Borderline We-Space? The Phenomenology of the Background of Safety in Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe psychiatric condition characterized by instability in identity, relationships, and affect. Individuals, with BPD typically lack a coherent sense of self, are highly sensitive to interpersonal stressors, experience intense fluctuations in mood, and frequently engage in impulsive and self-destructive behaviors. Although both empirical research and development of effective psychotherapy have evidently progressed over the past years, many aspects regarding the structure of experience and the life-world typical for persons with BPD are not yet fully understood. Somewhat surprisingly, phenomenological psychopathology has only recently started to pay more attention to the disorder. A comprehensive elaboration of the phenomenology of BPD is therefore still lacking. This article aimed to contribute to such a phenomenological understanding by focusing on what we think is an essential aspect that has yet not been sufficiently addressed: the background of safety. To clarify what this means, we depart from Sandler’s [<i>Int J Psychoan</i>. 1960;41:352–6] psychoanalytic concept and elaborate on it phenomenologically. This leads us to argue that the development of a background of safety requires a particular embodied presence of others, which, in turn, contributes to the constitution of a safe we-space, a shared and familiar environment providing a matrix for the experience of a stable world. However, even when established, the background of safety remains in need of a continuous reconfirmation through corresponding experiences within a sufficiently reliable and controllable environment. The background of safety is vulnerable and open to (interpersonal) disruptions like trauma or neglect. In BPD, we suggest 3 aspects regarding the phenomenology of the background of the safety need to be considered: first, typically, patients with BPD did not develop a robust background of safety in infancy; second, weakening of the background of safety gives rise to symptoms and dynamics typical for BPD; third, these symptoms and dynamics further undermine the possible development of a background of safety in adult life and thus gravitate toward a petrification of the borderline condition, a “stable instability.” To conclude, we examine whether this concept should be understood as a <i>trouble générateur</i> and, last, consider its clinical implications.

This Is the End: Earthquake Narratives and Buddhist Prophesies of Decline

“This Is the End” presents findings from research in which the authors asked survivors of Nepal’s 2015 earthquakes to describe what they know about earthquakes based on their lifelong cultural and environmental experiences, how they responded to the devastating events, and how they view these earthquakes and their aftermath in terms of cause and consequence. The research settings of Tsum, Nubri, Manang, and Mustang were in the midst of rapid socioeconomic transformations and environmental disruptions when the earthquakes struck. Interviews shortly after the event reveal that many people are familiar with scientific concepts like the movement of tectonic plates, yet they attribute the earthquake’s ultimate cause to human activities that disturb autochthonous deities. Their interpretations suggest parallels with signs of impending doom contained within written prophesies, including a decline in religious devotion, the fraying of social cohesion, and environmental disruptions. The linking of written prophesies with lived experiences points toward a Buddhist understanding of conventional and ultimate realities in which people discuss the material and geophysical causes and consequences of earthquakes while also considering moral and cosmological understandings stemming from socially and environmentally destructive behaviors. This article contributes to a growing literature on the intersections of religion and natural disasters.

Treating Aggression and Self-destructive Behaviors by Stimulating the Nucleus Accumbens: A Case Series

Self-destructive and aggressive behaviors can have a significant impact on the quality of life of affected individuals and their carrers. While deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been applied to the treatment of self-destructive and aggressive behaviors in isolated cases, clinical data on this treatment modality are still lacking. We therefore assessed responses to treatment with bilateral DBS of the nucleus accumbens in six patients with severe self-destructive and aggressive behaviors. Three patients had Tourette syndrome and three had other underlying predispositions including obsessive compulsive disorder, cerebral palsy, encephalitis, and epilepsy. Patients were followed up for between 2 and 7 years, and patients were assessed using the Modified Overt Aggression Scale (six patients) and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (three patients able to complete the questionnaire on their own). DBS reduced self-destructive and aggressive behaviors by 30–100% and by an average of 74.5%. Patients with Tourette syndrome responded better to DBS and improved by 27.3% according to the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire. These results suggest that nuclei accumbens stimulation may be an effective treatment for aggressive and self-destructive behaviors regardless of etiology.

