Personal Testimony Research Articles

Mind-body Balance. Experience Workshop for New Entry Students in Engineering

Objective: Evaluate a comprehensive educational intervention in groups of new students in engineering, using techniques for the management of their mental health, to reinforce their conditions for learning. Theoretical Framework: Development of graphic organizers, reinforcement of self-esteem, ability to concentrate, and balanced diet, strengthen study habits and techniques, maintaining mental health, and improving school performance. This topic presents the main concepts and theories that support the research. Method: An educational intervention was designed and carried out for 550 engineering students. They joined a workshop on personal balance for their entry in 2017. Perception surveys and personal testimonies were applied. Their academic performance was analyzed after one year and contrasted with other generations. Results and Discussion: Testimonials and responses to perception surveys from students and the teacher showed more than 82% acceptance. The techniques were perceived as beneficial elements for personal life, and an alternative for mental health management. Their academic performance one year after entering was similar to that of those who had a better entry profile. Research Implications: The results were used to establish an engineering entry strategy and improve the school career, benefiting terminal efficiency. Originality/Value: This study offers the evaluation of the comprehensive intervention applied to engineering students to guide the admission strategy.

Closing Time at the People Shop: A Saturn Dealership in Ruins

Closing Time at the People Shop is a dialogic record of an abandoned Saturn dealership. This dialogue occurs between audio/visual fragments of television advertisements, corporate PR, segments from a documentary, and my own photographs and field notes. The video essay aims to juxtapose physical remains with video ephemera, historical narratives with personal testimony, and commercial landscapes with ruins.

Personal Testimony About Dealing with Loss and Self-Care.

As an interfaith hospital chaplain and a Christian, navigating the profound emotional terrain of grief and loss is both a professional duty and a deeply personal journey. Attending the funerals of two close friends has brought out the interplay between my role as a spiritual caregiver and my own vulnerability. In reflection, I realize the importance of self-care and the reminder that in offering comfort and empathy, I must first find it within myself.

Challenging the Public Stigma of Alcohol Use Disorder in the UK Using Video ‘Education’ and ‘Contact’ Interventions: A Pilot Study

AbstractPublic stigma negatively impacts people with alcohol use disorder; yet, few interventions exist to reduce it. This quasi-randomised controlled pilot study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of three such interventions. Participants (539 UK-based adults) watched a video presenting myths and facts about AUD (‘education’), personal testimonies about AUD (‘contact’), a combination of both (‘education and contact’) or a control video. Feasibility was assessed by examining recruitment capability, study retention and data quality, and participant satisfaction with the study’s procedures and interventions. Efficacy was assessed using self-report, public stigma measures issued at pre-test, post-test and 1-month follow-up. Stigma reduced significantly more in the intervention groups than in the control group at post-test and follow-up. Feasibility was generally high, though could be improved by shortening video length and enhancing video production quality. Education and contact videos are promising interventions for public AUD stigma, and merit further investigation.

An Inclusive History of LGBTQ+ Aversion Therapy: Past Harms and Future Address in a UK Context

From the 1950s, aversion therapy gained an international foothold as a behaviourist means to alter what was then considered ‘deviant’ behaviour. Using primary research by psychologists, psychiatrists and other clinical figures published in professional journals, recently published personal testimonies by those who underwent such ‘treatment’, and drawing on the latest historical research, this article maps aversion therapy practices used to ‘treat’ LGBTQ+ people in the UK, mainly in the 1960s and 1970s. We outline our approach to this history and contextualise it by drawing attention to ongoing comparative issues of banning LGBT conversion therapy in the present. Next, we outline the emergence of aversion therapy internationally and identify historical ‘hotspot’ hospitals and universities in the UK, with the nation itself an international ‘hotspot’ for aversion. We then employ the case study of the 2022 report from the University of Birmingham, to demonstrate how such investigations of difficult pasts might be most effectively realised and highlight the potential for a ‘truth and reconciliation’ approach to this history. Finally, we call upon psy-organisations, university and research institutions, and other stakeholders to take this history seriously in effort to address past and ongoing harms enacted upon LGBTQ+ people.

