Suicidal behaviors among Bangladeshi university students: Prevalence and risk factors

Background Bangladeshi university students are considered to be highly suicide-prone compared to other populations and cohorts. However, no prior epidemiological studies have assessed the suicidality (i.e., past-year suicidal ideation [SI], lifetime suicide plan [SP], and lifetime suicide attempt [SA]) among Bangladeshi students, including the variables such as past-year stressful life events and family mental health history. This is arguably a major knowledge gap in the country. Therefore, the present study investigated the prevalence and associated risk factors for suicidal behaviors among Bangladeshi university students. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted utilizing a convenience sampling method among a total of 1844 university students between October and November 2019. Data were collected based on the information related to socio-demographics, perceived health-related questions, past-year stressful life events, family mental health history, and suicidal behaviors (i.e., SI, SP, and SA). Chi-square tests and binary logistic regressions were used to analyze the data utilizing SPSS statistical software. Results The prevalence of past-year suicidal ideation, lifetime suicide plans, and suicide attempts were 13.4%, 6.0%, and 4.4%, respectively. Females reported significantly higher suicidal behavior than males (i.e., 20.6% vs.10.2% SI; 9% vs. 4.6% SP; and 6.4% vs.3.6% SA). Risk factors for SI were being female, year of academic study, residing in an urban area, using psychoactive substances, experiencing both past year physical and mental illness, experiencing any type of stressful past-year life events, experiencing campus ragging (i.e., senior students abusing, humiliating and/or harassing freshers or more junior students), experiencing family mental illness history, and having family suicide attempt history. SP was associated with several factors including being female, year of academic study, using psychoactive substance, experiencing both past-year physical and mental illness, and experiencing any type of stressful past-year life events. Risk factors for SA were being female, year of academic study, using psychoactive substances, experiencing past-year mental illness, experiencing any type of stressful past-year life events, and having family suicide attempt history. Conclusions University students appear to be a vulnerable group for experiencing suicidal behaviors. The present findings warrant rigorous action and early intervention programs such as counseling and other mental health professional services by university authorities. Longitudinal studies are highly recommended involving countrywide representative samples.

Society, Spatiality, and the Sacred

The Essay provides space for scholars to present peerreviewed research in a manner that uses data studies and critical reflection as occasions for advancing currents in the broader academic study of religion. In this issue, we have two contributions. Umur Ko?al revisits Jerusalem’s Western Wall and submits that a spatial approach can help scholars reconsider the complex relation of sites classified as sacred. And Matteo Di Placido takes yoga studies as an example of a Foucauldian discourse formation and considers the historical and political textures that appear when examined under the light of recent research in the discursive study of religion.

Recent Research in Syriac Studies and the Recurring Question of Identity

Identity Puzzles, Identity and Christian-Muslim Interaction, Redefining Christian Identity … These titles are only three examples of a growing corpus of scholarship that asks the question, “How did Syriac-speaking Christians in the Near East perceive and present their communities?” Some scholars approach this question from the angle of theological distinctions between Syriac Christian groups, while others look into the power structures and discursive negotiations between Christian and other communities in the Near East. As our understanding of Syriac communities in the pre-modern Near East is further nuanced, contemporary religious and national identities shape the scholarship in new ways. This article summarizes the major theories brought to bear on the study of “Syriac identity” in premodern and modern era in the past twenty years. By mapping the field, I aim to demonstrate how the academic study of identity in Syriac communities have been underpinned by the question of the so-called East-West divide.

Studying Restoration Painting

In this article I discuss the history of restoration painting through art history and art conservation with the help of a case study. Restoration painting has a long history as a part of art conservation. The methods and theories of restoration painting have evolved along with the process of art conservation into a discipline of academic study. I discuss an old method of restoration painting called overpainting by means of a case study. Overpainting was quite a common practice, until it became viewed as unethical and unprofessional. The case study is a painting that was modified by overpainting. The modifications were done most likely at the same time as damages to the canvas were repaired, possibly sometime before the middle of the 20th century. The old overpaintings were removed during a complete restoration of the painting in 2018–2019. The removal of the overpaintings uncovered new possibilities for the interpretation of the motif of the painting. I briefly discuss the idea of the Italian tratteggio method of restoration painting, which in my view demonstrates a scientific turn in conservation. I also discuss new ways of using scientific methods of collecting data for decision making in restoration.

From Metapsychology to Magnetic Gnosis: An Esoteric Context for Interpreting Traumatic Modes of Transcendence in Sándor Ferenczi's Clinical Diary and Elizabeth Severn's The Discovery of the Self

It has been argued that the essential themes in Sándor Ferenczi's Clinical Diary (1932) centre around three major axes (theoretical, technical and personal). This paper proposes a fourth: namely, an occult or esoteric axis. To make the case for its presence in the Clinical Diary, the article provides a brief introduction to the academic study of Western esotericism in order to more adequately situate its proximate fin de siècle occult precursors vis-à-vis psychoanalytic metapsychology. A brief account of Ferenczi's correspondence with Freud on the role of the occult in psychoanalysis is then provided. This constitutes the necessary context for embarking upon an investigation into the ‘psychognostic’ metapsychology co-developed during the course of Ferenczi's ‘mutual analysis’ with the so-called ‘evil genius’, Elizabeth Severn. By way of conclusion, James Grotstein's account of a ‘numinous and immanent psychoanalytic subject’ is highlighted as the locus for a synergistic rapprochement between pre-Freudian and contemporary psychoanalytic conceptualizations of the subject congruent with the ‘Orphic trajectory’ outlined in this paper.