Clomipramine and alprazolam to treat noise phobia in a dog: case report

Behavioral disorders, including noise phobia, have a great impact on small animals internal medicine, impairing their quality of life as well as their life expectancy. The objective of this work is to report the case of a male dog who suffered from noise phobia and panic attacks triggered by thunderstorms and fireworks, and did not respond to previous training and treatment. After clinical and laboratory evaluations, he was treated with 2mg/kg clomipramine twice daily for 90 days associated with 0.06mg/kg alprazolam as needed on those days of intense fear. During the first week of treatment, a significant improvement could already be observed, with reduction in destructive behaviors, which lingered on for up to eight months of follow-up. The treatment stabilized the clinical condition and improved the patient’s quality of life.

Indirect Self-Destructiveness in Hidradenitis Suppurativa Patients

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, debilitating skin condition that negatively affects patients’ quality of life. Indirect self-destructiveness refers to activities extended over time, such as addictions, risky behaviors, neglects, resignation, helplessness. These can be an additional factor impeding the achievement of positive clinical effects in the treatment of HS patients, therefore the objective of the study was to assess the indirect self-destructive behaviors in patients suffering from HS. The study group involved 100 adult HS patients with 59 males and 41 females. Indirect self-destructiveness was investigated with the Polish version of the Kelley’s Indirect Self-Destructiveness Scale (CS-DS). The study revealed that the average total score of indirect self-destructiveness in HS population was 130.16 ± 21.3 (median 128 points). The CS-DS scores were significantly higher in smoking patents (p = 0.006). The most expressed class of indirect self-destructiveness was A5 (Helplessness and Passivity). The indicated results pointed out a strong domination of passive forms of indirect self-destructiveness over its active forms. Due to related low self-esteem, social isolation and exclusion, HS patients are more prone to behave in a self-destructive manner, which may lead to poor health maintenance in a form of leaving appointments and non-adherence.

Destructive Phenomena in the Youth Environment as an Object of Criminological Research

The effectiveness of the prevention of destructive phenomena in the youth environment is impossible without conducting comprehensive criminological studies. This study analyzes the current situation with destructive phenomena in the youth environment, and the relationship of organized, recidivist crime with youth crime is under consideration. The article examines in detail the concepts of "destructive behavior", "destructive phenomena in the youth environment". The authors’ aim is to propose the ways to prevent destructive phenomena among young people. In addition the article examines the characteristics and structure of the personality of young people who are attracted to destructive phenomena. The questions of attracting young people to various terrorist, extremist and unauthorized organizations are investigated; the relationship of these phenomena with social negative background phenomena. The authors emphasize the need to strengthen educational measures, such as the prevention of destructive behaviors among young people. By using the dialectical-materialistic methodology, the study on the processes of determination of destructive phenomena in the youth environment was carried out. In the course of the study, the main scientific methods are: system-structural, statistical, system analysis method. The regulatory legal acts, statistical data and opinions of the scientists have been analyzed in this area.

How to build a puncture- and breakage-resistant eggshell? Mechanical and structural analyses of avian brood parasites and their hosts

Evolved eggshell strength is greater in several lineages of obligate avian brood parasites (birds that lay their eggs in other species’ nests) compared to their hosts. Greater strength is typically indirectly implied by eggshell thickness comparisons between parasites and hosts. Nevertheless, there is strong evidence that the eggshell structural organization differentially influences its mechanical properties. Using instrumental puncture tests and SEM/EBSD and XRD techniques, we studied the most relevant eggshell mechanical, textural, ultra- and microstructural features between several host species and their parasitic cowbirds (Molothrus spp.) that display different egg destructive behaviors reducing host reproductive fitness, and include the more frequently host-egg puncturer M. rufoaxillaris and M. bonariensis, and the host-egg remover M. ater. The results, analyzed using a phylogenetic comparative approach, showed interspecific patterns in the mechanical and structural features. Overall, eggshell of both species of the two egg-puncturer parasites (but not of M. ater) were stronger, stiffer, and required greater stress to produce its fracture than the respective hosts’ eggs. These features were affected by eggshell micro- and ultrastructures, related to the increased of the intercrystalline boundary network acting in cooperation with the increased of the palisade layers' thickness. Both of these structural traits generate more options and greater lengths of intercrystalline paths, increasing the energy consumed in crack or fissure propagation. The reported patterns of all these diverse eggshell features support a new set of interpretations, confirming several hypotheses regarding the impacts of both reproductive strategies (parasitic vs. parental) and parasitic egg destruction behaviors (more vs. less frequently puncturing).