Psychic Causes Research Articles

The Conditional Probability for Human Error Caused by Fatigue, Stress and Anxiety in Seafaring

Human error caused by the interaction and effect of fatigue, stress and anxiety in seafarers is the subject of this research. The human element is a major part of the maritime system. We used Bayesian networks to predict human error in maritime affairs by analysing interactions between people, technology, organisational and environmental factors which make up the specificity of the maritime system. Bayesian networks are graphical structures developed to represent the conditional dependencies among a number of variables and to make conditional conclusions related to the selected variables. Through the analysis of psychic causes such as stress, fatigue, anxiety and so on, the model can produce graphic diagrams indicating which rank on which type of vessel at which seafarers age contributes to an increase in conditional probability of human error. The contribution of the paper is to find the worst combinations of influencing variables that can lead to an increase in the risk of human error. The results show a significant level of fatigue and stress in all officers (engine and nautical), regardless of the type of vessel they serve. A strong presence of anxiety is also reported in all surveyed officers, with a higher degree between engine officers.

Histoire d’un symptôme : l’akathisie

Akathisia, or a patient's mental and physical inability to stay still, results in an irrepressible need to move. This clinical symptom was described by a Czech physician, Ladislas Haškovec (1866–1944), in an article published by La Revue Neurologique in 1901. After a brief biography of this polyglot neurologist, we will give the current definitions of this condition. We will then compare the first two clinical cases with the observations published in the first half of the last century, to show how the originally favoured psychic cause, related to anxiety and phobias, evolved into an organic neurological cause, notably during the epidemic of encephalitis lethargica, described by von Economo. The introduction of antipsychotic treatment by neuroleptics greatly increased the number of cases, suggesting that this iatrogenic effect is the only cause of akathisia. The various clinical and pathophysiological interpretations of this collateral effect of an indispensable therapy show how theoretical speculations are refuted by direct observations of patients. There is reason to hope that the Barnes scale, designed to quantify and monitor the progression of akathisia, will improve treatment. We will conclude with a review of medical writings, starting in the 17th century, to better appreciate the clinical relation between akathisia and restless legs syndrome.

О реальности ограничений как архетипическом содержании психики

The present research considers the concepts of slavery and freedom as mental contents perceived by a human and the society. The essence, interrela-tion and problems of these concepts are revealed through overlapping of the theory of archetypal con-tents with a series of historically significant events. The development of the idea of limitations through-out the history of mankind uncovers the psychic causes of mass actions of people, which are often of a destructive nature. The result of such an analysis makes it possible to rethink the current situation all over the world related to the outbreak of coronavirus disease and the return of significance of the borders between countries, introduction of self-isolation regimes and health protection measures. The scale of people’s actions under current conditions is mas-sive and such actions present a logical consequence of the changes that took place during the last few centuries. Bearing in mind such a historical relation-ship allows to reconsider the existing situation, as well as outline a new vector for the development of humanity.

Between the Body and the Word: the Effects of Language on a Suffering Body

Objective: This work has the purpose of analyzing some theoretical reasons which led Dr. Sigmund Freud to distance himself from the Neurology field, consequently creating his own new investigation method called Psychoanalysis, which opened an entirely new field of comprehension and intervention of the treatment of the discontent in its psychic cause. By distance from the Neurological field we can understand the creation of Psychoanalysis, and a conceptual shift where the body is no longer a cause, but an object: in this case, a discursive object. Results: The main consequence of this turnout was the vouching of the effects of language in the sick individual’s body, specifically in reference of the many forms of pain and discontent. Conclusion: The Psychoanalysis, thus founded in the word and in the language, has become fundamental to the health sciences for the understanding of all forms of illness, which can be better understood through the patient’s words and their due listening.

Psychosomatic aspects of balance disorders

Diseases in which dizziness symptoms are in the foreground are relatively common in primary care. They can have many causes, both organic and with mental involvement. In most cases, patients primarily undergo only somatic diagnostics and accordingly have delayed contact with psychosomatic medicine. However, the proportion of psychic components or causes of dizziness is relatively high. Accordingly, psychotherapy procedures can show good success rates in many patients. All in all, patients with vertigo suffer from the early addition of psychotherapeutically trained physicians.

Conversation with Bruce Ritson

In this occasional series we record the views and personal experience of people who have especially contributed to the evolution of ideas in the journal's field of interest. Dr Bruce Ritson was formerly Consultant Psychiatrist at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and Senior Lecturer at Edinburgh University. He currently chairs the medical campaign group, Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP), which is hosted by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. He has had a long and fruitful research career.

