Painful Reality Research Articles

Echi Danteschi nel Romanticismo Polacco

The presented article deals with the specifics of the impact of the artistic motives of Dante Alighieri’s literary achievement on Polish romanticism. The particular attention was focused on the undeniable significance of the ideological component of the “Divine Comedy”, the lyrical motives of which were creatively rethought by the Polish romanticists and proposed in their author’s adaptation according to the historical and social realities of the time. It was stated that the culmination of Dante’s success in the Polish literary environment actually coincided with a difficult period in the history of the state: namely, with the national tragedy of 1795, when the third and the final Partition of Poland occured. It was then that the prominent Florentine artist played for the Polish romanticists the role of a special spiritual guide and teacher, who demostrated the captives some ways to confront the painful reality and to achieve the future liberation of the nation. Dante’s patriotic ideals and hopes for a better future were reflected in the original romantic works of the Polish writers. It was noted that in the context of the growing interest towards the religious issues during the Romantic era, the apocalyptic motives and millenarian vision of the world in Dante’s works served to strengthen the messianic ideas of the Polish romanticists, most of whom put an emphasis on the prophetic and eschatological character of the “Divine Comedy”. It was found that for the authors of the time, the figure of the great Italian was associated with Catholicism or Protestantism. It was accentuated that the creative achievement of Dante Alighieri became one of the greatest sources of artistic inspiration for Polish writers of the Romantic movement. In fact Dante echoes were invented in the works of Adam Asnyk, Zygmunt Krasiński, Adam Mickiewicz, Cyprian Norwid, Juliusz Słowacki, Adam Jerzy Czartoryski and others. At the same time it was underlined that the consideration of the Polish romantic literature as a result of the blind imitation of Dante’s lyrical motives is incorrect. In contrast to the Florentine artist, who represented his own reality in the afterlife, the romanticists aimed to find the afterlife in their everyday life. It is the peculiarity of the establishment of the locus horridus to be a characteristic feature by which Dante can be distinguished from the Polish writers.

Educating Antiracist Lawyers: The Race and the Equal Protection of the Laws Program at Dickinson Law

The killing of George Floyd forced the nation to recognize painful realities about systemic racism in our country and our legal system. The deficiencies in our founding documents and the vestiges of our slaveholding past are so woven into our national culture that they became hard to see except for those who suffer their daily indignities, hardships, and fears. The collective experience of watching Floyd’s murder made these undeniably and viscerally visible to all Americans. As legal educators, we must face the role we have played in helping build the machinery of structural racism by supplying generation after generation of those who maintain that machinery and prosper within it. In this critical moment of our country’s history, we, as legal educators, must train and prepare a generation of lawyers to complete once and for all the work of the Civil Rights Movement, a Third Reconstruction and to purge racism from our legal system – to build better safeguards to ensure that all people have the equal protection of the laws promised by the 14th Amendment of our Constitution. As educators, we have a unique opportunity and important responsibility to combat racism in our educational mission. We must do more than transfer legal knowledge and skills to our students. We must cultivate within them a principled, enduring commitment to work for true equality over the course of their careers and to practice law in a way that promotes the equal treatment of all. To do this, we must reconsider not only what we teach, but how we teach it. This article sets out one possibility. It describes the Race and Equal Protection of the Laws program at Penn State Dickinson Law.1F It describes a teaching method I developed for the task of teaching students about the relationship between race and our legal system. It describes how over 50 students, faculty and alumni worked together to create the substantive content of the course. This innovative program draws upon the principles of Critical Pedagogy to develop an educational approach with the objective of transforming how our students see their place and role in our flawed, evolving democracy. It incorporates the literature of different scholars commonly referred to as Critical Race Theorists to help students recognize the indicia of structural racism and better understand its root causes. The structure and methods used in the program guide students towards a deepened consciousness of the relationship between race and our legal system and why, despite its mostly neutral language, it still facilitates and maintains a system that results in Americans of different colors have different lived experiences. It encourages students to identify problems that can be addressed by lawyers and explores with them sources of law and justice that can be brought to bear on the problem. Finally, it shares with students the “Story and Vision” of lawyers who can speak authoritatively and authentically about the areas of law we examine and invites students to develop their own carefully considered response as lawyers. During this yearlong course, students have examined the relationship between race and our legal system in the following areas: housing, health care, criminal justice, democracy, capitalism, and education. Future iterations of the course will broaden this coverage and examine other types of inequality in our legal system.

