scholarly journals Re-politicizing Mental Illness: Reflections on Boredom and Depression in American Post-postmodern Fiction

Author(s):  
Hossein Pirnajmuddin ◽  
Kaveh Khodambashi ◽  
Pyeaam Abbasi

Figurations of psychological problems, mental illness, boredom, depression, addiction and medication abound in post-postmodern fiction. David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest and The Pale King and Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections are cases in point. Apparently, what these works share in common are the material and psycho-biological explanations that they hint at or provide for the various mental problems and disorders experienced by the characters. These pertain to the specific socio-economic and cultural mode characterizing the contemporary scene. Drawing on the insights provided by Franco Berardi the present article tries to shed light on the significance of such figurations. Keywords: Davis Foster Wallace; Jonathan Franzen; Franco Berardi; boredom; depression.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 185
Author(s):  
Dongfang Wan ◽  
Yasong Zhou

This study investigates the mental health of 291 postgraduates in F University in China through Symptom Checklist-90 (known as SCL-90). The results show that 43.97% of the postgraduates suffer mental health problems of varying degrees, and a larger proportion of them are confronted with mild mental problems. The findings also reveal that the postgraduates score greatly higher than the SCL-90 National Norm of Chinese Adults in the four factors of compulsion, anxiety, terror and mental illness symptoms, while the two factors of interpersonal sensitivity and hostility are significantly lower. Besides, female postgraduates, English-related postgraduates and postgraduates from rural areas, whose mental health are worse, may be under greater pressure. This study would shed light on the relevant basis for further improvement of the postgraduates’ mental health, and the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions for colleges and universities.


1987 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-111
Author(s):  
George J. Jennings

Many mission leaders have been confronted with counseling problems, although until recently there has been reluctance to incorporate psychopathologies and therapies into training and experience on a professional level. However, Hesselgrave, to cite one example, joins other early pioneers among missiologists in treating such a field in both book and journals as he has probed into psychocultural facets that involve personnel with mental problems. This paper is an effort to diagnose mental illness in a major culture area that is dominated by Islam in values and worldview. The intent is to apply an “emic” (Pike) approach to psychocultural pathologies in order to assist Christians as they employ psychological theory and practice cross-culturally.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wellington José Santana

The present article analyses critically the paradox of phenomenon claimed by Danish Philosopher Kierkegaard and Marion’s new concept named saturated phenomenon. While the concept of God, by definition, must surpass the realm of empiricism, perhaps the something may shed light over what God must be: Excess. However, Marion developed a new concept of phenomenon that not only occupies the immanence world, but also goes beyond. It is called saturated phenomenon. In order to address the question one might understand the limit of the givenness and then what does it mean saturated givenness. We probably all have had the sense of being overwhelmed by something and this can lead toward a sense of torpor or numbness. In the other hand, Kierkegaard affirms that God is so different than a human being, so totally other that we may think we’re right in demanding God make himself understood and be reasonable towards us. Kierkegaard upholds that we’re always dealing with God in the wrong way. I will argue that Marion, however, following phenomenological footsteps indicates a new path toward how to address God properly.   Key words: Paradox; Saturated phenomenon; freedom; Excess. 


2020 ◽  
pp. 43-44
Author(s):  
Sejal Macwan ◽  
Ninad Jhala

Approximately 24 million people worldwide experiencing schizophrenia (The World Health Report, 2001). Several people with mental disorder have to rely on support of family and friends to help them in their day-to-day happenings. In that era, caregivers are at risk for physical and mental health dilemma.1 Caring for a person with any mental illness often creates physical, emotional dilemma among the family caregivers more than they think. That is why it is also essential to rationalize that issue too. Family care givers of patients with any mental illness have different perspectives and coping strategies about the situation that may lead to feeling of sadness, loneliness, helplessness, hopeless at a variance among the care givers. OBJECTIVES: • To study levels of psychological problems faced by the family caregivers of patients with schizophrenia. • To study association between demographic variables and levels of psychological problems of family caregivers with schizophrenia. METHOD: A descriptive study was carried out to examine the psychological problems faced by family caregivers of patients with schizophrenia. 200 family caregivers were selected by applying stratified systematic sampling method from the government hospitals of mental health of Gujarat state with a criterion of minimum facility of 100 beds. A self-structured interview schedule was designed for study purpose by referring the Burden Assessment Tool of Thara et.al (1998) and Zarit Burden Interview. RESULT: Majority of the respondents (51%) feel anxious, depressed and frustrated due to caregiving responsibility. Majority of the respondents (52.5%) believed that care giving responsibility is mentally tiring for the family caregivers. Majority of the respondents (40.5%) agree with the statement that their contacts with family & friends have lessened due to the illness of care receiver.