Pionierin der Religionspsychologie: Marianne Beth (1890-1984)

This article deals with the contributions to the psychology of religion made by Dr. Marianne Beth (1890-1984), an almost totally forgotten pioneer of the psychology of religion. The article especially contextualizes her initiative to turn “unbelief” into a topic for research in psychology of religion, and describes the tragic end the Nazi reign made to her development and career. Born as the daughter of a prominent Austrian Jewish lawyer living in Vienna, Marianne von Weisl received excellent intellectual training. Initially, her wish to become active in the same field as her father was frustrated by the injunction against women studying law. When this injunction was lifted, she went for a second doctorate in law, her first doctorate having been in the humanities. Marianne Beth became very active in public life (serving on the boards of many organizations, including international ones); she travelled and gave lectures and developed a large radius as a prolific author in newspapers and periodicals. Although clearly committed women's rights, she did not belong to any feminist movement. Her interest in psychology was certainly stimulated by her husband Karl Beth (1872-1959), a professor of systematic theology, who developed an increasing interest in both history and the psychology of religion. In fact, psychology of religion seems to have become the field in which the couple collaborated intellectually most. They were both involved in the founding of a “research institute” for the psychology of religion, of an international society for the psychology of religion, and of a journal for the psychology of religion. All these activities took place from the apartment of the Beths in Vienna, where the preparations for the First International Congress for the Psychology of Religion also occurred. That congress had as its theme; “the psychic causes of unbelief”. Even earlier than her husband, Marianne Beth had published on the topic of unbelief. Her interest may have been triggered by a call for papers by the internationally renowned KantSociety. The Society issued a prize for a treatise on “the psychology of belief” in 1928, which Marianne Beth then won. It is also possible, however, that the call for papers had been triggered after her initial publications on the subject. Her paper was published in the well-known journal Kant-Studien. There was a plan to publish the contributions to the 1931 congress in Vienna in book form in a series of three volumes, but only one was published, probably due to financial problems. The rest of the papers presented were published in the Zeitschrift für Religionspsychologie, edited by the Beths. (Marianne Beth's paper was also published in this journal.) As her publications since then show, she grew increasingly interested in empirical topics and approaches, and was broadly read in contemporary psychology. She authored numerous contributions to the Zeitschrift für Religionspsychologie. However, when Nazi-Germany annexed Austria in 1938, she left the country for the United States, taking both her children with her. Shortly afterwards, Karl Beth was also obliged to follow his family into exile. In the US, neither had any opportunity to pursue their interests in the psychology of religion; Marianne taught sociology briefly and German; Karl taught “comparative theology”. Nevertheless, Marianne Beth's impulse to turn “unbelief” into a research topic in the psychology of religion did have some lasting influence: the work of better-known psychologists of religion such as Rümke, Pruyser and Vergote are indebted to her, at least indirectly, as this article tries to show.

Terapia ocupacional en psiquiatría y salud mental: formación en pregrado

The great responsability that affortds us to be responsible for the formation of the Occupational Therapists in the area of Psychiatry and Mental Health at pregrado levell it commits us on one hand, to a constant upgrade of clinical contents and intervention procedures that the sanitary demands go dtermining; on the otherr hand of equal it forms we have the necessity to go adopting more effective methodologies of the process teaching-learning of Ihe etements of the area. The work that here present it constitutes a partial evaluation of the methodology that presently academic year it is developing in the subject of: Models of Intervention of Occupational Therapy in Psychiatry and Mental Health, framed in the foundations that originate the work in one of the traditional specialties of the discipline and in the new vision of social inclusion of the illness and the handicapped of psychic cause.

Mirtazapin (Remergil®): Behandlungsoption bei therapieresistenter Hyperemesis gravidarum? - ein Fallbericht

Hyperemesis gravidarum is an illness that can lead to weight loss, dehydration, electrolyte disturbances, and occasionally damage of organs if improperly treated or left untreated. We describe a 33 year-old woman at 15 weeks gestation with extremely treatment resistant hyperemesis gravidarum. No somatic or psychic cause of this hyperemesis was found. After suffering from the severe symptomatology for 11 weeks (she had lost a total of 12 kg of body weight) the patient considered termination of the pregnancy - in spite of the fact that she wanted the child. She agreed to treatment with mirtazapine, an antidepressive drug which has some limited clinical data regarding hyperemesis gravidarum generated from prior case reports. Upon treatment with intravenous mirtazapine, later changed to oral mirtazapine, nausea and vomitting resolved within 3 days. The patient decided not to terminate the pregnancy and was discharged from the hospital two weeks later in good health, with a daily dose of 15 mg oral mirtazapine. Over the course of 2 weeks, her dosage was slowly reduced, and finally stopped. She has not shown any new symptoms of hyperemesis gravidarum through the present time, where she is currently in her 25th week of gestation. Mirtazapine is an atypical anti-depressant, which has both noradrenergic and specific serotonergic receptor antagonism (NaSSA). Since mirtazapine blocks the 5 HT 3 -receptor postsynaptically, there is reason to believe that this drug may be of use in severe cases of hyperemesis gravidarum where other treatment options fail. Because of the limited data regarding teratogenity and fetotoxicity of mirtazapine, such treatment should only be undertaken when benefits outweigh risks.

