Living to Die: On Chronic Suicidality and the Authentic Self

The chapter proposes that human beings are conditioned by a double embeddedness: humans are immersed in inescapable frameworks of meaning and shaped by relationships of significance. In dialogue with Charles Taylor, the chapter discusses how these two elements are constitutive features of human subjectivity and how they relate to each other. In order to operate, subjectivity needs a horizon of meaning, which accrues in relationships of attachment that, in turn, thrive under the canopy of common meaning. After discussing the specificity of one such framework, the culture of authenticity, the chapter delves more deeply into one of its paradoxical dimensions: recognition. It is shown how human recognition from loving others is an ineliminable trait for an authentic self, the implication of which is that relationships of significance constitute relational homes that “house” the human self as it grows and flourishes and as it heals when broken.

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Low dose oral ketamine treatment in chronic suicidality: An open-label pilot study

Translational Psychiatry ◽

10.1038/s41398-021-01230-z ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Adem T. Can ◽

Daniel F. Hermens ◽

Megan Dutton ◽

Cyrana C. Gallay ◽

Emma Jensen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Suicidal Ideation ◽

Low Dose ◽

Suicide Ideation ◽

Well Being ◽

Primary Outcome Measure ◽

Open Label ◽

Oral Ketamine ◽

High Level ◽

Chronic Suicidality

AbstractRecently, low-dose ketamine has been proposed as a rapid-acting treatment option for suicidality. The majority of studies to date have utilised intravenous (IV) ketamine, however, this route of administration has limitations. On the other hand, oral ketamine can be administered in a range of settings, which is important in treating suicidality, although studies as to safety and feasibility are lacking. n = 32 adults (aged 22–72 years; 53% female) with chronic suicidal thoughts participated in the Oral Ketamine Trial on Suicidality (OKTOS), an open-label trial of sub-anaesthetic doses of oral ketamine over 6 weeks. Participants commenced with 0.5 mg/kg of ketamine, which was titrated to a maximum 3.0 mg/kg. Follow-up assessments occurred at 4 weeks after the final dose. The primary outcome measure was the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS) and secondary measures included scales for suicidality and depressive symptoms, and measures of functioning and well-being. Mean BSS scores significantly reduced from a high level of suicidal ideation at the pre-ketamine (week 0) timepoint to below the clinical threshold at the post-ketamine (week 6) timepoint. The proportion of participants that achieved clinical improvement within the first 6 weeks was 69%, whereas 50% achieved a significant improvement by the follow-up (week 10) timepoint. Six weeks of oral ketamine treatment in participants with chronic suicidality led to significant reduction in suicidal ideation. The response observed in this study is consistent with IV ketamine trials, suggesting that oral administration is a feasible and tolerable alternative treatment for chronic suicidality.

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Authentic self-realization and depression

International Sociology ◽

10.1177/0268580910380980 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 5-24 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Anders Petersen

Keyword(s):

Authentic Self

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Stumbling on the rehabilitation gold? Foucault vs. Foucault in San Quentin and beyond

Ethnography ◽

10.1177/1466138116686803 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 471-492 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Bowen Paulle

Keyword(s):

Emotional Intelligence ◽

Rehabilitation Program ◽

Prison System ◽

The Other ◽

Trauma Treatment ◽

Treatment Model ◽

Authentic Self ◽

State Prison ◽

Main Components ◽

Central Claim

This article examines GRIP, a rehabilitation program currently spreading through California’s state prison system. While most ‘violent offenders’ come to GRIP hoping to increase chances of parole, this yearlong program with four main components – stopping violence, mindfulness, emotional intelligence, understanding victim impact – is meant to create conditions in which inmates can ‘do the work’ leading to genuine transformation. A central claim is that due in part to the trauma-treatment model GRIP follows, inmates end up ‘stumbling on the gold’ and going through changes (involving recovery of an ‘authentic self ’ rooted in childhood) that helps enable skillful responses even to ‘moments of imminent danger’. Understandably, researchers of such programs may seek theoretical inspiration from the ‘dominant’ version of Foucault. Yet this paper sets out to change the conversation about prisons and rehabilitation in part by demonstrating the utility of the ‘other’ Foucault’s pragmatic recovery of body-based self-disciplining practices and regimes.

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Recovering Play

Janus Head ◽

10.5840/jh200710114 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 217-238

Author(s):

Kevin Aho ◽

Keyword(s):

Being And Time ◽

Western Thought ◽

Authentic Self ◽

The Face ◽

And Control ◽

Ancient Interpretation

This paper attempts to reconcile, what appear to be, two conflicting accounts of authenticity in Heidegger's thought. Authenticity in Being and Time (1927) is commonly interpreted in 'existentialist' terms as willful commitment and resoluteness (Entschlossenheit) in the face of one's own death but, by the late 1930's, is reintroduced in terms of Gelassenlieit, as a non-willful openness that "lets beings be." By employing Heidegger's conception of authentic historicality (Geschiclidichkeit), understood as the retrieval of Dasein's past, and drawing on his writings on Hölderlin in the 1930'sand 1940's, I suggest that the ancient interpretation of leisure and festivity may play an important role in unifying these conflicting accounts. Genuine leisure, interpreted as a form of play (Spiel), frees us from inauthentic busy-ness and gives us an opening to face the abyssal nature of our own being and the mystery that "beings are" in the flrst place. To this end, leisure re-connects us with wonder (Erstaunen) as the original temperament of Western thought. In leisurely wonder, the authentic self does not seek purposive mastery and control over beings but calmly accepts the unsettledness ofbeing and is, as a result, allowed into the original openness or space of play of time (Zeit-Spiel-Raum) that lets beings emerge-into-presence on their own terms.

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