European Cultural Backgrounds Research Articles

QUESTIONING THE SKULL: ZHUANGZI AND HAMLET ON DEATH

This article aims to explore some aspects of our shared human experience of death through a parallel reading of Hamlet and Zhuangzi. These two classics belong to radically different cultural contexts, and both have traditionally been interpreted as texts in between philosophy and literature. As such, I hope this article will be of some interest for both students of world literature and transcultural philosophy, disciplines that, despite the contemporary academic distinctions, share much in common. Section 1 highlights some differences and similarities between Hamlet and Zhuangzi. Section 2 proceeds by elucidating three aspects of the problem of death approached by both texts (uncertainty; the death of others; my death). Section 3 examines two predominant perspectives in Chinese and European cultural backgrounds (the “individual” and the “cosmic” perspectives). Sections 4 analyzes how Hamlet approaches uncertainty, the death of others and my death from the individual perspective, while section 5 does the same for the cosmic perspective in Zhuangzi. In section 6, the two mirroring passages of the dialogues with the skull are compared, showing how the individual and the cosmic perspectives mutually implicate each other as two sides of the same coin.

Psychological Responses to Exclusion: Examining Rejection Sensitivity Pattern in Asian and European Patients Population

Background: This article aims to investigate and compare rejection sensitivity patterns in patients from Asian and European cultural backgrounds who have experienced social exclusion. Rejection sensitivity, a psychological construct characterized by heightened responsiveness to perceived rejection, is often associated with negative psychological outcomes. By examining the experiences of exclusion and their impact on rejection sensitivity in patient populations across diverse cultural contexts, this study seeks to shed light on the interplay between socio-cultural influences and psychological and physiological responses to social exclusion.

Sakralne i ludyczne symbole szczygła w języku i kulturze

SACRED AND LUDIC SYMBOLS OF A GOLDFINCH IN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE The article is dedicated to symbolic representations of szczygieł (a goldfinch) in Polish language and culture, taking into account the European cultural background. The author presents the process of symbolization of the sacred and ludic profile of a goldfinch as a representative of avifauna based on linguistic data (etymology, phrasematics), text data (literature and folklore), as well as on iconography. References to Western European painting made it possible for the author to present the multiple layers of a goldfinch symbolism and related differences in the way of imaging, developing connotations and conceptualization of symbolic contents. The sacred imagery was dominated by Biblical associations, while in ludic images there was a tendency to present birds as autotelic beings without strictly religious connotations.

The Maltese cactus: an autoethnography of the colonization of desire

ABSTRACTThis article presents an autoethnographic account of an encounter between two men – a Mexican scholar and a British artist – who met in Malta, to examine how post-colonialism influences the seemingly personal experience of erotic desire. The author, a man of indigenous descent, explores how his erotic attraction interweaved with powerful dynamics that were the product of the other man’s European cultural background. He problematizes this attraction by reflecting on the white ethnocentrism that colored his partner-seeking process. This autoethnography analyzes how European colonialism in Mexico affected not only language and religion, but also the deceivingly intimate aspect of erotic desire.

Sex Differences in the Presentation of Body Dysmorphic Disorder in a Community Sample of Adolescents

The current study sought to explore sex differences in the presentation of probable full-syndrome and subthreshold body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) in adolescents from an Australian community sample. Specifically, it examined sex differences in the types of BDD symptoms endorsed, body areas of concern, and the association with elevated symptoms of comorbid disorders. In male participants, it also compared the presenting features of those with and without muscle dysmorphia. Of 3,149 adolescents assessed using self-report questionnaires, 162 (5.1%) reported probable BDD (57.4% male, M age = 14.89 years, SD = 1.33, primarily from Oceanian or European cultural backgrounds). All participants completed measures of BDD symptoms; past mental health service use; and symptoms of anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and eating disorders. Male participants completed additional measures of quality of life, drive for muscularity, hyperactivity, conduct disorder, peer problems, and emotional symptoms. Controlling for demographic variables that varied by sex, male and female participants reported similar BDD symptom severity, rates of most elevated comorbid symptoms, and mental health service use. Concerns regarding muscularity, breasts/nipples, and thighs differed by sex. Female participants were more likely than male participants to report elevated generalized anxiety symptoms. In male participants, muscle dysmorphia was not associated with greater severity across most measures. The presenting features of BDD were broadly similar in male and female participants, and in male participants with and without muscle dysmorphia. Future research should seek to increase mental health service use in adolescents with BDD and to improve rates of disorder detection in clinical settings.