Vertigo and anxiety disorders--results of interdisciplinary evaluation

Vertigo is a common symptom that often remains unexplained despite extensive medical evaluation. Psychiatric and psychosomatic disorders are usually considered after all somatic causes of vertigo have been ruled out. Eighty-three patients referred to neurological or psychosomatic outpatient treatment received an extensive neurootologic and psychosomatic evaluation: one (or two) diagnostic psychiatric psychodynamic exploration(s), a structured interview, psychometric tests (SCL-90-R, STAI-G X2 and GBB). The patients were divided into four diagnostic groups: psychic causes only (psychogenic group), neurootologic causes only (somatic group), both diagnoses (psychosomatic group), neither diagnosis (group IV). Twenty-three patients had organic vertigo, thirty-nine patients had psychogenic vertigo and in seventeen cases a vestibular lesion initiated the development of a neurotic disorder, particular anxiety disorder. Most of the patients of the psychogenic and psychosomatic group had anxiety or phobic disorders. The patients with psychogenic or psychosomatic symptoms of vertigo generally report a higher level of subjective distress; the periods of disability are significant longer. The study suggests that assessment of psychiatric and psychosomatic symptoms should always accompany, not follow, neurootologic evaluation of vertigo. An early interdisciplinary therapy should be started to prevent the chronicity of the symptomatology.

Proving the somaticist position: J. B. Friedreich on the nature and seat of mental disease.

The emerging specialty of psychiatry in Germany in the first half of the nineteenth century showed a preoccupation with theoretical issues regarding whether mental disease was correctly attributed to somatic or psychic causes. J. B. Friedreich was a champion of the somaticist view, and the methods and evidence which he used to defend this position and which he presented as a series of proofs, are scrutinized in detail in this paper. This illustrates how the dichotomous debate between the somaticist and mentalist viewpoints was sustained by a speculative philosophical method based on a dualistic conception of body and soul and supported by subjective clinical observations ranging from succinct to banal or even absurd.

Severe urge incontinence--therapeutic concept

Basing on our experience with 39 patients with severe urge incontinence (in one-quarter of the cases pure urge incontinence, in one-half of the cases mixed incontinence and in a further quarter of the cases neurogenic bladder disorders) a supervised programme (mictiogram) and a well-tried therapy (especially in the Anglo-Saxon countries) consisting of the triad hospitalisation/bladder training/medication therapy are presented. After an average hospitalisation period of 14 days, we were able to achieve a symptom-free state in 94% of the patients. Cure was achieved on a long-term basis in 76%. Failure of conservative therapy was due especially to severe neurogenic bladder disorders, followed by urethral obstructive insufficiency that cannot be influenced. The superimposed psychic cause of urge incontinence that should not be underestimated and often presents as a transference of unresolved emotional needs (51% of our group are psychologically unstable), is discussed. With these facts in mind, our therapy concept is translated into reality. Hospitalisation brings about a change in surroundings, making the supervision of bladder training and adjustment to medication easier, thus supplying the basis for patient compliance and success of follow-up therapy subsequent to hospitalisation and discharge from hospital.

Disorderly Motion in Plato's "Statesman"

IN THIS PAPER I will argue that in the Statesman myth's account of alternating cosmic cycles, Plato views the phenomena, or physical objects, in and of themselves as a positive source of evil, moving erratically without psychic causes whether rational or irrational, direct or indirect.' In this respect and others, the cosmological commitments of the Statesman are the same as those of the Timaeus2 and are inconsistent

Narcissism and Modern Culture

The clinical data upon which classical psychoanalysis was built have in part disappeared. In their place has arisen a kind of psychic distress among the urban bourgeoisie unforeseen fifty years ago. The question I want to explore is what a dramatic change like this means: have changes in the society brought new kinds of psychological problems to the fore? has progress in the science of psychology made us able to recognize symptoms which were unremarked formerly? or need we reexamine the very concept of the psyche in light of the historical, social production of neurosis? This change in clinical data obviously poses basic questions about the relationship of psychoanalysis and society. This discussion is in three parts. I shall offer a description of this change in the patterns of neurosis. I shall then describe how one school of psychoanalytic thought has coped with the change by inventing a new language of psychic cause. Finally, I shall criticize this language of psychic causes, and try to suggest how the historical production of neurosis can be understood by a different kind of discourse.

Effect of L-dopa on sexually impotent patients.