Immersive Virtual Reality for Clinical Pain: Considerations for Effective Therapy

Immersive virtual reality is transforming medical and psychological research and treatment, including the treatment of clinical pain. In this short perspective paper, we present some of the methodological difficulties that are rarely discussed in the literature of pain research when using virtual reality. These often-unmentioned problems can confound research investigations or interfere with the therapeutic efficacy in clinical trials. We propose practical solutions based on our research experience. We first outline the mechanisms of, and challenges to, the sensations of embodiment and presence, which are critical to creating effective virtual reality illusions, before discussing the particular considerations that need to be contemplated when working with patients with clinical pain. Finally, we discuss some upcoming technological advances that may influence significantly this rapidly expanding field in the near future.

"If You Don't Keep Going, You're Gonna Die": Helplessness and Perseverance Among Older Adults Living With Chronic Low Back Pain.

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is the leading cause of disability worldwide and the most common pain complaint among the rapidly growing older adult population. As part of a larger qualitative study examining the lived experience of CLBP among older adults, the objective of the present study is to understand how older pain clinic patients experience helplessness and also how they foster perseverance amid treatment-resistant CLBP. Using van Manen's phenomenological method, semistructured, in-depth, one-on-one interviews were conducted with 21 older pain clinic patients (aged 66-83) living with CLBP. Data were iteratively analyzed via line-by-line thematic coding. Findings dually illustrate how participants were living a battle between helplessness and perseverance; the final thematic structure revealed 5 subthemes: (a) Feeling helpless because nothing works; (b) Feeling down and depressed; (c) Distantly wishing for an end; (d) Accepting the reality of my pain; and (e) The pain stays, I keep going. This study contributes a vivid illustration of older adults' CLBP illness experiences that are substantially underpinned by helplessness, depression, and a drive to continue thriving in old age. Practice implications include the need for clinic-based mood and suicide assessment.

On the function of self‐deception

AbstractSelf‐deception makes best sense as a self‐defensive mechanism by which the self protects itself from painful reality. Hence, we typically imagine self‐deceivers as people who cause themselves to believe as true what they want to be true. Some self‐deceivers, however, end up believing what they do not want to be true. Their behaviour can be explained on the hypothesis that the function of this behaviour is protecting the agent's perceived focal benefit at the cost of inflicting short‐term harm, which is a basis for a unified account of the phenomenon. In this paper, I argue that this view is narrow. Cases of altruistic, benevolent, and even self‐punishing self‐deception also exist. There, the function is not the self‐deceiver's benefit. In fact, self‐deception may have no function at all. Therefore, I put forward a novel account that analyses the function of self‐deception on a case‐by‐case basis.

The Experience of Death and Expatriation in Yayiyt Malik Bin Al- Rib – Study in the tools of art composition –: تجربة الموت والغربة في يائيَّة مالك بن الريب – دراسة في أدوات التشكيل الفنّي –

Yayiyt Ibn al- Rib represents a unique artistic experience in Arabic poetry; It is customary for the poet to lament someone else who loves and chooses it, Either he laments himself at death, and in the hour of embarrassment and difficulty, it is a departure from the norm, and a pattern contrary to the way of poets and their methods in this art! The poet was able to express, with the skill of a capable maker, obsessions himself and the severity of his pain, and the intensity of his nostalgia, through the artistic composition, and the poetic colors he adopted at the level of language, Imagination and rhythm. This study, through its three axes, seeks to reveal its dimensions, and the impact of all this on the success of the experiment, and its impact on the hearts of its recipients. It is based on the technical curriculum. Among the most important results that were achieved: the disclosure of the impact of the experience that the poet experienced a painful reality, on his artistic experience in its various formations and manifestations.

