Philosophy Commons^™

Psychophysiological Effects Of Increasing Awareness Of Nondual Consciousness In Young Adults With Depression And Anxiety, Milena Braticevic

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

Young adults increasingly suffer from anxiety and depression during the time of transition into adulthood. This research study examined the effects of increasing awareness of nondual consciousness in young adults who were experiencing various levels of anxiety and depression. The methodology was mixed-method and included four 1-hour group-based sessions over 4 weeks. Increasing awareness of nondual consciousness through educational, experiential, and behavioural components resulted in reduction in the average depression score from 19.4 (borderline clinical depression) to 10 (normal), and reduction in the average anxiety score from 12.7 (moderate anxiety) to 6.9 (mild). Participants reported increased mental, emotional, physical, and …

Type D Personality, And The Levels Of Anxiety And Depression In A Sample Of Cardiac Patients In Comparison To Their Non-Patient Counterparts, Fatma Faris Najjar, Wisam Breik

Al-Balqa Journal for Research and Studies البلقاء للبحوث والدراسات

The present study aims at exploring the prevalence of type D personality (distressed personality) and the levels of anxiety (trait) and depression in a sample of cardiac patients in comparison to their non-patient counterparts in Jordan. To achieve the objectives of the study, an adapted form of type D personality scale-DS14, Trait Anxiety Scale and Beck Inventory were utilized. The study sample consisted of 309 individuals; 306 of which cardiac patients (73 males and 83 females) whose illness is not due to congenital causes and 153 non-patients (83 males and 70 females) as a comparative group, who were chosen from …

Beyond Mental And Physical Pain: A Non-Reductive Account Of Suicide, Aya Aly Ragheb

Theses and Dissertations

What is the stigma behind our understanding of suicide? What causes this stigma? Should suicide only be viewed in relation to physical pain, as medicine often views it, or mental pain, as psychiatry views it? Or is it a more complex phenomenon? Can we think of suicide as a rational act that is, on the one hand, independent of pain, without, on the other hand, reducing it to mental illness? I will argue that if we can, we can give a less reductive account of suicide. In this paper, we shall attempt to give an answer to the above questions …

Desire Satisfaction Theories And The Problem Of Depression, Andrew Spaid

Department of Philosophy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation argues that the desire satisfaction theory, arguably the dominant theory of well-being at present, fails to explain why depression is bad for a person. People with clinical depression desire almost nothing, but the few desires they do have are almost all satisfied. So it appears the theory must say these people are relatively well-off. A number of possible responses on behalf of the theory are considered, and I argue that each response either fails outright, or requires modifications to the desire satisfaction theory which make the theory unattractive for other reasons.

Advisors: Joseph Mendola and John Brunero

Parsing The Blues: What Depression Reveals About The Life Well-Lived, Ian Tully

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the way depression illuminates –and is illuminated by – certain aspects of moral philosophy. I begin by defending, in chapter one, a cognitive theory of one important subtype of depression. The subsequent chapters then investigate what depression can teach us about the nature of well- (and ill-) being, and about the nature of moral virtue. In chapter two I ask ‘what makes depression bad for us?’ and go on to argue that reflection upon this question shows that desire-based theories of welfare are false. Then, in the next chapter, I provide a (partial) answer to that question, …

Philosophical Ends To Scientific Means: Diagnosis And The Epistemology Of Psychology, Christopher Michael Johnson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Modern scientific psychology continues to advance toward newer and greater discoveries of the inner workings of the human mind, posited in the belief that a universal objectivity exists if only to be found. Despite the professional emphasis on conducting psychological enterprises in this manner, the field has spent much of its formalized existence struggling to answer some of its most basic questions. This paper thoroughly explores the nature of a scientific psychology, while suggesting that psychology may find wisdom in its philosophical origins. It further suggests that psychology continue toward a postmodern epistemology, in which a unitary psychological reality is …

Phenomenology And The Crisis Of Contemporary Psychiatry: Contingency, Naturalism, And Classification, Anthony Vincent Fernandez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a contribution to the contemporary field of phenomenological psychopathology, or the phenomenological study of psychiatric disorders. The work proceeds with two major aims. The first is to show how a phenomenological approach can clarify and illuminate the nature of psychopathology—specifically those conditions typically labeled as major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. The second is to show how engaging with psychopathological conditions can challenge and undermine many phenomenological presuppositions, especially phenomenology’s status as a transcendental philosophy and its corresponding anti-naturalistic outlook.

In the opening chapter, I articulate the three layers of the subject matter of phenomenological research—what I …

It's Worse Than We Think: Why It Matters That We Underestimate Depression, Tess Hubbeling

CMC Senior Theses

This paper will examine specific processes involved within the decision-making process of how to allocate limited health care resources. I will start by discussing how in order to compare and differentiate between health states, we have created ranking systems, based on the health state’s impact on people’s quality of life, which health states need more care, and which can be most effectively treated. We evaluate impact on quality of life by assigning quality weights to years of life lived with that health state, which we call quality-adjusted life years, or QALYs.