Of Queerness and Caregiving: Family, Emotional Labor and Livability in India

What does it mean to be queer, a care seeker and a caregiver in India? This article, an auto-ethnographic, self-reflexive account, thinks through this question, while charting the history of the emergence of a queer citizenship in India. Analyzing a contested, yet loving relationship between an aging and ailing mother and a queer AMAB (assigned male at birth) son, also the former’s primary caregiver, the article locates the nuances of being queer within a largely homophobic society, through a personal testimony spanning two decades, and ending with the COVID-19 pandemic. In the process, the article decodes the ever-changing ambivalent relationship of the queer citizen subject with the Indian nation-state, roughly from the time when the first petition for scrapping Sec. 377 of the India Penal Code was filed at the Delhi High Court. This ambivalent relationship continues to massively impact emotional lives and labor expended in the act of caregiving and cohabitation with the natal family, particularly, when the heteronormative family breaks down, as in the case of the author. The life story narrated, while foregrounding queer victimization makes way for optimism as well – significantly lacking within the Indian queer community – for a relatively livable life.

Polish Forced Labourers in the Klaipėda Region during World War II

This paper examines the plight of Polish forced labourers in the Klaipėda region during World War II, shedding light on a lesser-known aspect of Nazi occupation policies. Drawing on a database maintained by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, the author collected data on nearly 2,000 Polish individuals subjected to forced labour in Klaipėda. Through archival research and analysis of personal testimonies, the study explores the demographics, origins, working conditions, and treatment of these labourers. The occupation of Klaipada by Nazi Germany resulted in the displacement of local populations and the influx of foreign workers to meet wartime labour demands. Polish labourers, predominantly young and from economically disadvantaged regions like Ciechanów, were among those forcibly mobilized. They were subjected to harsh treatment, discriminatory laws, and often found themselves in precarious working and living conditions. The paper highlights the experiences of Polish labourers in various industries, including construction and agriculture, and examines the motivations behind their escapes from forced labour. It also addresses the sensitive issue of sexual violence against female Polish workers, which remains largely overlooked in historiography. The liberation of Klaipėda by Soviet forces in 1945 brought an end to forced labour in the region, but many labourers faced further hardships, including mistreatment by Soviet authorities. The paper concludes with reflections on the post-war reparations process and calls for further research and cross-border cooperation to fully understand the history of forced labour in the Klaipėda region and its lasting impact on affected communities.

Meaningful engagement of people living with cancer: Leveraging breast cancer survivors in a stigma reduction intervention in Tanzania.

Cancer-related stigma is a key driver of advanced breast cancer stage in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We developed and tested the impact of a breast cancer survivor-led Stigma reduction intervention (SRI) on stigma and treatment adherence of newly diagnosed patients with breast cancer in Tanzania. Breast cancer survivors were trained on breast cancer knowledge and motivational interviewing. A total of 4 trained survivors delivered a SRI (standardized flipchart breast education talk, personal testimony, and motivational interviewing) to 30 newly diagnosed patients with breast cancer before treatment. Pre- and post-intervention knowledge surveys and stigma scale surveys were analyzed via Fisher's exact test and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. A discussion was held with a group of survivors after the intervention period to elicit feedback on their intervention experience. Among the 30 patients, breast cancer knowledge (median overall percent correct) increased from 28% (IQR: 18%-45%) to 85% (IQR: 79%-88%) (p<0.001) and stigma (median score) decreased from 75 (IQR: 57-81) to 53 (IQR: 44-66) (p<0.01) following the intervention. All participants were willing to pursue hospital-based treatment after undergoing the intervention. Eighty-seven percent (n=26) initiated treatment at 8-week follow-up after the intervention. All survivors endorsed feeling empowered and valued in their role in this intervention. Breast cancer survivors are a powerful group to combat the lack of knowledge and stigma in community and healthcare settings. Expanding the scope and scale of this intervention holds promise for improving treatment-seeking behavior and ultimately breast cancer outcomes in SSA.