Visual Perception in Art Education. Gender and Intercultural Study

Abstract This communication reflects research in education from the perspective of gender and multiculturalism implemented in the autonomous city of Melilla, on the visual perception applied to artistic and visual, so important in the new presentations of ICT language. To do this, we determine the ability of students / inferred as compared to the results of a test of attention and visual perception and scientifically contrasted if students perceive the similarities and differences partially ordered stimulants models finally checking whether there are significant differences or not, in relation to the variable and the variable “cultural origin” “sex”. Methodologically applied our experimental design is based on a multi-method approach, understood as a form of research in which two or more methodological procedures for the investigation on the same object of study through the different moments of the course of the investigation are used. The conclusions lead us to affirm that globally there are no significant differences regarding the variable “sex”, although significant differences do get in terms of visual perception measured by our instrument among students of cultural origin Berber and European cultural background.

Does Time Perspective Predict Life Satisfaction? A Study Including Mindfulness as a Measure of Time Experience in a Sample of Catalan Students

Previous studies have reported that life satisfaction (LS) is positively associated with time perspective (TP) and mindfulness and that mindfulness may provide a holistic TP that integrates and helps to balance different time frames. However, studies performed to date have only been conducted in Eastern and Central Europe. Given the important cultural differences in time management between these regions and Mediterranean countries, the purpose of the present study was to replicate those studies to assess the association between mindfulness, TP, and LS in a sample of young adults living in the province of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain). A total of 377 undergraduate university students (65.25% women) were recruited and completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI), and the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). Results show significant positive relationships between LS, mindfulness, and past positive, as well as negative associations between LS, past negative, and an unbalanced TP. Mindfulness also correlated inversely with an unbalanced TP. Regression analyses showed that 27% of variance in LS could be explained by the past negative and past positive ZTPI measures together with the MAAS. These results confirm the conclusions of previous studies conducted in culturally different populations and reinforce the hypothesis that mindfulness provides a holistic TP that intrinsically balances TP and increases LS. These findings suggest that a mindful attitude might be a key component of TP regulation that transcends different European cultural backgrounds.

A qualitative study on the role of cultural background in patients' perspectives on rehabilitation

BackgroundLow back pain (LBP) is one of the major concerns in health care. In Switzerland, musculoskeletal problems represent the third largest illness group with 9.4 million consultations per year. The return to work rate is increased by an active treatment program and saves societal costs. However, results after rehabilitation are generally poorer in patients with a Southeast European cultural background than in other patients. This qualitative research about the rehabilitation of patients with LBP and a Southeast European cultural background, therefore, explores possible barriers to successful rehabilitation.MethodsWe used a triangulation of methods combining three qualitative methods of data collection: 13 semi-structured in-depth interviews with patients who have a Southeast European cultural background and live in Switzerland, five semi-structured in-depth interviews and two focus groups with health professionals, and a literature review. Between June and December 2008, we recruited participants at a Rehabilitation Centre in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.ResultsTo cope with pain, patients prefer passive strategies, which are not in line with recommended coping strategies. Moreover, the families of patients tend to support passive behaviour and reduce the autonomy of patients. Health professionals and researchers propagate active strategies including activity in the presence of pain, yet patients do not consider psychological factors contributing to LBP. The views of physicians and health professionals are in line with research evidence demonstrating the importance of psychosocial factors for LBP. Treatment goals focusing on increasing daily activities and return to work are not well understood by patients partly due to communication problems, which is something that patients and health professionals are aware of. Additional barriers to returning to work are caused by poor job satisfaction and other work-related factors.ConclusionsLBP rehabilitation can be improved by addressing the following points. Early management of LBP should be activity-centred instead of pain-centred. It is mandatory to implement return to work management early, including return to adapted work, to improve rehabilitation for patients. Rehabilitation has to start when patients have been off work for three months. Using interpreters more frequently would improve communication between health professionals and patients, and reduce misunderstandings about treatment procedures. Special emphasis must be put on the process of goal-formulation by spending more time with patients in order to identify barriers to goal attainment. Information on the return to work process should also include the financial aspects of unemployment and disability.