2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-60
Author(s):  
Anissa Khaldi

One of the factors that have been found to significantly influence EFL language learners’ success is motivation. It is said that it provides a strong impetus to initiate learning and, at the same time, a driving force to sustain the long, often tiring process of learning. Hence, it is crucial for instructors to consider how to foster this important variable. The present article argues that motivation can be stimulated through a number of teaching practices. It will set out to review some research concerning motivation along with its different components. Moreover, the article will explain how motivation helps learners pursuit their challenging learning goals in the path of success. The bulk of the final part will be devoted to some of the instructional practices that teachers may use so as to get learners motivated as well as sustain their motivation. Finally, the conclusion of this article will also shed light on the idea that although motivation is a key factor for success, it is not the only variable that EFL instructors should seek to take into account. There are other variables that can be held responsible for successful learning.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-87
Author(s):  
Giorgio Graffi

According to Chomsky’s report of the mid 1970s, he and Harris developed their theories in an essentially independent way; whereas according to some statements by Harris, some contact actually took place between them. To shed light on this issue, it may be useful to systematically compare their respective views of the notion ‘transformation’ as well as their analyses of certain syntactic phenomena. Among the topics dealt with in the present article are: the system of syntactic categories and their symbols; the notion of ‘zero elements’; the phenomenon of discontinuous constituents; the English auxiliary system; wh-constructions; the typology of transformations; the notions of ‘kernel’ and ‘kernel sentence’. Several of these analyses show many points of contact between the two scholars (e.g., the analysis of wh-constructions or that of English auxiliaries), which allow us to maintain that they surely influenced each other. The overall differences between the two models are also clear: the transformational relation holds between sentences in Harris’s framework, while it holds between underlying strings on the one hand and actual sentences on the other in Chomsky’s. As a consequence of this different view of the notion of transformation, two problems which were fundamental for Chomsky had no importance for Harris, namely the order of transformations and the distinction between optional and obligatory transformations. It can therefore be concluded that, if the two scholars certainly influenced each other when they were working out their respective transformational theories, their theoretical views were acutely different almost from the beginning.


1996 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 165-189
Author(s):  
T. S. Champlin

The intellectual journey on which I am about to embark, although not an unusual one in philosophy, may at first seem strange to those who are in the habit of looking to science for the answers to their big questions, including their philosophical questions. For I propose to shed light on the problematic relationship between two things, namely, mental illness and physical illness, by comparing their relationship to the relationship between two other things, namely, a rhyme for the eye—which will be explained shortly for the benefit of anyone unfamiliar with this concept—and a rhyme for the ear. Yet these two pairs of things are not related in any way by subject-matter. In philosophy, however, this sort of deliberate dislocation can be beneficial. As Wittgenstein himself once remarked, ‘A philosophical] problem can be solved only in the right surrounding, we must give the problem a new surrounding, we must compare it to cases we are not used to compare [sic] it with.’


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Andersson ◽  
Sarah K. Harkness

Individuals increasingly have encountered messages that mental illness is explained by biological factors such as chemical imbalance or genetic abnormality. Many assumed this “biological turn” would lessen stigma toward mental illness, but stigma generally has remained stable or even increased. Given how nonbiological illness explanations (e.g., way one is raised, bad character, life stressors) often are endorsed even among those who support biological explanations, we contend that combinations or configurations of beliefs integrating distinct types of explanation may hold a key to understanding why biological beliefs have not succeeded in lessening stigma. Using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) on national vignette data (2006 General Social Survey; N = 968), we find that not blaming an individual’s character is essential to lowering depression stigma whenever biological explanations also are endorsed and that blaming character unconditionally contributes to stigmatizing alcoholism. For schizophrenia and alcoholism, biological explanations may lower stigma contingent on several other beliefs.


2007 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 21.1-21.17
Author(s):  
Joseph Lo Bianco

The present article reports on research conducted during late 2004 on the language abilities of Australia’s parliamentarians and a parliamentary debate in 2005 on languages in Australia. A small questionnaire was administered to all members of the nine legislative structures of Australia comprising six states, two territories and the one Federal parliament. This is the first such survey in Australia. While the response rate was uneven, from good to poor, the survey does shed light on the range and number of languages other than English spoken by Australia’s parliamentary representatives, where their language capabilities were gained, how proficient they estimate themselves to be, and in what settings their language skills are used. The paper includes a comparison between these Australian data and equivalent, though slightly less sketchy, data from the UK. The article concludes with the text and debate of a recent private members’ bill on languages and makes comments on the responses in light of the language abilities of the parliamentarians.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 222-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rup Narayan Shrestha ◽  
Bharat Raj Pahari ◽  
Jai Raj Awasthi

This article attempts to highlight the importance of English in the professional communication in the field of engineering in Nepal. The main objective of the article is to shed light on the role English language plays in the communication related to engineering. Based primarily on the review of some relevant literature available, the present article reveals the fact that English being one of the global languages used in a wide range of communicative fields all over the world, it serves as an important tool for professional communication in engineering in Nepal.Journal of the Institute of Engineering, 2016, 12(1): 222-227 


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