only the world in which the blameworthy feel guilt to the world in which the blameworthy don't feel guilt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of six Black women who survived Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) through the frameworks of Toxic Black Femininity (TBF), Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome, and Intersectionality to understand how coping with ongoing systemic racism influences meaning making of IPV experiences and help-seeking behaviors. Participants discussed how narratives within Black families and churches influenced how they coped with the trauma symptoms resulting from their IPV victimization and navigate relationships now. Specifically, participants' experience of TBF and associated adherence to racial and gendered norms and stereotypes showed up as: 1) a felt pressure to portray strength, 2) rationalize the abuse, 3) advocate for their partner's needs but not their own, and 4) blame themselves for the abuse. Further, when participants sought help, they: 1) avoided actions that could lead to police involvement due to fear of police brutality against their male partners, 2) had their hurt minimized due to white expectations of Blackness, 3) heard narratives from family and religious systems that reinforced TBF and their decision to stay in the harmful relationship, and 4) turned their frustrations with the lack of helpful support systems into advocacy. These findings highlight the intergenerational transmission of survival skills and narratives that have been passed down to Black women since the time of slavery and how systemic racism and TBF keep these narratives in play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]