Mental health among torture survivors: cultural background, refugee status and gender

Background: The experience of torture places the survivors at a heightened risk for somatic and mental health problems. Aims: This study examined the role of culture, refugee status and gender in the mental and somatic health among help-seekers in a centre for torture survivors in Finland. Method: The 78 participants (29 women and 49 men) were interviewed and assessed with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25) scales and their somatic complaints were registered. Groups with Middle Eastern, Central African, Southern Asian and South Eastern European cultural backgrounds were compared. Results: Group differences were found in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms and somatic complaints. As hypothesized, Southern European torture survivors showed a higher level of PTSD than cultural groups from more traditional collective societies in Middle East, Asia and Africa, and more depressive symptoms than survivors from a Southern Asian background. Against the hypothesis, South Eastern European subjects reported also more somatic complaints than Central African survivors. Women suffered more from PTSD and depressive symptoms than men in all cultural groups. Asylum-seeking status was marginally associated with anxiety symptoms only in the South Eastern European group. Conclusion: Health services should consider the influence of culture in the expression of psychological and somatic symptoms and avoid a simplistic distinction between somatic and psychological expressions of pain.

Cross-Cultural Comparison of Explanatory Models of Illness in Schizophrenic Patients in Jordan and Germany

This study investigated illness concepts of schizophrenic patients in an Arab-Islamic and a western European cultural background. 24 Jordanian and 23 German inpatients were interviewed using an illness concept scale and a causal belief questionnaire. Jordanian patients tend to believe more in esoteric factors underlying their illness, and they perceive the illness to be more threatening. There were no differences regarding biological explanations of illness and trust in medication; however, Jordanian patients reported more trust in the treating physician. Nearly all patients mentioned psychosocial stress as an important factor underlying their illness. Concerning treatment, only Jordanian patients believed religion to be an important factor and mentioned distance from the family as beneficial. The study highlights that culturally specific factors influence illness concepts of schizophrenic patients from an Arab-Islamic and a western European cultural background. Knowledge of these illness concepts is important to establish a helpful relationship between physician and patient.

Transnational recognition and accreditation of engineering educational programmes in Europe: perspectives in a global framework

In a previous paper the author described the present situation and recent advances regarding accreditation of engineering programmes in Europe. This paper contains an attempt at examining perspectives from a global viewpoint. While the variety of educational approaches within European higher education is to be considered a great asset of the European cultural background, the ‘Bologna Process’ is working to build up the ‘European Higher Education Area’ (EHEA) and ‘a system of easily readable and comparable degrees’ in the context of making Europe ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world’. In this framework a pan-European system of accreditation of engineering programmes and qualifications will be essential in order for European engineers to be competitive on a global scale. While the merely ‘professional’ aspects of recognition are covered by the European Directive 2005/36/EC ‘on the recognition of professional qualifications’ (which replaces all previous Directives on the subject, including the 1989 General Directive 89/48/EEC), little progress has been made towards trans-European accreditation of educational programmes as the entry route to a profession. This is particularly damaging in highly internationalized professions, like engineering. Several initiatives have been put forward in recent years to remedy this situation: in particular, this paper will illustrate the current EUR-ACE (EURopean ACredited Engineer) project, which is working towards the establishment of a European system for accreditation of engineering educational programmes based on a network of spontaneous agreements between national and regional bodies and associations concerned.

Medicine in a multi-cultural society: the effect of cultural background on beliefs about medications

This exploratory, cross-sectional study examined the effect of self-reported cultural background on beliefs about medicines (modern pharmaceuticals) and perceptions of personal sensitivity to the adverse effects of taking medication. Using a validated questionnaire, beliefs about pharmaceutical medication were compared between 500 UK undergraduate students who identified themselves as having an Asian or European cultural background. There was a significant association between cultural background and beliefs about the benefits and dangers of medicines. Students who self-reported to have an Asian cultural background expressed more negative views about medication than those who reported a European cultural background. Students with an Asian cultural background were significantly more likely to perceive medicines as being intrinsically harmful, addictive substances that should be avoided. They were significantly less likely to endorse the benefits of modern medication. There was no significant relationship between cultural background and perceptions of personal sensitivity to medication effects or belief about how doctors use medication. In the total sample, past and present experience of taking medication was associated with a more positive orientation to medicines in general. Students who considered themselves to have a European cultural background had significantly more experience with prescribed medication than those who selected an Asian cultural background. The relationship between cultural background and beliefs about medicines in general was maintained after controlling for potential confounding variables, including chosen degree course, experience of taking prescribed medication, age, and gender. The identification of differences in beliefs about medication, between two specific cultural groups, suggests the need for a greater understanding of the effects of cultural background on medicine-usage with potential implications for the conduct of prescribing-related consultations and for the provision of patient information on medication.

