Childhood, Loss and Art in Masefield’s Harker Novels

During the interwar years, John Masefield wrote three novels featuring a male protagonist with the surname “Harker” struggling against an adversary called Abner Brown. The first of these novels was written for an adult audience, the remaining two for children. The chronological sequence of these three novels and the relationship between their characters is far from clear, although the recurrence of names and places gives the impression that they should be read in connection with one another. In the present study, I will argue that the trilogy, whose settings correspond to specific periods of the author’s own life, can be read as a tripartite reflection on childhood, loss and the redeeming power of art

Rural Perinatal Loss: A Needs Assessment

The purpose of this research was to ascertain the availability and depth of services of bereavement care for mothers who live rurally. The specific focus is on those who experienced early losses including pregnancy, stillbirth, neonatal, and young children who were born with fetal anomalies or neonatal disease that resulted in death. The convenience (nonprobability) sample originated from a population of mothers who lived in rural east central Minnesota. Participants were interviewed in a 60-minute interval. All data were coded confidential. Common themes, incidence of resources, or lack of bereavement resources for the participants’ lived experiences were considered using a descriptive phenomenological approach. Our appreciation of the continuing bond between mother and child compels us to believe that there is an ethical obligation to reduce and remove these barriers and inequalities in bereavement support services for those who live rurally and have experienced perinatal and infant loss. Results of this study indicate the need for further study and establishment of bereavement resources in rural outreach for perinatal and early childhood loss.

The Relationship Between Childhood Adversity and Other Aspects of Clinical Complexity in Psychiatric Outpatients

Childhood abuse, neglect, and loss are common in psychiatric patients, and the relationship between childhood adversity and adult mental illness is well known. However, beyond diagnoses that are specifically trauma-related, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, there has been little research on how childhood adversity contributes to complex presentations that require more intensive treatment. We examined the relationship between childhood adversity and other contributors to clinical complexity in adult outpatients seeking mental health assessment. In a cross-sectional study, patients completed standard measures of psychological distress and functional impairment. Psychiatrists completed an inventory of clinical complexity, which included childhood abuse, neglect, and loss. Of 4,903 patients seen over 15 months, 1,315 (27%) both consented to research and had the measure of complexity completed. Childhood abuse or neglect was identified in 474 (36.0%) and significant childhood loss in 236 (17.9%). Correcting for multiple comparisons and controlling for psychiatric diagnosis, age, and sex, patients with childhood abuse or neglect were significantly more likely to also have 11 of 31 other indices of clinical complexity, with odds ratios ranging from 1.7 to 5.0. Both childhood abuse or neglect and childhood loss were associated with greater overall complexity (i.e., more indices of complexity, χ2 = 136 and 38 respectively, each p < .001). Childhood abuse and neglect (but not childhood loss) were significantly associated with psychological distress (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale [K10] score, F = 6.2, p = .01) and disability (World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale 2.0 [WHODAS 2.0] score, F = 5.0, p = .03). Childhood abuse and neglect were associated with many characteristics that contribute to clinical complexity, and thus to suboptimal outcomes to standard, guideline-based care. Screening may alert psychiatrists to the need for intensive, patient-centered, and trauma-informed treatments. Identifying childhood adversity as a common antecedent of complexity may facilitate developing transdiagnostic programs that specifically target sources of complexity.

Magritte, René François Ghislain (1898–1967)

René Magritte was a Belgian artist who gained notoriety during the interwar period as a painter and for his involvement with Surrealism. His epigrammatic approach to painting, using collage-like juxtapositions and absurd transformations, developed from his preference for figurative representation and interest in the relation of images to poetic language. Although Magritte presented himself as contentedly bourgeois, his paintings were often intended to shock viewers by showing them what he called "the mystery of the world." Magritte was born in the town of Lessines, but grew up in Châtelet where his father had become successful in the edible oil industry. Here he experienced a great childhood loss upon his mother’s suicide. Magritte first discovered painting as a boy, having encountered a painter working outdoors at an abandoned cemetery. In 1915, Magritte relocated to Brussels and soon undertook a brief period of study at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts until 1918. Magritte’s paintings during the early 1920s exhibited Futurist and Cubist influences. Collaborating closely during this period, Magritte and the abstract painter Victor Servranckx published an essay in 1922 entitled "Pure Art: A Defence of the Aesthetic." Uneasy, however, with abstract painting’s reception as art for art’s sake, Magritte was deeply affected, in 1923, by what he called the "triumphant poetry" of certain Giorgio de Chirico paintings emphasizing the stillness and isolation of figures and objects. Magritte thereafter developed a similar approach to composition, as seen in The Lost Jockey (1926).

Mediation effect of recent loss events on weight gain in obese people who experienced childhood parental death or separation

Adverse events during childhood, including loss of a parent, are related to a higher risk of adult obesity. We investigated whether childhood parental loss is related to adult rapid weight gain through exposition to a later loss event. We assessed the mediation effect of recent loss and non-loss events on the association between childhood loss and rapid weight gain in 138 individuals seeking bariatric surgery. Our results showed that recent loss events mediate the effect of childhood parental loss on rapid weight gain (0.790; p < .001), suggesting the need for specific programs to prevent and treat obesity in individuals with multiple losses.

Tolstoy's oak tree metaphor: depression, recovery and psychiatric 'spiritual ecology’

SummaryTolstoy's life and work illustrate resilience, the transcendence of trauma and the enduring impact of childhood loss. I have chosen the famous oak tree passage from War and Peace to illustrate recovery from the self-preoccupation of depression and the theme of ‘eco-spirituality’ – the idea that post-depressive connectedness and love apply not just to significant others but also to nature and the environment.