Applying Integrated Enhanced Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (I-CBTE) to Severe and Longstanding Eating Disorders (SEED) Paper 1: I am no longer a SEED patient

This autobiographical paper recounts the recovery journey of Lorna Collins, a survivor of severe and enduring anorexia nervosa (SE-AN). Her story begins with a traumatic brain injury at the age of 18, leading to a complex eating disorder that persisted for over two decades. Despite over 30 hospital admissions and various treatment modalities, her condition only worsened, compounded by other mental health challenges. The paper describes these multifaceted struggles, including mistreatment in healthcare, self-harm, further trauma and near-fatal illness. The author aims to culminate her story in an uplifting manner, by highlighting the pivotal role that integrated cognitive behaviour therapy, artistic expression, and a renewed connection with her family have made on her recovery. Collins’ account is not only a personal testimony but also offers critical insights into the shortcomings of traditional eating disorder treatments and the importance of personalised, holistic approaches in mental health care. Lorna’s story aims to bring hope, challenge the concept of SEED and form part of a growing evidence-base that recovery is possible irrespective of duration or eating disorder severity.

Exploring perceptions of anti-vaping message themes: A qualitative study of Australian adolescents and adults.

Minimising electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) uptake and encouraging vaping cessation have become important components of public health agendas. Given the success of well-designed anti-smoking campaigns, attention has turned to developing health communications that target vaping. Although prior work has identified a range of potentially effective campaign messages, several gaps in the literature remain. We aimed to (i) identify message themes perceived to be effective at minimising e-cigarette use and (ii) elicit opinion on how these message themes could be optimised in terms of message execution and delivery. Focus groups (n = 16) were conducted with adolescents (14-15 and 16-17 year olds), young adults (18-24 year olds), and adults (25-39 year olds). The groups reported on message themes they believed would assist with minimising e-cigarette use. They then provided feedback on 14 message themes developed by the research team. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Groups discussed a range of message themes they believed would be effective. These included themes focused on the health harms associated with vaping, the chemical ingredients in e-cigarettes, use dependence, and social attitudes to use. Groups discussed the importance of using evidence-based personal testimonies, and reported that messages would be most effectively communicated via social media, in public places, and at point of sale. Results build on existing research by identifying message themes perceived to be most effective, and how these would best be executed. Results have the potential to inform the development of co-designed health communication campaigns addressing youth vaping. Using a stratified focus group methodology, we collected rich and detailed qualitative data on Australians' perceptions of anti-vaping message themes. Themes considered most effective were those that addressed the health harms of vaping, the chemical ingredients in e-cigarettes, social consequences of use and the impacts of dependence. We recommend further work to develop and trial a range of specific anti-vaping messages based on the themes identified as having the most potential. This process should include iterative co-design with the target audience to optimise future health communication campaigns.

Red star over the Baltic: the sovietisation of representative assemblies in Poland's ‘Recovered Territories’ via the ‘three times “Yes”’ referendum of 1946

ABSTRACT Based on Polish-language archive material and personal testimony, this article is a case study concerning the Sovietisation of Poland's representative democratic institutions in its Baltic provinces, a region which witnessed sweeping changes regarding its borders and population as formerly German territory was incorporated into a re-constituted Polish state following the Second World War. Although under-populated and geographically peripheral, these ‘Recovered Territories’ were central to the raison d’être of the post-war Polish state. However, due to a common desire to reclaim these lands for Poland, the Polish communist regime's policies of rapid ‘degermanisation’ and ‘repolonisation’ were supported by both the London-based Polish government-in-exile, as well as the anti-communist underground. Despite the Red Army's looting of the region, the regime engendered the fear of German revanchism among the settlers to justify its ‘protection’ by Soviet forces and gain political support in new local ‘democratic’ assemblies. This article uses official, semi-official and ‘unofficial’ primary material sources aiming to show that, although the ‘Three Times ‘‘Yes’” referendum of 1946 was held at a national level with aim of assessing the true level of support for communism in Poland, in the Recovered Territories it was employed as a propaganda campaign aimed at creating Homo Sovieticus, a new society and Soviet-dominated ‘representative’ institutions.