Efficacy and Feasibility of Behavioral Treatments for Migraine, Headache, and Pain in the Acute Care Setting.

This narrative review examines the use of behavioral interventions for acute treatment of headache and pain in the emergency department (ED)/urgent care (UC) and inpatient settings. Behavioral interventions demonstrate reductions of pain and associated disability in headache, migraine, and other conditions in the outpatient setting. Behavioral treatments may be a useful addition for patients presenting with acute pain to hospitals and emergency departments. We review challenges and limitations and offer suggestions for implementation of behavioral interventions in the acute setting. Some evidence exists for relaxation-based treatments, mindfulness-based treatments, hypnosis/self-hypnosis, and immersive virtual reality for acute pain, migraine, and headache. There are few high-quality studies on behavioral treatments in the inpatient and emergency department settings. Further research is warranted to determine the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of these interventions. Given the general safety and cost-effectiveness of behavioral interventions, healthcare professionals may want to include these therapies in treatment plans.

Violent emotions and the violence of life

ABSTRACT The paper discusses the violence of emotions and the violent retaliation against the mind as a way of protecting oneself against overwhelming pain. Leaning on Bion's thinking, it is suggested that violence may be an outcome of a quantity of excitation that the individual is unable to elaborate mentally. This violence is often dormant, covered by a veneer of civilization. Thus, in analysis we may repeatedly be deluded by the patient's seemingly non-psychotic functioning. Prenatal experiences that were never mentally registered serve as a model for overwhelming, undreamt and undreamable experience, which may be encapsulated in an unrepressed unconscious. Such unmentalized emotional experience may be forcibly discharged, either outward through physical violence, perversions, addictions, etc., or inward into the body. However, it is not only the overwhelming experience that one tries to expel, but also the perceiving mind itself, which is attacked and fragmented in order to evade awareness of an intolerable emotional reality. Detailed clinical material will illustrate the temptation to remain blind to the violent emotions lurking behind, and the massive forces, in both analyst and patient, working against getting in touch with painful psychic reality.

Swift, Secret History, and War

“Swift, Secret History, and War” argues that the relationship between Swift’s writing, reading, and his abiding interest in the English Civil Wars produced a distinctive contribution to the discourses that arose after the reestablishment of monarchy, called “secret histories.” These narratives claim to expose clandestine acts, to pull away veils that hide petty motives, and to expose abuses underlying the exercise of power. In Swift’s work, however, the impulse to dig up embarrassing or disillusioning secrets serves yet another purpose; it allows more painful realities to remain buried and thus provides a means of displacing, postponing, and avoiding direct confrontation with the devastation caused by war. The following discussion identifies and analyzes some of the ways in which traumatic conflict—especially within a nation in which neighbor has fought neighbor—requires indirection, delayed response, and the transference of the burden of representation onto succeeding generations. Literature can play a crucial role in the process of displacement when human history has proven (as Gulliver’s Houyhnhnm master observes) “capable of such Enormities, . . . worse than Brutality itself.” Swift’s distinctive deployment of secret history’s strategies allows an ironic historian a mechanism to look directly at and disclose some of the follies and vices of his culture, but also to remain cognizant, at some level, of what remains buried under “the heap” of a traumatic past.

The VRIMM study: Virtual Reality for IMMunisation pain in young children—protocol for a randomised controlled trial

IntroductionPain caused by routine immunisations is distressing to children, their parents and those administering injections. If poorly managed, it can lead to anxiety about future medical procedures, needle phobia and...

Virtual reality for acute pain in outpatient hysteroscopy: a randomised controlled trial.

To evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality as a distraction technique in the management of acute pain and anxiety during outpatient hysteroscopy. Parallel group, prospective randomised controlled trial. UK University Hospital. Forty consenting, eligible women were randomised to virtual reality intervention (immersive video content as a distraction method) or standard care during outpatient hysteroscopy from August to October 2018. Pain and anxiety outcomes were measured as a numeric rating score (scale 0-10). Compared with standard care, women with virtual reality intervention experienced less average pain (score 6.0 versus 3.7, mean difference 2.3, 95% CI 0.61-3.99, P=0.009) and anxiety (score 5.45 versus 3.3, mean difference 2.15, 95% CI 0.38-3.92, P=0.02). Virtual reality was effective in reducing pain and anxiety during outpatient hysteroscopy in a mixed-methods randomised control trial. Its wide potential role in ambulatory gynaecological procedures needs further evaluation. Virtual reality can be used as a part of a multimodal strategy to reduce acute pain and anxiety in patients undergoing outpatient hysteroscopy.

Child sexual abuse: Listening to the victims

Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is a global public health concern. We present real testimonies of adults recalling their childhood, clinical reflections and scientific research data. Patients’ testimonies bring professionals closer to understanding their painful reality. All testimonies are from women who gave their consent to use their statement. Doctors and health professionals need to know this reality and be prepared to prevent and cope with abuse.

한트케의 침묵극에 나타난 몸담론의 의미 : 「우리가 서로 알 수 없었던 시간」의 예에서

In February 2019, Handke’s silent play, entitled “Die Stunde da wir nichts voneinander wußten”, was performed in Seoul. The play was originally completed and had its maiden performance in Germany in 1992. Handke’s play brought social issues to the stage in a unique way through silence and body language. In an era where existing plays were produced based on lines and dialogue, this play, stood out in stark contrast. This silent play received little attention as it was overshadowed by various forms of experimentation in postmodernist plays. Handke was making a declaration of independence through his play, which he viewed from an aesthetical point of view with critical acceptance, to escape from the world of existing dialogue based plays and broaden the audience’s opportunity to become actual participants. Handke’s reputation as an avant-garde playwright was established in the early 70’s with his play “Publikumsbeschimpfung” and his play, “Die Stunde da wir nichts voneinander wußten” has only strengthened this reputation. “Die Stunde da wir nichts voneinander wußten” is a play which is born out of the remorse for modern people’s misuse of oral language and the existentiality which is to never give up. Handke’s aim was to focus on one’s self existence instead of the private possession of one’s self. Handke endeavoured to pursue the formation and dissolution of one’s self, through physicality and purposefully used silence to enhance that physicality. Using body language, Handke managed to replace the lethargic language found in traditional plays that do not express the extent of everyday painful realities. The meaning of body discourse in “Die Stunde da wir nichts voneinander wußten” tells the importance of communication through body language which has been forgotten and replaced by spoken language. At least for this reason alone, Hantke's journey to a new theatrical world best reflects the philosophical intent of communication by the original author Hantke to penetrate a world of alienation, loneliness and indifference in the human race.

Virtual reality, augmented reality and mirror therapy for musculoskeletal pain: a systematic review

Key-Words: virtual reality, mirror therapy, MSK pain

Epistles of dyspareunia: storying Christian women’s experiences of painful sex

Dyspareunia is painful attempted or completed vaginal-penile intercourse, and vaginal pain from other forms of touch. Because there is a persistent underlying message of shame and taboo surrounding female sexual pleasure in some Christian-informed cultural contexts, we sought to examine how self-identified Christian women in the Midsouthern USA conceptualise and experience dyspareunia. Data were collected through initial surveys and semi-structured interviews and analysed using incident-to-incident and in-vivo coding. Creative Analytic Practice was used to create composite character narratives from the data, storying five aspects of participants’ experiences: (1) ignorance and abstinence at home, church, and school; (2) socially-informed expectations of sex and painful realities; (3) making sense of, coping with, and seeking help for painful sex; (4) validation, diagnosis, and treatment; and (5) sex mis-education and desire for a different future. Findings suggest that participants’ understandings of and coping with their sexuality and the accompanying painful sex are shaped by implicit and explicit religious messages they encountered in their family upbringing, schooling, social and religious circles, and interactions with healthcare providers. Health professionals are urged to pre-screen women for symptoms of dyspareunia and include sexual wellness checks as routine procedure, and subsequently refer patients to pelvic health physical therapy when appropriate.