Play-Thing of the Times: Critical Review of the Reception of Daoism in the West

As valid as the first sentence of the Daodejing may be to any follower of the Dao—the Dao that can be spoken of is not an eternal truth but always mere interpretation—as meaningful seems to be Sloterdijk’s pun on this Daoist key notion to the chronicler of the Dao reception in the West. For about 200 years, interpreters from the European cultural background have appropriated the Far Eastern import in amazingly different ways, following, on the one hand, and as was to be expected, mostly the prevailing zeitgeist. On the other hand, the reception, of course, was also influenced by the continuously developing knowledge in this field through translations and scholarly research by Sinologists. As will be shown below, an increase in knowledge about Daoism, however, did not necessarily lead to a deeper understanding of the matter. Yet this intellectual pitfall is built into the Daoist system of thought: Those who too cleverly try to probe into its teaching will be caught in the “fish trap” of words (Zhuangzi), the only “way” to the true Dao probably being silence. Hence, the unearthing of the true “Euro-Daoism” shall not and cannot be the object of this study. The point is rather to follow—somewhat in the vein of a “Derri-Daoism”—the “trace” that Daoism has left in Europe and in North America during the past 200 years. This might contribute to the understanding of the Dao at least inasmuch as to explain—especially regarding some striking cases—what Daoism is not. In the following, I shall first deal with the different waves and phases of the reception of Daoism in the West, taking into consideration the fields of literature, philosophy, and New Age thought. Finally, the reasons for the attractiveness of Daoism in the West shall be examined.

Levertov and Rilke: A Sense of Aesthetic Ethics

It is ironic that at the very beginning of her career one of the poets with whom Denise Levertov was immediately associated was the Czech poet Rainer Maria Rilke. As Harry Marten has noted: Kenneth Rexroth, an early anthologizer of her work, linked her loosely with a diverse group of post-Second World War British neoromantic poets whose work exhibits a ruminative melancholy of the sort displayed Stephen Spender's and J.B. Leischman's popular and influential translations of Rainer Maria Rilke. Noting that this sort of verse has a dreamy, nostalgic sorrow about it . Rexroth observed that in poets like Denise Levertov this poetry reaches its height slow, pulsating rhythms, romantic melancholy, and undefined nostalgia. (8-9) What makes this association ironic is the listing of qualities on which it is based. For although Levertov's apparent affinity with did fact develop into a lifelong connection, that connection rests on entirely different grounds than those suggested above. Levertov herself has spelled out considerable detail the history of her interest Rilke. In the concluding essay of Light Up the Cave, Rilke as Mentor, she describes how she already been writing for many years, and had been reading for seven or eight, when I first came to America and began to read Williams, Pound, and Stevens (283). Indeed, as decisive as was the influence of the last three--especially William Carlos Williams--on her subsequent development, all the useful and marvelously stimulating technical and aesthetic tendencies that I came upon the 1950s were absorbed into a ground prepared not only by my English and European cultural background general but more particularly by Rilke's concept of the artist's task. (283) Thus helped prepare the cultural and conceptual ground which all these new tendencies so fruitfully grew. But he did more. In many respects he also helped Levertov attain that very balance which has been fundamental to her achievement as a poet--the balance between what she has called her sense of the pilgrim way and her new, American, objectivist-influenced, pragmatic, and sensuous longing for the Here and Now (PW 69). For if Williams can be viewed as the main source of the latter, must be viewed as a primary source of the former, as perhaps the single most important spokeman for inner experience, for the translation of the visible into the invisible--for the transcendence of simple mimesis favor of spiritual realization. It was early 1947, according to Levertov, that she began making her own index for Rilke's Selected Letters, in many ways the most important book of Rilke's that I obtained (LC 284). And one of the passages she not only indexed but underlined(1) is the famous passage where describes as to impress this fragile and transient earth so sufferingly, so passionately upon our hearts that its essence shall rise up again, invisible, us. We are the bees of the Invisible. The |Duino~ Elegies show us engaged on this work, the work of perpetual of beloved and tangible things into the invisible vibration and excitability of our nature. (Selected Letters 394) If, then, such transformation is our task--a task incumbent upon not just artists but human beings general(2)--it is impossible that any kind of merely documentary realism (PW 90) should satisfy. Though one begins with a passionate attention to things, one does not remain trapped a world of objects precisely because one's attention is so passionate.(3) On more than one occasion, Levertov quotes with approval Rilke's insistence that If a thing is to speak to you, you must for a certain time regard it as the only thing that exists, the unique phenomenon that your diligent and exclusive love has placed at the center of the universe, something the angels serve that very day upon that matchless spot. …