Sure as the sunrise: insights into the material culture of Albion Motors from Glasgow Life’s museums and archives collection

ABSTRACT Albion Motors Ltd was a large company based in Scotstoun, Glasgow, employing thousands over its nine-decades existence. Much is known about its manufacturing output of cars, lorries, and buses, so the purpose of this research was to investigate Albion-related archive material held by Glasgow Life and consider this within a social historic context. The paper is replete with evidence of the human experience of the company, obtained through various research methods including scrutiny of primary source material, site visits, and unstructured in-person and telephone interviews. Whilst containing some inconclusive elements, the personal testimony of one former employee, which so effectively brought the past to life, was a poignant reminder to continue this research. Thankfully, the local community centre in Scotstoun had a similar idea, to host an open day for former staff to share memories of working for Albion – proving there are many anecdotes yet to document.

Grassroots Solidarity for Refugees in Hostile Grounds: Spatial Practices of Bottom-Up Inclusion in Verona

The article aims to shed light on everyday bottom-up practices of local solidarity groups in a predominantly exclusionary and nativist context. Considered as one of the most hostile settings in the Italian peninsula, with an elevated presence of far-right and populist right actors, the city of Verona offers an interesting case as con-comitantly the capital of migration of the Veneto region. Against the elevated presence of an ethnonationalist outlook to urban membership, a local network of grassroots actors challenges exclusionary practices in solidarity with newcomers from various legal statuses and backgrounds. These grassroots actors sharing the memory of collective struggles collaborate to overcome both social hostility and limitations of the institutional reception system in their own hometown. Premised on 3 years of fieldwork, the analysis draws from personal testimonies alongside visual narratives and archival research in offering a multidimensional historical investigation of everyday solidarities in an unlikely setting.

Przerwane oczekiwanie. O matrifokalności w kontekście o poronienia

This article examines the artworks – treated as personal testimonies – by three wo-men, whose biographies could not have been more different, affected by pregnancy loss. They are Frida Kahlo’s Henry Ford Hospital, a surrealist representation of an induced abortion she had in 1932; Oriana Fallaci’s Letter to a Child Never Born (originally published in 1975); and Karolina Kaczyńska-Piwko’s Ciałość [ Bodiness] (2021). In spite of the huge time gaps that separated those three lives, their experiences connected with the loss of an unborn child have a lot in common. Each of them had to cope with loneliness, lack of support and indifference to their grief. The dominant element in Kahlo’s painting as well as Fallaci and Kaczyńska-Piwko’s narratives is the trauma of broken expectations for a happy motherhood.

Translocational belonging in urban peripheries among the postmigrant generation: San Siro and the trap/drill subculture of Milan

ABSTRACT This article investigates the construction of translocal belongings among postmigrant youth in urban peripheries, by analyzing the latter’s musical subculture treated as expressions of identity for racialized and marginalized young individuals. Focusing on the case of the trap ensemble Seven7oo associated with the San Siro neighborhood of Milan, an intertextual reading of everyday urban spaces, personal narratives, musical and social media content is undertaken to unpack core themes shaping identity constructions of postmigrant youth living in peripheral landscapes. This is done so through the triangulation of ethnographic fieldwork in the neighborhood of San Siro, online ethnography of Seven7oo members and their followers, in-depth interviews, and song lyrics treated as personal testimonies of children of immigrants growing up in marginalized areas of a rich European metropolis. It is argued that three themes are salient across different sources of data, namely a. situated childhood suffering as a glue for translocal collective identity, b. prevalence of translocational bonds against the negation of national belongings, and c. (digital) marketing of fast-track mobility in overcoming stigmatization and marginalization.

