Dissociative Amnesia and Dissociative Identity Disorder

The current paper aims to describe and exemplify the pathology that is increasingly common in contemporary society, compared to the Freudian period in which repression was dominating. Dissociative disorders are usually associated with overwhelming stress, which can be generated by traumatic life events, accidents or disasters experienced directly or witnessed by the individual, or unbearable inner conflicts, which force the mind to separate incompatible or unacceptable pieces of information and feelings.

Electroconvulsive therapy awareness as approach for psychology students

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) generated many controversies over time. The clinical literature establishing the efficacy of ECT is among the most solid for any medical treatment, and has been extensively reviewed; however, both practitioners and patients seem to be still reluctant on this issue. In the following review we are aiming at raising the level of awareness among the interested parties regarding ECT. Epidemiological evidence shows that there are a growing number of cases in which ECT has a great benefit, among the most notable being pharmacological resistant depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, catatonia and others. Current guidelines seem to be overly-prudent regarding ECT indications, in spite of a growing body of research attesting to its importance. Side effects of ECT range from somatic to cognitive and, with a careful prior examination, most are acute and can be managed in a few minutes. An exception to this is the cognitive impairment, which can last from a few hours to a few weeks and presents a reason to reconsider ECT in elderly patients with an important preexisting cognitive impairment.

Psychodynamic interpretations in the symbolism of paraphrenized schizophrenia

This paper seeks to be a perspective of psychodynamic psychiatry, an attempt to explain the delirium of a patient with schizophrenia over 30 years old, who has lost his home, identity card and inner coherence of the Ego. He lives in a space - as real as it is symbolic - inside a psychiatric polyclinic and expresses his free consent to expose his personal perspective, an interpretive one on his own life, in which we glimpse fragments of former truths, through cosmogonic delirium. The paper also describes the countertransference reactions aroused in the participants in the working group, and, especially, the importance of unconsciously supporting such a patient with multiple hospitalizations in psychiatric departments, so as superimposed to the antipsychotic background he can be able to recompose his old personality.

Pedagogic technology of formation of readiness for self-development in students from the occupied territories and delimitation line in the east of Ukraine in conditions of temporarily displaced higher education institutions

The topicality of the research is connected with the need to develop a technology of preparing students for learning for life, developing their professional self-development at a temporarily displaced higher education institution in conditions when students’ primary and basic needs are insufficiently satisfied. The methods of the research included analysis, synthesis, comparing, systemizing, interviewing, pedagogic experiment, modelling, prognostication, mathematic statistics methods. The level of the analyzed phenomenon turned out much lower than that in students from the safety zone by the following parameters: self-management, gnostic, motivation, moral-and-will, and communicative components of readiness, conditions, mechanisms, and general level of self-development. The scientific novelty: the efficiency of such a technology was proved and justified, and its content was revealed.

Inspiration, meaning in life and gratitude as predictors of subjective well-being in the case of a group of students

The aim of the present study is to determine the prediction level of gratitude, meaning in life, and inspiration on Subjective Well-being (SWB). 325 undergraduates (149 males and 176 females) with Mage=19,29 (S.D.=1,40) participated in the study. In order to measure the respective concepts, we used the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE), the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), the Inspiration Scale (IS), and Single-item measures for life satisfaction and gratitude. The study used descriptive, correlational, and regression analyses. The results of the regression analyses showed that gratitude accounts for most of the SWB variance. The presence of meaning affects SWB positively, while the search for meaning is a negative predictor of SWB. Inspiration frequency is one of the weak predictors of SWB, while inspiration intensity is not a significant predictor of SWB. The results are discussed within the context of the existing literature.