Blurring the Boundaries between Leisure and Work: Professionals as Devotees in the Mind-Sport Bridge

Bridge is a partnership card game that has increasingly professionalized in recent years, particularly at ‘elite’ level. ‘Elite’ bridge players participate in a unique leisure world which hitherto has been understood as a form of serious leisure. However, due to professionalization there is the possibility to work as a professional bridge player thus blurring the boundaries between leisure and work. The paper is based on the lived experiences of professional bridge players and how they understand the, often ongoing, transition from playing bridge as a hobby to playing bridge for a job. Being a professional bridge player raises issues about moral evaluations of work, a work ethic and concerns over what a ‘proper job’ is. This paper explores these dynamics in relation to Stebbins concept of ‘devotee work’ and ideas of liminality, unpacking the tensions and ambiguities involved through the perspective of 52 elite bridge players. Findings from the qualitative interviews illustrate how playing bridge professionally is often experienced as being hugely positive, because of being paid to do something one is devoted to, but ambivalences and anxieties also emerge. In addition, the paper draws on the reflections of one author who is a bridge player and blurs the boundaries between work and leisure through the academic study of bridge. The findings show the contested nature of bridge as a profession set within broader notions of work, with positive and negative perceptions of the blurring of work-leisure boundaries.

Identity Turn: Managing Decolonialization and Identity Politics in the Study of Religion

The academic study of religion, with its concepts and theories that originate in a Western, Protestant context, has justly been criticized in postmodern and identity-focused discourses, in recent years under the umbrella of decolonization and social justice activism. It has been suggested that allegedly universally-applicable theories and methodologies are relativized and revealed as particularized Eurocentrism in the hegemonic representations of “white” or “Western” power regimes. While acknowledging such reorientations in the philosophy, sociology, psychology, and history of religion, this article also critically investigates and discusses the “critical study of religion.” It is suggested that the revisionist deconstruction emphasized by contemporary identity perspectives, with their discourses of difference and re-essentialized understandings of religion and culture, are not only problematic as theoretical orientations. Radical identity politics also imply methodological constraints on the academic study of religion, where comparison, analytical categories, and reflexive emic–etic distinctions must remain key factors.

Playing the Game and Pulling the Fingers: Working for and against the modern University

<p>Todays’ universities are constantly evolving, and yet they are deeply traditional institutions that bring together often contradictory agendas, with multiple roles and expectations for those working within. I look towards the academics within these universities in order to get a better understanding of what happens when the personal meets the institutional. By reflecting on my time as a student, and talking with thirteen New Zealand academics and post-graduates who in various ways challenge dominant ideas around academia, I aim to broaden and disrupt the academic imagination. Rather than think of this project as an academic study on academia, I like to think of it as me, a student, re-telling the stories of academics; seeking their wisdom, tactics and gaining inspiration from their ability to ‘do’ academia their way, even in today’s tight confines.</p>

Playing the Game and Pulling the Fingers: Working for and against the modern University

<p>Todays’ universities are constantly evolving, and yet they are deeply traditional institutions that bring together often contradictory agendas, with multiple roles and expectations for those working within. I look towards the academics within these universities in order to get a better understanding of what happens when the personal meets the institutional. By reflecting on my time as a student, and talking with thirteen New Zealand academics and post-graduates who in various ways challenge dominant ideas around academia, I aim to broaden and disrupt the academic imagination. Rather than think of this project as an academic study on academia, I like to think of it as me, a student, re-telling the stories of academics; seeking their wisdom, tactics and gaining inspiration from their ability to ‘do’ academia their way, even in today’s tight confines.</p>

“What the One Thing Shows Me in the Case of Two Things”: Comparison as Essential to a Proper Academic Study of Religion

Comparison is a fundamental operation in the milieu of the remarkable abilities of human beings to transcend themselves in acts of perception and the accumulation of knowledge. Comparison is holding together things that are at once the same and different. The very possibility of the copresence of same and different, of is and is not, is a gift of human biology and evolution. Humans compare because it is our distinctive nature to do so. Academics have the added responsibility of being self-aware, self-reflective, and articulate when comparing. This article develops a rich theory of comparison in conjunction with detailed reflections on late nineteenth century encounters of European-Australians and Aborigines in Central Australia. The intent is to advance our understanding of comparison and also to articulate in the practical terms of method what is involved in comparison, arguing most generally that comparison is of the fabric of any proper study of religion.