Deprivation and delinquency in the adolescent forensic patient

Drawing upon Donald Winnicott’s classic paper, “Delinquency as a Sign of Hope”, the author has underscored the importance of recognising the role of emotional loss in the aetiology and treatment of adolescent forensic patients, and she has elucidated how this particular psychoanalytical lens can assist psychotherapists to work more effectively with deprivational trauma. The author has also described her experience as both a field social worker and as a forensic psychotherapist, and has shared moving clinical material with great clarity and generosity, demonstrating the value of incorporating Winnicott’s insights into the forensic consulting room. In particular, the author has examined how the patient can use the psychotherapist as an understanding object who can help to counteract earlier deprivations.

Kuhn, Putnam and the Reference

In some of his writings, Kuhn criticized Putnam’s causal theory of reference for natural kind terms put forward in his classic paper “The Meaning of ‘Meaning’” claiming that Putnam’s theory cannot explain the reference changes of natural kind terms. After looking into Kuhn’s objections to Putnam’s reference theory, some of the main features of Kuhn’s incommensurability thesis and some traits of Putnam’s later version of his theory, we will argue, on the one hand, that Putnam’s later reference theory contains some components that enhance the explanation of the reference change of natural kind terms, and on the other hand, that Kuhn’s and Putnam’s views on reference do no differ that much, especially in virtue ofcertain similarities between Kuhn’s incommensurability thesis and Putnam’s thesis of conceptual relativity.

On the centennials of the discoveries of the hydrogen bond and the structure of the water molecule: the short life and work of Eustace Jean Cuy (1897–1925)

The bent structure of the water molecule, and its hydrogen-bonding properties, arguably rank among the most impactful discoveries in the history of chemistry. Although the fact that the H—O—H angle must deviate from linearity was inferred early in the 20th century, notably from the existence of the electric dipole moment, it was not clear what that angle should be and why. One hundred years ago, a young PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley, Eustace J. Cuy, rationalized the V-shape structure of a water molecule using the Lewis theory of a chemical bond, i.e. a shared electron pair, and its tetrahedral stereochemistry. He was inspired, in part, by the proposal of a weak (hydrogen) bond in water by two colleagues at Berkeley, Wendell Latimer and Worth Rodebush, who published their classic paper a year earlier. Cuy went on to suggest that other molecules, notably H2S and NH3, have similar structures, and presciently predicted that this architecture has broader consequences for the structure of water as a liquid. This short, but brilliant paper has been completely forgotten, perhaps due to the tragic death of the author at the age of 28; the hydrogen-bond study is also rarely recognized. One of the most impactful publications on the structure of liquid water, a classic treatise published in 1933 by John Bernal and Ralph Fowler, does not mention either of the two pioneering papers. In this essay, the background for the two discoveries is described, including the brief history of Lewis's research on the nature of the chemical bond, and the history of the discovery of the hydrogen bond, which inspired Cuy to look at the structure of the water molecule. This is – to the best of the author's knowledge – the first biographical sketch of Eustace J. Cuy.

The Severe Respiratory Insufficiency Application (SRI App): a pilot randomised controlled trial

An application (app) for the Severe Respiratory Insufficiency Questionnaire (SRI) has been designed and developed for mobile devices. In a randomised controlled trial comprising 60 patients with chronic respiratory failure, the app was compared with the classic paper SRI. Thereby, it was shown that the SRI app is a practical tool that is well accepted. Missing values can be completely avoided by using the SRI app. Finally, reliability, convergent and discriminant validities were established. Accordingly, for the individual SRI subscales, Cronbach’s alpha ranged between 0.56 and 0.81 (app) and between 0.54 and 0.83 (paper), respectively. The multilingual SRI app is accessible free of charge for non-profit research purposes.

A Neo-Platonic Dialogue on the Ethics of Love*

In his classic paper on “The Individual as an Object of Love in Plato” Gregory Vlastos denied that according to Plato’s Diotima in the Symposium a human individual can ever be the proper object of one’s erotic desire, because what one (should) be enamoured with is the Form of Beauty. For the true Platonic lover, the beauty of an individual is only the starting-point for one to understand that beauty can reside also in more abstract levels. Hence, Vlastos argues that the beloved individual is for his lover only a means to an end, so that the lover recollects and attains to true Beauty, and that this is morally objectionable. The systematic Neoplatonic philosopher Proclus (412–485 AD) had already given an answer to this accusation. I will first present the altruistic side of Eros as an ontological entity in Proclus’s metaphysical system. My guide in this will be Socrates, as well as the Platonic Demiurge from the Timaeus and Republic’s philosopher-king. It will be shown that, according to Proclus’s interpretation of various Platonic texts, Vlastos was wrong to accuse Plato of the abovementioned “instrumentality” on the erotic field. However, my paper will close with a critical engagement with Proclus too, since I discern that in his view of Platonic love another sort of instrumentality, one which is akin to Stoic ethics, arises. Vlastos was wrong, but we do not need to be wholeheartedly sympathetic to Proclus.

Visual-Attentional Load Unveils Slowed Processing Speed in Multiple Sclerosis Patients: A Pilot Study with a Tablet-Based Videogame

Slowing in information processing speed (IPS) is the key cognitive deficit in multiple sclerosis (MS). Testing IPS in different cognitive load conditions by using computerized tools might reveal initial IPS slowness underestimated by classic paper-and-pencil tests. To investigate the extent to which IPS can be affected by increased task demands, we developed three tasks based on the manipulation of the visual-attentional load, delivered with a home-made, tablet-based videogame. Fifty-one patients with MS (pwMS), classified as having no cognitive impairment in classic paper-and-pencil tests, and 20 healthy controls (HC) underwent the videogame tasks; reaction times (RTs) and accuracy were recorded. A significant reduced performance of pwMS as compared with HC was found on the videogame tasks, with pwMS being on average slower and less accurate than HC. Furthermore, pwMS showed a significantly more pronounced decrement in accuracy as a function of the visual-attentional load, suggesting a higher susceptibility to increased task demands. Significant correlations among the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) and the videogame mean RTs and accuracy were found, providing evidence for the concurrent validity of the videogame as a valid tool to test IPS in pwMS. The high potential that might derive from the adoption of computerized assessment tools in clinical practice should be taken into consideration and investigated further.

H.T.U. Smith (1965) dune morphology and chronology in central and western Nebraska. The Journal of Geology 73(4): 557–578

Climatic geomorphologists, and eolian geomorphologists in particular, have always been interested in studying dunes to understand and construct past climatic conditions. Smith’s 1965 paper presents an excellent example of a reconnaissance piece of scientific work that set the foundation for (1) using aerial photo-interpretation to provide chronological information about dune fields; (2) the use of eolian processes and landforms as climate change indicators; and (3) extraterrestrial or planetary geomorphology. This article briefly describes Smith’s background, background on Nebraska Sand Hills, and the impact and legacy of Smith’s classic paper.