Memories of the Spanish Civil War, exile and political repression under Franco: Basque children’s personal testimonies (1936–40)

The following interviews were conducted during the field work of my doctoral thesis, funded by the University of Reading. Interviews were conducted face to face in the summer of 2019 in Bizkaia. Both interviewees were over 90 years old when interviewed and lived through the state repression suffered under Franco’s regime following their childhood exile. The fear that they endured remained latent. These excerpts are parts of interviews relating to their personal experience of childhood exile in the context of the Spanish Civil War. When the war intensified on the northern front with the bombing of the civilian population (specifically the bombings of Otxandio in July 1936 and Gernika in April 1937), the Basque Government of the Second Spanish Republic organized the so-called ‘expediciones infantiles’ (‘childhood expeditions’) for the evacuation of children. These first-person testimonies show how these children lived their experience of exile as refugees and their subsequent integration into Franco’s Spain, a hostile space for them, as the evacuated children were considered traitors, ‘los hijos de los rojos’ (‘the children of Reds’).

North Koreans in Russia Between Migrants and Refugees

Starting from the premise that North Korean defectors have a dual identity, that of both migrant and refugee, this article examines how and why this duality is intensified in the case of those who defect to Russia, where North Korean defectors do not have proper rights or protections under either category. The main focus of this article is on the situation of North Korean defectors on the ground and with regard to Russian refugee laws, drawing on personal testimony, statistics, and related governmental and NGO documents.

Making Room for Faith: Art of Spiritual Care in an Islamic Country

This study explored the perception of spirituality in nursing among Muslim nurses and their provision of spiritual care to patients. To have an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon the researchers utilized a qualitative descriptive phenomenology with eight (8) professional nurses from adult cardiac units at Prince Sultan Cardiac Center, Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The imperative data were requisite to develop themes from the conducted semi-structured guide interviews, recorded and rigorously transcribed. The nurse participants shared experiences and personal testimonies. Seven major themes emerged: One’s Context of Spirituality, Spiritual Awareness, Attributes of Spirituality, Nurse’s Intervention, Professional Competency, Spiritual Vitality, and Care towards Spirituality. The researcher concluded that nurse’s perception of spirituality in nursing plays important role in providing spiritual care. As a result, nurses’ awareness, spiritual and professional characteristics, and nursing interventions are contributing factors to identify, acknowledge, and integrate spiritual care in nursing care delivery which facilitates positive outcomes to patient’s condition. Further, it leads the nurses to provide holistic nursing care, professional development, and promote nursing excellence services in PSCC. The findings of the research empowered the researchers to formulate a program, and recommendations that are significant in the provision of spiritual care which are to be institutionalized in nursing practice, and nursing education that focus on the support, and reinforcement of nurses in Prince Sultan Cardiac Center.

HES CONFERENCES: A LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Attending the annual HES conferences is a fantastic learning experience. In this personal testimony I try to explain the reasons for this enthusiasm, around three fundamental aspects: the innovations and changes in the historiographical field of the history of economics, the informal governance of a dynamic community, and the relevance of methodological pluralism as a guide for research development.

The Caring Public Sphere: Reframing the Concept in an Era of Care Crises

This article reframes the public sphere concept by bringing it dialogue with feminist theories of care. Care ethics foreground vulnerability and interdependence, suggesting that vulnerability is a shared condition and that we are all dependent on each other in order to survive. This helps to rethink the role of the public sphere within the democratic system, as a space not only for opinion formation, but also for the development of citizens with the necessary skills and dispositions to take care of the issues discussed in public. A focus on care also aids in reconsidering public affairs as issues that are intimately connected with needs and vulnerabilities; listening as an act of care; the processing of emotions as a key function of the deliberative process; and personal testimony as an important type of argumentation. The concept of care further helps in refinining the universal access principle by highlighting the importance of intimate spaces, where participants feel safe to be vulnerable, and of how these multiple publics can be interconnected through mobilising relationships of interdependence. Finally, it allows us to consider “care work” for communication infrastructure, including both media technologies and people’s bodies, as a constitutive part of the public sphere.