Why Are Women with Fibromyalgia so Stigmatized?

Many female pain sufferers with medically unexplained pain are at risk of being stigmatized in our Western society. Fibromyalgia is offered as the exemplar condition. To understand why these women are being stigmatized. A review of the recent literature was conducted with a focus on the perceptions of women with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia who have been stigmatized. Three intertwined themes emerged as contributing to their stigmatization: moralizing attitudes, disbelief as to the reality of pain, and pain's invisibility. Given how embedded the factors responsible for the stigmatization of women with fibromyalgia in Western society are, the realistic prospects for addressing this issue are poor.

Malarska „dwujęzyczność” Jerzego Nowosielskiego. Związki między abstrakcją a ikoną w monumentalnych projektach sakralnych

The sacred art of Jerzy Nowosielski, an outstanding Polish painter of the second half of the 20th century, is an example of the creative continuation of the Byzantine tradition in Poland, but also an embodiment of the debate with the painting tradition of the East and with the experience of the Church. Both in theory and in painting practice, the artist redefined the concept of the icon, attempting to expand its formula so that it not only spoke of the Kingdom, but also included the image of the earthly, imperfect reality of the pilgrim Church. In his designs of sacred interiors for churches of various Christian denominations, Nowosielski wanted to combine three theological disciplines and their respective ways of representation: Christology, sophiology and angelology. Beside a classical icon, called by the painter a “Christological- Chalcedonian” icon, Nowosielski demanded a “sophiological” icon, bringing into the space of a church an earthly, painful reality, traces of inner struggle and doubt – hence the presence of doloristic motifs in his icons. The “inspired geometry” also became a complement to the holy images; the artist noticed a huge spiritual potential in abstract painting, to which he eventually assigned the role of icon painting. The poetic concept of “subtle bodies” – abstract angels testifying to the reality of the spiritual world – drew from the early Christian theological thought, which argued about the corporeality of spiritual entities, from Byzantine angelology, the tradition of theosophy and occultism, but also from the art of the first avant-garde, especially that from Eastern Europe, which inherited the Orthodox cult of the image. Nowosielski’s bilingualism as a painter – practicing abstraction and figuration in tandem, including within the church – paralleled the liturgical practice of many religious communities using different languages to express different levels of reality: human affairs and divine affairs. The tradition of apophatic theology, proclaiming the truth about the “unrepresentability” of God, was also important in shaping Nowosielski’s ideas. For Nowosielski’s monumental art, the problem of the mutual relationship between painting and architecture proved crucial. The artist based his concept on the decisive domination of painting over architecture and the independence of monumental painting. His goal was the principle of creating a sacred interior as a holistic, comprehensive vision of space which leads the participants of liturgy “out of everyday life” and into a different, transcendent dimension, in which the painter saw the main purpose of sacred art. From his first projects from the 1950s till the end of his artistic practice Nowosielski tried to realize his own dream version of the “ideal church”. In many of his projects he introduced abstraction into the temple, covering the walls, vaults, presbyteries, sometimes even the floors with a network of triangular “subtle bodies”. Forced to compromise, he introduced sacred abstraction into murals, as accompanying geometries, or into stained glass windows. The interiors, comprehensively and meticulously planned, were supposed to create the effect of “passing through”, “rending the veil” – from behind which a new, heavenly reality dawned. In practice, it was not always possible to achieve this intention, but the artist’s aim was to create an impression of visual unity, a sense of “entering the painting”, of being immersed in the element of painting. Painting in space was supposed to unite a broken world, to combine physical and spiritual reality into an integral whole. When designing sacred interiors, Nowosielski used the sanctity of the icon, but also the pure qualities of painting which were to cause a “mystical feeling of God’s reality”. The aim of sacred art understood in such a way turned out to be initiation rather than teaching. In this shift of emphasis Nowosielski saw the only chance for the revival of sacred art, postulating even a shift of the burden of evangelization from verbal teaching to the work of charismatic art.