In a pilot study ten sexually impotent patients, in whom psychic causes could be excluded to a large extent, were selected to take l-DOPA for about 12 weeks. Two had to be excluded because of side-effects. The most obvious effect was the increase in frequency of spontaneous erection during the night. A slight to moderate increase in degree of penile erection was also observed for 6 of 8 patients, but the erection ability was insufficient to consummate sexual intercourse. An increase in libido was observed in two patients only. Psychic changes were not found; only one patient showed high irritability. Five patients noticed that they could carry out their daily work more efficiently.

The Psychiatric Nurse and the Mute Patient

It was very astute of that aide to say that the patient won't rather than that he can't talk because mutism is, in fact, a refusal to speak. Mutism is a manifestation of negativism; a disturbance of communication; a disturbance of external codification (that is, language used to communicate with other people). Mutism is not a true aphasia; it is a defense mechanism against anxiety-a protracted inhibition of speech resulting from psychic causes. For some patients, mutism is a form of enclosure from the environmenta resurgence of or a regression to the pre-speech behavior of infancy. Finally, mutism is a symptom of mental illness-it is a disturbance of

Approches pathogéniques des troubles mentaux.

This little book seems to be an unsuccessful attempt by the author, now chief of the neurological service of the hospitals of Nice, to resolve the bewilderment which he felt when he first encountered mental illness and which continues to haunt him. He begins (I) by recalling the multiplicity of factors operating in the etiology of a mental disorder, and remarks that this is no different from other types of maladies but that there are certain peculiarities in the case of mental disorders: (1) the psychic constitution, inherited or learned, (2) the psychic causes of the acquisition of precipitating factors, (3) the persistence of the mental effects after the disappearance of the physical effects of a cause. In short, what distinguishes mental maladies from the rest of pathology is exactly that they are mental. The author next recalls the deception of the psychiatrists when, following the demonstration of

Maintenance of ambulation in childhood muscular dystrophy

1. 1. Loss of independent ambulation in muscular dystrophy occurs prematurely in most patients now in wheel chairs. 2. 2. An ambulatory status may be prolonged for an average of 2 years by initiating an appropriate stretching and exercise program during the first stages of the disease. The longer one waits, the more difficult it is to derive significant benefit from such a program. 3. 3. The importance of total evaluation of the patient with muscular dystrophy as early as possible cannot be overemphasized. During such an evaluation it is essential that an accurate record of muscle tightness or contracture as well as weakness be obtained, so that any change in status can be assayed as objectively as possible. 4. 4. The principal factor in loss of independent ambulation is progressive muscle weakness. In addition there are multiple contributory factors. These include tightness and contractures, disuse atrophy, emotional elements, medical illness, injury, and obesity. Since it is not possible to influence muscle degeneration specifically, the adequate management of the secondary factors becomes increasingly important. 5. 5. These various factors involved in loss of independent ambulation can interact to perpetuate a vicious cycle of progressive deterioration. 6. 6. Tightness of the gastroc-soleus, hamstrings, and iliotibial band can usually be found before any obvious degree of weakness is seen. The joint contractures are usually more severe on one side. 7. 7. Muscular dystrophy patients had lost approximately one-half of their total muscle mass at the time bracing was required for ambulation. 8. 8. Bilateral long leg double bar braces can prolong the ambulatory status of the child with muscular dystrophy. 9. 9. Emotional factors may interfere with the dystrophic child's motivation for walking. Immobilization may be self-imposed and due to psychic causes. The resultant wheel chair status may become permanent if these factors are not recognized.

Some remarks on the interrelation of gynecological and gastro intestinal symptoms

I have reviewed here briefly some of the organic and psychic causes of the interrelationship of gynecological and gastrointestinal lesions and stressed the need of accurate diagnosis as a prerequisite for intelligent treatment. No attempt has been made to cover the entire field. My more or less random remarks simply record some of my personal experiences and my opinions based thereon. I hope that a full discussion will enable me to pick up many valuable points.

A CONSIDERATION OF SOME OF THE SO-CALLED OBSCURE CAUSES OF STERILITY

While in many married couples the cause of sterility is easy enough to determine, and aspermia, azoospermia or closed fallopian tubes at once explain the childlessness, there are other cases in which the source of the disturbance of fertility is much harder to locate. In such cases, if nothing else can be found wrong with either the husband or the wife, the so-called obscure causes of sterility are often invoked. It is these causes that I will consider here. Generally they are classified as selective fertility and incompatibility of the sexual partners due to (<i>a</i>) cervical secretions; (<i>b</i>) vaginal acidity; (<i>c</i>) sperm immunity, or (<i>d</i>) psychic causes. <h3>SELECTIVE FERTILITY</h3> Selective fertility has also been called relative infertility, or relative sterility and incompatibility of the sexual partners. Since sterility and fertility are practically always relative and rarely absolute, I have coined the term selective fertility as being, I believe, more descriptive