Next, I will discuss the problems with assigning quality …

Regarding The Transpersonal Nature Of Ketamine Therapy: An Approach To The Work, Jeffrey Becker

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Recent evidence has shown that ketamine treatment can facilitate psychological insight and symptom resolution in various psychiatric disorders. To aid this process, psychotherapeutic support should be considered a fundamental aspect of treatment. The psychedelic experience produced by ketamine can be a deeply meaningful source of enduring change and personal growth. The author has repeatedly observed a rapid realignment of self-perception away from shame, fear, and dread toward authentic self-acceptance and gratitude, offering patients opportunity for insight and the consideration of new potentialities. The experience produced by ketamine is similar in quality to transpersonal experiences described by Jung and induced by …

The Word, The Body, And The Kinfolk: The Intersection Of Transpersonal Thought With Womanist Approaches To Psychology, Juko M. Holiday

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Since Alice Walker coined the term womanist in the early 1980s, black feminists and

feminists of color have created a rich, soulful body of scholarly work. Contributions to

womanist thought have emerged primarily in the fields of theology and ethics. The aim

of this article is to put womanism in historical context, examine transpersonal expression

in womanist scholarship, and to articulate the values that inform emotional healing in a

womanist context. Womanism is spiritualized due to its original definition and subsequent

development, making transpersonal thought a resonant fit for unearthing paths to authentic

cultural competency in psychology and other disciplines.

Vite Svuotate. Per Una Critica Dell’Impatto Psicosociale Del Capitalismo Contemporaneo, In "Costruzioni Psicoanalitiche", X, N. 20 (2010), Pp. 71-81., Marco Solinas

Marco Solinas

Il saggio mira a individuare e delucidare alcuni nessi causali tra il concomitante incremento dei fenomeni depressivi, non solo in senso strettamente clinico, e l’affermazione del nuovo modello capitalistico avvenuto nei paesi occidentali dai primi anni settanta ad oggi. Oltre che sul meccanismo della flessibilità del mercato del lavoro, si insiste in particolare sulle dinamiche paradossali delle istanze etiche e morali della nuova configurazione ideologica. Ricorrendo anche alla categoria di egemonia, vengono da ultimo approntati degli strumenti teorici finalizzati a riattivare i potenziali emancipativi frustrati nella sofferenza sociale di natura depressiva e regressiva. The paper aims to single out and …

Die Melancholie, Der Geist Des Kapitalismus Und Die Depression, In "Freie Assoziation", 13, N. 4 (2010), S. 79-99., Marco Solinas

Marco Solinas

Der Aufsatz zielt darauf, der Prozess der historischen Überlagerung, Substitution und Verbreitung des theoretischen Paradigmas der Depression gegenüber jenem der Melancholie darzustellen. Im ersten Teil wird versucht, einige der einschneidenden Eigenschaften der Thematisierungen der Melancholie in der Frühen Neuzeit anzugeben, auch im Verhältnis zum Geist des Kapitalismus. Nachdem eine Skizze der Entstehung der moderne Kategorie der Depression, geht es darum, den Verlauf nachzuzeichnen, der im 20. Jahrhundert zu ihrer Transformation in ein weitläufiges theoretisches Paradigma geführt hat, das schließlich jenes der Melancholie ersetzt hat. Der zweite Teil stellt den Versuch dar, eine Zeitdiagnose umzureißen: An dieser Stelle ist die psychosoziale …

Truth And Healing A Veteran's Depression, Mike W. Martin

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Comments on an article by Christopher Bailey (see record 2009-24345-002). Dr. Christopher Bailey portrays an American veteran, Colin, who slips into a "serious but not severe" depression upon returning from the Iraq War, After ruling out post-traumatic stress disorder, the psychiatrist comes to believe that Colin's depression is tied to his feelings of being a wimp, of not having "done his part or proven his manhood," and of losing his chance to become a hero because he had been assigned non-combat duty—feelings that the psychiatrist glosses (misleadingly?) as a "painful lack of wounds." (I speak of the "the psychiatrist," rather …

Machines In The Ocean: The Aesthetics Of Wind Farms, Yuriko Saito

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This is an exploration of the aesthetic opposition lodged against wind power facilities. Taking the recent controversy regarding the proposal of a wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod as an example, I analyze the opponents' claim that such a construction "ruins" or "spoils" the otherwise pristine landscape. After suggesting some strategies of making the structure more aesthetically positive purely on the sensuous level, I propose that this specific issue must be discussed in the context of larger issues: civic environmentalism and the aesthetics of sustainability.

Melancholy As An Aesthetic Emotion, Emily Brady, Arto Haapala

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In this article, we want to show the relevance and importance of melancholy as an aesthetic emotion. Melancholy often plays a role in our encounters with art works, and it is also present in some of our aesthetic responses to the natural environment. Melancholy invites aesthetic considerations to come into play not only in well-defined aesthetic contexts but also in everyday situations that give reason for melancholy to arise. But the complexity of melancholy, the fact that it is fascinating in itself, suggests the further thought that it may be considered as an aesthetic emotion per se. To this end, …

On The Evolution Of Depression, Mike W. Martin

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

In "Depression as a Mind-Body Problem," Walter Glannon outlines a psychosocial-physiological explanation of depression as a psychological response to chronic stress—today, especially social stress—in which cortisol imbalances disrupt neurotransmitters. Accordingly, treatment for depression should combine psychopharmacology and psychotherapy—a valuable reminder in light of the current restrictions on funding for health care (Hobson and Leonard 2001). My comments focus, however, on Glannon's objections to evolutionary theorists who explain our capacity for depression as adaptive to the natural and social environment. His objections are implausible because he fails to distinguish depression as a mood and a disorder.

John Dewey's Ideas About The Great Depression, Edward J. Bordeau

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Some criticisms that have been directed against John Dewey's political theory reveal a general misunderstanding of his intent. Dewey was quite active in writing, lecturing, and propagandizing during the Depression years. Our primary concern in this article is the role he played in the efforts of the League for Independent Political Action to sponsor a third party from 1928 until the collapse of this project in 1936. Concurrent with this movement is Dewey's work with the People's Lobby in advocating social welfare programs to meet the crises generated by the Depression.