Virtual Reality and Symptoms Management of Anxiety, Depression, Fatigue, and Pain: A Systematic Review.

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) has become an interesting alternative to traditional exposure-based therapies for many symptoms. VR involves immersion in a computer-generated virtual environment that minimizes avoidance and facilitates emotional processing. The objective of this systematic review is to evaluate evidence on the intervention effect of VR on anxiety, depression, fatigue, and pain. The research strategy of this systematic review included three electronic databases (MEDLINE/PubMed, Cochrane Library, and ScienceDirect) based on predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Published quantitative studies from 2000 to 2020 were identified, which examined the effect of VR intervention on four different symptoms related to symptoms experienced by cancer patients. Quality assessments, data extractions, and analysis were completed on all included studies. A total of 882 titles and abstracts were screened, and 23 studies were included in the review. The studies were grouped according to the symptoms: anxiety and depression, fatigue, and pain. The review showed that VR intervention is more effective compared with the control (i.e., standard care) for anxiety, depression, fatigue, and pain. VR can reduce effectively these symptoms in different contexts and diseases, including cancer. The evidence suggests that there is value in exploring this intervention as a potential crossover treatment for these symptoms in patients. This study contributes to evidence that distraction is an effective symptom management mechanism. The findings are congruent with the theoretical framework, supporting the premise that VR, as an emotion-focused distraction intervention, decreases the severity of these symptoms.

Sexualidad reconciliada: Mirada teológica hacia un horizonte esperanzador para víctimas de abuso sexual

In the face of the painful and outrageous reality of sexual abuse, Church has not remained silent. The profoundness of Christian faith offers possibilities for searching for justice and integral healing that could not be offered by law or psychology alone. Sexuality is one of the human dimensions that is most affected after an act of sexual violence because the victim is left with a mark on her and experiences a kind of internal breakdown. However, is it possible for a victim of sexual abuse to enjoy once again a reconciled, integral, and mature sexuality? If that were the case, could a Christian dynamic of reconciliation throw light on or contribute to her recovery? These are the question addressed in this article, which is part of a dissertation in the theological field. The information gathered and presented in this article belongs to the documentary research of that dissertation. The literature review offers promising results that encourage considering more effective pastoral alternatives to address the issue of sexual abuse: first, a reconciled sexuality might guarantee a greater affective capacity of the “hurt and resurrected” human being to establish bonds of an authentic communion with themselves, with God, and with others. Secondly, if a reconciled sexuality is the result of a restored relation with God and themselves, it might be necessary an integral counseling that includes the spiritual dimension. Finally, it is shown that the path towards the reconciliation of a sexuality broken by abuse is long and complex, therefore it a) involves an interdisciplinary effort, b) cannot be the fixed goal of a healing process, and c) requires a process of forgiveness.

362 Walt Whitman, John Mahay, and Urotrauma in the American Civil War

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was a visionary American poet who inspired innovation within the literary landscape, choosing to preserve real, complex life with poetic imagery. He also chose to volunteer as a nurse during the American Civil War, daring to confront the violent, painful reality of war’s aftermath with precision and unflinching honesty. Volunteer nursing for the Union Army was organized by the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War (1861-1865). Our objective is to investigate the urologic management and perspectives of Walt Whitman during his service as a Nurse during the American Civil War. We conducted a review of the literature pertaining to Walt Whitman, his clinical practice, and his relationship to John Mahay during the Civil War. A review of textbooks, peer-reviewed articles, works of prose, and government archives was performed. Original publications and anatomic diagrams were reviewed through the Walt Whitman Archive and the National Museum of Health and Medicine.