Interferences between psychology and psychiatry - vulnerability versus mental fragility in schizophrenia and delusional disorder

The aim of this paper is a didactic one, namely the separation of concepts of vulnerability in psychosis, with cognitive, thinking, affective, relational and motivational patterns of patients with schizophrenia, explaining the diagnosis of emotional schizophrenia after DSM VI, which although has a long history, is still a controversial one and excluded from DSM V. The paper also discusses brief psychoses. Vulnerability in psychoses is both psychological, hereditary, genetic or potentially related to the pathology of the neurotransmitters involved, and it is also based on concepts such as: social rejection, disabilities (predominantly auditory), immigration, inability to adapt to cultural patterns, an emotional climate characterized by expressing excessive emotions, an onset with significant stressors or a postpartum hormonal situation.

Variables associated with the modalities of psychic adaptation (coping mechanisms and psychic defense mechanisms) in depressive disorders

The study lists a series of research on the particularities of psychic adaptation in depressive disorders, respectively psychological defense mechanism and coping mechanisms. At the same time, the study analyzes the existing relationships, in depressive disorders case, between coping and variables such as tools and the methodology for assessing the coping process, the relevance and usefulness of the coping process in the clinic and the treatment of psychopathology as information processing, the personality and typology of the human subject, the type of disorder diagnosed, age of the human subject, locus of control, parental style, life events, personal experience, adherence to medication, gender, economic situation, profession, culture/environment, presence or absence of depressive disorders.

Somatoform and conversion disorders as psychological defences

Conversion disorder is the clinical situation in which one or more symptoms can present deficits that affect motor or sensory function and suggest a neurological or organic condition. Psychological factors are decisive, and they usually include a major anxiety generated by intrapsychic conflicts, which are converted by unconscious defense mechanism into symptoms. The symptoms are not intentionally provoked or simulated nor are explained by organic suffering or substance consumption. They affect the quality of life of the person who presents significant deficits such as motor, sensory, convulsive or mixed. It may also occur a lack of coordination, ataxia, paralysis, tremor, aphonia, difficulties at swallowing, loss of sensitivity, anesthesia that does not follow anatomical nervous trajectories, blindness or mental deafness. Consciousness is not altered, but a condition of "la belle indifference" appears which is rather associated with histrionic personality disorders and what the patients imagine about their own illness or suffering. This condition is unstable and changing. The primary gain is the expression of an unconscious psychological conflict through a somatic symptom by reducing anxiety and keeping conflict out of consciousness. The secondary gain is external and includes attention and care from caregivers or others.

Emotional intelligence and self-efficacy among the prime stakeholders in special education: a case of Saudi Arabia

Teachers, students, and parents of special children from selected schools in Saudi Arabia's Northern Border region took part in the study to provide data on their levels of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy beliefs in order to demonstrate their readiness to perform as per the set standards for their roles in the teaching and learning process of special/gifted learners. A sample of students (n=50) and teachers (n=24) from primary, middle and high schools responded to the study instruments on emotional intelligence and self-efficacy; parents (n=30) also participated in the study. Gender and educational status are the variables considered for parents, teachers and students. The results indicate a significant relation between the EI and SE among all the study groups in terms of gender and their educational status. Male teachers and parents have higher EI and SE than their female counterparts; higher EI has also been linked to higher SE. Uneducated parents register lower EI and SE than the educated ones. Similarly, male teachers have higher EI and SE than female teachers; high school teachers have higher EI and SE than primary and middle school teachers. Similarly, students too have reflected similar patterns.

Stress and burnout for helping professionals. Counselors navigating the COVID pandemic

Helping professionals are givers by vocation, and this generous trait is abundantly displayed by their commitment and determination to support others. Caring for others is their central business, which many times, in the absence of a solid training and various types of professional support, might affect their capacity to regroup and heal. This article addresses the most common sources of stress and burnout for helping professionals, with a special focus on counselors. Concepts like compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress are explored. The current pandemic is adding to those common stressors, making us consider the helping services from a different perspective. COVID Stress Syndrome is presented and potential implications for caregivers’ work are discussed. Special consideration is given to the counseling occupation in Romania.